Acts 9:1-19

The Voice

9 Back to Saul—this fuming, raging, hateful man who wanted to kill every last one of the Lord’s disciples: he went to the high priest in Jerusalem ² for authorization to purge all the synagogues in Damascus of followers of the way of Jesus.^[a] His plan was to arrest and chain any of Jesus’ followers—women as well as men—and transport them back to Jerusalem. ³ He traveled north toward Damascus with a group of companions.

Imagine this: Suddenly a light flashes from the sky around Saul, ⁴ and he falls to the ground at the sound of a voice.

Then he hears these words:

⁷ His other traveling companions just stand there, paralyzed, speechless because they, too, heard the voice; but there is nobody in sight. ⁸ Saul rises to his feet, his eyes wide open, but he can’t see a thing. So his companions lead their blind friend by the hand and take him into Damascus. ⁹ He waits for three days—completely blind—and does not eat a bite or drink a drop of anything.

¹⁰ Meanwhile, in Damascus a disciple named Ananias had a vision in which the Lord Jesus spoke to him.

¹⁷ So Ananias went and entered the house where Saul was staying. He laid his hands on Saul and called to him.

¹⁸ At that instant, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see. So he got up, received the ceremonial washing of baptism^[b] identifying him as a disciple, ¹⁹ ate some food (remember, he had not eaten for three days), and regained his strength. He spent a lot of time with the disciples in Damascus over the next several days.