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Hard to Kick Against the Pricks · Logos Unveiled

The Bible Devotional The Forge The Pulpit Statement of Faith The Altar

The Epiousios · Day 202 of 365

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The Epiousios — ἐπιούσιος, the “daily” of “give us this day our daily bread”. It stands in and , and nowhere else in Scripture.

Tuesday, 21 July 2026

Hard to Kick Against the Pricks

4 min read

The Primary Text

“And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.”— (KJV)Read Acts 9 in full →

The Lexicon

κέντρον (kentron) — Noun, neuter

From the Greek κέντρον (kentron): a sharp point — a goad used to drive oxen, and by extension a sting. Semantic force: A goad was a pointed stick carried behind a working animal. An ox that kicked backward against it drove the point deeper; the resistance, not the goad, did the damage. Theological depth: The same word is used of the sting of death in 1 Corinthians 15. Here it describes what God had been doing to Saul before Damascus — pressing, from behind, in a direction he did not want to go.

Supporting Scriptures

A Chosen VesselNew Testament

“But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel:”

(KJV)

The Lord's answer to Ananias' entirely reasonable objection is not a reassurance but an assignment.

The Blood of Thy Martyr StephenNew Testament

“And when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him.”

(KJV)

Paul recounts this himself years later and mentions Stephen, which suggests where the goading had begun.

Woe Unto Him That Striveth With His MakerOld Testament

“Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?”

(KJV)

Kicking against the pricks is an ox wounding itself on the goad. Isaiah sets the same futility in the potter house, and calls it woe.

The Exposition

Saul is on the road with warrants in his bag, travelling a hundred and thirty miles to arrest people for what they believe. He is not a man with doubts. He is the most effective enemy the church has. The light throws him down, and the voice asks a question rather than making an accusation: Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Note the pronoun. Not why persecutest thou my followers. Christ identifies Himself with people Saul has never met, in cities Saul has not yet reached. Then: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. A goad is a pointed stick used to steer oxen from behind. An animal that kicks back against it does not remove the point; it drives it in further. The injury is self-inflicted and comes from resisting a direction, not from the goading itself. Which means Saul had been resisting something for a while. This is not the first prompting; it is the end of a series. What had been prodding him we can partly guess — he had watched Stephen die well, and mentions it himself when he tells the story years later (). A man does not hold the coats at a scene like that and forget it. And Saul's reply is the whole conversion in three words: Who art thou, Lord? He has already conceded the title before he knows the name. The man who arrives in Damascus is blind, led by the hand, and fasting — everything he was travelling to do to others, done to him. Ananias, told to go to him, objects sensibly and is overruled with an assignment rather than an argument.

The Altar

Name the thing you have been resisting that you suspect is God. Consider that the pain of the resistance is coming from the kicking.

Daily Reading & Meditation

Passage:

Focus: Notice how much of this chapter is about Ananias rather than Saul, and what it cost him to obey.

Ask yourself: Is there a direction you keep being pressed toward and keep pushing back against? Ask honestly where the pain in that situation is actually coming from.

My Father in heaven, I thank You that You stopped a man on his way to do harm, and asked him a question instead of destroying him. Where You have been pressing me and I have been kicking back, give me the sense to stop. Show me what You are steering me toward. I ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus, who asked Saul why. Amen.

← Monday 20 JulyCreate in Me a Clean Heart Wednesday 22 July →The Enthroned Position in Heavenly Places