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tyranny of his intolerance to break the bruised reed and to quench the smoking flax - that he had endeavoured, by
the infamous power of terror and anguish, to compel some gentle heart to blaspheme its Lord' (Farrar).
The impatient journey to Damascus was suddenly interrupted by a blinding light accompanied by a voice from
heaven, and there followed for the apostle three days' darkness and prayer. From heaven the awe-stricken Pharisee
heard the words: `Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?' (Acts 9:4).
Saul's first question is `Who art Thou, Lord?', for he had no conception that he was persecuting One Who held
that awful title. He was certainly persecuting the heretics who worshipped the despised Jesus of Nazareth, but what
must have been his feelings when, in answer to his awe-struck question, the voice from heaven replied, `I am Jesus
Whom thou persecutest'? A man like Paul, at once Pharisee, Hebrew and Scribe, with head and heart filled with
Old Testament scripture, trained to expect the fulfilment of prophecy and the glorious reign of the Messiah, wanted
but these words in these circumstances, to bring about the unshakable conviction, that Jesus was the Christ.
Thereafter all was clear.
It is here that we should appreciate the various items in this section that, perforce, we have passed over,
particularly, the categorical statement of Philip that the sufferer and sin bearer of Isaiah chapter 53 was none other
than the Lord Jesus:
`Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same Scripture, and preached unto him Jesus' (Acts 8:35).
Immediately the apostle was free to speak in Damascus, this was the burden of his testimony:
`And straightway he preached Jesus (R.V.) in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God' (Acts 9:20).
`Saul ... confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ' (Acts 9:22).
Incidentally these last references show that, to a Jew acquainted with the Scriptures, the fact that Jesus was the
Christ would also prove that He was the Son of God (John 20:31, Matt. 16:16), although to the untaught mind such a
connection would be neither necessary nor obvious.
Regarding the added words used by the Lord in addressing Saul, `It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks'
(Acts 9:5), it is probable that they have allusion to the ox-goad used in the chastisement of refractory oxen while at
the plough. This would indicate that Saul's conscience was already troubling him, and leads us back to the
testimony of Stephen as the point at which occurred the initial conviction, which now ends in prostration before the
Lord.
We have already spoken at length on the gracious acts of Ananias in the series Paul and his Companions in The
Berean Expositor Vol. 26 pp 75-77, and therefore now pass on to the further statement concerning Saul of Tarsus
given in Acts 9:15,16.
`He is a chosen vessel unto Me, to bear My name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: for I
will shew him how great things he must suffer for My name's sake'.
In this passage occurs the seventh reference to the Gentile in the Acts, and the first use of the word in a good
sense. The references that precede this one of Acts 9 are:
`Jews ... out of every nation' (Acts 2:5).
`Why did the heathen rage' (Acts 4:25).
`Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles' (Acts 4:27).
`The nation ... will I judge' (Acts 7:7).
`The possession of the Gentiles' (Acts 7:45).
`The people of Samaria' (Acts 8:9).
Only with the conversion of Saul does the word Gentile appear in a favourable light, and throughout the
remainder of his life he magnified his office as `the apostle of the Gentiles' (Rom. 11:13). The place that Barnabas
filled in introducing Saul to the believers in Jerusalem has been dealt with under the series Paul and his Companions