Skip to main content

When God made Saul blind to motivate him to see (Acts 9:1 - 9)

9 Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2 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. 3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He 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.”

7 The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. 8 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. 9 For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.

Luke states in chapter 8 verse 1, when speaking about Stephen:

“And Saul was there, giving approval to his death.”

In Chapter 8 verse 3 Luke notes:

“But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison.”

This Scripture reading teaches that religious people can have an agenda diametrically opposed to Jesus’ agenda. Sometimes we can fool ourselves that our priorities are God’s priorities. We can despise other people and say God would never work that way, or through that person. He was even speaking out murderous threats and going to foreign cities to persecute Christians. These are some of Saul’s attitudes and actions before Jesus turned his life around as described in this passage. Saul made a completely wrong judgment. Saul thought he was helping God keep his religion pure. However, Jesus had a completely different view and asks Saul as described in Acts 9, verse 4:

“Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

Why do godly Christian people suffer in persecution in the Book of Acts? Why does God tolerate corrupt authorities? These are some of the questions raised by this passage. In verse 4, Jesus feels the suffering of His people as His own suffering. Luke describes in chapter eight, the arrest, mistreatment and imprisonment by the Jewish authorities, of Christian believers. Jesus is telling Saul in verse four above, He personally feels the pain of His Church.

We would love for God to instantly justify the righteous and punish evildoers. In this passage, He does exactly this. He suddenly, startlingly and supernaturally reveals Himself. He rescues His church, which was meeting in various houses in Damascus, from Saul’s imminent persecution. He disempowers Saul from being a feared and powerful enemy of the church, to being a blinded, vulnerable, humbled and astounded man who needs help from others, as he can no longer even look after himself for the next three days.

Saul in verse 5, did not even know who was speaking to him. The bright light that revealed Jesus’s presence blinded Saul for the next three days. Jesus transformed this angry, competitive, proud, self-righteous Pharisee into a shocked, dumbfounded, humbled, and very vulnerable and blinded state. Luke states in verse 9, Saul is so shocked he neither eats or drinks for the next three days. We later learn that his whole life is turned around from this day forward by and for Jesus. Jesus has reached deeply into Saul’s life and changed him forever.

We can have confidence in Jesus and our Heavenly Father. He knows everything that is happening to us, He always sits on the throne over all authorities and principalities. Sometimes like in this passage, He intervenes suddenly and supernaturally. At other times He may allow difficult experiences to cause unjust suffering to His people. But even in this latter case, He shall make all things anew at the Final Reckoning on Judgment Day.

Notice, that God just did this by Himself. He didn’t need to wait for His church, or work through some pastor to rebuke Saul. Afterwards he chooses by His own Sovereign Will in verses 10-19 to involve a godly man called Ananias. God moves both without and with the involvement of His church. We can exercise faith in Him without fretting about evil people and their evil plans. No one ultimately can defeat Him. The doors that He opens no-one can close and the door that He closes no-one can open. See Revelation 3:7.

Suggested prayer: Dear Jesus, may we take the warning not to become self-righteous and proud like Saul. Give us discernment, revelation and “new wineskins” to join and support the move of God, the new wine of God over the church in our nation. We rejoice that You always sit on the throne and are never surprised. May we be reminded of the Sovereign Power that You alone wield over the nations of the earth. May we always put our hope in You. In Jesus Name. Amen.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Danger of Spiritual Infancy (Hebrews 5:11 - 6:12)

Have you met people who refuse to grow up? There are some adults who prefer to remain as children because they do not want to take on adult responsibilities. Not only is immature behaviour unpleasant to observe or deal with, the consequences are often destructive. In Hebrews 5:11-14, the writer expresses his frustration that some members of the church were refusing to grow into spiritual maturity. They were no longer trying to understand God’s word (v 11). Instead of taking on the responsibility of teaching others as they themselves had been taught, they needed to be taught the basics all over again (v12). Therefore, they were unable to take on “solid food” which is for mature Christians, and they were not able to distinguish good from evil (v14) or to understand teaching about righteousness (v13). Spiritual maturity is a necessary part of our walk with God. Remaining as a spiritual infant means that you are not good at discerning right from wrong and you will have a hard time maintain

22 Sep 2020 - Isaiah 54 : GOD’S PROMISE FOR FRUITFULNESS AND BLESSING

Daily Devotion Tuesday 22nd September  Isaiah 54 – GOD’S PROMISE FOR FRUITFULNESS AND BLESSING    This scripture is a beautiful promise of encouragement and affirmation to God’s people. If you have served God faithfully, but you feel discouraged, if you feel that your effort thus far has not borne any fruit, if you feel that you have been despised or looked down upon, this promise is for you.    God tells the “barren woman” to sing and shout for joy, because God will give her the desire of her heart and gift her with more children than she can imagine (v1). This is a prophecy for the increase and expansion of the nation of Israel through the birth of many children, and a promise that the city would be rebuilt. The barren woman could also mean a person or a church that is feeling discouraged, unfulfilled or foolish. Perhaps you feel foolish and discouraged for putting your trust in God for so long, but you have not experienced the results that you expected? If you are feeling discourage

A prophet prophesies and the church fully obeys (Acts 11:27- 12:4)

During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28 One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.) 29 The disciples, as each one was able, decided to provide help for the brothers and sisters living in Judea. 30 This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul. 12 It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. 2 He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. 3 When he saw that this met with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Festival of Unleavened Bread. 4 After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover. When Jewish believers from Cyprus (Europe) and Cyrene (Liby