Acts 9:5 (KJV)
And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
The proverbial expression used here - "to kick against the pricks" has reference to oxen kicking against the ox goad, the implement that a farmer uses to drive the oxen. The action which of course serves no practical purpose except rather only inflicting pain and injury to the ox itself.
Which is exactly what Paul is doing to himself. Not physically of course, but if continued in his persecuting of the church, he will ultimately suffer eternal damantion along with other unbeliever
What is interesting is that why did Jesus not tell Paul directly but had to go through Ananias? (v. 6)
We can understand this on 2 fronts -
1) It was for Ananias' sake. We read of the hesitation of Ananias in view of Paul's notoriety in persecuting the church (v. 13, 14). This was to allow Ananias to first hand see for himself the power of God in conversion (c.f. V. 21,22). And he being a person of good report among the Jews (c.f. Acts 22:12), was an exellent candidate to subsequently vouch for Paul.
2) This is the pattern that God established for preaching the gospel. We are all familiar with the Great Commission (Mat 28:18-20). Sometimes people will argue that Jesus was only addressing the apostles (Mat 28:16), yet forget in v.20 the instruction to "Teach(ing) them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you", and that we see this commandment playing out in the book of Acts, particularly v. 8:4. Paul reiterated God’s beautiful pattern of spreading the gospel in Romans 10:15 -
And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
Thus it remains vitally important for us today to not "kick against the pricks" but to continually a abide by God's Word, which includes the spreading of the Gospel to the best of our personal capacity.
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