The Mysterious Disappearance of Paul - Galatians 1:17

When I say “Arabia” you say . . . what?  Fill in the blank for me.  When I say “Arabia” the first thought that comes to your mind is “_________” .  Saudi Arabia?  Islam?  Mohammed?  Terrorism?  War?  Oil?  Coffee??!

How about “missionary”?  Probably not.  Martyrs?  Maybe.  But not many people think of missions and missionaries when they think of Arabia.  The apostle Paul mentions Arabia here in Galatians chapter 1.  He has been giving an autobiographical sketch of his conversion and his early years as a Christian as part of his defense against Jews who have been trying to discredit him in the eyes of the churches in Galatia.  Look at verse 15 with me:

15 But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, 16 was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone; 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus. (Galatians 1:15-17 ESV)

This is the only place in the New Testament where Paul’s trip to Arabia is mentioned.  In Acts where we read the account of Paul’s earliest years following his conversion there is no mention of it, nor does Paul speak of it elsewhere in his writings.  If it were not for this little phrase, but I went away into Arabia, their would be no record of it at all.

The English Baptist theologian John Gill had some interesting things to say about this: “How long he stayed there, what he did, and what success he met with among the Arabs are no where related; no doubt but he preached the Gospel to them, and as his ministry everywhere was . . . blessed by God, it may be very reasonably thought it was here. . . .”

“. . . doubtless he was the instrument of converting souls, and planting churches, and here it is certain were churches in ages following: in the "third" century were churches in Arabia, mentioned along with the churches in Syria, by Eusebius; in which age lived two famous Arabian bishops, Beryllus and Maximus; and the same historian reports, that in the times of Dioclesian there were some wonderful martyrs in Arabia, who suffered the most cruel tortures and death, for the sake of Christ: and in the "fourth" century there were Arabian bishops in the Nicene council, and in other synods, as at Jerusalem and Sardica; and in the same century there were bishops of Arabia Petraea, at the synod in Antioch, whose names were Nicomachus and Cyrion: and also in the "fifth" century there were churches and bishops in the same country. . . ."

In other words, we know from the historical record there were churches in Arabia in the third and fourth centuries.  Is it reasonable to think Paul, as a new convert, preached in Arabia and met with much success there when the Scriptures say nothing at all in this regard?  Gill says, “How long he stayed there, what he did, and what success he met with among the Arabs are no where related.”  But then he says, “No doubt but he preached the Gospel to them, and as his ministry everywhere was . . . blessed by God, it may be very reasonably thought it was here, at his first setting out in it.”  Is that a reasonable suggestion, that God must have had this newly converted Paul go and preach in Arabia and do so successfully, even to the point of planting churches there?

Let’s look for a moment at Acts chapter 9.  God had in a remarkable manner, brought Paul to Himself on the road to Damascus in Syria.  Paul met Ananias who granted his sight back to him through the word of the Lord.  Paul was then immediately baptized.  Then in verse 19 we read these words:

For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus. 20 And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” 21 And all who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?” 22 But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ.

23 When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, 24 but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him, 25 but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket. (Acts 9:19-25 ESV)

It is at this point Paul leaves Damascus, under cover of darkness, in a basket through a hole in the wall of the city, and presumably goes very quickly to Arabia.  All kinds of thoughts go through my mind as I ponder this, but Paul was running for his life to get away from the Jews whom he knew would be as diligent in finding him as he had once been not very long ago in hunting down Christians.  Arabia may have been a relatively safe place to hide.

Someone might argue that Paul was most definitely not a coward.  After his conversion he immediately began to preach Jesus in the synagogues, so obviously he was not afraid of the Jews.  I suspect he still considered himself to be one of them.  Since when was Paul afraid of anything?

But Paul is a relatively young man and a new convert here.  New believers tend to have a great deal of naivete’ in their zeal to tell others of the Lord Jesus.  In my own case, I was totally surprised when my high school friends wanted nothing to do with Jesus Christ.  Why couldn’t they understand the Gospel?  It is so simple!  And who wouldn’t want to have all their sins forgiven?  I was bewildered that virtually none of my friends had any interest in the Lord Jesus.  I did not then understand it takes much more than a simple explanation of the Gospel to convince sinners of their need for a Savior.

Is it possible Paul had some of that same newborn Christian naivete’?  Could it be that he thought the Jews in the synagogue in Damascus would surely believe Jesus was the Son of God, their own promised Messiah, if they would only listen to his explanation of it from the Scriptures?  If they would only listen to his testimony?  But when they hated him and began to plot his death, his fearful response was to get out of town fast.  No one would fault him for fearing these men who watched for him 24/7 in order to kill him.  So he ran through the night to Arabia.

But does it necessarily follow that he would eagerly and successfully preach the Gospel there?

Notice again Acts 9, verse 25.  Paul has been a Christian for only a matter of weeks or months.  But already we see he has disciples: “his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket." That is a remarkable statement.  Within weeks of his own conversion, Paul has students at his feet listening to him explain the Scriptures.  Having been a Pharisee, Paul was very well educated in the Law and the Prophets.  So it is not hard to imagine that his thinking in regard to the Scriptures had dramatically changed and he would be glad to gather younger men around him to explain why Jesus Christ was their Messiah.

This helps us understand two things: 1) The Jews most likely wanted to kill him out of jealousy, and 2) Paul most probably did become a missionary to the Arabs.  That is amazing to ponder.  In my estimation, there is no good reason to believe Paul DID NOT preach the gospel to the Gentiles of Arabia, even though the biblical text gives us no evidence of that other than Paul’s brief phrase, but I went away into Arabia.

So even though there may be no passage of Scripture that describes what Paul did in Arabia, it is easy to believe he would have preached and taught during his three years there.  But let’s consider one other text.  Look at Acts 2.

5 Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6 And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. 7 And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? 9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, 11 both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” (Acts 2:5-11 ESV)

When I think of Arabia, I don’t think of Christianity.  I think of one of the most violently anti-Christian nations on earth.  I think of Al-Qaeda.  I think of 9/11.  I think of mosques being built all across our country.

But we cannot afford to be so short-sighted as to think the current condition in Arabia has always been the case.  It may very well be that there were men from Arabia who heard the apostles in Jerusalem preaching the Gospel at Pentecost, who believed it, and took that Gospel message back to Arabia with them.  It could very well be that the historical churches in Arabia that John Gill speaks of began in Jerusalem at Pentecost.  And it is quite possible those early Arabian churches could have been visited by the apostle Paul during his three years there.  It’s astounding to even consider that Paul may have found Christians living in Arabia when he fled for his life from Damascus.

Beloved, the Bible is a thick book.  The pages between these covers represent a lot of time and a lot of history.  It contains everything God intended for us to know by direct, special revelation, even from the first week of creation.  It is complete and God is no longer writing new pages in this book.

But by no means does this book contain everything that God has done.  It does not give us an exhaustive record of all the work of God everywhere.  Do you recall how the Gospel of John ends?

25 Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. (John 21:25 ESV)

Peter tells us, “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence” (2 Peter 1:3 ESV) and that would include the Scriptures.  We have all we need.  In fact, we have far more than we need if we have the Bible.  When Peter wrote those words, the church didn’t yet have the New Testament.  And there are multitudes of believers who do not have access to the Scriptures.  And yet it is true that in Christ we have all we need for life and godliness.

But there is a vast amount that we do not know.  Not only do we not know precisely what Paul did for three years in Arabia after sneaking out of Damascus.  There is far more of what we don’t know, than what we do know.  There are many questions to which we don’t have very satisfying answers.

How did God create the entire universe from nothing?  We don’t have a problem believing that, but how did He do it?  You say He spoke and it was.  God simply spoke the universe into existence.  Really?  God “simply” spoke the entire animal kingdom into existence?  How does that work?  I don’t doubt that He did it that way.  But I’d just like to know exactly how that happened.  I’d like to know the science of it.  But that is more information  than God has seen fit to give us.

Contrary to popular belief, nobody understands the Trinity.  The three are just one?  And all three are equal, but they aren’t the same?  It is a concept that is infinitely beyond us.  Different explanations may be helpful, but every one falls miserably short of the reality.  When I pray, am I praying to the Father or the Son or the Holy Spirit?  But Jesus commands us to pray to the Father.  But the three are one.  I’m confused.

We can’t even fully comprehend what we mean when we talk about eternity.  We constantly refer to the fact that in Jesus Christ the believer will live for eternity.  For ever and ever.  How long is eternity?  How many years is forever?  How can there be no time?  How is that possible?

How can Jesus be fully God and fully man?  How can He be omnipresent and fully present in a single human body?  I don’t know.  We say these are the things we believe, but the full understanding of them isn’t possible.  Maybe in heaven we will be able to fully comprehend, or at least comprehend them to a much greater degree some things that are now way out of our reach.  But even then, we will still be finite beings surrounded by an infinite God.  There is a LOT that we don’t know, and a LOT we will never grasp entirely because we are not equal to God.

But to bring it closer to home, let’s consider out own lives.  What is God doing in your life?  And why is He doing it this way?  Where is He leading you?  What does He have in store for us next week?  Tomorrow?  Tonight?  None of us have any idea.  But for us, what we don’t know won’t hurt us.  We do not need to know everything in advance that God is going to do in our lives.

What we do know is a good God is in full control of every moment of our lives and we can trust Him.  His promise is His complete transformation of each one of us into the likeness of His beloved Son.  Absolutely everything is being orchestrated by a sovereign Conductor for the purpose of making us all like Jesus.

So, if that is true, then we can relax.  We will never know everything that is going on around us.  We will never fully understand everything God is doing in our lives.  We will never be able to discern all the purposes God has in the things we suffer.  But we do know without any doubt that our God loves us greatly.  The proof of that is the cross.

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10 ESV)

And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Ephesians 5:2 ESV)

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ - by grace you have been saved - 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4-7 ESV)

32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32 ESV)

God loves His own.  The Shepherd loves His sheep.  And there is nothing in this world or the next that can ever separate the Christian from the eternal and infinite love of God.

This was, in essence what Peter wrote to his fellow believers when they were tempted to question the love of God.  He said this:

12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. 15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. 16 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. 17 For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 And

“If the righteous is scarcely saved,

what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”

19 Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good. (1 Peter 4:12-19 ESV)

Never are we more seriously tempted to doubt what we know about God than when we are suffering.  And it is then that we must fall back on what we know, and not depend upon how we feel.  WE KNOW God loves us.  The crucifixion of the Lord Jesus on our behalf should be sufficient to remove forever any doubt we may have about God’s love for us.  Knowing that is absolutely and unchangeably true, we can then entrust our souls to our faithful Creator and King.

Q:  What is it that you don’t already know, that you MUST know, in order to be able to trust God with your life?

A:  Nothing.  We know all we need to know in order to entrust ourselves unreservedly to our Heavenly Father.  We need not fear.  We need not doubt.  We never have a legitimate reason to question God’s wisdom in His dealings with us.

When Paul’s life was threatened by the jealous Jews of Damascus, he took off for Arabia.  He spent three years there before returning to Damascus.  We have no record at all of what God did with him there.  Theologians and commentators have speculated about it, and some no doubt have felt compelled to figure it all out because they just can’t tolerate mysteries.

It is no mystery what God is doing in us.  How He is doing it sometimes causes us to raise an eyebrow.  But our ignorance of all of God’s ways, and the mysterious nature of His workings should never cause us to stumble.  Brethren, I will tell you what a wise woman once told me: “Keith, the Lord loves you, and that will NEVER change.“  Don’t worry about what you don’t know or what you cannot know.  Glory in what you DO know: God loves you and me with an everlasting love.  The absolute proof of that is the giving of His own Son for us.  Hallelujah!

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” (John 14:1-3 ESV)