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Ver. 32,33. Luke hath shortly given us the history of this danger, Act_9:23-25. Soon after Paul was converted from the Jewish to the Christian religion, he, disputing with the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, confounded them by his arguments, proving Jesus was the Christ, as we read there, Act_9:21. This so enraged them, as that they sought to kill him, Act_9:23. And (as we learn from this text) to effect their design, they had by some acts or other brought over the governor to favour their design; which, governor was a substitute under Aretas the king, who was father-in-law to Herod; for (as Josephus tells us) Herod put away his wife, the daughter of this Aretas, when he took Herodias. The Jews had got this deputy heathen governor so much on their side, that he shut up the gates, keeping his soldiers in arms. But (as St. Luke tells us, Act_9:24) Paul coming to the knowledge of this design, though they watched the gates day and night, yet he found a way of escape by the help of those Christians, who at that time were in Damascus; Act_9:25: The disciples took him by night, and let him down by the wall in a basket. Two questions are started upon this passage of Paul’s life:
1. Whether it was lawful for him to flee? But besides the particular licence our Lord, in this case, had given his first ministers, Mat_10:23, Paul did in this case no more than what divines make lawful for a more ordinary minister, viz. to flee, when the persecution was directed against him in particular, leaving sufficient supply behind him.
2. The second question raised is: Whether, it being against human laws to go over the walls of a city or garrison, Paul did not sin in this escape? But that is easily answered; for:
a) This was lawful in some cases.
b) God’s glory, and the good of souls, were more concerned in Paul’s life, than to have it sacrificed to a punctilio of obedience to a human law made upon a mere politic consideration.