Without a doubt one of the greatest men of the New Testament
was the Apostle Paul. We know very little about Paul’s life before his
conversion other than what he tells us. We know that he was a Pharisee from the
city of Tarsus and the he was a Roman citizen from birth. We can conclude other
things from our knowledge of history and the Bible lands. He was probably from
a wealthy family. He may have been from a gentile father and a Jewish mother.
This would explain his being both a Roman citizen and a Jew by birth. Of
course, much of this is speculation but much of history is speculation. What we
do know about Paul is even more extraordinary than what we don’t know.
Paul was a one-time hater of Christians. His own conversion
came as he was on his way to arrest some Christians in the city of Damascus. It
is amazing that this man was so radically changed that he became a devout
follower of the Jesus he was adamantly against. What is even more amazing is
that he later became the author of at least 13 books of the New Testament. Paul
became knows as the Apostle of Grace and gave us most of the New Testament
teaching on church doctrine.
Have you ever wondered from where Paul got his teachings?
How did he understand about the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus or
salvation through grace by faith? The apostles who knew the Lord Jesus in the
flesh didn’t teach him. In fact he spent very little time with them. After
Paul’s conversion he basically disappeared for three years. Where did he go? He
tells us in Galatians chapter one the he went into Arabia.
Arabia at this time was a general geographic area that was
often without definite geographical bounds. It was filled with nomadic tribes
and was certainly not considered a civilized region. In other words Paul went
and spent three years in some undisclosed location in the desert. Why? What did
Paul do in Arabia for three years?
Paul went into the Arabian wilderness a Jew who was trained
in the Law of Moses. Paul came out of the wilderness a fiery apostle of the
Lord Jesus. Paul went into the Arabian wilderness with Geneses, Exodus, and
Leviticus. He came out of the wilderness with Romans, Galatians, Ephesians,
Philippians, etc.
Some have called Paul’s time in the desert “The Arabian
Bible School.” But who was there to teach Paul? Apparently in those three years
he got face to face, if you will, with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He
no doubt spent time studying and reading the law but this time it was with a
new understanding. He had a new understanding of who Jesus is. Paul had spent
his youth learning the laws of Judaism and probably even memorizing much of it
by rote. But now He spent his time learning about the God of the law.
When Paul came out of that wilderness he didn’t just have a
list of do’s and don’ts but he had an intimate relationship with Jesus. It was
this relationship that empowered him to evangelize Asia Minor, the modern day
Turkey and parts of Greece, with the gospel of Jesus. His relationship took him
through heartache, misery, betrayal and finally death without going back on his
newfound faith.
Paul probably went into the Arabian wilderness because he
didn’t know where else to go. He was no longer welcome among his Jewish
brethren now that he was a Christian. He wasn’t yet trusted among the Christian
community when just a few days before he was hunting them down to be killed. It
can be said that he went into Arabia to hide. He even changed his name from Saul
to Paul during his conversion and subsequent identity crisis.
Whatever Paul’s ultimate reasons were, his time in the
Arabian Desert made him into the man we read about in scripture. The persecutor
of Christians spent three years being forged into a giant of the faith. I’m
sure Paul would rather have been anywhere than hiding out in the Arabian Desert
for three years but this was no doubt God’s plan for his life. His story can
tell us something. God can take the difficult seasons in our lives and use them
for his glory if we will but surrender ourselves to him. After all, as Psalm
31:15 says, “My times are in his hands.”
We all go through difficult times in our lives. Sometimes it
seems that life is not measured by the good times but by the difficulties. Yet
these difficulties have a way of telling our mettle. It is in the desert places
in life that we must do as Paul did in the wilderness. We must look past the
situations we are in and develop our own face-to-face encounters with Jesus.
Paul went into the Arabian Desert with a deep-seated
religious tradition. He came out of the wilderness with a relation with God.
Just as Paul’s trial did to him, our trials can solidify us if we will allow
them to. Are you in a time of trouble, anxiety or upheaval? Perhaps it is time
for your own Arabian Bible School experience. Paul’s time in the wilderness
forged him into a giant of the faith. What will yours make of you? Only you can
decide.
Will you come out of your trial a refugee or an apostle?
Most assuredly, you are not the Apostle Paul but His God is your God. If you
allow Him to, God can do the same kind of miraculous work in your life that He
did in Paul’s. He is no respecter of persons. Why not let this wilderness
experience be the one that makes you into a giant of the faith?
Yours in Christ’s Service,
Rev. Sullivan Jones