Paul's Blindness

"Saul ! Saul ! Why do you persecute me ? - Who are you, Lord ? He asked. - I am Jesus whom you persecute. But get up, go into the city, and they will tell you what you must do. Saul stood up ; his eyes open, he saw nothing ; leading him by the hand, they took him to Damascus ; and he remained three days without seeing, without eating or drinking." Acts 9: 4, 8, 9

The scene described above takes place a few kilometers from Damascus where Saul, the future Paul, travels. It carries letters from the principal religious leaders of Jerusalem ; these letters ask the authorities of Damascus to facilitate his task: to arrest these men and women followers of a man named Jesus who was crucified a short time ago. He who is not yet the great apostle of the nations acts in good faith, he will say later : "As to zeal persecuting the assembly ; as to the righteousness which is by the law, being without reproach" (Phil 3: 6).

He is brutally arrested and will remain in absolute isolation. He has just discovered that all the activity he had so vigorously deployed was actually directed against the God whom he believed he was serving. These three days of total solitude, in the darkness, are for him the moment of the balance, of a radical change. He realizes that in fact he had served the enemy of God ! An intense spiritual struggle ensues, a deep work in his soul. He will later say that God has spoken to him in strong terms : "It is hard for you to rebel against the goads" (Acts 26:14). This intense struggle will last three days, for he must become aware of his whole state ; but this leads him to a true conversion. Ananias can then come and meet him : "Jesus who appeared to you in the way by which you went, sent me to see you again and to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Immediately he fell from his eyes like scales, and he recovered his sight" (Acts 9:17, 18).

The spiritual state of every man in his sins is comparable to the darkness which surrounded Saul ; it is only the true light that can reveal the state of initial sin. This conviction of sin is not accepted easily, it takes an intense fight, for the enemy does not confess easily defeated. But what joy we flood after Jesus has given us victory !

Source (To pleasing the Lord)