Kicking Against the Goads

This week, Katrina and I went to her OB appointment to make sure everything is progressing as it should with our soon-to-be born child.  Something kind of shocking to me was how the doctor mashed around on Katrina's stomach.  The doctor was mashing around to feel the baby and I'm sure other doctor stuff.  The sonogram tech did a similar thing a few weeks ago to get the baby to turn, so she could get a good picture.  They kind of push and prod little Henry Ryder to get him to go where they want.  This week, Katrina said after the doctor finished pushing around, Ryder kicked very hard.  Apparently, he had had enough of all that!


As I was reading in Acts 26 this morning, Paul was telling King Agrippa the story of his conversion as a believer in Jesus as the Christ.  Paul quoted Jesus,

Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads. 

(Acts 26:14)

I started thinking about this in a different way than I had before.  What is a "goad"? 


According to Merriam-Webster:

1 a : something that pains as if by pricking : thorn

b : something that urges or stimulates into action : spur

2  : a pointed rod used to urge on an animal

Think about that.  Before Jesus appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus, Jesus indicates that Paul was being "goaded".  I mean, you can't kick against the goads, if there are no goads.  So, by Whom was Paul being Goaded and for what purpose?  Jesus gave the purpose.  It was to be a light to the Gentiles.  Who was doing the goading?  According to Paul, it was God Himself who had been goading him (Ephesians 1:14-16).


I tend to focus on the miraculous salvation example we have in Paul's conversion.  Jesus appeared to him and his total direction, physical, spiritual and mental changed.   We know from his own testimony in Ephesians, that he did not think this happened out of the blue.  He said God "set him apart in his mother's womb".  NOW, we also know from Acts, that this was not just an "all of a sudden" appearance by Jesus to Paul.  God had been "goading" Paul, prior to the road to Damascus.  Does it appear that way to us?  No way!  Look at how many Christians Paul was persecuting and killing!  If you were a Christian back then, you would be caught way off guard by Paul's salvation.  No one saw that coming.  


This is a reminder to me that even though it might not appear so, God "goads" whom He will, for His purpose.  Many of us can see how God goaded us, before he saved us, but we rarely see how He goads others.  We are called to share our faith with everyone.  Not just people we THINK God might be "goading".  We must remember that God will save all of His sheep.  To get them where He wants them, he often must "goad" them (John 6:37)