The Goads of God
W. Clarkson Acts 9:6 And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what will you have me to do? And the Lord said to him, Arise, and go into the city… There is probably some truth in the familiar saying "If Stephen had not prayed, Paul had not preached." The influence of the sight of that martyrdom, and especially of that magnanimous prayer, may have had much to do with converting Saul the persecuting Pharisee into Paul the faithful apostle. For what could our Lord have meant by saying, "It is hard for thee to kick against the goads," but that, as it is a vain, useless, and hurtful thing for the yoked ox to struggle against that which is inciting it to its work, so was it a useless and hurtful thing for Saul to be rebelling against those scruples, heart-searchings, convictions, which were urging him to enter a new and better path? This may seem inconsistent with the language which has just been used (ver. 1); but we must remember that vehemence is never quite so violent as when it begins to suspect itself to be in the wrong; that persecution is never so passionate, fanaticism never so fierce, as when it is most impressed with the goodness and innocency of its victim. Your Levee never strikes so murderous a blow as when he finds himself face to face with a Christian hero and feels himself to be thoroughly condemned. So Saul never breathed out such threatening and slaughter as when the sight of Stephen's blood-stained body was still before his eyes, and the sound of his generous intercession still lingered in his ear. But he was beginning to think that, after all, perhaps those Christians were in the right and that he was in the wrong, and that he must either shut his eyes hard against the light or change his course. By violent suppression of these new thoughts, by stifling all scruples with strong hand, by kicking against the goads of God, he found himself on the way to Damascus to worry and harry the servants of Christ. There the Lord whom he was to serve so faithfully met him and told him he was doing a hard thing in thus struggling against the Heaven-sent promptings which urged him to take the true and right path. I. THE PREVALENCE OF INWARD STRUGGLE. Few things more pathetic have come down to us from ancient times than that lament of the Roman poet, "I see the better things and approve; I follow the worse." How many have to make the same sorrowful confession now! Around us are souls struggling (1) with passion, (2) with earthly ambition, (3) with pride, (4) with disposition to wait for some favorable future. These find themselves urged by the goads of God - conscience, the sacred Scriptures, human ministry, the Divine Spirit - to take the better course, but their lower instincts and evil habits cause them to strive against these higher impulses. II. ITS PROFOUND MISTAKE. 1. It is a miserable thing in a man's own experience to be living a life of vice, or worldliness, or selfishness, or indecision, when the soul is conscious of a Divine voice calling it to higher things - to pursue a path which is known and felt to be the wrong one. This is a wretched life to live; there is no peace, no spiritual rest, no lasting joy; there is distraction, discontent, rebellion. It is hard for a human soul to kick against the goads of God. 2. It is a regrettable thing, judged from outside. Those who look on - " the cloud of witnesses " - see with unspeakable sorrow a human heart spending its powers and wasting its life in battling with its purer and nobler aspirations. There is no more saddening sight to a Christ-like spirit than that of a human heart thus striving with the influences which come from heaven to raise and to redeem it. 3. It is a guilty thing, life man can continue to do that without storing up for himself "wrath against the day of wrath." III. THE ONE WISE COURSE TO TAKE. There is only one thing for such a man to do - he must yield himself at once to God's gracious forces. He must be the "prisoner of the Lord," that he may become "the freedman of Christ." He must go on whither his Redeemer is urging him - on to full self-surrender; on to sacred and harry service; and so on to the heavenly kingdom. - C. Parallel Verses KJV: And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. WEB: But rise up, and enter into the city, and you will be told what you must do."