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THE KING’ S BUSINESS
Greek. It was a startling question that the Lord put to Saul, “Why persecutest thou me ?” He puts the same question today to every one who his. persecuting His peo ple. To persecute any one who belongs to to the Lord is to persecute the Lord Him self. Our Lord with wondrous tenderness identifies Himself with His disciples, regarding anything done to His disciples as done to Himself (cf. Matt. 25:35-40; 42-45; Eph. 5:30). What a moment o f awful and overwhelming shame it must have been in Saul’s life when it fully broke upon him that the glorious One who stood before Him was indeed Jestis, whom he had so bitterly hated and so relentlessly persecuted. It will be an equally appalling moment for many now living when they see Jesus in His glory and realize that it is He whom they have rejected, spurned and persecuted. Saul at first was not sure that the One who had appeared to him was Jesus, but he was sure that whoever it was He /was'the “Lord,” and this One who was the Lord accepted the title but said, “ I am Jesus.” So it is evident, on Jesus’ own statement made after His- ascension into glory, that He is our Divine Lord. v.-o. “And he trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him (this much of the sixth verse is omitted in the Revised Version because not in the best manuscripts, but a similar question by Saul is found in the account' in Acts 22:10), Arise { but rise), and go {enter) into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do." The Lord led Saul a step at a time. He did not tell Saul what he was to do further than that he was to arise and go into the city and there it should be told him. What he was to do was a matter of imperative neces sity, something that he “must do.” It was not to be' told him directly by the Lord, it was to be told him through a man. If there fever was a miraculous conversion it Was that o f S a u l'of Tarsus, but even that was consummated through human instrumentality. In every conversion in the New Testament human instrumentality is brought in. As far as we know, the Holy
Spirit has no way o f getting at the unsaved except through the channel o f those who are already saved. This is- very solemn. If we realized it, hdw much more careful we would be to offer to the Holy Spirit an unobstructed channel thfough which He might reach and save our unsaved friends. v. 7- “And the men which {that) jour neyed with him, stood speechless, hearing a {the) voice, but seeing {beholding) no man.” That the ligh t. Saul saw was no mere subjective vision or effect o f sun- stroke,. as some who wish to discredit the story would make it; oyt to be, is clear from the fact that others saw the light too (cf. ch. 22:9; 26:14), and heard the voice. There is an apparent contradiction between verse 7 and chapter 22 'S. In verse 7 we are told that those who were with Saul heard the voice, but in chapter 22:9 it is said they “heard not the voice.” This apparent contradiction entirely disappears when we look at the Greek. In verse 7 the Greek words translated “the voice” are in the genitive case, and in chapter 22:9 the words translated “the voice” are in the accusative case. The Greek verb trans lated “hearing” in verse 7, and “ heard” in chapter 22:9 governs two cases, the genitive and the accusative. When followed by the genitive it indicates the person or thing heard speaking the message. When followed by the accusative it indicates the message itself which is heard. Those with Saul did hear the voice speaking, that is, they heard the sound o f the voice; they did not hear the message, they did not hear what the voice said. Here we have another illustra tion o f the absolute exactness, the verbal accuracy o f the Bijole down to a word or part o f a word, and thus another proof of “verbal inspiration.” What many have, regarded as a difficulty is found to be a confirmation o f the exact truth and the verbal accuracy o f the Bible. vs. 8 , 9. “And Saul arose from the earth, and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man {nothing): but {and) they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat, nor drink." The glory
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