Saul’s Conversion
1Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.
After Pentecost, the conversion of Saul of Tarsus is probably the most important event in the Book of Acts. Without the Apostle Paul, Christianity may well have remained merely a sect of Judaism. Saul, whom we last saw at the stoning of Stephen, received authority from Caiaphas the high priest to go to Damascus and arrest any Christians he found in the synagogues there. The term Christian had not yet been coined, and it seems believers referred to their movement early on as “The Way.” It was a fitting name. Jesus said that he is “the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6), and the members of this new faith were not just adherents to a new philosophy, they were members of his body, as all believers are.
3As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
5“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6“Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
Damascus is 150 miles from Jerusalem, six days journey in Saul’s time. The fact that he was willing to travel so far shows how committed he was to persecuting the church. He had almost arrived when Jesus interrupted his journey. Why did God allow him to travel so far? Why didn’t he appear to Saul on the first or second day of his journey? We don’t know, but I think it may be that God wanted him to meet Ananias. If Saul had been allowed to arrive at Damascus and continue his mission of persecution, undoubtably Ananias would have been one of the ones arrested. Instead, Ananias ended up leading Saul to belief in Jesus.
It’s very unusual for God to appear visibly and speak audibly to anyone, much less a non-believer. Anyone who had a “Damascus Road experience” like this when you were saved, raise your hand! God had just gone to extraordinary lengths to save the Ethiopian eunuch (8:26-40, blog), and he took even more extreme measures to reach Saul. Jesus’ first question to Saul is telling; “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” And again, after Saul asks, “Who are you, Lord?”, Jesus replies, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” The point is, by persecuting believers, Saul was persecuting Jesus himself, because believers in Jesus are members of his body. The opposite is true as well. When we bless others, we bless Jesus (Matthew 25:31-46).
In most modern translations, text is missing that we may be used to from the King James version. In the NKJV, the end of verse 5 and the beginning of verse 6 contains these words:
It is hard for you to kick against the goads.”
6 So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?”
These words were not in Luke’s original version, at least not here. Scribes took words from Paul’s account of this event from Acts 22:8-10 and 26:14-15 and added them here. Though they were not part of Luke’s original text in this chapter, we know from those places and others that Jesus did say “It is hard for you to kick against the goads,” and Saul did ask, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” I’ve never understood, until now, what kicking against the goads means. Goads were long, sharp, pointed sticks that farmers used to goad oxen. You poked the ox with the goad until the ox went the way you wanted it to. Sometimes oxen would kick their hind feet back at the farmer when poked, but could never reach him because the farmer was out of reach behind the plow. It was futile to kick against the goads. This supports my assertion in my post on Saul at the stoning of Stephen. God was trying to goad Saul in the direction of belief in Jesus, and Saul was resisting by trying to “kick against” those goads. His hostility toward the church stemmed from guilt over the trial of Jesus, which, as a member of the Sanhedrin, he probably took part in, and the stoning of Stephen. God was working on him, and it all came to a head here.
Saul’s two questions were exactly the right questions; “Who are you, Lord?”, and “Lord, what do You want me to do?” Saul had not yet believed and been baptized, but he asked the right questions. These are the two things we all should want to know and pursue for all of our lives, who God is, and what he wants us to do. Jesus’ reply to Saul is typical. He didn’t say, “Go and preach the Good News to the Gentiles.” He didn’t tell Saul what his grand plan was, he just told him what to do next. God rarely reveals his whole plan to us. He just tells us what he wants us to do next, and we have to trust him with the rest.
7The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. 8Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. 9For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.
The reaction of the men with Saul is similar to the crowd’s reaction to the audible voice of God in John 12:29, when they said “it thundered.” Those who were with Saul apparently didn’t have “ears to hear,” so they didn’t understand what the voice said. But they saw the light and heard the voice (22:9). They also saw the effect that this encounter had on Saul. Saul had been willfully blind to the spiritual light in front of his eyes, so now God let him experience physical blindness for three days. The last thing Saul saw before his eyes were opened was the resurrected Jesus (Acts 26:16, 1 Corinthians 9:1, 15:8). That vision stayed with him for the rest of his life, and affected everything he did. Jesus has the same effect on people today. We may not have a Damascus Road experience, but when we really meet Jesus, we are never the same afterward, and those around us will see the change in us.
Mark Bible Acts, Damascus, Jesus, Saul of Tarsus