Act 26:13-14 | KingComments | STEP | The chief priests had in him a great tool for their evil intent. They were only too happy to give him mandate and order to track down and eradicate this new movement in Damascus as well. And then the totally unexpected happens. At the height of his fanaticism comes the turnaround. In the fire of his report Paul experiences this impressive event once again. What he saw then, he cannot deny. How can someone deny a personal experience, something he himself observed? Through the exclamation “O King” Paul speaks again emphatically to Agrippa in a personal way and emphasizes for him the observation he made. At midday he saw a light brighter than the sun. This cannot but be the light of the Lord Jesus, Who is called “the sun of righteousness” ( ). Until this moment, this man was blinded by his legalistic zeal against the grace of God in Christ. Then the light shines into his soul. Then that same Christ reveals Himself and thereby erases everything on which he boasted as a Jew and in which he rested, and makes it to nothing. This is the moment of his conversion. The jailer is converted in the very midst of the night ( ), Paul comes to conversion at the clearest of the day. The impression this has made on him he presents here again stronger than the last time when he recounted his conversion history. Then he spoke of a bright light from heaven ( ). Now he speaks of a light from heaven that is brighter than the sun. It shows that his impression of Who the Lord is, has become ever greater. This is how it should be with us. The longer we live with the Lord, the greater He must become for us. We should always be able to bear witness to that increasing greatness. The light radiated not only all around Paul, but also all around those who travelled with him. They also fell to the ground. What may have been interpreted by Paul’s companions as nothing more than a natural phenomenon, meant a lot more to Paul. He heard a voice addressing him in the Hebrew language and by his Hebrew name. His name Saul reminds us of King Saul. It is possible that his parents called him so because they expected the same from him as they saw in Saul. King Saul was bigger than all the people and they wanted their son to be too. This parallel also came true in a spiritual sense and not only in the fact that he stood out in knowledge and zeal above all his contemporaries. King Saul became a persecutor of God’s anointed King David; the New Testament Saul became a persecutor of God’s Messiah, which means ‘Anointed’. In that way of resisting and persecuting the Messianic Jews, Saul was warned by God. God made him feel the goads of His Word ( ). We can discover these goads in Stephen’s testimony and that of other believers Saul tortured. The words of those believers affected him, but he did not want to listen to them. Until the moment the breakthrough comes on the road to Damascus. The answer to the Lord’s question is a question from Paul which immediately shows all his submission. He asks: “Who are You, Lord?” The answer is that he persecutes “Jesus”. But he persecuted the church, didn’t he? Here we see that ‘Jesus’, the name of the Lord in His humiliation on earth, identifies Himself with His persecuted and humiliated church. Paul thought Him dead and saw the Way he was persecuting as dangerous. That image and all his ensuing activities with which he thought he was doing God a service, are suddenly completely undermined by this encounter.

‏ Acts 26:13-14

Paul’s Conversion

The chief priests had in him a great tool for their evil intent. They were only too happy to give him mandate and order to track down and eradicate this new movement in Damascus as well. And then the totally unexpected happens. At the height of his fanaticism comes the turnaround. In the fire of his report Paul experiences this impressive event once again. What he saw then, he cannot deny. How can someone deny a personal experience, something he himself observed?

Through the exclamation “O King” Paul speaks again emphatically to Agrippa in a personal way and emphasizes for him the observation he made. At midday he saw a light brighter than the sun. This cannot but be the light of the Lord Jesus, Who is called “the sun of righteousness” (Mal 4:2). Until this moment, this man was blinded by his legalistic zeal against the grace of God in Christ. Then the light shines into his soul. Then that same Christ reveals Himself and thereby erases everything on which he boasted as a Jew and in which he rested, and makes it to nothing.

This is the moment of his conversion. The jailer is converted in the very midst of the night (Acts 16:25 ; 33), Paul comes to conversion at the clearest of the day. The impression this has made on him he presents here again stronger than the last time when he recounted his conversion history. Then he spoke of a bright light from heaven (Acts 22:6). Now he speaks of a light from heaven that is brighter than the sun. It shows that his impression of Who the Lord is, has become ever greater. This is how it should be with us. The longer we live with the Lord, the greater He must become for us. We should always be able to bear witness to that increasing greatness.

The light radiated not only all around Paul, but also all around those who travelled with him. They also fell to the ground. What may have been interpreted by Paul’s companions as nothing more than a natural phenomenon, meant a lot more to Paul. He heard a voice addressing him in the Hebrew language and by his Hebrew name.

His name Saul reminds us of King Saul. It is possible that his parents called him so because they expected the same from him as they saw in Saul. King Saul was bigger than all the people and they wanted their son to be too. This parallel also came true in a spiritual sense and not only in the fact that he stood out in knowledge and zeal above all his contemporaries. King Saul became a persecutor of God’s anointed King David; the New Testament Saul became a persecutor of God’s Messiah, which means ‘Anointed’.

In that way of resisting and persecuting the Messianic Jews, Saul was warned by God. God made him feel the goads of His Word (Ecc 12:11). We can discover these goads in Stephen’s testimony and that of other believers Saul tortured. The words of those believers affected him, but he did not want to listen to them. Until the moment the breakthrough comes on the road to Damascus.

The answer to the Lord’s question is a question from Paul which immediately shows all his submission. He asks: “Who are You, Lord?” The answer is that he persecutes “Jesus”. But he persecuted the church, didn’t he? Here we see that ‘Jesus’, the name of the Lord in His humiliation on earth, identifies Himself with His persecuted and humiliated church. Paul thought Him dead and saw the Way he was persecuting as dangerous. That image and all his ensuing activities with which he thought he was doing God a service, are suddenly completely undermined by this encounter.