And he said, Who are you, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom
you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads. Acts 9:5 [Saul's encounter with the ascended Lord on the road to Damascus]
The Greek word translated “goad” is Kentron: an iron goad, for urging on oxen, horses and
other beasts of burden, hence the proverb, "to kick against the
goad", i.e. to offer vain and perilous or ruinous resistance.
I said, 'Now the Philistines will come down upon me at Gilgal, and I
have not entreated the favor of the LORD'; so I forced myself, and offered the
burnt offering."
And Samuel said to Saul, "You have done foolishly; you have not
kept the commandment of the LORD your God, which he commanded you; for now the
LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. 1Sa
13:12-13
Both Saul, the son of Kish, the first earthly king of
Israel, and his namesake Saul of Tarsus had inner conflict. Since the Fall,
that has been the human condition. King Saul “forced” himself to make an
untimely offering—a very costly mistake. What did he force himself against?
Some better inner urging. [The Holy Spirit?] And as the Lord pointed out to
Saul of Tarsus, he was kicking “against the goads.” He too, in his work of
persecuting the Church, was acting against a better inner urging. We have a common saying in Christianity: “fighting
in the flesh.” It means trying, straining to do something, even something “good”,
outside the peaceful, rested power of the Holy Spirit. It is activity based on
wrong desire, need, or simply not in God’s timing. And as Jesus related to Saul, who was about
to become the converted Paul, it is a very hard way to live. King Saul never stopped kicking against the
goads, and he lost his battles, his kingship, and eventually took his own life
to avoid being captured and killed by his enemies. Saul of Tarsus did stop kicking against the
goads; and God used him to give us a large portion of the New Testament, through
which billions of people throughout history have been inspired into eternal
life. Saul of Tarsus [now the reborn Paul] surrendered into an amazing
victory. He surrendered to the lordship of Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah. He
then became the persecuted one. But in the sufferings of that persecution, he
clearly found the only true Life that exists for the human soul. He rejoiced in
his sufferings for Christ. His life now had eternal significance.
This surrender is supremely exemplified by Christ Himself
Who had previously prayed, in Gethsemane, for deliverance from the “cup” of the
Cross; but then, in an earthshaking, history-changing, heaven-celebrated
victory, proclaimed “Nevertheless, Thy will be done!” Praise God forevermore and thank You Jesus,
for this unspeakably awesome victory over all that is opposed to goodness and
truth and love! Praise God for this victorious, courageous surrender.
We all must make this victorious surrender. Over and over
again, let us say “Thy will be done.”
Jesus has commanded us to Love God and man—even our enemies. Along this pathway there will be tribulation,
as He said, and as He experienced. We must not resist this tribulation. We must
not “kick against the goads” of the Holy Spirit. To do so is only to create
unnecessary suffering for ourselves. We need not strain in the Holy Spirit: we
need only rest in Him. Then, as the saint has said, “all shall be well, and all
shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”
Even if we are stoned to death as Stephen, we will see Jesus standing at
the right hand of God and our face will be as the face of an angel. We will
peacefully pray for the forgiveness of those who cast the stones and commit our
soul into His eternal, loving arms. [Acts 6-7].
“I surrender all. I surrender all. All to thee my blessed Savior, I surrender
all.” Judson W. Van DeVenter
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