Where did God send Saul after his conversion, and what did God reveal to him there?
After Saul’s conversion, God sent him into the desert in Arabia. There, over what is understood as a three-year period, God revealed the doctrines of grace to him. This came before the events in Acts involving Peter and Cornelius. He received this revelation during that time.
Les explains that immediately after Saul’s conversion, God sent him into the desert in Arabia, where He would reveal the doctrines of grace over what is thought to be a three-year period. During that same time, God commissioned Peter to go to Cornelius’s house. Les emphasizes that Acts chapter 10 followed chapter 9 in content, not just numerically, because Saul was converted in chapter 9 as the head of the long line of sinners saved by grace. Then God sent Peter to a Gentile house, and Peter had to admit God was saving Gentiles without bringing them into contact with Judaism. This continued the transition out of Judaism and God’s dealing with Israel toward the Gentiles. Later, Jewish believers scattered by Saul’s persecution reached Antioch, where God began generating Gentile interest, and Barnabas was sent to check it out.