12 Whereupon as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests, 13 At midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me. 14 And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. 15 And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. (Acts 26:12-15 KJV)
William Burkitt’s Commentary
Apostle Paul having declared his manner of life before conversion, proceeds next to declare the extraordinary manner of his conversion: He tells Agrippa, that as he went with a persecuting purpose towards Damascus, at midday, a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun, shined around him, and when they all fall prostrate on the earth, he heard a voice speaking to him in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
Here note, 1. How restless and unwearied persecutors are in the execution of their bloody designs and purposes: Paul, as he thought he had swept and cleansed Jerusalem of saints before, resolves to ransack Damascus and undertakes a long journey of five or six days to that end: the worst journey that ever he undertook; a journey most maliciously purposed by him, but most mercifully disposed of by God; and accordingly he is met with on the way: Christ appears to him, a sudden beam of light shines round about him, and a voice is heard by him, saying, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? that is, me in my members.
Such as persecute saints for their sanctity, persecute Christ himself, and he can no more endure to see them wronged than himself; as the honour of the head redounds to the members, so the sorrows of the members are resented by the head: Christ said not thus to his murderers on earth, “Why bind ye me? Why buffet ye me? Why scourge ye and crucify me?” But here, when his members suffer, he cries out from heaven, Saul, why persecuted thou me?
Lord, thou art more tender of thy body mystical, than thou wert of thy body natural; more sensible of thy members’ sufferings than of thine own.