Acts 5

The beginning of Acts 5 has always been puzzling to me. Ananias and Sapphira have sold a piece of their property and proceed to lie about the amount of money they received for the sale. Peter confronts each of them individually with their sin, and as the story reveals, they both fall down and die. What I find most interesting about this story is this - the text does not give specific cause to these events.
The account of Ananias's death is stated like this - "When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died." The story does not tell us what caused Ananias to die. I think we tend to assume that at that moment God took Ananias's life, but the text only reveals that Ananias "fell down and died." I think we should obviously consider the possibility that God took Ananias's life - that the Power of the Holy Spirit was too overwhelming in that moment for Ananias. But are there other possibilities? Was Ananias overtaken by his own guilt and shame to the point of death? The people had obviously seen the Apostles do some miraculous things. Was Ananias, having seen the great deeds that had been done through Peter, stricken with uncontrollable fear when Peter confronted him?
One of the common themes in the early part of Acts is the power and movement of the Holy Spirit. I think this leads us to believe that the Holy Spirit had something to do with the death of Ananias and Sapphira, but I find it interesting that the text does not designate blame. I think after reading the story a few times the bottom line is this - the mystery of the Holy Spirit continues to grow.

See everyone on Wednesday
Collin