Overruling paranoia
This week's wonderful goodness is on Acts 9:10-19:
These verses take place within days of Saul of Tarsus being sucker-punched by the Holy Spirit. For those of you who don't know, Saul of Tarsus was famous throughout Israel for his ethnic cleansing of the early Christians. Imagine if you were a Jew in Berlin in 1942, hiding out, and God came to you and said "Hey, Adolf Hitler is a couple blocks away and in danger of slipping into a coma if you don't go and pray for him to get healed. Here's his address. He's expecting you." Your response would probably be a lot like Ananias's: "What?! Are you kidding me?"
Ananias had a very natural, very justifiable, very logical reason to be paranoid. This guy Saul had killed a lot of his colleagues. This wasn't a rumor. This was a documented fact. If it was 21st century Palestine, and not 1st century Palestine, this Saul guy would have been documented by human rights groups and probably would have been tried and convicted in absentia by some war crimes tribunal. You would have only had to google his name to find out all kinds of horrifying stuff; cell phone videos of him stoning people, photos of people hacked to bits, eyewitness testimonies in newspaper articles, etc. And God was telling poor Ananias to go to this guy's place, pay him a visit, and help him? Ouch!
The reason Ananias was required to act wasn't because his paranoia was silly. It was because God told him to. Despite Ananias's helpful words to let Him know who Saul really was, God knew the situation already. God knew who Saul was and who he would become. He knew Ananias's situation and the situation that would develop after Ananias did what he was told. God knew all of that before he asked Ananias to help. That's because God knows everything.
Sometimes God will ask you do to something dangerous. It'll be OK. If you know it is God talking to you, there's no reason not to be obedient. But what if Ananias had decided to win the argument with God, and never went to pray for Saul? Would all of the letters in the New Testament still have been written? Would Saul have been an invalid for the rest of his days? Would the early church never have spread beyond the Middle East, and Christianity have died out and been completely replaced by the heresy of Islam? Thankfully, because of Ananias' risky obedience, we don't have to find out the answers to those questions.
In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!”
“Yes, Lord,” he answered.
The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”
“Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.”
But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”
Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength.
These verses take place within days of Saul of Tarsus being sucker-punched by the Holy Spirit. For those of you who don't know, Saul of Tarsus was famous throughout Israel for his ethnic cleansing of the early Christians. Imagine if you were a Jew in Berlin in 1942, hiding out, and God came to you and said "Hey, Adolf Hitler is a couple blocks away and in danger of slipping into a coma if you don't go and pray for him to get healed. Here's his address. He's expecting you." Your response would probably be a lot like Ananias's: "What?! Are you kidding me?"
Ananias had a very natural, very justifiable, very logical reason to be paranoid. This guy Saul had killed a lot of his colleagues. This wasn't a rumor. This was a documented fact. If it was 21st century Palestine, and not 1st century Palestine, this Saul guy would have been documented by human rights groups and probably would have been tried and convicted in absentia by some war crimes tribunal. You would have only had to google his name to find out all kinds of horrifying stuff; cell phone videos of him stoning people, photos of people hacked to bits, eyewitness testimonies in newspaper articles, etc. And God was telling poor Ananias to go to this guy's place, pay him a visit, and help him? Ouch!
The reason Ananias was required to act wasn't because his paranoia was silly. It was because God told him to. Despite Ananias's helpful words to let Him know who Saul really was, God knew the situation already. God knew who Saul was and who he would become. He knew Ananias's situation and the situation that would develop after Ananias did what he was told. God knew all of that before he asked Ananias to help. That's because God knows everything.
Sometimes God will ask you do to something dangerous. It'll be OK. If you know it is God talking to you, there's no reason not to be obedient. But what if Ananias had decided to win the argument with God, and never went to pray for Saul? Would all of the letters in the New Testament still have been written? Would Saul have been an invalid for the rest of his days? Would the early church never have spread beyond the Middle East, and Christianity have died out and been completely replaced by the heresy of Islam? Thankfully, because of Ananias' risky obedience, we don't have to find out the answers to those questions.
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