Galatians 1:15-17 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

When it pleased God He ascribes nothing to his own merits, endeavours, or sincerity; who separated me from my mother's womb Set me apart for an apostle, as he did Jeremiah for a prophet, (Jeremiah 1:5,) and ordered my education with a view to that office. Such an unconditional predestination as this may consist both with God's justice and mercy. And called me by his grace By his free and almighty love, to be both a Christian and an apostle; to reveal his Son in me By the powerful operation of his Spirit, (2 Corinthians 4:6,) as well as to me by the heavenly vision; that I might preach him among the heathen Which I should have been ill qualified to do, or even to preach him to mine own countrymen, had I not first known him myself; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood Being fully satisfied concerning the divine will, and determined to obey it, I took no counsel with any man, neither with my own reason or inclination, which might have raised numberless objections; but laid aside the consideration of all carnal respects and interests whatsoever. Neither went I up to Jerusalem The residence of the apostles, to be instructed by, and receive commission from them. But I went into Arabia Where there were few Christians, and none of them of any note. This course, we may believe, the apostle took by the direction of Christ, who sent him into that country, to instruct him in the duties of his office, and in the doctrines of the gospel, by immediate revelation. The truth is, now that the Lord Jesus was gone to heaven, this was the only proper method of training an apostle. For if the ministry of men had been used in instructing Saul, he would have been considered as an apostle of men, and on that account might have been reckoned inferior to the other apostles, who were all instructed by Christ himself. In Arabia, therefore, Saul continued more than two years; and during all that time, it is probable, employed himself in studying the Jewish Scriptures more carefully than ever, by the help of the new light which had been bestowed on him; in searching into the true nature of the law of Moses, and in attending to such revelations as Christ was pleased to make to him. And, by these revelations, he acquired a complete knowledge of all Christ's doctrines, sayings, miracles, sufferings, resurrection, and ascension, and of the design both of the law and of the gospel, and of the confirmation which the gospel derives from the writings of Moses and the prophets. Luke, in his history of the Acts, takes no notice of this journey of the apostle into Arabia; but, from the manner in which it is mentioned here, it seems probable that the apostle went into Arabia almost immediately after he recovered his sight and strength, which had been impaired by the bright light with which Christ was surrounded when he appeared to him, and by the terror into which he was cast by that miraculous appearance; staying, however, at Damascus, as we may infer from Acts 9:19, certain days, after he had recovered his sight, during which he preached Christ in the synagogues. From Arabia he returned again unto Damascus Where he boldly declared the necessity of believing in Christ, in order to salvation, even in the presence of those Jews whom he knew to be strongly prejudiced against that important doctrine, increasing, in the mean time, in strength, as is mentioned Acts 9:22, confounding the Jews, and proving Jesus to be the very Christ.