When in the ordering of Divine Providence "the hour" and "the man" arrive simultaneously, great things may be expected ‑ and accomplished! Just such an occasion had arrived when Barnabas went to Tarsus seeking Saul. (Acts 11. 25).

As a consequence of that spell of sharp persecution which arise out of Stephen's ministry ‑ and death ‑ certain brethren travelled into distant provinces, thus creating for themselves the opportunity denied them in Jerusalem. Among them were brethren apparently of Greek origin, who as they travelled homewards, came at last to Antioch, and there spoke openly and freely to fellow Greeks about the grace and goodness of their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. A very considerable number of these hearers believed wholeheartedly and turned to the Lord. Here was an unorthodox situation ‑ for these were Gentiles purely and simply ‑ yet the hand of the Lord was with them.

When the tidings of these unexpected happenings reached Jerusalem, the mother Church sent Barnabas ‑ a brother well-trusted and greatly esteemed ‑ to investigate, and presumably to report back.

Barnabas was both amazed and delighted by what he saw and heard, and ‑ good man that he was ‑ exhorted the new converts to stand fast in the Lord. But he quickly realised that this work was too big and too exacting for the local overseers to control efficiently, and that help must be found somehow, somewhere. Barnabas knew the man for the task; recollections of events and of a "contact" made several years before came to mind, and he was sure that but one man in all his range of acquaintanceship was capable of taking this task in hand. Hence that speedily determined journey to Tarsus to seek Saul.

But what of Saul? How had he fared since the day when his Master peremptorily told him to "depart" from Jerusalem? We have not much evidence to call upon concerning these intervening years, and such as we have is mainly auto-biographical. In an outline of his experiences in which comparison with other Israelites had been found necessary, Paul unintentionally lifts the curtain upon some of those earlier years ‑ a span of life and experience which must include those spent in and around his native town prior to the call from Barnabas. This little chapter of autobiography is recorded in 2 Cor. 11. 21-27, and records the story of countless beatings ‑ some nearly unto death ‑ five distinct scourgings by the Jews - to the utmost limit permitted by the law ‑ three beatings by the Romans (by rods). Three times shipwrecked with a whole day and night adrift on one of these occasions; in dangers of many kinds and in many places, in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure ‑ so runs the grim and frank recital. Foxes had holes, birds of the air had nests, but Paul (like his Lord) often had nowhere to lay his aching head!

Now all this crucial and punitive experience must have befallen him prior to the story of his wanderings in Acts 19. 21-23. Where is the record of these things in the Acts of the Apostles? There is no record of all these buffetings anywhere. We have the main records of his first and second missionary journeys, and while some of these experiences occurred during the one or other, there are some which cannot be accounted for during these journeys, or these later years. At least two of the Roman beatings and probably three of the Jewish floggings belong to those early years before Barnabas sought him out. Which means, of course, that the servant of the Lord, dismissed peremptorily from Jerusalem, had laboured, perhaps in the main unsuccessfully, in the hinterland above Tarsus, during these unrecorded years, and had had to pay very heavily, in suffering, for his fidelity to the Lord. How exactly and deeply do the words of the Lord to Ananias seem to have been fulfulled - "I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of My Name" (Acts 9.16).

Well, such was the man, and such the preparation for the work he had been called to do! In that quieter retreat, away from the stress and turmoil of faithless Jerusalem, the Lord had been inuring him to pain and persecution, to odium and disesteem, in readiness for the arduous hours which lay ahead!

Thus when came the Gentiles' hour, there also came the "man" prepared of God to match the hour ‑ and great things began to be accomplished!

His purposes had ripened fast
Unfolding every hour;
The bud had a bitter taste,
But sweet would be the flower!

A whole year was spent in establishing and consolidating the Church in Antioch; then followed the wider work to which he and Barnabas were called to go!

The lesson here for us is that there are tides ‑ ebbings and flowings ‑ in the history of the Lord's people; set times and set hours for this thing or that, and that it is the Lord who arranges them. Nothing is more obvious in the stories in Acts than the Hand of God ‑ the Spirit of God ‑ supervised and directed everything.

"The Holy Spirit said"; "the Spirit suffered them not"; "come over to Macedonia"; etc., etc., token upon token of the Spirit-led life! 'The Spirit-led life'! "the hour" and "the man"! Are not these things the essentials today! Perhaps not in great world-shaking movements as yet, but in the more quiet and more preparatory ways. It is an unbecoming lack of insight and charity to think that God's over-ruling Providences fall only inside one little Fellowship, and that His Hand controls none outside. In these coming days of intensive strain, some poor sufferer's "hour" may come, with you, or me, the intended "man"! How if that is so? Are you going to say "I've tried and tried, and tried in vain, and am quite sure there's not another single grain to be gathered to the Lord. The whole field's been raked and combed and gleaned until it stands utterly bare of wheat"! If that is how you ‑ we ‑ feel, some one's "hour" will come, without the "man", or without the first-intended man! There are still "lonely hearts to cherish while the days are going by" - which a spirit of defeatism will allow to pass by unhelped and unblessed!

"Only a word for the Master
Lovingly, quietly said,
Only a word, yet the Master heard,
And some fainting heart was fed.

"Only a look of remonstrance,
Sorrowful, gentle and deep,
Only a look! Yet some strong man shook,
And went alone to weep.

"Only some act of devotion,
Willingly, joyfully done,
Surely twas nought! (so the proud world thought)
But yet souls for Christ were won.

"Only! - but Jesus looking,
Constantly, tenderly down
To earth, and sees, Those seeking to please,
And these things he stands ready to crown"

Kindly Providence will continue to call for the "man" until its prearranged "hours" are outrun! Let us be sure of that!