A Dedication

Dedicated to the Presidents and Prime Ministers

In Acts 9, Saul the persecutor of the church, sees a blinding light and hears the Lord speaking to him. Known as Paul’s vision, this experience transforms the rigid Pharisee of Pharisees into the long-suffering apostle of the Lord to the Gentiles. After some food and rest in Damascus, Saul begins his remarkable missionary journeys that will bring the Good News to the nations.

But, what actually happened to Saul on the way to Damascus? What did he “see”?

It has been a thesis of this blog that it is the Scriptures that reveal God, and not the other way around. As hearers and readers of the Bible, we “see” what the authors present us, and it becomes important for us to lay aside templates or preconceived notions. Our traditions also get in the way.

Saul had his share of blinders. It did not matter that he knew the Scriptures “inside and out.” He did not understand the message, since he was seeing what he, as a zealot, had wanted to see and was brought up to see. So many Amaleks out there, that kind of thing.

On the road to Damascus, where he was to persecute some more, he came to realize something. This realization was enough to knock him down and change him, to the point that he would realize he was indeed persecuting the Lord.

What was this realization, which Luke mentions in Acts 9. 3 – 6?

Saul came to realize that Abram (later Abraham) was actually and functionally a Gentile when he was first called by God. The story of Israel is a story within the larger story of the calling of the Gentiles; Israel is itself one nation among the many, entrusted “until the appointed time” with the message that belongs with everyone.

The force of this realization cannot be underestimated. Abraham is the proto-Patriarch, but for him to have been honored and chosen by God when he was functionally a Gentile was unthinkable for a Pharisee, but that is exactly what Saul realizes.

It is this realization, borne out of shame, ignorance, and pain that allows Saul to come to love the Gentiles and to be in their service. Had Jesus not died on the cross and been raised from the dead, he would have never come to this point.