Postponed Living; A Study of Drusilla of Acts 24
Postponed Living is playing with fire;
this is a study of Drusilla of Acts 24 of the Bible,
whose life of denial literally ended
under the molten lava fires of Mt. Vesuvius.
More Bible Studies to read:
Rebekah’s Journey to Faith, a FriDay of Preparation Post
Rebekah’s Journey to Gentleness: Friday of Preparation Post
Journey’s End; Lessons Learned from Rebekah’s Story
Phenomenal Women of God; How to Live With Strength and Dignity
What Kind of Church Lady Do You Want To Be?
“
And after certain days,
when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess,
he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ.
“
Acts 24:24
Drusilla, Jewess, wife of Felix.
Drusilla (drew’-si-lah), live-in wife of Felix, the procurator of Judea at the time of Paul’s imprisonment, was a Bad Woman of the Bible.
But did she really have a chance to know what good was?
She was a granddaughter to King Herod, the man who had all the little boy babies killed when Jesus was born.
Her father betrothed her to an important man when she was 2, providing he would become a Jew. He didn’t. So her brother, who was now king since her father died, gave her in marriage to another king, who became a Jew in name so he could marry the beautiful Drusilla.
Drusilla had two sisters, both of whom lived on the wild side. Her oldest sister Bernice was especially wicked. And also very jealous of her prettier sister.
So all these people are living in the king’s palace.
Bernice is making life miserable, and leading a sinful life the like of which can’t be written about on a family blog.
So Drusilla is about 18 years old, and along comes a conniving Jew named Simon.
He befriends Drusilla, who doesn’t have a clue the man is on a mission.
Sent by Felix, who wants Simon to convince Drusilla to leave her abusive husband and come live with Felix.
Simon promises her she will be cherished.
She’ll be able to leave her sister and live in peace.
Can you blame an 18 year old, surrounded by wicked role-models,
looking out for herself?
So she allowed Simon to convince her.
And Felix did love her. She was his third wife, so presumably he had learned how to be a husband by now.
Or maybe he was so in awe of her incredible beauty that he couldn’t think straight and he let her call the shots.
We don’t know. But from the time she was 20, till she died 20 years later, she and Felix were together.
And all those years were postponed living. As far as we know, she never thought about that day again.
“
And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance,
and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered,
Go thy way for this time;
when I have a convenient season,
I will call for thee.
“
Acts 24:25
Drusilla, Postponed Living.
Oh, Drusilla.
Whose name means “watered by the dew.”
You could have been an Esther.
You had the chance to let the true “Dew” water your heart, become a new woman, and influence Judea for the Lord.
If only you had lived for “such a time as this” what could you have done?
Why did you let Felix postpone the decision?
Only to die under the hot lava of Mt. Vesuvius, trying to escape with your son.
And not succeeding.
You had the chance to “escape” the fires of hell, but you decided to wait, along with your husband.
Oh, Drusilla, my heart aches for you. A beautiful woman, ignoring her heritage, whose postponed living probably changed so many things..
Did you remember Paul and his Message when you were trying to escape Pompeii?
Does Postponed Living affect us?
We can only make choices for today.
Not yesterday.
Not for tomorrow.
But for today.
Today is the only day we can make choices about.
And we are the only person we can make choices for.
And yet, like Esther or Drusilla, our choices affect the people around us.
Postponed Living: study Drusilla as an example.
Some aspects of postponed living are out of our control. Think of the parts of our lives we’ve put on hold, postponed events and vacations, this past year because of the pandemic. We’ll never know the full extent of the cost of this upheaval. Both individually and on a Church level.
I feel as if I’ve forgotten how to live the way I lived before.
I haven’t strolled the aisles of my favorite department stores for over a year. What is online shopping doing to our “rubbing shoulders” and touching the lives of strangers? I ran into JoAnn’s this evening, and as I stood in line waiting for the one cashier, I couldn’t keep myself from talking to the people six feet in front of me. They seemed eager to reciprocate. We didn’t talk about God, or our spiritual lives. But we touched each other’s hearts. At least, they touched mine. My phone gave out and I didn’t have access to the app to look for coupons. So she shared a paper one from her fistful with me! I left there feeling as if I was in the moment, that life was vital and meaningful.
We dare not postpone the aspects we can control: the important things of the heart.
Because postponed living means missing out on blessings every day of our lives.
But most of all, missing the ultimate goal of our Christian lives!
This mini study was inspired by our pastor’s sermon last Sunday, who coined the phrase “Postponed Living.” He didn’t talk about Drusilla, however that’s where my mind took me as I meditated on the story later.
