The channels for the life and power that is from the Son of God to flow in among the Gentiles were now fully opened; for the Jews, and the Samaritans, and the Proselytes, had been called. All was ready for the gathering of the first-fruits of the Gentiles. But before this was done, and present judgment upon Israel thus publicly sealed, the Lord gives, in the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, a sign of the future conversion of Israel (see 1 Tim. 1:16). A sample, no doubt it is, of that long-suffering that saves every sinner. But Israel is to be made the great final witness of that long-suffering, and is principally pointed at by this sign; and therefore all that accompanies this great event is a foreshowing of the things that are hereafter to mark and accompany the repentance of Israel. Saul's looking on Him Whom he had pierced—his being shut up three days without sight, and neither eating nor drinking—the removal of this judgment, and his baptism, all shows us the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem looking on Him Whom they pierced and mourning, every family apart, and their wives apart, and then proving the virtues of the cleansing fountain opened for their sin and for their uncleanness. Jerusalem will then be the signal witness of sovereign grace, as Saul now is (Zech. 12; 13) And in further proof of this mystical character of Saul's conversion, we may observe that he tells us himself, that he obtained mercy because he did it ignorantly in unbelief; and this is the very ground of final mercy to Israel; as the Lord prayed for them, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” (See also Acts 3:17.)