One might be tempted to describe the incident that led Paul to write, “We were weighed down exceedingly, beyond our power, insomuch as we despaired of life” (2 Corinthians 1:8), as his darkest hour. It was a dark point in his life, but was it his darkest? That is debatable. At his conversion, after the light that shone around him on the road to Damascus had blinded him, he entered the city and waited for a man named Ananias to come, lay his hands upon him, and restore his sight. Concerning Paul, the Lord had told Ananias, “And I will show unto him how many things he must suffer for my name’s sake” (Acts 9:16). Those hours of suffering began almost immediately.
After Paul arose and was baptized, he began speaking in the synagogues of Damascus, proclaiming that Jesus was the Son of God. Whether it was then or during a later visit that opposition became so fierce, and the effort to kill him so determined, that his disciples had to lower him over the city wall in a basket is uncertain. He visited Damascus at various times over the years. After his conversion, while he was visiting the apostles in Jerusalem, the disciples there also had to send him away because of Jewish plots against him (Acts 9:29-30). When he and Barnabas came to Lystra on their journey together, Paul was stoned and left for dead (Acts 14:19-20). Later in Jerusalem, Jews brought about his imprisonment, yet even that did not satisfy his enemies because more than 40 men bound themselves under an oath neither to eat nor drink until they had killed him. When the silversmiths at Ephesus provoked a riot, the danger was nothing new to Paul, but it was no less real. Amid the uproar, he wanted to address those who opposed him, but the disciples urged him not to do so (Acts 19:30). Some of his friends who were not Christians also begged him not to “adventure himself into the theatre” (Acts 19:31). Once again, he had to leave. These are only the threats against his life recorded for us. Doubtless, there were many, many other occasions when his life was threatened of which we know nothing.
That was a difficult time for Paul. He had planned to remain in Ephesus until Pentecost, but his plans had to change. He did not want to leave the city. He had written his first letter to the Corinthians and was waiting to hear from Titus how the brethren in Corinth had received it. Now he would have to meet Titus somewhere else. Paul left Ephesus and went to Macedonia, then continued into Greece, where he again faced a plot against his life. There, as in other places, Jews sought to kill him, forcing him to alter his plans once more. Of his affliction in Asia, he wrote, “For we would not have you ignorant brethren, concerning our affliction which befell us in Asia, that we were weighed down exceedingly beyond our power, inasmuch as we despaired of life…” (2 Corinthians 1:8).
Finally, somewhere along the way, Titus met Paul, and Paul was comforted to learn that no harm had befallen him. But more than this, Titus brought news that lifted Paul’s spirits. The brethren’s response to his letter gave him reason to rejoice amid his afflictions. As he wrote, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of mercies and God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our afflictions, that we might be able to comfort those who are in any affliction” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).
It was a dark hour for Paul, but God gave him comfort. Many more such hours would come before he received eternal comfort, when at last he departed to be with Christ.
Jim McDonald