Kick Against the Goads

 Job 17; Acts 24-26 

“…’Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied.”

Acts 26:14, 15

Ox goads were slender sticks with a pointed end used to prod oxen to do what their master wanted. Oxen kicked against the goads when they resisted the sharp, pointed reminder that their will wasn’t the final word. 

How long had Saul felt the pointed prodding of the Holy Spirit prior to his conversion?

Sometimes, the most antagonistic critics of the gospel are those under the greatest conviction of the Holy Spirit. God is at work in people’s lives long before their conversion. The sudden conversion on the Damascus Road was preceded by a long period of prodding. Perhaps Paul watched Jesus minister, argued with him in the temple, and grew in his opposition to this ‘usurper’ of the Pharisees’ authority. Saul was persecuting Jesus as he imprisoned those who were the body of Christ. However, Jesus pursued Saul and renamed him Paul, or ‘Small’. Christ increased and Paul decreased as Jesus’ pursuing love found and transformed the Church’s greatest opponent.

“Lord God, thank you for your pursuing love, for your glory.”