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.