Paul is not in control of his life now. He is placed on a ship sailing to Italy. He is a prisoner being transferred to a different prison. In this regard, Paul is nothing more than cargo. That is until a moment of crisis. Winds of hurricane force batter the ship and blow it off course. The sailors makes every attempt to rescue the ship to no avail, and thus they “give up all hope of being saved.”(27:20) Paul the prisoner is compelled to raise his voice for all to hear. He proclaims a message of hope to those about to be lost. God will rescue them but the ship will be lost. The prophetic word always comes at the times when hope is drained, because God will not allow hope to die in this world. Paul then prepares the crew of 276 people by breaking bread and giving thanks (eucharisteō v. 35). The ship is run aground and passengers make it to shore on planks and pieces of the shipwreck. While Paul is literally shipwrecked on the island of Malta, we should not ignore that the same Paul will use this imagery to speak of the spiritual life (1 Tim 1:19). Shipwrecks are serious business, especially the kind that challenge our faith. It’s easy to believe the goal of life is to escape unscathed—without failure, pain, or wreckage. And it’s easy to believe that the goal of spirituality is to skate through with a perfect report card—no major errors or screwups. But shipwrecks sometimes happen. And this story of Paul surviving a shipwreck points to our own need to hear a message of hope amongst those who have given up hope.