Acts 22:18, commentary and pictures

While praying in the temple at Jerusalem Paul fell into a trance and in vision saw the risen Jesus appear and speak to him. The word was urgent to make haste and get quickly out of Jerusalem because the Jews there would not receive his testimony concerning Jesus. He was not to remain to face opposition in hope of persuading them even at the cost of his life, and was not to risk his life needlessly. Paul hesitated and answered that he wanted to stay and labor longer for his brethren, feeling that to flee looked like cowardice and that risking even his life might make amends for his part in Stephen's death, since the Jews knew he had imprisoned and beaten believers and had stood by consenting to Stephen's death. Jesus answered more decidedly with a command to depart, sending him far away to the Gentiles, which gave him his distinct divine commission to a broad missionary field and not to his own countrymen at home.

Vision and Warning in Jerusalem

While Paul was praying in the temple at Jerusalem he fell into a trance and in vision saw Jesus appear and speak to him. After returning to Jerusalem he was praying earnestly in the temple when the Saviour came to him in that trance-vision. In that post-ascension appearance he met the risen Jesus face to face and was shown in vision the nature of His work in heaven.

The word to him was urgent to make haste and get quickly out of Jerusalem because its people, the Jews there, would not receive his testimony concerning Jesus Christ. A heavenly messenger pressed the haste upon him, warning that the city would not accept his testimony about Jesus. The warning meant he was not to remain to face opposition in hopes of persuading them even at the cost of his life, and not to risk his life needlessly.

Before the warning he had preached fearlessly in the same synagogue where he had disputed with Stephen that the crucified Jesus is the Son of God, presenting evidences from prophecy with yearning for his brethren and former associates. The same fury that burst on Stephen was visited on him, and the Jews laid plans to take his life. Though the disciples urged him to leave, he lingered, unwilling to leave the place and anxious to labor longer for his Jewish brethren.

He hesitated and answered that he wanted to stay to persuade the Jews and labor longer for them, feeling that to flee looked like cowardice and that risking and even yielding his life might make amends and wipe out the stain of his active part in Stephen's death by boldly vindicating the truth that cost Stephen his life. He argued that the Jews knew he had imprisoned and beaten believers in every synagogue and had stood by consenting to Stephen's death and kept the clothes, the raiment, of those who killed him, and he thought that history and his changed life should make them believe his conversion even at the cost of his own life.

Commission to the Gentiles

When Paul pleaded to remain, Jesus answered still more decidedly that he must depart, for He would send him far away to the Gentiles. That final command explains why Paul was sent to preach to the Gentiles despite his own yearning desire to labor for his nation. The command given while he was praying in the temple was his distinct divine commission, showing that unlike some of the other apostles his mission was not to his own countrymen at home but to a broad missionary field distinctly presented before him. His work would extend beyond Jerusalem, and that vision belonged to his account of receiving that commission and learning the breadth of his field.

To prepare him for this extensive and important work God brought him into close connection and fellowship with Himself and opened before his enraptured vision a glimpse of the beauty and glory of heaven. That temple vision, together with his conversion and appointment by God to preach to the Gentiles and the success of his work among them, helped prepare him to turn to the Gentiles and recognize his duty to do so when the Jews rejected the message. The warning to leave because they would not receive his testimony about Christ thus became one of the circumstances that fitted him to understand his duty when that rejection came.

When the Jews heard Paul speak of being sent to the Gentiles they refused to listen further and cried out violently against him, casting off clothes and throwing dust. They did so because they held the bigoted idea that the Gentiles were not to have the light of truth. That reaction is the inspiration of Satan and not of God, and the whole account proves that belief of a falsehood did not make Paul kind and compassionate but a religious zealot mad against the truth about Jesus.

Paul's departure protected him from threatened violence and assassination, and when the brethren learned of the vision and of God's care over him as a chosen vessel to bear truth to the Gentiles, they hastened his secret escape from Jerusalem. He went to preach in other cities. His going suspended violent Jewish opposition for a time and gave the church rest in which many believers were added.