Bringing doubt to the table where the Word is opened daily.

Paul and Silas slip into Beroea by night, and the synagogue receives them the next day. But these hearers do something more noble than applaud: they take the preached word to the table of the open Scriptures and examine it daily. The lamp burns over the scroll; the apostles' report is laid beside the text, and nothing is accepted until it has been checked.

The nobility is not in suspicion but in readiness. They received the word with all readiness of mind, and then examined the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. Readiness and examination are two hands at the same table. I confess that I have sometimes let my questions close the book, when Beroea shows me the book is where questions belong. Careful examination is not the enemy of belief; it is the table where the Word is tested and found true.

The 'these things' were the suffering and rising of the Christ, the message Paul carried. So the daily examination was no bare intellectual exercise; it was where the cross and resurrection were tested and found solid. Many of them therefore believed — prominent Greek women, and not a few men. The risen Christ does not hide from the careful examiner; He lets Himself be found in the pages that speak of Him.