Acts 22:12-18 - Get up, be baptised

22:12-16

In particular, Paul received help from Ananias, and he stresses that Ananias was “a devout observer of the Law and highly respected by all the Jews living there”. Ananias told Paul to receive his sight, and he did. Ananias then prophesied to Paul that he was God’s witness to all peoples . He was to get up, be baptised, have his sins washed away, and to call on the name of the Lord.

22:17,18

Paul returned to Jerusalem. He has truncated the account here, missing out the bit about being lowered from the walls of Damascus, among other things. Paul was praying in the temple and fell into a trance. The Lord told him to leave Jerusalem immediately “because the people here will not accept your testimony about me”. This is consistent with Jesus’ teaching about shaking off the dust from our feet if a village will not listen. There is a time to persist, for remember that God sent Paul a vision in Corinth telling him to stay there. And there is a time to move on.