Saul/Paul

Saul/Paul

By Clevis O. Laverty

The old caravan road that led from Jerusalem to Damascus once had a distinguished traveler making haste over its dusty and rock strewn surface. Rich robes graced his slight figure; the overbearing manner of the Sanhedrin emphasized his erect posture. Dust coated his face, but did not conceal the eyes blazing with murderous intent. He breathed threats of violence against the disciples of the Lord and impatience clenched his hands into tight fists. Anticipation of the havoc he would create among the followers of The Way, in Damascus, made his strut like a bantam rooster. He fed his anger and hi impatience with the memory of a church destroyed at Jerusalem, razed to the ground. Satisfaction he gained at the image of charging from house to house, breaking up family groups of men and women who screamed in pain and anguish as they were dragged off to fill filthy, vermin infested prisons. All these things he remembered with relish; he was a man with a purpose. He had been commissioned by the high priests to arrest these fanatics in Damascus and bring them back to Jerusalem in fetters.

Suddenly, without warning, a blazing light splashed across the heavens and directed itself toward the traveler—a light of knowledge and understanding that lighted the earth and the way of men. Terror struck at the heart of the traveler. He was blinded and he fell to the ground; whereupon a voice that needed no ears to be heard boomed into his consciousness, “Why do you persecute me?”

When Saul of Tarsus arose the terror was gone. The man with a purpose, the destruction of the Christian Church, was also gone. Eyes no longer cruel gleamed with understanding from a face no longer harsh. Rich robes still covered his slight figure and he was still a traveler on his way to Damascus—but wait, there was one change. God had revealed unbelievably wonderful truths to him; and a task, to preach the unequaled riches of Christ, had been entrusted to him.