Paul’s Rehoboth?
“And he departed from there and entered the house of a certain man named Justus, one who worshiped God, whose house was next door to the synagogue.” Acts 18:7
Paul did all the right things in Corinth: he met up with local Jews, in fact he even worked with them, and he went to the synagogue to teach on the sabbath. But he was not well received. The next verse makes it obvious that the leader of the synagogue, Crispus was not entirely against Paul’s teaching, but the congregation made it impossible to stay.
Paul didn’t move far, in fact just next door to the home of Justus, and there he found those who would hear, believe and be baptised. Paul could have continued arguing with the Jews, but instead he moved on: he shook out the folds of his robe and went to a different congregation. And there he found much fruit. This is the Rehoboth principle that Isaac saw when he dug his third well in freedom.
Too often we try to fight battles that will never be won: when the truth is ignored it is willful ignorance which cannot be argued around. But for a work of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life no amount of persuading will turn them to Christ. It is better to move on and seek fruit elsewhere than to waste time and effort on the willfully unhearing.
There are many who will hear, believe and be baptised, if only we would stop arguing with the willfully deaf and move on.