Galatians 1:17-24
17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.
18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days. 19 But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother. 20 (In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!) 21 Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. 22 And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23 They only were hearing it said, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they glorified God because of me.
It is likely that Paul's sojourn in Arabia took place between 21 and 22. Some think that 'Arabia' refers to the desert land east of Damascus, but there is nothing to suggest that it was not much further south that he went. Indeed, it is highly likely that it was further south, for this reason: one has only to think of the strong element of symbolism in the Scriptures, and of the significance of places in the Scriptures to realise that Arabia in the south would have an especial significance for Saul of Tarsus. For Arabia was steeped in historic association for the people of God. It was there that Moses the man of God had himself been prepared and trained for forty years for his life's work, before being sent to Pharaoh with the command, 'Let My people go'. It was there that the Moses of the Old Testament saw the burning bush, there that the constraint of divine love came upon him. And it was there also that the Moses of the New Testament, Paul the Apostle, was prepared, seeing the glory, meeting with the God of the Bush, and being gripped by divine love. It was there that Moses received the Law; and there that Paul received the gospel. But there was another significance in Arabia; for another Old Testament figure had frequented that place: Elijah the Tishbite. After the spectacular battle with the prophets of Baal on Carmel, Elijah had fled to Horeb (Sinai), and there the still small voice had spoken to him. God had spoken in the earthquake to Saul of Tarsus, on the Damascus Road, and now he needed the still small voice to minister to him, and to instruct him in the way that he should go. Alexander Whyte says, 'Paul went down to Arabia with Moses and the prophets in his knapsack, and came back with Romans and Ephesians and Colossians in his mouth and in his heart'.