Saul of Tarsus was a young man in God's plan. He was a young man called by the Lord according to the Lord's plan and for the Lord's purpose. Acts 7:58 tells us that "the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man called Saul." Then in Galatians 1:14 Paul tells us that he advanced in Judaism beyond many contemporaries in his race. "Contemporaries" refers to those of Saul's own age.
Our God, who is full of wisdom, has a plan, and the entire universe was created according to His purpose, His will, His plan. We must know what God's eternal plan is. In the next chapter we will see more concerning this. Man's position, man's place, in God's plan is very central. It is absolutely right to say that the Bible is a book full of Christ, yet we can also say that the Bible is a book full of men. Even God Himself became a man (John 1:1, 14). Jesus is the complete God and the perfect man. Even after His resurrection and ascension, He is still a man. Before Stephen was stoned, he said that he saw "the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God" (Acts 7:56). Stephen saw the Lord Jesus as the Son of Man in the heavens. Man is the center of God's plan. A bicycle wheel may have a hub with many spokes. The hub and the spokes subsist in the wheel. If the hub, the center, is taken away, the spokes will collapse. In like manner, without man as the center, God's plan would collapse.
We must also see that all the persons who were called by God to carry out His up-to-date move were young men. This does not mean that God would not use an older person or that God does not love the older ones. But the Scriptures reveal that all the persons who were called by God were young ones. You may think that Moses was called by God when he was eighty years old. But you have to realize that Moses had something divine working within him even before he was forty. From his very youth, he had something to do with God. When he was eighty, that was not the first time God came to him. God came to him when he was young (Acts 7:20-29). You may point out that Abraham was seventy-five years old when he was called by God (Gen. 12:1-4). But if you read the Scriptures carefully, you will see that Abraham was seventy-five years old when his father Terah died in Haran (Gen. 11:32). Acts 7:2 tells us that "the God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran." The first time God called Abraham was while his father was still alive, and the second call came after his father had died. Therefore, the first time God came to Abraham was quite earlier than when he was seventy-five years of age. On the other hand, we have to realize that at Abraham's time, a man who was seventy-five years old was still quite young. I would not say that God would never call an older person, but the Bible and church history show that most of the time God has a new move with young people.
God calls young people to carry out His move because, generally speaking, young people are not set, settled, or occupied. With an older person everything is usually set. It is rather hard for him to have a change within. Also, everything tends to be settled with an older person. It is not easy for him to move on with the Lord. Also, older people tend to be occupied by many things. God would not call those who are set, settled, and occupied because whenever He calls a person that means He has something new to do. He calls someone because He has a desire to turn the age, to do something new and revolutionary