From light into darkness, this blindness, out of the blue. But was it? This intervention, this “full stop” in Saul’s life was a mighty attention-getter. Here Saul thought that he was doing God’s will! But he wasn’t. He was operating in the dark. And God, in His perfect plan, delivered this man Saul from darkness to light — by blinding him!
Saul stumbled in the darkness. Once the powerful persecutor, he was now reduced to groping about, blind as a bat, needing to be led by the hand. Now suddenly powerless, this stalwart warrior for God would need the hands of others, even to take a step.
Paul, formerly Saul, would become the greatest missionary the world would ever know. But first, God made everything just dark enough to get his attention.
This singular darkness was an act of God. Without his attendants, Saul would have been helpless; left vulnerable, blinded, on the side of the road. But God had a plan. It included
- A voice from above
- A question from heaven, and
- A blind-siding light.
Astonished, Saul asked a clarifying question back to the Voice.
And the answer changed his life.
Here is the passage. Enjoy the read. It’s pretty amazing.
God Gets Saul’s Attention
Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples.
He went to the high priest
and 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.
As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.
He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied.
“Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone.
Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus.
For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.
From Acts 9
Saul was what we might consider a “super type A personality”. We can just see Saul, as charged ahead to get those radical Christians. He was determined to drag those crazy heretics to prison. What zeal for God!
When he was “breathing threats” against the early followers of The Way, he was convinced that he was righteous: he was in the service of God.
His zeal is what drove this vehement opposition. He’d get these loonies. He would tolerate no falsehood, no crazy sect worshiping this troublesome, crucified, “Son of Man”.
Son of Man, indeed!
Paul, the Man of God
This passage in Acts shows Saul the “Major-Threat/ Scary Capturer” transforming into Paul the “Major-Defender/Baffling Preacher” of the very Way he was determined to destroy. Talk about a major turn-around!
And God knew this all the time. God watched the boy Saul grow into manhood in Tarsus, studying under the wise Pharisee Gamaliel.
God regarded this determined man studying the scriptures, careful, obeying the laws as best he could. He saw a man sold out to Him.
Perfect.
Seeing Again
Picking up the story in Acts 9:
In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!”
“Yes, Lord,” he answered.
The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying.
In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”“Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem.
And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.”But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel.
I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”Then Ananias went to the house and entered it.
Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”
Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized,
and after taking some food, he regained his strength.”Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus.
At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.
All those who heard him were astonished and asked, “Isn’t he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name?
And hasn’t he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?”
Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Messiah.
Acts 9
Paul would go on to became a mighty man for God, traveling more than anyone else that we know of, walking, riding, sailing, (and swimming, when ship-wrecked!) by some estimates as many as 10,000 miles to share the Good News with as many people as he possibly could.
Paul never seemed to rest. When not preaching and arguing the claims of Christ, he was making tents, to earn his keep. Often he was thrown into prison. At those times, he wrote letters to the churches, letters that exhorted, encouraged, and instructed those early churches in the Way of Christ.
His writings would become much of what we know today as the New Testament. What a man God chose: Paul the apostle, evangelist, tentmaker, preacher, writer, and exhorter — this honest, imperfect, willing man of God.
God’s Intervention: Just Right
Let’s take another look at the Saul’s conversion. We notice how God’s methods are unique to the individual. We see how God knew exactly what it would take for Paul to accept Christ’s claims.
Paul needed a blinding light, a voice from heaven, and scales heavy on his eyes.
How about you? How did God get your attention?
Our God knows what it takes for each and every one of His own to come to Him, to experience Him, to know Him.
Do you have a loved-one who has not yet come to faith? Keep praying. Keep interceding. Keep asking the Father to break through, with blindness, if necessary, to show Himself to that one in your life for whom you pray.
Pray that their hearts will be moved by the encounter with the Holy Lord Christ, that their minds will be opened, for the scales to drop from their eyes. Conversion may be nearer than we know.
God knows how each person is best reached to encounter the truth.
Days of Grace
It is interesting to note that God allowed Saul (later, Paul) to suffer three days. Three days of shocked confusion, three days of regret and sorrow.
For what had he done to these people? How had he treated believers in the Way, the Truth, the Life?
For three days, Christ lay in his tomb. And for three days, Saul was overtaken by darkness.
In persecuting these Christians, he had been persecuting the Lord, Himself. Imagine the intensity of that realization, and the anguish of regret.
God’s Provision: the Gift of Time
It’s a beautiful thing, how God gave him those days. He gave Saul time.
So kind of God, in His perfect love, to press the pause button. Saul, this man with the great mind, with great abilities, was just brimming with zeal and potential, but he’s need a minute to change gears. He needed to contemplate just how he had gotten it so wrong.
And just what would it mean, to get it right?
God’s Plan
For most of the rest of the Book of Acts, right up until the end of the book, we read how God used His servant Paul to change the world.
One day, in heaven, we will see brother Paul. And joining him will be the untold many, the converts, the ones who were rescued, who were snatched away from the darkness, the ones brought into the light. The light of the glory of God, in the face of Christ.
Paul would write about God’s light, many years later, in one of his letters to his beloved mission-church in Corinth:
4The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
5 For we do not proclaim ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.
6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,”b made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.c
2 Corinthians 4:4-6
What a blessing that God, in His wisdom, re-routed Saul that day, long ago, on the road to Dmascus. May we be willing to be used of God in our day, and like Paul, present ourselves to Him in humility and obedience, ready and eager to do His will.