A ripple of indignation passed over the synagogue. This man was voicing the most outrageous heresies. It was not that he had espoused the cause of the crucified Nazarene. These orthodox Jews of Damascus knew that several prominent Pharisees of Jerusalem had already done that. Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, Jerusalem Pharisees both and members of the Sanhedrin had acknowledged their belief in Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ. For all its bigotry and formalism, organized Judaism allowed considerable latitude in matters of belief to the individual, and it was possible to be a passive believer in Christ without risking excommunication or loss of office. At Jerusalem in fact, a "great company of the priests were obedient" to the new faith (Acts 6. 7). But no one had as yet suggested this to be anything else than another new sect of Judaism. It had a few peculiarities, an undue and altogether mistaken reverence for the man who had been crucified, but, now that He himself was safely out of the way it was unlikely to threaten any established institution. The top ecclesiastics in Jerusalem, the High Priest, the Sanhedrin and some of the more prominent Scribes and Pharisees, seemed most unaccountably disturbed over the development and were doing all they could to suppress it, but really these Jews who accepted the claims of Jesus seemed in all other respects orthodox enough; they upheld the law of Moses and refused to have anything to do with Gentiles. They kept the feast days and observed the usual customs. So far as the synagogues up and down the land were concerned there was nothing to bar a "follower of the Way", as they called themselves, from participating in the worship or taking a leading part. But this man was going beyond all that others of the persuasion had so far practised, and beyond all the bounds of decency. The Galilean disciples had proclaimed, as the basis of their faith, their belief that they had seen the crucified Jesus walking the earth after his death, talking with them, eating with them, and behaving generally as a man behaves, a thesis which could be tolerated on the basis that Elisha had been known to restore a man to life and what had happened once could happen again. Saul the Pharisee had shifted the grounds of argument to something much more dangerous; he claimed to have seen this same Jesus resplendent in heavenly glory, standing at the right hand of power, and was making it all too obvious that the new faith so far as he was concerned was not going to be a divergent sect of Judaism but was going to challenge Judaism, overthrow it and supersede it. They were compelled to sit in their own synagogue and listen while the man before them "preached Christ that he is the Son of God" (Acts 9.20).

This was quite a departure in Christian evangelism. Peter and John and the others in their public ministry had not stressed the Divine sonship of Christ; rather they had dwelt upon His office as the Divine Messenger, the One that should come. "This man hath God raised up" they said. God had exalted him to be a Prince and Saviour. He was the foretold prophet like unto Moses; when they did use the term 'son' they softened the effect by referring to him as "his Son Jesus" without any inherent suggestion of Divinity. Perhaps at that early stage they had hardly grasped the deeper truth themselves, but Saul had. His experience on the Damascus road, coupled with three years' study and meditation away in Arabia, had shown him in crystal clarity that this One who appeared on earth in form as a man and after His death revealed Himself at the right hand of God could be no other than the pre-human Word. He is the manifestation of God to man, the heavenly Son of God. Upon that basis Saul built his message and his listeners knew that here was a challenge to their whole system of belief and way of life, and they bristled with anger.

Neither indignation nor anger availed them against the remorseless logic of the arguments which Saul had at his command. The word used in Acts 9.22 "proving that this is very Christ" comes from a root implying the accurate and intimate fitting of one part to another; in this connection it describes the building of conclusions upon arguments, the erection of doctrines upon underlying theses. Without doubt Saul brought to bear all his own not inconsiderable knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures, and when to that was added the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit by which he was guided the result was a dynamic which could not be resisted. Even before his conversion Saul would have been a formidable antagonist to engage in debate, but now there was more than a keen, intellectual mind buttressed by the gift of rhetoric and profound knowledge of the subject. Behind Saul stood his unseen Master, imparting to him a spiritual discernment and a force of conviction which nothing in Damascus could hope to withstand. So the more extreme among the leading Pharisees and Scribes plotted to solve the problem by deliberately encompassing Saul's death.

How they planned to carry out the assassination is not stated. Saul became aware of the conspiracy; he knew his men well and was probably only too familiar with similar scheming in previous days, and decided that it was time to leave Damascus. To do so openly was impossible; the city gates were being watched and Damascus was completely surrounded by a high wall. The Christians were equal to the occasion; dwelling-houses joined to the inside, with windows piercing the wall, were not uncommon. Through such a window the Apostle was put and lowered to the ground outside; thus alone and without possessions, in the darkness of the night, he stole away from the city and headed on foot towards Jerusalem.

This was not the return journey he had planned. More than three years previously he had set out from Jerusalem expecting to be back in a few weeks at the head of a procession of captives, entering the city amid the plaudits and congratulations of the ruling officials and doubtless in expectation of further honours to be bestowed in recognition of his services. Now he was making his way back alone, unknown and unrecognized, with small prospect of any better treatment at Jerusalem than he had received at Damascus. In all this experience Saul must have perceived the Divine law of retribution in operation. He condemned Stephen for declaring that he beheld heaven opened and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; he saw the same thing himself not many weeks later. He went to Damascus the persecutor; he left Damascus persecuted. He purposed to take Christians bound to Jerusalem for punishment; he began to realise now that in all probability bonds and imprisonment were to be his own lot before Jerusalem had finished with him. But he did not falter; he knew that his path must inevitably take him to Jerusalem. His departure from Damascus was not a flight; he journeyed now to meet the next stage of his experience as an Apostle of Jesus Christ.

That experience opened with a crushing disappointment. Of course Saul expected to be cold-shouldered by his former friends and associates. He was to them a renegade, a traitor, and they wanted nothing more to do with him. His career lay in ruins, his reputation and influence gone, and no door even of hospitality open to him. He entered Jerusalem penniless, friendless, alone, without even knowing where he would lay his head that night. But he must have consoled himself with the thought that he could claim the fellowship and hospitality of his brethren in the faith, those whom once he persecuted but now recognized as fellow believers. He thought of the friendliness and Christian love extended to him by Ananias and his fellows at Damascus, their solicitude for his safety, and zeal in aiding his escape from that city, and he must have looked forward to a similar fellowship in Jerusalem. So immediately upon his arrival "he assayed to join himself to the disciples" and in that effort, educated and shrewd man of the world that he was, he manifested an unexpected ignorance of human nature. Even although the bitterness and terror of his persecuting was three years in the past, how could he have expected them to receive him? He had no sponsors; none to speak for him or endorse his claim to discipleship. The story of his conversion three years previously would certainly have come back to Jerusalem and be known to the brethren, but Damascus was a great distance away and how could they be sure they had the story aright? Much more likely that this was a trap of some kind into which they could easily fall and be taken. So "they were all afraid of him, and believed not that he was a disciple".

Did that bitter experience break down the last remnant of the one-time arrogant Pharisee's personal pride and self-will, and bow him to the dust that he might become the submissive bond-slave of Jesus Christ for ever? It was now three years since he had seen the vision and counted himself commissioned an ambassador for Christ, and what had he achieved? His preaching at Damascus had ended in an ignominious flight from the city; a similar endeavour to preach to the Jewish upper classes here in Jerusalem was clearly out of the question; now even the believers themselves wanted nothing to do with him. Not only was there no shelter for his body, there was no prospect of an opening for the exercise of his mind and his talents in the one cause which meant anything to him. Discouragement and frustration oppressed his mind. The work of three years appeared to have been wasted, and to a man in his middle thirties, three years is a long time when that man is aching to make of his life a thing mighty in the service of the purposes of God.

This was Paul's darkest hour and the dawn was not far away. Seemingly by accident, but of course in Divine Providence, and without doubt precisely at God's appointed time, he met an old acquaintance, Joseph Barnabas, himself a Christian and well known to the Christian community in Jerusalem. Where and how these two men first met is not known. Barnabas hailed from Cyprus which is not far from Saul's birthplace, Tarsus. Barnabas could probably, in earlier days, have had business on the mainland which would take him to Tarsus and in such case he would certainly have contacted the Jewish colony there and could thus have known the youthful Saul. Barnabas was one of the earliest converts after Pentecost and was in Jerusalem at the time ‑ Acts 4. 36, 37 records how he sold land and donated the proceeds to the needs of the fellowship. It is perhaps more likely he was in Damascus during Saul's sojourn in that city and knew him there. He appears from Acts 9. 27 to have been quite well-informed on the details of Saul's conversion and work at Damascus. At any rate, Barnabas proved a real friend in need. He took Saul to the apostles and certified his sincerity. With that recommendation the church was content to receive the newcomer into their fellowship and Saul found at last the haven his soul desired.

He only stayed in Jerusalem fifteen days (Gal.1.18). Saul's turbulent spirit, allied with his irrepressible zeal, quickly got him into trouble with the Jews, and here again, as at Damascus, they plotted to kill him. He had to flee for his life; once more the brethren rallied round to assist him and got him away to the seacoast where he could get a boat to his native Tarsus. It is possible that the Christians at Jerusalem were not altogether sorry to see the back of their rather embarrassing new convert. They had been enjoying a relatively peaceful time, free from persecution, prior to Saul's arrival, and the commotion he was creating in the city was not likely to be appreciated by those who knew what persecution meant. Luke was probably quite unconscious of a certain unintended humour in his narrative when immediately after his account of how the brethren succeeded in getting Saul out of the country, he says "then had the churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria" (Acts 9. 30-31). Really the brethren had seen very little of Saul; he says himself that he only saw Peter and James the half brother of Jesus among the leaders. Peter seems to have given him the hospitality of his own home and the two men must have had much to say to each other. Saul must have learned a lot about the Lord's life and sayings from Peter on this occasion, and fifteen days seems a remarkably brief time for Saul to confer with him and also whip up Jewish opposition to the point of plotting his death. Perhaps as the boat sailed away from Judea he reflected that twice now his life had been saved by men and women whom once he had persecuted unto the death; he was being given a lesson on returning good for evil.

So, for the second time, Saul was to be laid aside from the work he had been commissioned to carry out. He remained quietly at Tarsus, learning to wait upon his Lord for instruction and guidance, probably wondering why he seemed so definitely to be obstructed and frustrated in every endeavour to commence the work to which he had been called. Maybe a lesser man would have grown tired of it all by now and concluded that he was not really called to this work after all, and turned aside to some other interest. Not so Saul; the vision he had seen on that memorable occasion outside Damascus remained with him still; he knew on whom he had believed, and waited now in quiet submission for the summons to action which he felt sure would eventually come. Although he could not possibly have known it at the time, forces were already in operation in a completely new centre of missionary activity that would very shortly demand of him all that he had to give. Those few months in Tarsus were the last quiet, peaceful days the great Apostle was ever to know.

AOH