by Rev. A. M. Cattanach, M.A.
I — A young man, whose name was Saul.
Towards the close of the eighth chapter of Acts, we are introduced to the young man, called Saul, who was afterward to become such a faithful witness for the Lord Jesus Christ, and to be known, the world over, as Paul the Apostle of the Gentiles. This introduction is not one calculated to give us any hint of what the future was to hold for Saul, but rather the very opposite. The Divine Record thus introduces us to him, “. . . They . . . cast him (i.e. Stephen) out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul” (Acts 7: 58). For those who love the Lord, how very sad these words must sound in their ears, and yet, in the light of what was afterwards to be true of the same young man, how very wonderful they must also sound, as they behold in Saul of Tarsus one who was indeed plucked, by Almighty God, as a brand out of the burning — “But by the grace of God I am what I am,” he writes to the brethren at Corinth in his first epistle to them (1 Cor. 15: 10).
This opening scene, outside the city of Jerusalem, may well be contrasted with the closing scene of Paul’s life, as recorded for us in Acts, in “his own hired house,” within the precincts of the city of Rome. On the one hand, we have the young man Saul keeping watch over the clothes of the wicked persecutors of Stephen, consenting all the while unto that good man’s death; on the other, Paul the aged, chained to his Roman companion, “preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him.” The contrast is that between darkness and light, night and day, the kingdom of Satan and the kingdom of God’s dear son.
Let us, then, consider briefly together a few points brought out by the inspired writer of Acts, in this introductory scene. Saul of Tarsus is here brought before us as:
1. A young man;
2. A young man, consenting to Stephen’s death;
3. A young man, making havoc of the church at Jerusalem.
(a) A young man
It is generally agreed among commentators that the word translated “young man” is to be understood to signify that Saul was, by then, not less than thirty years of age, certainly not a mere youth, as we might tend to think. It is probable that it is used here in the sense in which the Rabbis used to speak of one as being a “young man” up to the age of forty or so. Among the Jews there has always been a great reverence for age. Saul is hardly likely to have been entrusted with the mission to Damascus, recorded in the following chapter, unless he were of an age to be responsible for the discharge of such a duty to the satisfaction of the Sanhedrin. The young man who holds the clothes of Stephen’s persecutors is one who is of mature years, as WE reckon them, and, therefore, his part in the evil work is all the more heinous. No excuse can be made for him on the score of his youth, at any rate. He himself, looking back over this terrible time in his life, had no words of excuse for himself, but rather, a solemn word of rebuke, not to say condemnation — “blasphemer,” “persecutor,” “injurious person.” How often God’s people have reason to look back over mis-spent years of youth or early adulthood, with shame of heart, and plead the merits of the precious blood of Jesus alone for acceptance with God! Let all young people, therefore, be warned against spending the best of life’s years in the service of sin and Satan, doing the will of the Gentiles.
(b) A young man, consenting to Stephen’s death
Saul may not have laid hands upon Stephen, not even raised a stone to cast at the noble servant of God, but yet, for all that, his mind and his heart were at one with the perpetrators of the evil work — HE WAS consenting unto his killing. He WAS of their company, as he stood guard over their clothes; he felt no righteous indignation rise within his breast against his brethren in the assembly. His voice was not lifted up to bear witness against them. If THEY were guilty of a heinous crime, so also was HE. When grace had wrought a change in him, how differently he was wont to act, when faced with a similar situation. With what boldness he was wont to testify against them then, and against their evil work. O for a heart to praise the Lord for His works of wonder, done unto the sons of men!
The writer of Acts, when writing of another who was a member of the Sanhedrin, as was also Saul, in all probability, says of him, when that body took counsel to kill Jesus, “And, behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counsellor; a good man and a just (the same HAD NOT CONSENTED to the counsel and deed of them) . . .” (Luke 24: 50, 51). Noble counsellor! How different, the young man, Saul! Although in English, both Greek verbs are translated alike, there is a difference in meaning in the original. The word which is used of Joseph of Arimathea accurately describes his position in the Council, as one entitled to vote in any given decision, so that here we are told that he did NOT record his vote for that wicked motion; he did NOT agree with its terms; he would have NO part in it at all; he did NOT stand up with them in the Assembly on that evil day; he ABSTAINED, because he was NOT one of their company in spirit any more — for long now he had been a disciple of Jesus. What a wealth of meaning in the words, “had not consented . . . !” In Saul’s case, however, the word used is different, and bears a slightly different meaning — it signifies primarily that he heartily approved of the whole thing, he was heart and soul in it, heart and soul with them — yes, even though he only stood watching over their clothes. “And Saul was CONSENTING unto his death.” The whole episode was well-pleasing to him, in his present mood; he WAS, as distinct from good Joseph of Arimathea, ONE of their company. Yes, the one thing in common which the two verbs have, is just that prepositional prefix, which signifies that a man is “one with” someone or something, or “together with” them, or “in fellowship with” them; only, in Joseph’s case, it is preceded by that little particle, which makes all the difference in the world, “NOT” — O would it not be good for us to be searched in our hearts, to see if we are of the “company” of those who hate the LORD and His Anointed, or not? The counsel and deed of such is still a work of darkness, is still destined to fail in its purpose, but woe to that man whose heart and whose soul is knit with these “workers of iniquity!” Let us seek grace to have the Psalmist’s spirit, when he cries, in Psalm 94:—
“How long, O mighty God . . .
how long shall they who wicked are,
thus triumph haughtily.” (verses 3, 4).
(c) A young man, making havoc of the church at Jerusalem (Acts 8:3).
It is to be expected that one who was heart and soul with such as sought to silence the voice of the first great apologist of the Early Church would also be heart and soul with them in the persecution which followed, “against the church which was at Jerusalem” (verse 1). The outcome of the persecution then was the scattering of the believers throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, with the exception of the apostles, and this itself proved a blessing in disguise, since the believers carried with them to these several regions, the faith which they had received, and thus the church was multiplied. Devout men attended to the burial of Stephen and much grief was felt among the Lord’s people there, but Saul was now more actively engaged in the evil work, endeavouring to stamp out the memory of the name of Jesus — he was searching out believers in their own homes, and carrying them off to prison. In this, he acted, no doubt, by authority of the Sanhedrin, and thought that he was doing God service. In after years, he wrote to the believers at Philippi, telling them a little of his doings then, “Concerning zeal, persecuting the church” (Philippians 3: 6). Zeal; yes, a zeal without knowledge, ever a dangerous thing. Let us seek grace to be kept from it, while given at the same time to seek that godly zeal, together with knowledge, which will be to us as the adorning of the Spirit.
The Holy Ghost, we believe, never uses words to no purpose; so here, in this verse, we have Saul’s zeal at this time, described by a word which is nowhere else used in the New Testament — a strong word, meaning literally, “to outrage, or to ravage.” In the Septuagint Version of the Old Testament in Greek, the same word is used to describe the actions of the wild boar in uprooting the vines in that beautiful Psalm, beginning with Israel’s Shepherd, the 80th Psalm, at the 12th verse,
“The boar who from the forest comes,
doth WASTE it at his pleasure.”
Saul was doing just that to God’s vineyard there at Jerusalem — ‘wasting it at his pleasure’, ‘coming from the forest’, as it were, entering the houses of believers, uprooting precious vines, of God’s own planting, and all in the name of the God of Israel. Israel’s Shepherd. O can we not overhear, as it were, the humble praying folk of Jerusalem then, crying out, as they look up to the Covenant God of Israel:—
O God of hosts, we thee beseech,
return now unto thine . . . . (Ps. 80: v. 14-16).
The way in which He was to visit His vineyard was hidden from them at that time, but O, when the wonderful change came over the young man, called Saul, then indeed all might see for themselves the hand that wrought deliverance for them, and sing again of victory afforded by His outstretched hand:
In dwellings of the righteous
is heard the melody,
Of joy and health: the Lord’s right hand
doth ever valiantly. (Ps. 118: 15).
As we draw our first meditation on this great subject to a close, let us take our leave of Saul, sad indeed to see him so occupied in persecuting unto death those that called upon the name of the Lord in Jerusalem, yet withal, rejoicing in spirit that another day is soon to dawn, both for himself and them, in which we shall indeed discern the purpose of the Lord fulfilled and a great work accomplished by Him, that is to redound to His own glory, world without end. May we all be partakers of that same grace, for truly, by nature, we are all, as Saul himself says later on, “the children of wrath,” even as we are also “the children of disobedience.” If left to ourselves, we will be as much opposed to the Truth as he was. May the right hand of the mighty Lord do valiant things for us too, that we, too, may become followers of the despised and rejected Saviour, who is now exalted at God’s right hand above.