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True Education
Israel a prophet like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.”
Deuteronomy 34:10
.
Paul, Joyful in Service
With the faith and experience of the Galilean disciples were
united the fiery vigor and intellectual power of a rabbi of Jerusalem.
A Roman citizen, born in a Gentile city; a Jew, not only by descent
[43]
but by lifelong training, patriotic devotion, and religious faith; edu-
cated in Jerusalem by the most eminent of the rabbis, Saul of Tarsus
shared to the fullest extent the pride and prejudices of his nation.
While still young, he became an honored member of the Sanhedrin.
He was looked upon as a man of promise, a zealous defender of the
ancient faith.
In the theological schools of Judea the Word of God had been
set aside for human speculations; it was robbed of its power by the
interpretations and traditions of the rabbis. The rabbis gloried in their
superiority, not only to the people of other nations, but to the masses
of their own. With their fierce hatred of their Roman oppressors,
they cherished the determination to recover their national supremacy
by force of arms. The followers of Jesus, whose message of peace
was so contrary to their schemes of ambition, they hated and put
to death. In this persecution, Saul was one of the most bitter and
relentless actors.
In the military schools of Egypt, Moses was taught the law of
force, and so strong a hold did this teaching have on his character
that it required forty years of quiet and communion with God and
nature to fit him for the leadership of Israel by the law of love. Paul
had to learn the same lesson.
At the gate of Damascus the vision of the Crucified One changed
the whole current of his life. The persecutor became a disciple, the
teacher a learner. The days of darkness spent in solitude at Damascus
were as years in his experience. The Old Testament Scriptures stored
in his memory were his study, and Christ his teacher. To him also
nature’s solitudes became a school. To the desert of Arabia he went,
there to study the Scriptures and to learn of God. He emptied his soul
of prejudices and traditions that had shaped his life, and received
instruction from the Source of truth.