Act 9:4-5 | PNT | STEP | Heard a voice . After he had fallen. Not a sound merely, but words that he could understand. Why persecutest thou me ? Observe how Christ sympathizes with his persecuted followers. The blows that fall upon them, fall upon him. If Saul strikes the disciples in Damascus, Christ feels the blows in heaven.

Acts 9:4-5

Heard a voice. After he had fallen. Not a sound merely, but words that he could understand.

Why persecutest thou me? Observe how Christ sympathizes with his persecuted followers. The blows that fall upon them, fall upon him. If Saul strikes the disciples in Damascus, Christ feels the blows in heaven. Who art thou, Lord? Sure that it was a supernatural communication, though he might possibly suspect its source, he did not yet know that it came from Christ. Perhaps at times he had had misgivings that he might be wrong, but he was sincere.

I am Jesus. It is not said, "the Christ", but Jesus, the crucified one against whom Saul was raging. Had the answer been "the Christ", or the Son of God, Saul might still have doubted whether this was Jesus. [It is] hard for thee to kick against the pricks. Omitted here by the Revised Version, but found in Ac 26:14. The idea is that he is injuring himself, like the ox that kicks back on the goads used to urge him forward.