Saul’s Question and Ananias’s Caution
On Acts 9:6, 13, H. Clay Trumbull comments in the S. S. Times as follows:— “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” That question in itself was an answer to the Lord’s question. Asking the Lord what he wants us to do, is better than telling the Lord what we propose to do for him; and it is a great deal better than asking the Lord what he is going to do for us. There is a questioning of the Lord that shows a doubt of him; and again there is a questioning of the Lord that shows our unrest and discontent in our lot; but a question that it is always safe for us to ask, and that is always consistent with both faith and submissiveness, is this question of Saul’s, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” “Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints.” That was cautious in Ananias, wasn’t it? And Ananias was not the last man who has thought he could tell the Lord something that the Lord did not know, or might have forgotten. But in this case, Ananias was certainly well meaning; and it was true that Saul had been a violent opposer of the Lord’s cause. Yes; yet, after all, Ananias illustrated human nature in all this. It is a great deal easier to believe evil than to believe good of our fellows. Other people said that Saul was a bad man. The Lord said that he was prayerful; and the Lord commended him to Ananias. But, but,—thought Ananias,—does the Lord know all that those people know? The simple truth is, that it is easier to get a bad name than a good one in this world; and when a man has a bad name, even the Lord’s voice in his favor is not enough to change public opinion, without some questioning and headshaking.