What did Israel do to the bud in Les's analogy, and what happened as a result?
In the analogy, Israel cut off or clipped the bud before it could flower, and for all practical purposes everything seemed to fall apart. God in His sovereignty put the bud back on, yet Israel continued rejecting it; later God raised up Paul and revealed the full flower.
Les explains that Genesis is the bulb, the Old Testament is the stem and progressive revelation, and Christ in His first advent is the bud ready to come into full bloom. But before the bud had a chance to flower, Israel cut it off—Daniel speaks of Messiah being cut off. For all practical purposes Israel clipped the bud, and seemingly all fell apart. Yet God in His sovereignty put it back on. Coming into His post-resurrection and on into Acts, Israel still would not let that bud come into full flower; they kept rejecting it. Instead of clipping it off again, God did something totally different: He raised up this other apostle, and through the revelations given to the apostle Paul the full flower is now seen. It is not Paul himself, but his revelations; Christ is the flower, revealed in a way not picked up elsewhere in Scripture.