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THE KING’S BUSINESS
o f God must first be revealed in Paul before He could preach Him to others. As soon as God had revealed His Son in Paul, Paul had no further recourse to “ flesh and blood,” the Divine revelation was all-suffi cient. The "immediately” in verse 16 is emphatic. Paul mentions- here the fact that immediately upon the revelation of God’s Son in him he conferred not with flesh and blood in order to refute the charge that others were making that his was a second hand gospel, that he got it from other apostles. In answer to this he says in effect: “ It was not necessary for me to have recourse to flesh and blood. I had a direct revelation o f the Son .of God in me” (cf. vs. 11, 12). While Paul preached essentially the same gospel that the other Apostles did, he did not.learn it from them; he received it by direct revelation from God. Paul now goes on to say how impos sible it was for him to have gotten his gospel from Peter and the rest o f the Apostles, because immediately after the revelation of the Son o f God in him he “went away into Arabia” and “returned into Damascus.” He; did not go up to Jerusalem at all at that time. The Apostles were there, those who were Apostles before he had been called to be an Apostle, but as God had directly revealed the gospel to him he felt no need of going to Jerusalem to confer with them, but went away into Arabia to be alone with God. It was three years before he went up to Jerusalem at all. This visit to Arabia is not mentioned in the Acts o f the Apostles. In the Acts we are told, “after many days were ful filled” he was driven out o f Damascus and went to Jerusalem (Acts 9-:23-26), but we are not told how many the “many days” were, but thfey were three years (as were the “many days” mentioned in 1 Kings 2 :38, 39), and during these three years the his future, work. It was like Moses’ stay in Arabia (Acts 7 :29, 30). God often takes visit to Arabia was made! These three years seem to have been spent largely in communion with God as a preparation for
aside for communion with Himself the men for whom He has great work to do. Saturday, April 13 . . Gal. 1 : 18 - 20 . Paul': here furthfer exposes , the utter absurdity o f the claim made by thè Juda- izers in Galatia that he-had received his gospel by the instruction o f the Apostles. “ Three years” passed before 1 he went up to Jerusalem, and when he went up after waiting three years, he did not go up to be taught by Peter (Cephas), but “to make the acquaintance o f Cephas.” (The word which means “to become acquainted with” is translated “see” in the Authorized Ver sion, and “visit” in the Revised Version). Paul stayed there but “fifteen days” and so, could not have had much instruction. He had already had three years training direct from Jesus Christ. As to receiving his gospel from the other Apostles, he saw none o f them except “James, the Lord’s brother!” This brother of Jesus had not accepted Jesus as the Messiah at first and does not seem to have been a believer even at the time o f His crucifixion; for Jesus committed His mother to John the beloved disciple (John 19:26, 27). But Jesus appeared to James after His resurrection (1 Cor. 15:7), and James became a disciple and soon took a very prominent place in the church (ch. 2 :9 ; Acts 15:31-21). The other Apostles were doubtless away from Jerusalem at the time o f Paul’s visit. The statement o f facts that Paul was here mak ing was so utterly different from the stories the Judaizers were circulating that Paul emphasizes it in the most- solemn manner, saying : “ Behold, before God, I lie not.” From the Acts o f the Apostles we learn that Paul’s-stay was so brief at this time because it was cut short by plots of, Jewish- enemies (Acts 9:29, 30). Sunday, April 14 . Gal. 1 : 21 - 24 . Following his visit to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas, and his being driven out o f Jerusalem by persecution, really began.in Cilicia, in Tarsus, his old Paul worked in Syria and Cilicia. The work
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