and, having received food, got strength. And he was with the disciples who [were] in Damascus certain days.
A quiet sentence sits between Saul's first sight and his first sermon. He eats, gets his strength back, and stays in Damascus with the very people he came to arrest.
Saul's three days without sight, food or drink ended when his sight came back. One writer follows what happened next, and points out the plan Saul dropped:
When Saul received his sight, his fast ended, and eating food gave him strength. Then he remained some days with the disciples in Damascus, not returning to Jerusalem, as he had planned.
Some have asked whether the eating here carries a spiritual sense. One reply keeps it simple, anchoring the meaning in the fast recorded a few verses earlier:
Acts 9:19, which was also quoted in the question, must surely refer to natural food. Verse 9 says that Saul was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
Saul had come to Damascus set on wiping out the disciples there. One account sets the entry he had planned beside the one he actually made:
He is blind for three days, and can neither eat nor drink. So he enters Damascus, blind, broken, humbled, under the solemn judgment of the Lord! How different from what he had intended! He now joins himself to the company he had resolved to wipe out. Yet he enters in by the door, and humbly takes his place with the disciples of the Lord.
Saul's place among the disciples is more than a fact about him. One writer reads it as the normal fruit of the Spirit's work, and of the new life itself:
Two things stand out after Saul's conversion: first, that he was at once found together with the disciples (v. 19)... It is God's mind that all who believe should be together. Wherever the Spirit of God is acting in power, it is always the case. It is also a necessity of the new nature, once we stand on the ground of redemption. Another apostle says the same: "That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us."
Acts does not say what those days held. One writer suggests private contact with the disciples, matching how Paul acted years later:
Saul kept company with the disciples in Damascus, and it seems he did so before he preached in the synagogues (Acts 9:19). This fits well with his private meeting with the apostles and elders at Jerusalem fourteen years later... He had been an active and well-known persecutor. So contact with the disciples would have been only consistent conduct: it would convince them of his conversion, and perhaps let him share with them the gospel he was about to preach.
Where these days sit in Saul's story is not certain. Another writer compares Acts with what Paul himself writes, and finds the gap is no loss:
Comparing these two passages shows clearly that the Spirit of God did not set out to give a dated account in Acts. There is no mention there, for example, of the visit to Arabia that Paul speaks of in Galatians. So we cannot now tell whether the Jews' plot to kill the apostle happened before he went to Arabia or after he came back. Nor is it of the slightest importance that we should settle it, since it is the spiritual teaching of the narrative that demands our attention.
The change in Saul is startling. One writer refuses to leave it as something to admire from a distance:
But let us also remember that our own conversion needed the same divine power. Without the grace that visited the heart of Saul of Tarsus, we would have remained in our evil condition of enmity against God. We would have stayed blind to our own state, and blind to the glory of His beloved Son. Not all are called to be such chosen vessels as Saul was, but all of us, equally with him, have been the subjects of divine grace.
- Fed — The three-day fast ends with ordinary food. Strength comes back before any service starts.
- Joined — He enters by the same low door as anyone else and takes his place with the people he had planned to destroy.
- Together — Life with the disciples is not an extra. It is God's mind for all who believe, and a need of the new nature.
- Unhurried — Days pass before he preaches, and Acts leaves the timing open. The spiritual teaching is what matters, not the calendar.
- Ours — The same power that turned Saul turns anyone. Not all are chosen vessels like him, but all believers are subjects of the same grace.
And straightway in the synagogues he preached Jesus that *he* is the Son of God.
Only days before, Saul had travelled to Damascus with letters that authorised him to destroy the followers of Jesus. Now he stands in the synagogues those letters named, preaching the one claim that had sent Jesus to the cross.
Saul's message went beyond what the apostles had preached so far. They announced Jesus as Lord and Messiah. Saul announced who Jesus is in Himself.
Saul makes no delay in confessing and declaring his faith; and what he says deserves close notice. He preaches in the synagogue that Jesus is the Son of God. It is the first time anyone preaches this. Others had already preached that He was exalted to the right hand of God — that He was Lord and Christ. The rejected Messiah was exalted on high. But here it is the simple doctrine of His personal glory: Jesus is the Son of God.
The difference is not that the others lacked the truth, but that they had not made it their message.
The other apostles knew it, but they are not said to have preached it. Peter had long ago confessed the great truth with singular strength, and the Lord had pronounced him blessed for it. Flesh and blood had not revealed it to him — His Father in heaven had. Yet we never find Peter proclaiming the Lord in this way at Pentecost or afterwards. He sets forth the crucified Jesus as having been made both Lord and Christ.
The Sanhedrin — the Jewish ruling council — had sentenced Jesus to death over this very claim. Saul now preached it in the open, and he could add something no other apostle could say.
He preached what, as far as we know, no apostle had preached before: that Jesus is the Son of God. He also proved that He is the Christ… The Sanhedrin had condemned the Lord to death for that very claim. Saul at Damascus declared it to be the simple truth. What is more, he could affirm there what no other apostle could say. He had seen the crucified One in heavenly glory, and had heard words from His mouth. So in those synagogues he could present himself as the messenger — the apostle — of the Lord Jesus who is in glory.
Note where he went. The synagogues on his list became his pulpit.
He is indeed "filled with the Holy Spirit." At once he preaches in the synagogues named in his letters of authorisation. And he preaches that very Jesus whose followers he has orders to destroy. He preaches Him also, as the twelve apostles have not done so far in the history, in the very character in which Israel had rejected Him — as Son of God. This is the fullest reversal of his own mad unbelief, and the completest challenge to Israel's. The missionary of their enmity has suddenly become the champion of the "Way" he persecuted.
The word "immediately" matters here. One writer points to what Saul did not do with his letters:
Now Saul is a Christian. But how strange and new everything was to him! Immediately he went to the synagogues. He did not go to deliver the letters that were in his pocket. I think he burned those letters. But he went and boldly preached Christ, that He is the Son of God.
A note on wording: some writers quote an older English version, "he preached Christ." The ESV reads "he proclaimed Jesus."
This was not a convert's first burst of enthusiasm that later cooled. It set the direction of everything that followed.
The power and force of this showed at the very start of his career. Straight away he preached Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God. He kept to this all through his career as a servant of Christ. Dangers by land or sea, in the city or the wilderness, from robbers or false brothers, beatings, stonings, shipwrecks — none of it could turn him aside from his path of service.
- Son — Saul preached more than Jesus as Lord and Messiah. He preached who Jesus is in Himself: the Son of God. No one had preached that in public before.
- Sight — He alone had seen the crucified One in heavenly glory and heard His voice. What he saw became what he preached.
- Straightway — There was no waiting period. He went to the synagogues named in his arrest warrants and preached the Name he had come to destroy.
- Sentence — The claim that made the council sentence Jesus to death became Saul's public message.
- Sustained — What he began with, he never left. Beatings, stonings and shipwrecks never moved him off this one theme.
And all who heard were astonished and said, Is not this *he* who destroyed in Jerusalem those who called on this name, and here was come for this purpose, that he might bring them bound to the chief priests?
The men in the synagogues of Damascus could not match the preacher in front of them with the man they had heard about. Their question is itself the evidence: what Saul once did is what makes what he now says so startling.
Everyone there already knew Saul's reputation. Set beside what he was now saying, it produced shock rather than argument.
At first amazement took hold of his hearers. They had heard of this preacher before. They had been told how fiercely he had attacked the disciples in Jerusalem, and why he had been sent to Damascus. And look — this very man had become the advocate of Christianity, and they now heard him declaring that Jesus was the Son of God! Their astonishment is easy to understand.
The crowd names his purpose in coming: to arrest believers and take them back in chains. He was carrying official letters, and he used them — but for the opposite end.
He truly is "filled with the Holy Spirit." At once he is preaching in the very synagogues his letters of authority are addressed to. And the One he preaches is that same Jesus whose followers he was sent to destroy… The man sent out as the agent of their hatred has suddenly become the champion of the "Way" he persecuted.
So where did his right to preach come from?
That was the only commission Paul received from man — an authority, not to preach the Gospel, but to stamp it out, if that were possible. But the Lord, in sovereign grace, did more than convert Saul of Tarsus. He sent him out, straight from Himself, as a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
Notice how the crowd describes Christians. They identify them by one thing only: they call on this name.
It would seem from the book of Acts that calling on the Lord's Name was the hallmark of a Christian. In Acts 9 Ananias, praying to the Lord, speaks of Saul of Tarsus as having "authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name" (verse 14). And in verse 21 some were asking, "Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name?" Indeed, is anyone saved who has not called on the Name of the Lord? (See Acts 2:21 and Rom. 10:13.)
That was more than a label pinned on them from outside. It named where they turned when persecution came.
In the early days of the Church, believers were known as those who "called upon this name" (Acts 9:21). When persecution came, they turned to the Lord. And in the ruin of these last days, we can be sure there will still be those who "call on the Lord from a pure heart" (2 Tim. 2:22).
Saul was the last man anyone expected to change. That is why the change struck his hearers so hard.
Saul's conversion was so sudden, so surprising, and so deep that it could not fail to make the deepest impression on everyone who saw it, and above all on the Jews. By nature, character, learning, and position he had been the most zealous of the Jewish opponents… God's grace displayed in it amazed all who heard. The very opposition of the restless enemy was for the moment paralysed.
Being amazed is not the same as believing. Saul kept preaching, and the shock did not stay neutral.
Amazement at first took possession of them. All knew his course in Jerusalem, and the intent for which he had started for Damascus. All had to bear witness to the clear and mighty change worked in him. But as his preaching went on, the amazement of some turned into fierce hostility. So when many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him.
The right response is not to stand back and wonder, but to see your own case in his.
Let the reader pause and meditate on this wonderful display of the power of the grace of God… But let us also remember that the same divine power was needed for our own conversion. Without that grace which visited the heart of Saul of Tarsus, we would have remained in our evil condition of enmity against God, blind to our own state, and blind to the glory of His beloved Son.
- Reputation — The crowd's whole question is Saul's past. The man who destroyed believers is the man now preaching.
- Reversal — He preached in the very synagogues his arrest letters named. His only human commission was one to stamp the message out.
- Name — Believers had one description: those who call on this name. It marks them from the first days to the last.
- Grace — The change amazed every hearer and stopped the opposition dead.
- Response — For some, amazement hardened into a plot to kill him. The same power that reached Saul is the power that must reach you.
But Saul increased the more in power, and confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus, proving that this is the Christ.
Damascus knew Saul as the man who persecuted believers. Now he stands in its synagogues, growing stronger — which raises two questions: what is this strength, and what was he proving?
Was this the strength of a better debater? One commentator says no, and points to a source inside Saul.
The growing strength of Saul does not mean that he overcame his opponents in debate. It means that the Spirit strengthened him by deepening his soul in the divine word. No doubt that did wear down more and more the feeble arguments of those who opposed him. He had vast natural ability, and God had arranged his training under Gamaliel. But the new nature in the Spirit's power found its true and constant field of exercise in practical dealing with souls, one to one or in the synagogues.
Some writers see a pause in the story at this point. One of them uses it to ask where a servant's strength is kept up.
An interval may perhaps be supposed between verses 22 and 23. If so, Saul's visit to Arabia may have taken place at this time. He who is much before men in testimony needs to be much before God in private. Many a witness has wrecked his testimony because he forgot this principle. Many a servant started full of zeal, and marked by faithfulness too. Then he went on giving out more than he received, living on yesterday's manna. In the end he was empty and without strength, because he no longer lived in the secret of God's presence, and inwardly he became the plaything of Satan.
Two verses earlier Saul preached Jesus as the Son of God. Here he proves a different title. One commentator works from an older, more literal rendering — "proving that this is the Christ" — and says the weight falls on the title, not on the name.
Here "Jesus" would be quite out of place, and the Messiah is the truth meant. Advance in truth received and learned from God does not cast a slight on a lower level which is equally of God.
Both titles mattered. One of them was the charge on which the Sanhedrin — the Jewish ruling council — had condemned Him.
He preached what, as far as we know, no Apostle had proclaimed before — that Jesus is the Son of God (Acts 9:20). He also proved that He is the Christ (v. 22). Peter had proclaimed Him as Lord and Christ at Pentecost… The Sanhedrin condemned the Lord to death for that very claim. At Damascus, Saul declared it to be the simple truth.
"Proving" points to evidence, and the evidence came from their own Scriptures. But losing the argument is not the same as believing.
Saul proved — from the Scriptures — that Jesus was the Christ; and the Jews could not resist the evidence, for they were confounded, but they did not, would not, receive the testimony. Their will, as ever, was concerned in refusing the rejected and glorified Christ.
His hearers could not separate the message from the messenger. The change in Saul was itself an argument against them.
This is the fullest reversal of his own mad unbelief, and the completest challenge to the unbelief of Israel. The man they sent out in their own hatred has become the champion of the "Way" he persecuted.
One more question follows from Saul's start: who fits a person for this work?
The Lord, and not man, fits His chosen vessel. In His own time He puts the grace (or gift) in him and sends him out… This great apostle was not only not trained by men; he deliberately avoided them. God had separated him and called him to preach. This was enough; his qualification was complete. He did not even go up to Jerusalem to the apostles who were before him. We know from the Acts of the Apostles that he preached in Damascus for three years before he went there.
- Strength given. The growth in Saul was the Spirit deepening him in God's word, not a talent for winning arguments.
- Strength fed. Strength for public testimony grows in private; a servant who lives on yesterday's supply soon runs empty.
- Strength aimed. He proved from their own Scriptures that Jesus is the Messiah. The higher truth of the Son of God never set that title aside.
- Strength resisted. They were confounded and still refused; the barrier was the will, not the evidence.
- Strength sourced. The Lord Himself fitted and sent the former persecutor, and that was qualification enough.
Now when many days were fulfilled, the Jews consulted together to kill him.
Damascus was meant to be the scene of Saul's triumph as a hunter of Christians. Instead his enemies hunt him there. The short phrase "when many days had passed" hides years, and the plot that follows raises a question: why did preaching that no opponent could answer end in a plan to kill?
Luke moves fast and skips years. Paul's own account in Galatians fills the gap.
Verse 19 says he was with the disciples in Damascus only "some days," while verse 23 speaks of "many days." Galatians 1:15-19 clarifies this. Between the two verses he had gone into Arabia, then returned to Damascus. So it was three years before he went to Jerusalem. We are not told how long Saul (later named Paul) was in Arabia, or what he did there. But back in Damascus he clearly took up his preaching again, for the Jews plotted to kill him.
Commentators place the Arabian journey at slightly different points inside those "many days." Either way, a servant with nothing hidden behind his public work soon has nothing left to give.
The one who is much before people in testimony needs to be much before God in private. Many a witness has wrecked his testimony because he forgot this principle. Many a servant starts out full of zeal and faithfulness. Then he gives out more than he has received, living on yesterday's manna. In the end he is empty and without strength, because he no longer lives in the secret of God's presence, and inside he becomes the plaything of Satan.
The plot is not the first move against Saul. It is what opponents fall back on when argument has failed them.
The opposition of the Jews grew as time went on. They could not answer Saul's arguments, so they took counsel to kill him. This has been one of Satan's commonest methods from times long past. Lazarus had been raised from the dead. He had become an undeniable witness to the person of Christ. So the chief priests planned to put him to death, because through him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus. It made no difference to them whether the testimony about Jesus was true. They hated it even though it was true, and they meant to destroy the witness if they could.
Now Saul is on the receiving end of what he once handed out.
The letter to the Galatians speaks of a visit to Arabia. It clearly falls inside those "many days." At the end of them the persecution breaks out, and for the first time Saul tastes the same cup he had been forcing others to drink in the dark days now gone forever. At first the wonder of his conversion had thrown his opponents off balance. But it ends, as you would expect, in a violent reaction from those it has not brought to God.
The reversal reaches to the smallest detail of how he arrived and how he left.
He had expected to enter Damascus with some show of importance, as the official agent of the religious leaders in Jerusalem. In fact he entered as a humbled and blinded man. And he left in an undignified way, bundled into a basket, running from Jewish hatred.
The hostility rises from religious ground, and it uses religious language.
But the sharpness of Saul's preaching stirs up the hostility of the Jews. It is always the religious who oppose the truth, because it undercuts their own importance and traditions. The bitterness of the flesh never gives way, and least of all in religious things. They seek to stone Saul, making conscience and religion their excuse. But God watches over His servant, and Paul learns of their plot.
God delivered him, and not by anything spectacular.
The Jews went so far as to watch the gates of Damascus night and day, so that they might finish him off. The disciples valued his burning love for Christ and his zeal for people's blessing. Even so, they took him by night and let him down through the wall in a basket. There was no miracle. The escape was ordinary enough, and even humiliating for those who would surround the great apostle with a permanent halo. How little they know of the cross, of God, and of His ways!
Paul's own account names one more party to the danger.
In 2 Corinthians 11:32-33 there is extra information. The hostility he met was not limited to the synagogue. The governor under the king of that time shared it, no doubt to do the Jews a favour, as others in a similar position did later.
- Withdrawal. The "many days" cover unrecorded time in Arabia. Before God used this servant in public, He kept him out of sight.
- Testimony. They could not answer his preaching, so they set out to silence the preacher.
- Reversal. He had made others drink the cup of persecution. Now he drank it himself: into Damascus blinded, out of it in a basket.
- Enmity. Religion, not irreligion, drove the plot. Threatened tradition and standing hardened into a plan to kill.
- Rescue. God watched over him, but the escape was plain and humbling — no miracle, just a wall, a basket, and the disciples' hands.
But their plot became known to Saul. And they watched also the gates both day and night, that they might kill him;
Saul entered Damascus carrying letters that authorised arrests. Now his enemies watch the gates of that same city day and night to catch him. Why did his own people turn murderous so fast? And how did Saul find out about the plot?
The change in Saul was tested almost at once, and by the people who had once been his friends.
How soon he felt the reproach of Christ! How soon his change was put to the test! His former friends seek his life. He escapes in a basket, let down through a window over the city wall. Imagine proud Saul dodging his enemies in such a shameful way! But the attack could come from friends, who are usually the most bitter once they turn into enemies. It could come from idol-worshipping mobs in pagan cities, or from fanatical, murderous persecutors in Jerusalem. Always and everywhere he was content to bear all things for Christ's sake. None of these things moved him. He had seen the Lord, and everything else was worthless.
The plot was not random violence. It grew out of preaching that touched the standing and traditions of the men who heard it.
But the sharpness of Saul's preaching stirs up the animosity of the Jews. It is always the religious who oppose the truth, because their own importance and traditions are compromised. The bitterness of the flesh, particularly in religious things, never gives way. They seek to stone Saul, and they use conscience and religion as their excuse.
His opponents could not answer his arguments, so they moved against the man himself. The tactic was not new.
They could not answer Saul's arguments, so they now planned to kill him. This has been one of Satan's most common methods from the earliest times. After Lazarus was raised from the dead, he became an undeniable witness to who Christ is. So the chief priests planned to put him to death too, because many of the Jews were leaving them and believing in Jesus because of him… The Lord watched over His chosen vessel, so the Jews were powerless to carry out their plans. Saul learned that they were lying in wait for him. His enemies kept close watch, but the disciples helped him escape out of their hands.
after_note: DELETE
Paul's own account, in his second letter to Corinth, adds a detail Luke leaves out.
It may be worth noting what 2 Corinthians 11:32-33 adds. The hostility he met was not limited to the synagogue. The governor under the king of that time shared it too, no doubt to do the Jews a favour, as others in a similar position did later: "At Damascus, the governor under King Aretas was guarding the city of Damascus in order to seize me, but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped his hands."
Commentators differ on who this officer was. Was he "the chief officer of the Jews in the city," given power over that people by Aretas, king of Arabia? Or a governor under Aretas who was "not a Jew"? (C. E. Stuart)
Years passed between Saul's first preaching in Damascus and this plot.
Verse 19 says he was with the disciples in Damascus only "some days," while verse 23 speaks of "many days." Galatians 1:15-19 clears this up. Between the two verses he had gone into Arabia and then returned to Damascus. So it was three years before he went to Jerusalem… On his return to Damascus he clearly took up his preaching again. We know this because the Jews plotted to kill him, watching the gate of the city, where he was most likely to be caught.
The rescue came through ordinary people using an ordinary method.
The Jews went so far as to watch the gates of Damascus night and day, hoping to kill him. The disciples valued his warm love of Christ and his zeal for the blessing of others. Even so, they took him by night, let him down through the wall and lowered him in a basket. There was no miracle here, only an ordinary escape. It was a humiliating one in the eyes of people who want to picture the great apostle with a halo always around his head. How little they know of the cross, of God, and of His ways!
- Watched. Enemies watched the gates day and night. Behind them, "the Lord watched over His chosen vessel" — two watchers, one outcome.
- Why. Plain preaching of the truth compromised their "importance and traditions," so religious men wanted him dead.
- Method. They could not answer his arguments, so they set out to destroy the witness. The chief priests did the same to Lazarus.
- Means. "There was no miracle here" — just a window, a basket, and the hands of the disciples.
- Result. Proud Saul goes over the wall in a basket, and he is content: "He had seen the Lord, and everything else was worthless."
but the disciples took him by night and let him down through the wall, lowering him in a basket.
Saul came to Damascus to arrest believers. Now he is the hunted one, and the question this verse raises is why God's chosen preacher escapes over a wall instead of by a miracle.
Saul's preaching stirred up deadly opposition. One writer traces that hostility to its root and shows how the escape came about.
But the sharpness of Saul's preaching stirs up the hostility of the Jews. It is always the religious who oppose the truth, because their own importance and traditions are at stake. The bitterness of the flesh, especially in religious things, never gives way. They seek to stone Saul, using conscience and religion as their excuse. But God watches over His servant, and Paul learns of their plot. While they wait day and night for him at the gates, the disciples take him by night and let him down over the wall in a basket. So he escapes out of men's hands.
Killing the witness is an old way to silence a testimony no one can answer.
The Jews could not answer Saul's arguments, so they now planned to kill him. This has been one of Satan's most common methods from the earliest times. Lazarus had been raised from the dead. He had become an unanswerable witness to the person of Christ, so the chief priests planned to put him to death... It did not matter to them whether the testimony to Jesus was true. They hated it even though it was true, and they set out to destroy the witness if they could... The Lord watched over His chosen vessel, and so the Jews were powerless in their efforts.
The word for basket here also turns up in a very different scene.
In the New Testament three Greek words are used for basket. One is syrganē, "a hamper," in which Paul was let down by the wall (2 Cor. 11:33). For the same event Acts 9:25 uses another word, spyris, which also means "a hamper." It is the word for the seven baskets of fragments left over after the four thousand were fed.
Manuscripts differ over one small word, and commentators differ over what to make of it. Some hold that the men who lowered him were Saul's own converts.
Paul, after his conversion, was only a zealous but untaught young Christian. He too, after his stay in Arabia, began to make disciples of his own. Most agree that the true reading of Acts 9:25 is: "but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket."
Another writer, weighing the same evidence, judges the wording to be a copyist's mistake:
The oldest copies, along with ancient Latin copies, have the strange reading "his" disciples. It looks like an easy slip to make, and it does not fit the account.
Nothing here looks like a rescue from heaven. That absence is the point.
No doubt it was a remarkable escape at the beginning of his ministry. But it was the very last thing a man seeking his own glory would have repeated and put on record for ever. No angelic visitors opened the bars and bolts of massive doors, or blinded the eyes of the garrison. The apostle was let down in a basket through a window in the city wall. Truly he gloried, not in the great deeds or sayings of his ministry, but in his weakness and the Lord's grace.
The same writer sees a lesson in how quietly it was all done.
Here we find the greatest simplicity and quietness. There is no show of doing great things; nor do we read of daring of any kind: what is there of Christ in either? On the contrary, we see something that outwardly looks extremely weak; but this was the man who would one day say that he gloried in his weaknesses. He acts on what he later wrote. He was led of God.
Years later Paul told the story himself, and he set it beside the highest experience any living man had known.
He winds it all up with this very incident, in a way that stands strangely alone. He places side by side his being let down through a window in a basket by the wall, and his being caught up into paradise for exceedingly great revelations (2 Cor. 11:32–12:4). A strange pairing, but how instructive — the same man lowered from a window in a city wall, and caught up to heaven to hear words that cannot be told! Who but Paul would ever have thought of glorying in the things that concerned his weakness?
Paul's own letter adds a detail: the danger reached beyond the synagogue.
2 Cor. 11:32-33 adds more. The hostility he met was not limited to the synagogue. The governor under the king of that time shared in it, no doubt to do the Jews a favour.
- Plot — No one could answer Saul's preaching, so his hearers planned to kill him. Men who hate a true testimony destroy the witness.
- Protection — God watched over His chosen vessel. Saul learned of the plot, and the watched gates proved useless.
- Basket — No miracle opened the gates. A hamper over the wall did the work, the same kind of basket used for the fragments left after the four thousand were fed.
- Weakness — No angelic visitor opened bars or bolts. The apostle went out through a window, hunted by the synagogue and by the governor too.
- Glory — Paul recorded that night himself. He set the basket at the wall beside being caught up to paradise, and gloried in his weakness and the Lord's grace.