A Revealing

For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it.  And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.  But when it pleased God, who seperated me from my mothers womb and called me through his grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to  Damascus.
Galations 1: 13-17 NKJV

I often wondered where it was that Paul, who was steeped in the Jewish traditions, received his training in the teachings of the Lord Jesus.  For here was a man who, by his own admission, tried to destroy the church of  God so vehemently.  As Saul advanced in the teachings of Judaism, one can imagine that he was taught of how Jesus had blasphemed the Jewish laws.  For those of the Jewish faith who were teaching the man Saul, were the very same zealots who were persecuting the Lord Jesus!  Paul made no secret of this after his conversion.

"Therefore let all the house of Isreal know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ."
Acts  2:36 NKJV

How did Saul, hell bent on persecuting the early church, become Paul, one of the greatest apostles of Jesus of all time?  I cannot imagine the hatred that this man had for the followers of Jesus.  However, I do beleive that in Sauls mind, he was indeed doing the righteous work of God by dealing with these blasphemers of the law.  For it had been the Jewish pharisees and teachers of the Jewish law that had been the sharpest critics of Jesus and vice versa.  

"But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  for you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers.  Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.  Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.'  Fools and blind!  For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold?"
Matthew 23: 13-17 NKJV

It is against these individuals, of which Saul was one, that the Lord Jesus makes this condemnation, and for good reason as we see.  I mention this to make the point that it is against this backdrop and teaching that Saul came to his moment on the road to Damascus that day.  Remember that all that Saul had been taught about the man Jesus was by those who would crucify him.  I don't believe that Saul had a vehement hatred for Jesus or the early church, but he was taught that Jesus had blasphened the Jewish faith.
The scriptures tell us that, upon his conversion, that Paul went into the desert of Arabia for a few years.  One can only assume that this was done to "Reprogram" Pauls thinking to that of the gospel of Jesus.  For Paul reveals in Galations 1:16 that God had, in his timing, chosen to "Reveal His Son in me."  Ironicaly, this is the very same way that God chooses to reveal Jesus in his children today, in his wonderful timing.  I'm thinking that our Lord knows exactly when we're ready to accept this revelation.

~Scott~