Though there were men traveling with Saul, the divine encounter with the risen Lord Jesus was meant primarily for him. And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank. Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing and leading him by the hand, they brought him into Damascus. The men who traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. Jesus did not ask “why are you persecuting My church?” Rather, the Lord said “why are you persecuting Me?” At the moment of salvation, a believer is in union with the resurrected Christ, and when one attacks a Christian, it is an attack on the Lord Himself. More so, by attacking the church, Saul learned he was attacking Christ Himself, who is the head of the church (Eph. Surely Saul was surprised to learn that he was talking with the resurrected Lord Jesus. 3:22), it is also used to refer to the deity of Jesus Christ (compare Isa. Though the word is sometimes used in the NT to mean sir (John 4:11 Acts 16:30), and master (Col. When the Septuagint was written around 250 B.C.-the Greek translation of the Hebrew OT-the translators chose the Greek word kurios as a substitute for the Hebrew word YHWH. In the OT, the proper name of God is YHWH-sometimes used with vowels as Y ahw eh-and is translated LORD, using all capital letters. The word “Lord” in Acts 9:5 translates the Greek word kurios and was most likely used by Saul as a synonym for God, as Saul probably knew this was a divine encounter due to the supernatural “light from heaven” that knocked him to the ground. ![]() Little did Saul know that when he set his will against the church to attack it, he was attacking the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.Īs he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” And He said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but get up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do.” (Acts 9:3-6) ![]() ![]() Feeling that the church must be stopped, Saul sought permission from the Jewish high priest to search out and arrest Christians in Damascus, a city in Syria, in order to bring them to Jerusalem to be tried before Jewish courts. (Acts 9:1-2)Ĭhristianity, as it was spreading its gospel message of Christ and grace, posed a real threat to Saul’s religious tradition. Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
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