Saul Becomes a Follower of the Lord

(Acts 22.6-16; 26.12-18)

9 Saul kept on threatening to kill the Lord's followers. He even went to the high priest ² and asked for letters to the leaders of the synagogues in Damascus. He did this because he wanted to arrest and take to Jerusalem any man or woman who had accepted the Lord's Way.^{[a] 3} When Saul had almost reached Damascus, a bright light from heaven suddenly flashed around him. ⁴ He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying, “Saul! Saul! Why are you so cruel to me?”

⁵ “Who are you?” Saul asked.

“I am Jesus,” the Lord answered. “I am the one you are so cruel to. ⁶ Now get up and go into the city, where you will be told what to do.”

^7 (A) The men with Saul stood there speechless. They had heard the voice, but they had not seen anyone. ⁸ Saul got up from the ground, and when he opened his eyes, he could not see a thing. Someone then led him by the hand to Damascus, ⁹ and for three days he was blind and did not eat or drink.

¹⁰ A follower named Ananias lived in Damascus, and the Lord spoke to him in a vision. Ananias answered, “Lord, here I am.”

¹¹ The Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the house of Judas on Straight Street. When you get there, you will find a man named Saul from the city of Tarsus. Saul is praying, ¹² and he has seen a vision. He saw a man named Ananias coming to him and putting his hands on him, so he could see again.”

¹³ Ananias replied, “Lord, a lot of people have told me about the terrible things this man has done to your followers in Jerusalem. ¹⁴ Now the chief priests have given him the power to come here and arrest anyone who worships in your name.”

¹⁵ The Lord said to Ananias, “Go! I have chosen him to tell foreigners, kings, and the people of Israel about me. ¹⁶ I will show him how much he must suffer for worshiping in my name.”

¹⁷ Ananias left and went into the house where Saul was staying. Ananias placed his hands on him and said, “Saul, the Lord Jesus has sent me. He is the same one who appeared to you along the road. He wants you to be able to see and to be filled with the Holy Spirit.”

^18 (B) Suddenly something like fish scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he could see. He got up and was baptized. ¹⁹ Then he ate and felt much better.

Saul Preaches in Damascus

For several days Saul stayed with the Lord's followers in Damascus. ²⁰ Soon he went to the synagogues and started telling people that Jesus is the Son of God. ²¹ Everyone who heard Saul was amazed and said, “Isn't this the man who caused so much trouble for those people in Jerusalem who worship in the name of Jesus? Didn't he come here to arrest them and take them to the chief priests?”

²² Saul preached with such power that he completely confused the Jewish people in Damascus, as he tried to show them that Jesus is the Messiah.

^23 (C) Later some of them made plans to kill Saul, ²⁴ but he found out about it. He learned that they were guarding the gates of the city day and night in order to kill him. ²⁵ Then one night his followers let him down over the city wall in a large basket.

Israel Crosses the Jordan River

3 Early the next morning, Joshua and the Israelites packed up and left Acacia. They went to the Jordan River and camped there that night. ² Two days later^[a] their leaders went through the camp, ^3-4 shouting, “When you see some of the priests^[b] carrying the sacred chest, you'll know it is time to cross to the other side. You've never been there before, and you won't know the way, unless you follow the chest. But don't get too close! Stay about a kilometer back.”

⁵ Joshua told the people, “Make yourselves acceptable^[c] to worship the Lord, because he is going to do some amazing things for us.”

⁶ Then Joshua turned to the priests and said, “Take the chest and cross the Jordan River ahead of us.” So the priests picked up the chest by its carrying poles and went on ahead.

⁷ The Lord told Joshua, “Beginning today I will show the people that you are their leader, and they will know that I am helping you as I helped Moses. ⁸ Now, tell the priests who are carrying the chest to go a little way into the river and stand there.”

⁹ Joshua spoke to the people:

Come here and listen to what the Lord our God said he will do! ¹⁰ The Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites control the land on the other side of the river. But the living God will be with you and will force them out of the land when you attack. And now, God is going to prove that he's powerful enough to force them out. ^11-13 Just watch the sacred chest that belongs to the Lord, the ruler of the whole earth. As soon as the priests carrying the chest step into the Jordan, the water will stop flowing and pile up as if someone had built a dam across the river.

The Lord has also said that each of the twelve tribes should choose one man to represent it.

¹⁴ The Israelites packed up and left camp. The priests carrying the chest walked in front, ¹⁵ until they came to the Jordan River. The water in the river had risen over its banks, as it often does in springtime.^[d] But as soon as the feet of the priests touched the water, ^16-17 the river stopped flowing, and the water started piling up at the town of Adam near Zarethan. No water flowed toward the Dead Sea, and the priests stood in the middle of the dry riverbed near Jericho while everyone else crossed over.

The People Set Up a Monument

4 After Israel had crossed the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua:

^2-3 Tell^[e] one man from each of the twelve tribes to pick up a large rock from where the priests are standing. Then tell the men to set up those rocks as a monument at the place where you camp tonight.

⁴ Joshua chose twelve men; then he called them together ⁵ and said:

Go to the middle of the riverbed where the sacred chest is, and pick up a large rock. Carry it on your shoulder to our camp. There are twelve of you, so there will be one rock for each tribe. ^6-7 Someday your children will ask, “Why are these rocks here?” Then you can tell them how the water stopped flowing when the chest was being carried across the river. These rocks will always remind our people of what happened here today.

⁸ The men followed the instructions that the Lord had given Joshua. They picked up twelve rocks, one for each tribe, and carried them to the camp, where they put them down.

⁹ Joshua set up a monument next to the place where the priests were standing. This monument was also made of twelve large rocks, and it is still there in the middle of the river.

The People of Israel Set Up Camp at Gilgal

^10-13 The army got ready for battle and crossed the Jordan with everyone else. They marched quickly past the sacred chest^[f] and into the desert near Jericho. Forty thousand soldiers from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh^[g] led the way, as Moses had ordered.^[h]

The priests stayed right where they were until the people had followed the orders that the Lord had given Moses and Joshua. Then they watched as the priests carried the chest the rest of the way across.

^14-18 “Joshua,” the Lord said, “tell the priests to come up from the Jordan and bring the chest with them.” So Joshua went over to the priests and told them what the Lord had said. And as soon as the priests carried the chest past the highest place that the floodwaters of the Jordan had reached, the river flooded its banks again.

That's how the Lord showed the Israelites that Joshua was their leader.^[i] For the rest of Joshua's life, they respected him as they had respected Moses.

¹⁹ It was the tenth day of the first month^[j] of the year when Israel crossed the Jordan River. They set up camp at Gilgal, which was east of the land controlled by Jericho. ²⁰ The men who had carried the twelve rocks from the Jordan brought them to Joshua, and they made them into a monument. ²¹ Then Joshua told the people:

Years from now your children will ask you why these rocks are here. ^22-23 Tell them, “The Lord our God dried up the Jordan River so we could walk across. He did the same thing here for us that he did for our people at the Red Sea,^{[k] 24} because he wants everyone on earth to know how powerful he is. And he wants us to worship only him.”

5 The Amorite kings west of the Jordan River and the Canaanite kings along the Mediterranean Sea lost their courage and their will to fight, when they heard how the Lord had dried up the Jordan River to let Israel go across.

Eliphaz's Third Speech

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God Lives in the Heavens

Surrender to God All-Powerful