9:17
Ananias obeyed the Lord. Questioning God is not a problem. Many servants of God, such as Moses, questioned God’s choices! God is always right and we are always wrong, but openly questioning God is usually a better way than seeking to deny our doubts. Ananias went to the house where Saul was staying and placed his hands on him. He addresses Saul as “Brother Saul”. This must have taken some doing. It seems that Ananias had learnt more of what had happened on the Damascus road. Ananias had come so that Saul’s sight would be restored, and so that he would be filled with the Holy Spirit. Earlier with the Samaritans we saw that it was not until the apostles came that the believers received the Spirit. Here it is through a nondescript person (I don’t mean that in any offensive way, just that Ananias had no special position) that Saul receives healing and the Spirit, just through an obedient believer.
9:18,19
Saul’s sight was restored immediately, with “something like scales” falling from his eyes. We can, of course, see a parallel here with spiritual scales falling from his eyes and his now seeing the glory of the gospel. Saul got up and was baptised, again we see baptism occurring very soon after expressing faith. Saul then ate some food and regained his strength. Remember he had been fasting for three days. He then spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. This must have taken some faith on their part as well. One would guess that Ananias played a key role in the disciples accepting Saul.
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