… how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it.
Summary: In this passage Paul recounts his misguided attempts to serve God by persecuting believers in Jesus Christ.
When Paul first met Jesus, it wasn’t exactly love at first sight. It was more like panic. Paul was overwhelmed by his encounter with the Living Lord.
When Jesus first met his disciples, he was in the flesh. That is to say, he walked around in a body like yours and mine. While it was clear that there was something different about Jesus the man, the revelation of Jesus’ power and glory was given slowly over a period of three years.
With Paul, it was different. Paul describes it this way:
“About noon, … as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. We all fell to the ground …” (Acts 26:13-14a)
This encounter wasn’t limited to Paul’s mind. He had other men traveling with him. Paul notes that “we all fell to the ground.” Everyone saw the light, and everyone was overwhelmed.
Then Paul heard a voice say, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” (Acts 26:14b)
“It is hard for you to kick against the goads,” was a common saying in Paul’s day. It is similar to the saying we use today, “Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.” A goad is a sharp, pointed stick used to prod stubborn animals to move. Today, farmers use electric cattle prods instead of goads.
Paul (aka “Saul”) was trying to serve God as a Pharisee by persecuting the people who believed in God’s Son, Jesus. God didn’t like that. Instead of snuffing Paul’s life out or something worse, God patiently finds a way to point Paul in the right direction. Apparently, Paul didn’t pick up on God’s earlier clues or “goads.” It finally required a face-to-face encounter with Jesus to get Paul to wake up and realize what was happening.
God’s patience in this story is important.
God doesn’t give up on us because we persecute him or are stubborn. If we have a heart for God like Paul did, he sees it. He understands the difference between misguided loyalty to himself and someone who is maliciously persecuting believers for their own ends.
Application: If you have a heart for God, trust Jesus no matter what.
Food for Thought: What kind of “goads” does God use on people today?
Good question to think about, but I am not sure a human mind can comprehensively take in every resource at God’s disposal to shape lives. He can take the bad and make something good (the story of Joseph being one case in point). He can use His word. He appears to be using dreams and visions to bring many Muslims to Himself right now. He can use a church service, other people. In the book of Numbers He even used a donkey. He used Ravens to feed Elijah during a drought. He uses discipline to mold us (Hebrews 12: 11). The point being, I wouldn’t limit Him too much from what He can use to influence and direct lives. He won’t tempt us to evil (James 1: 13) and He can’t lie (Hebrews 6: 18), but there are innumerable ways He can righteously lead us. We can trust Him to lead us as a good shepherd. We can trust His benevolent purposes for our lives (Psalm 23; John 10: 11).
Rich,
Great response! I love the story of Balaam’s donkey (Numbers 22: 21-38). Your point about discipline is good, too. “Corrective discipline” does exactly what a “goad” does. It opposes wrong behavior with pain and rewards good behavior with the absence of pain. (Blessings, on the other hand, reward good behavior with good things, and are absent when behavior is bad. Of course, that said, God can turn a bad situation into a blessing [Romans 8:28] so I’m not sure how far I care to push this comparison. 🙂 )