Paul elaborates on his life as Saul.
9 “So then, I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 10 And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I cast my vote against them. 11 And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities. 12 While so engaged as I was journeying to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests, 13 at midday, O King, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining all around me and those who were journeying with me.14 And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ 15 And I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.Acts 26:9–15
Paul as Saul was ruthless. Cold and calculating, he worked his plan to capture and jail followers of the Way, men and women alike, and if necessary to cast his vote for their executions. Most of us crave fresh air, but Saul breathed violence and threats. He thrived on the smell of blood. He was in the process of expanding his operations to Damascus, as if he, on Satan’s behalf, was trying to reverse the disciples’ mandate to reach into Judea and Samaria, even to the remotest parts of the earth. Read below about the strategic value of Damascus.
“Damascus was at the foot of the Anti-Lebanon, within an oasis richly supplied with water (2 Kings 5:12). It was situated at the crossroads of the two main international highways of the ancient Near East, the Via Maris, connecting Mesopotamia, the Mediterranean and Egypt, and the King’s Highway, connecting Arabia and the Red Sea to northern Syria.” The Archaeological Encyclopedia of the Holy Land, Avraham Negev, Prentice-Hall
While his plans were diabolical and far reaching, he did not look the part, for he described himself later in 2 Corinthians 10:10 as “unimpressive” (weak, impotent), and “contemptible” (detestable) and “unskillful” in speech (2 Corinthians 11:6).
It’s impressive to me that this hard charging and driven man got up (stood to his feet) after being struck down by the Lord Jesus, perhaps as his first obedient act, perhaps as an involuntary response to his dogged personality, but undoubtedly the former. He’d recall later what Jesus said to him.
“But get up and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you.” Acts 26:16
Saul as Paul was strategic and effective in sharing Christ where no man had. The same ruthlessness he employed as a villain, he redirected to soul winning. In the passage above, he stood witnessing to King Agrippa, literally bound to do the same before Caesar in Rome. While a Jew to his core, he was called to win Gentiles to Christ. He compensated for his unimpressive appearance and contemptible speech with the clarity, boldness, and eloquence of the gospel. And after being stoned, scourged, beaten, bound, jailed, shipwrecked, and constantly tormented physically by a Satanic thorn in his side, he kept on getting up!
We’re not all called to be Paul, but we all should stop for a moment to assess if there has been forward progress since God called us to stand to our feet.
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