When Saul Got the Call

I randomly began reading a passage in Acts 9 this morning, regarding Saul’s powerful, mind-blowing conversion.  It really impacted me how, almost immediately after Ananias shows up, he testifies to Saul, lays hands on Saul, prays for Saul…and there is an immediate response.  Miraculous healing with physical evidence. Almost a breakneck response to hurry to be water baptized.  The scales fell, and Saul was up on his feet, heading for the water.  And after a few days with the disciples at Damascus, again, he’s up and on the move.  It can never be said that either before or after Saul’s conversion, that any grass ever grew beneath his feet.  Acts 8:20—“And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.” One way or the other, he was a man with a mission.

Of course, he’d had three whole days in the complete darkness of total blindness to stew about it all; three days of considering the most abrupt, life-altering experience any man has ever faced.  I imagine that the ONLY thing Saul could see in his mind’s eye was the slow-mo sequence of events beginning with that bright, blinding light, and a disembodied voice from heaven rocking his pharisaical world.  “I AM Jesus, whom you persecute.”

I know it’s not recorded this way, but this is how I imagine the conversation going in his head during his three days in the prison of blindness.

“Excuse me?”

“I AM.  I AM Jesus.  The God of the Universe, whom you say you serve.”

“But, blasphemy!  How can you call yourself I AM?  Only YHWH deserves that title.  How dare you!”

“I AM He.  I AM Messiah. I AM Alpha and Omega.  I AM the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.  Don’t you recognize me, Saul?”

“But Lord—I’ve given my life to defend your Name!  Everything I’ve done, I’ve done for you!  How can you be Jesus?”

And the scriptures, which Saul had studied from his youth, began to churn out of the wellspring of his memory:

Isaiah 44:6-8  NKJV

“Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel,
And his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts:
‘I am the First and I am the Last;
Besides Me there is no God.
⁷ And who can proclaim as I do?
Then let him declare it and set it in order for Me,
Since I appointed the ancient people.
And the things that are coming and shall come,
Let them show these to them.
⁸ Do not fear, nor be afraid;
Have I not told you from that time, and declared it?
You are My witnesses.
Is there a God besides Me?
Indeed there is no other Rock;
I know not one.’ ”

“But who ARE you, Lord?”

Isaiah 44:24  NKJV

²⁴ Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer,
And He who formed you from the womb:
“I am the Lord, who makes all things,
Who stretches out the heaven all alone,
Who spreads abroad the earth by Myself;

Isaiah 45:18-19  NKJV

For thus says the Lord,
Who created the heavens,
Who is God,
Who formed the earth and made it,
Who has established it,
Who did not create it in vain,
Who formed it to be inhabited:
“I am the Lord, and there is no other.
¹⁹ I have not spoken in secret,
In a dark place of the earth;
I did not say to the seed of Jacob,
‘Seek Me in vain’;
I, the Lord, speak righteousness,
I declare things that are right.

I’m sure by now, 10 zillion other “I am the Lord and there is no other” scriptures from Isaiah could’ve been swirling endlessly in Paul’s brain.  But Jesus?  He is Jehovah?  It’s even conceivable that nearly the entire chapter of Isaiah 53 nailed him squarely between the eyes.

Isaiah 53:1-8 NKJV

Who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
² For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of dry ground.
He has no form or comeliness;
And when we see Him,
There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
³ He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

⁴ Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
⁵ But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

⁷ He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth.

⁸ He was taken from prison and from judgment,
And who will declare His generation?
For He was cut off from the land of the living;
For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.

I’m trying to imagine Saul’s conflict, his revelation.  I’d have been a basket case as the realization dawned on me as to what I’d actually done.  But God could’ve just stricken Paul, killing him stone cold, and have been done with it.  He didn’t—because as always, He had a greater plan.

“And who will declare My generation? Saul, will YOU declare My generation?  I’m calling you here, to declare My generation to ALL generations.  Will you go?”

Of course we know, Saul agreed.  Laying down his old life as Saul, God redirected his calling, his passion, his purpose into being even more sold out for Jesus than he ever was against him, if that was possible.  It just goes to prove that, when you meet the Master, and you make a decision to follow him, and declare His generation, your life won’t look the same as it did before.  If it does…you’re not doing it right.