Acts 20:10

‘ And Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, “Make no fuss, for his life is in him.'

But Paul in the quiet confidence of faith went down and stretched himself out on the young man, embracing him, and then declared that the young man was alive. He may have been ‘taken up dead' but now he was alive again. We can compare Paul's approach with similar incidents in the lives of Elijah and Elisha who had both behaved in a similar way (1 Kings 17:21; 2 Kings 4:34). It was a deliberate imitation which confirmed that he saw the young man as really dead. None there failed to recognise that it was a miracle, and Paul's imitation of Elijah and Elisha would seem to confirm it. Paul's confidence was similar to that of Jesus when He had said, ‘she is not dead, but sleeps' over another who was really dead (Luke 8:52). Like his Lord he did not want to make a great fuss over what had happened. This was not denying that a ‘miracle' had happened but declaring that with God at work, all was well. Where Jesus is present in the midst of death, life comes. The fact that as a result of it the church was ‘not a little comforted' confirms that they saw it as a miracle, not just as a lucky escape. It was confirmation to all that God was the Lord of both life and death, and that therefore they could safely leave Paul's future in His hands. The tragedy had become a huge encouragement for the whole church, especially in view of Paul's quiet assurance which demonstrated that he expected God to do this kind of thing.

‘His life is in him.' An echo of 1 Kings 17:23. Paul is following Elijah's example. Paul may have been thinking of this incident when he wrote to the Ephesians, ‘Awake you who sleep and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light' (Ephesians 5:14).