And it came to pass when I had returned to Jerusalem, and as I was praying in the temple, that I became in ecstasy,
Paul stands before a hostile crowd in Jerusalem. He tells them about a moment years earlier, when he was praying in the temple and the Lord spoke to him. Two questions follow: why was he told to leave the city he loved, and why did telling that story enrage the crowd?
One reference work traces the word behind "trance" through the rest of Scripture:
The word is ekstasis, "ecstasy," in which the mind is, as it were, carried beyond the body. It is translated "astonishment" in Mark 5:42, and "amazement" in Acts 3:10. It is rendered "trance" when Peter had the vision of the sheet let down from heaven, and when Paul in the temple saw the Lord and heard Him speak to him. Acts 10:10; Acts 11:5; Acts 22:17. The same word is used in the Greek Old Testament for the deep sleep of Adam and of Abram.
His hearers would not have found such a thing strange:
Jews would understand God stepping in by a trance to speak to a man; they even looked for such signs (1 Cor. 1:22).
One writer notes the gap between what Paul learned at his conversion and what he learned at prayer:
Of Paul we learn this. The character of his future work was told him at his conversion, before he rose from the ground (Acts 26:17-18). Yet he received his directions to depart to the Gentiles while he was praying in the temple at Jerusalem. (Acts 22:17-18.) That house had been left desolate to the Jews, for the presence of the Lord was not there. Even so, in that house the divine command to go to the Gentiles came straight to the servant fitted for the work.
The same writer weighs the place itself:
God had not dwelt in His earthly house since the captivity. He left it in Ezekiel's day (Ezek. 10:18-19; 11:22-23). The house remained stripped of the divine presence the whole time the Lord was on earth (Matt. 23:38). That building was graced by the divine presence on only one occasion. It was when the Lord Jesus appeared to Paul and told him to leave Jerusalem: "because they will not accept your testimony about me." A command from One speaking with authority in the temple!
Paul did not just take the order in silence. He answered back. One commentator says that exchange is why the account was kept at all:
The incident at Jerusalem is full of spiritual interest, because it shows the perfect ease and intimacy in which Scripture sets out the relations of the servant with the Master. It would have been easy to leave the account out, if it had not been of lasting importance and general value.
Paul argued that his own past made him the right man to reach the Jews.
His heart yearned over Israel; his burning desire was to have laboured among them. The Lord had told him to withdraw from Jerusalem, because the Jews would not receive from him testimony about Christ. Even so, he pleads that he was just the man to go to Jerusalem... It is clear that Paul used all this as qualifying him to labour among the Jews. But He who made the heart knew best, far better than Paul, and He said to him, "Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles."
Another writer weighs the same reasoning and finds affection running ahead of obedience:
Could Paul possibly think that, though his arguments would not change the Lord's mind, yet by reporting them he might change Israel's mind? This does show his love for his nation, but not a full subjection to his Lord.
The crowd listened to Paul's whole story until he reached the word "Gentiles." Commentators differ on Paul's part in this: some point to his love for his nation, others to the word that he should not be in Jerusalem at all. One writer marks what happened as Paul repeated that word:
There stood that word of the Lord, spoken twenty or more years before: "They will not accept your testimony about me." The Holy Spirit had backed it with a special message that he should not go to Jerusalem. At that moment the Lord's words were verified. His mention of the Gentiles becoming objects of divine mercy stirred his hearers to frenzy.
- Praying. Paul's orders reached him at prayer in the temple, not while he was making plans.
- Present. God had left that house long before. The one time His presence returned there, the word was: go out.
- Plea. Paul argued that his violent past made him the perfect witness to Jerusalem. The One who made his heart knew better.
- Pushed out. Love for his nation was real, but it was not the same as subjection — the Lord sent him far away instead.
- Proved. When Paul repeated that old sentence, the crowd proved it true on the spot.
and saw him saying to me, Make haste and go quickly out of Jerusalem, for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me.
Paul stands before a hostile crowd in Jerusalem, telling them about a vision he once had in their own temple. In it the Lord ordered him to leave the city at once — so why would God refuse His servant the mission his heart wanted most?
Paul was praying in the temple when the Lord appeared to him. One writer asks who could have spoken with such authority in that place.
The Lord had appeared to him in God's house at Jerusalem. Would the God of Israel, jealous of His glory, have allowed a blasphemer or impostor to appear in that temple? That is how the Jews regarded Christ. Who then and what must He be who had there spoken to Paul? It was One who had authority, and could send him on a mission from Himself. "I will send you." Who in Jehovah's house could speak like this but He who is God over all, blessed forever?
Paul's calling and his instructions came at two separate moments.
Paul learned the character of his future work at his conversion, before he rose from the ground (Acts 26:17-18). But his directions to depart to the Gentiles came while he was praying in the temple at Jerusalem (Acts 22:17-18). That house had been left desolate, because the presence of the Lord was not there. Yet there God gave the command to go to the Gentiles, straight to the man fitted for the service.
This word wounded Paul. He was not the first servant of God to feel it.
"Make haste," said the Lord, "and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about Me." This was very painful to the apostle's heart. Others had tasted similar sorrow even before Christianity. Moses knew it in early days. But Jewish stubbornness then was nothing compared with what it became at the cross. Later, Jeremiah and other prophets drank enough of this cup to feel the bitterness and grief. But Paul loved Israel as remarkably as Moses did. He tasted the bitterness of Jewish rejection more, perhaps, than any of their prophets. In God's ways this made him all the more suited to be sent as Christ's ambassador to the Gentiles. Had he loved Israel less, he would not have been so fit for the new and heavenly mission.
Paul did not simply obey. He answered back, offering his own record as the reason he was the ideal preacher to Jerusalem.
Paul in his answer says to the Lord that he is precisely the man suited to bear witness for Him in Jerusalem. I have persecuted You, and they know it; will they not see in me how effective Your grace is? Such was the reasoning of Paul. But the Lord takes no account of it.
Paul even takes the blame for their unbelief on himself. It still does not move the Lord.
What pleading is here! "Their unbelief is all my fault; my vileness is the great barrier that keeps them from receiving the testimony — only let me remain." Impossible! "Depart: for I will send you far away, to the Gentiles." And if Paul returns to Jerusalem after all this, he must be carried away from it in bonds! He does return again.
Paul reaches the last words of the Lord's command, and the crowd answers for itself.
If confirmation was needed, it soon came. The renewed shouting of the crowd supplied it, as the apostle spoke the last words of the Lord's command. "Away with such a fellow from the earth: for it is not fit that he should live" (22:22). That was a sad and solemn confirmation of what the Lord had said years before.
Love for his nation is what drew Paul to Jerusalem. One writer asks whether such love is a safe guide.
We may fully recognise his consuming love toward his people Israel, and his earnest desire to see them turned to the Lord. This is what moved him so strongly to go to Jerusalem. However, it is a mistake to trust our devotion to God and to the interests of His people, no matter how deep it may be. We can trust only the Word of God for guidance, as for everything else.
- Place. The command came while Paul prayed in the temple. Only God could speak there with such authority and send him out.
- Pain. Hearing that his own nation would refuse him cut Paul deeply — a grief the prophets before him had also tasted.
- Plea. Paul argued that his record as a persecutor made him the ideal witness in Jerusalem. The Lord did not accept the reasoning.
- Proof. The mob's cry to have him removed from the earth confirmed, on the spot, a warning spoken years before.
- Principle. Deep love for people is not guidance. Only God's Word is safe to steer by. Paul went back to Jerusalem anyway, and left it in bonds.
And *I* said, Lord, they themselves know that *I* was imprisoning and beating in every synagogue those that believe on thee;
Under arrest in Jerusalem, Paul recalls a vision in the temple: the Lord told him to leave the city, because the people would not accept his testimony. This verse is his answer back — so why would a man offer his worst crimes as a credential, and why did the Lord refuse?
Local synagogues could try cases and hand out limited punishment. Paul had used that power against believers.
Pilate said to the Jews about the Lord, "Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law" (John 18:31). This makes it clear that they were allowed to judge certain matters and to inflict limited punishments. It appears they did this wherever there was a synagogue... The Lord told His disciples that the synagogues would flog them (Matthew 10:17). And Paul confessed that when persecuting the church he had imprisoned and beaten in every synagogue those who believed on the Lord (Acts 22:19). Paul himself no doubt suffered the same punishment in those same buildings (2 Corinthians 11:24). So they made a very undignified use of their places of worship.
Paul lists his crimes to persuade. The Jews knew how far he had gone against the faith, and he expects that to weigh with them.
How little those who saw or knew of Paul evangelising the Gentiles appreciated the feelings with which he had entered on the work! His heart yearned over Israel. His burning desire was to have laboured among them. The Lord told him to withdraw from Jerusalem, because the Jews would not receive his testimony about Christ. Even then he pleads that he was just the man to go to Jerusalem... He calls up the most terrible record of persecuting zeal as the crowning reason why the Lord should let him preach to the Jews. It is also his reason why they must surely welcome him, if they welcomed no other preacher of the gospel.
One writer hears Paul taking the blame for his nation's unbelief on himself.
What pleading is here! "Their unbelief is all my fault. My vileness is the great barrier to their receiving the testimony — only let me stay." Impossible! "Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles."
Notice how freely Paul argues with his Master. One writer draws two lessons from that freedom.
No Israelite more fervently sought to commend the gospel to the Jews. No servant pleaded for it more earnestly with his Master. The freedom with which he appeals is a standing lesson to us of the liberty into which the gospel brings us. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" (2 Corinthians 3:17). But we should also learn that the gospel leaves no uncertainty about the path and the service.
Not every writer reads the plea kindly. Years later, Paul repeats to the crowd the argument the Lord had already turned down.
His arguments would not change the Lord's mind. Could Paul really think that, by reporting them, he might change Israel's mind? This does show his love for his nation, but not full subjection to his Lord. As he says, the Lord's answer was a summary command: "Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles."
Commentators differ on how much to fault Paul. They agree on the outcome: the Lord's command, not Paul's reasoning, settled the matter.
The crowd answered the question themselves. The moment Paul mentioned the Gentiles, the warning he was quoting came true in front of him.
Did he feel that at least some of his people must be convinced? Yet there stood that word of the Lord, spoken twenty or more years earlier: "They will not accept your testimony about Me"... At that moment the Lord's words came true. His mention of the Gentiles becoming objects of divine mercy stirred his hearers to fury... When Paul followed his God-given mission to the Gentiles, God gave him the joy of being used to reach the "remnant, chosen by grace" from his own people. When he turned aside and concentrated on his own people, his words bore no fruit in blessing.
- Credential — Paul offers his record of jailing and flogging believers as his best qualification to reach the Jews.
- Freedom — He says it straight to the Lord; the exchange shows the open liberty a servant has with his Master.
- Limit — That liberty does not decide the path. The Lord's reply was a plain command to go far away.
- Love — His yearning over Israel was real. Commentators call it love running ahead of obedience.
- Proof — The crowd that heard this plea shouted for his death. That proved the warning he was resisting.
and when the blood of thy witness Stephen was shed, I also myself was standing by and consenting, and kept the clothes of them who killed him.
Paul is defending himself before a hostile crowd in Jerusalem, and he repeats to them the argument he once made to the Lord: his part in Stephen's death made him the right man to stay. Why would Paul keep raising the worst thing he ever did — and why did the Lord say no?
Paul had every reason to bury this detail. Instead he names it years later, in the city where it happened.
In the eyes of Saul of Tarsus, and of most in his own nation, this was the highest proof of his devotion to God. But to Paul the apostle it was a grief he could never forget: "I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God" (1 Corinthians 15:9). His part in the murder of Stephen seems to have stayed with him all his days. Such is the heart of the most religious of men!
Paul calls Stephen the Lord's witness. Older translations render the word "martyr," and the two are the same word in the original.
The Greek word is μάρτυς, and is very often translated "witness." A martyr is one who meets death because of the witness he bears. Stephen was a martyr, Acts 22:20… Christ Himself was the faithful and true witness, Revelation 1:5; 3:14. He said to His persecutors, "you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth" (John 8:40). So the Lord Jesus was the true Martyr. But His death included much more than dying as a martyr — it was atonement.
Stephen died asking mercy for the men who were killing him. The one guarding their coats was standing right there.
Stephen, the first Christian martyr, ended his short but striking course in the likeness of his Lord… He had nothing more to say to men; he spoke his last words to his Lord. To the Lord he committed his spirit, and taking the posture of prayer, he asked mercy for his murderers. Who could have expected so astonishing an answer as his exalted Lord gave? He answered Stephen's prayer in the conversion of Saul, the chief murderer. Acts 22:20 shows that Saul himself never forgot it.
The Lord had told him to leave Jerusalem. Paul answered by offering his own past violence as the reason he should stay.
In the history of Paul we see his conversion in Acts 22:3-16. Then he is in a trance (Acts 22:17-21), in which the Lord commands him to leave Jerusalem. It is for Him to decide these things. Paul in his answer says to the Lord that he is exactly the man suited to bear witness for Him in Jerusalem. I have persecuted You, and they know it; will they not see in me the power of Your grace? Such was Paul's reasoning. But the Lord takes no account of it.
Notice what Paul can do in the Lord's presence. He goes over his sin in detail instead of leaving it vague.
What strikes one most is that Paul recalls to the Lord all his wrongdoing; and this, because his conscience was perfectly purged before God. Paul sets before the eyes of the Lord every detail of his sin. He does not stop at saying, You know it all; he puts it all before God, with no thought that God could charge any of it against him. He talks about his sins as a matter settled once and for all.
Commentators differ on how to weigh it. One hears deep love for his nation in it, but "not a full subjection to his Lord" (Leslie M. Grant). Another sees "the perfect ease and intimacy" of a servant with his Master (William Kelly).
The Lord did not debate. He repeated the order to leave, and the crowd's reaction proved His words true.
God had not lived in His earthly house for centuries; it stood empty of His presence even while the Lord was on earth. God's presence graced that actual building only once: when the Lord Jesus appeared to Paul and told him to leave Jerusalem, "for they will not accept your testimony about Me." A command from One speaking with authority in the temple!… If confirmation was needed, it soon came. The renewed shouting of the crowd, as the apostle spoke the last words of the Lord's command, supplied it. "Away with such a fellow from the earth; for he should not be allowed to live" (22:22) was a sad and solemn confirmation of what the Lord had said years before.
- Witness — the word Paul uses of Stephen means one who dies for the testimony he bears; Christ Himself was the faithful and true witness.
- Prayer — Stephen asked mercy for his killers; the answer came in the conversion of the man minding the coats.
- Memory — Paul never buried his part in that death; what his nation counted as devotion he carried as lifelong grief.
- Freedom — he could lay out every detail of that sin before the Lord, because God had purged his conscience and settled the matter.
- Sending — the Lord set his argument aside, repeated the order to leave, and the crowd's fury proved Him right.
And he said to me, Go, for *I* will send thee to the nations afar off.
Paul is telling a hostile crowd in Jerusalem how his life changed direction. He has just repeated what the Lord said to him in the temple, and this one sentence about the Gentiles — the nations outside Israel — is where the crowd stops listening.
Paul had argued back. He thought his record as a persecutor made him the ideal witness in Jerusalem.
Paul falls into a trance (Acts 22:17-21), and in it the Lord commands him to leave Jerusalem. It is for Him to decide such things. In his answer Paul tells the Lord that he is exactly the man suited to bear witness for Him in Jerusalem. I have persecuted You, and they know it; will they not see in me the power of Your grace? Such was the reasoning of Paul. But the Lord takes no account of it.
That answer settled the direction of Paul's work for the rest of his life.
The decisive word was spoken. Whatever Paul might feel, he now learns the Lord's will about his work. Now it was not merely, Get out of Jerusalem quickly, but, "I will send you far away to the Gentiles." No Israelite sought more eagerly to commend the gospel to the Jews. No servant pleaded for it more earnestly with his Master. The freedom with which he appeals is a lasting lesson to us of the liberty the gospel brings us. But we should also learn that the gospel leaves no uncertainty for the path and the service. The true light shines. Christ is the way, as well as the truth and the life, and He is not more truly the way to the Father than in Paul's case toward the Gentiles.
The Lord had appeared to Paul once before. This word came at a second appearance, in a place that made it all the more striking.
He had another vision. A second time the Lord had appeared to him and spoken to him. This appearance was all the more striking, because it happened in the temple at Jerusalem. It was Paul's first return to the city after his conversion. He was praying there when he fell into a trance and saw the Lord, who said to him, "Get up and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about Me" (22:18)... But the Lord's reply was firm and decisive: "Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles" (22:21).
The choice looks strange: the man who loved Israel most is the one sent away from them.
This was very painful to the apostle's heart... Paul loved Israel as remarkably as Moses did. He tasted the bitterness of the Jew, perhaps more than any of their prophets did. In God's ways that made him all the more suited to be sent as Christ's ambassador to the Gentiles. If he had loved Israel less, he would not have been so fit for the new and heavenly mission. In everything, it takes more than nature to represent grace rightly, even in a small measure.
The distance in the command is not only geography. It changes who the message now reaches.
The power of the ministry of reconciliation shows itself not in staying at Jerusalem, but in going out to the Gentiles wherever they may be. For we are not Israelites, nor the lost sheep of that house. We are not the people; compared with them, the law counts us "dogs." Now, however, all is changed. It is the gospel, and all things have become new.
Up to this word the crowd had listened.
This special service was to proclaim the gospel of the grace of God to the Gentiles. Carrying it out stirred up the malice of the prejudiced Jew and brought the apostle into prison. In the way the Jew saw it, a man who could talk of going to the Gentiles was not fit to live (Acts 22:21-22).
What they refused was mercy itself.
As a nation the Jews rejected the gospel just because it was mercy, sent specially to the Gentiles (Acts 22:21-22 shows this). In the end they will be deeply humbled, and they will receive blessing on the same ground as the Gentile dog.
- Sent, not self-chosen. Paul argued that Jerusalem needed him; the Lord did not take his reasoning into account. The commission came from Christ, not from Paul's judgment of where he would be most useful.
- Sent from prayer. The words came while Paul prayed in the temple, in a trance. It was the Lord's second appearance to him.
- Sent because he loved. His deep love for Israel, and the grief when they refused him, made him fit to carry grace to others.
- Sent far. The reach of the message now runs past Israel to those who had no claim at all under the law.
- Sent, and hated for it. The mission to outsiders turned the crowd murderous. Yet the mercy they rejected is the mercy they will one day receive.
And they heard him until this word, and lifted up their voice, saying, Away with such a one as that from the earth, for it was not fit he should live.
Paul held a hostile crowd silent while he told his story: his past, his conversion, his call. Then he repeated the Lord's command to go to the Gentiles. The silence broke into a scream for his death. What could make religious people hate a message that widened God's mercy?
The crowd's patience ended at one word. One writer notes what they had forgotten:
As soon as the word "Gentiles" fell from Paul's lips, a furious outburst of fanatical hate broke out. The people cried out, "Away with such a fellow from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live." As they cried out they threw off their clothes and tossed dust into the air. It is sad beyond words that such rage should be shown because the grace of God went out beyond the Jewish nation. They had forgotten the promise to Abraham, "in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed" (Gen. 22:18). They had forgotten the prophecy, "they shall declare My glory among the nations" (Isa. 66:19).
Paul was hearing his own former self shout back at him:
The apostle knew the feelings of the Jews well. Yet at this time he was hardly ready for their relentless jealousy of the Gentiles. But it was exactly what he himself had felt in his unconverted days: the people were now where he had been then. The change in him was so complete that he seems to have failed to grasp their condition. Christ was everything to him. It is astonishing that they should so hate the grace of God — grace that rises above all man's sin, Jewish or Gentile. It is the clearest proof that man is lost. Hatred of grace is in no way softened by intelligence, learning, or religiousness. All of these had come together in Saul of Tarsus. Pride of nature and misuse of God's promises had led the nation to crucify the Messiah. The same pride now hardened them to reject and hate the gospel. Most of all they hated its going to the Gentile as much as to the Jew.
The shout in this verse confirmed something the Lord had told Paul years earlier:
The Lord Jesus appeared to Paul in the temple and told him to leave Jerusalem, because the people would not receive his testimony about Him. It was a command from One who spoke with authority. How true the Lord's words were! And if confirmation was needed, it soon came. The renewed shouting of the crowd supplied it, as the Apostle spoke the last words of the Lord's command. "Away with such a fellow from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live" (22:22) was a sad and solemn confirmation of what the Lord had said years before. Was Paul disappointed at how they received his defence? Very possibly. For the renewed signs of hostility were very decided. They cried out. They tore their garments. They threw dust into the air. So even if the Roman commander did not understand Aramaic, he could have no doubt about the effect of the speech.
Other well-known Christian leaders lived in Jerusalem untouched. The mob went after Paul alone, and one writer gives the reason:
No outcry was raised against James and the elders, who were known as ringleaders of the sect of the Nazarenes just as much as Paul. Why was he hunted like this? Because he had boldly and persistently refused to compromise the Gospel of the grace of God. Those who were once Gentiles were fellow heirs. They belonged to the same body. They shared in the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel (Eph. 3:6). This he had maintained. And this was the real cause of his persecution, and of the clamour for his death.
One writer traces God's judgment on the nation to this refusal to let grace reach the Gentiles:
Israel held God's testimony in the world. They gloried in it as something that clothed them with honour. And Israel could not bear to see grace shown to the Gentiles. By opposing this, the Jews filled up the measure of their guilt and brought the wrath of God upon them.
Yet that refusal is not the end of their story. Another writer sees the door left open:
As a nation, the Jews rejected the Gospel just because it was mercy, sent specially to the Gentiles. Acts 22:21-22 shows this. In the end they will be deeply humbled. They will receive blessing on the same ground as the Gentile dog.
- One word. The crowd took in Paul's past, his vision and his conversion. They broke only at the mention of the Gentiles.
- One exposure. Learning, religion and pride do not soften the hatred of grace. All three met together in Saul himself.
- One confirmation. The shout confirmed what the Lord had told Paul years before: Jerusalem would not receive his testimony.
- One cause. The mob left other Christian leaders alone. It hunted Paul because he would not compromise one truth: Gentiles are fellow heirs.
- One outcome. Refusing mercy for others filled up the nation's guilt. Yet mercy is where their own blessing will come from — on the same footing as the Gentiles they despised.