Paul finally gets a trial, and it is a real show! The Governor is there along with the Jewish king as well as the Jewish leaders and a large crowd of others. Paul could not have gathered an audience like this if he had tried. Yet again Paul turns to his own testimony as the best way of explaining himself. Paul’s pre-Christian experience powerfully portrayed the very position of his present audience and Jesus’ words to him on the Damascus road were so pertinent to the Jewish people at the time: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads” (26:14). A goad is a stick that was used to prod and direct an animal. The picture here is of an ox, angry at the metal prods that are pushing it in the right direction and kicking out at them, thereby making things worse. When we go in the wrong direction God goads us in different ways. He does this for all people. We either turn to live the way God wants us to live or we ‘kick against the goads’. It is indeed hard to kick against the goading of God. I mean, it’s hard to live with that tension of conflict with God. And God wants it to be hard. The best thing that can happen to us is that it might become harder and harder to live without God. Many people think that it is too hard to change. The truth is, though, it is too hard not to change. There is rest and peace in responding to God.
Is God ‘pressuring’ you about a matter? Ask him to make that clear to you.
Read Acts 25 and 26
