Latest episode: Does God Command Evil Spirits?

Hey everybody!

Hope your week has gone well. This Wednesday was a pretty weird one, as we explored God’s sovereignty over the spiritual realm.

Does God control the good angels and let the devil control the bad angels- or are things a bit more complex than that?

In case you missed it, you can catch up right here! Episode 92: Paul’s Thorn in the Flesh: Does God Command Evil Spirits?

(and if you’re wondering what Paul’s thorn in the flesh actually was, keep reading below!)

New article on the site: The Danger of Assuming Too Much in Bible Prophecy

Well, the rapture didn’t happen Tuesday.

Actually, I don’t know if it happened or not. I’m writing and scheduling this post on Monday. But I’m assuming that the rapture didn’t happen on Tuesday, like one corner of the Internet claimed it would.

Speaking of assuming- it can be dangerous, especially when we assume the Bible says things that it didn’t actually say. That’s what some of the ancient Jews did with Messianic prophecy, and it caused them to reject their Messiah when He actually did show up.

The ancient Jews were avid students of Bible prophecy. They were constantly on the lookout for their future Messiah. And yet when He finally arrived, most of them missed it.

Why? One reason is that they assumed things about the Messiah that went beyond the text of Scripture. There’s a lesson for us today when we observe a particular mistake they made.

Read on… WeirdStuffInTheBible.com 

Rabbit Trail: So what was Paul’s thorn in the flesh, anyway?

In II Corinthians 12, the “thorn in the flesh” that Paul alludes to has stumped commentators for centuries.

II Corinthians 12:7-8 - ⁷ So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. ⁸ Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.

What exactly it was, we aren’t told; I am of the opinion that it doesn’t ultimately matter, as the phrase is a stand-in for a variety of problems. We all have our own crosses to bear, or thorns in the flesh, that we deal with. Sometimes there is a spiritual solution; other times God is using it to teach us something, as He did with Paul here.

But for those who are curious, let’s explore a few theories about what Paul was dealing with:

#1 - A Demonic Attack

The first one here was suggested to me by my friend Daniel Moore, host of the Marriage, Life and More podcast.

In verse 7 above, Paul said his thorn was “a messenger of Satan to harass me.”

As we talked about in Wednesday’s episode, the word “messenger” there is the Greek word “aggelos,” which means angel or messenger. There are some times- such as II Corinthians 12- where I feel it would have been more appropriate to translate this as angel. (Likewise, I have always thought it would have made more sense in Acts 12:15 to say messenger, but we don’t need to add a rabbit trail to a rabbit trail, so I’ll leave that here for now.)

This was not a human messenger, but one of “Satan’s angels” (Matthew 25:41). Perhaps this demonic entity was manifesting and harassing Paul, disrupting his sleep or trying to distract him from his mission.

A purpose of spiritual warfare is to teach us to depend more on God (as I shared in episode 77 last June). Paul himself learned to depend on God’s strength more than his own through this experience- just read verses 9 and 10 of that chapter.

#2 - A Physical Sickness or Malady

Another theory points out that this thorn was “in the flesh,” so maybe this was something that afflicted Paul’s physical body.

We know from other passages of Scripture that various diseases and other physical maladies can often be a result of demonic oppression (Luke 13:11-16, Matthew 9:32-33, Luke 11:14, and more). Perhaps Paul had to deal with a health trial himself.

This is important to remember after we spent all summer studying legal rights in the spirit realm- and how to cut off the enemy’s right to oppress you when you have unconfessed sin in your life.

Paul surely didn’t have unrepented sin; if he did, he would have just confessed it. He knew how the spiritual realm operated.

And he also understood something else we must keep in mind- that not all of the problems we deal with are because of our own sins. Sometimes we go through sufferings for reasons that have nothing to do with our own actions.

Even Jesus- who had no sin- had to learn obedience through the things He suffered while he was on this earth. That’s exactly what Hebrews 5:8 tells us.

We must keep that in mind while engaging in spiritual warfare- there is no one singular “cure” to fighting off the devil. He can attack through many different avenues for a variety of reasons, and unconfessed sin is only one of them.

#3 - Poor Eyesight

One of the most interesting theories I have seen on this subject is that Paul didn’t exactly have 20/20 vision, and this could be a hindrance to his ministry.

For example, he makes this comment:

Galatians 6:11 - See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand.

Some posit that Paul wrote so large because he needed to in order to see what he was writing. However, it’s also possible that Paul was referring to a point of emphasis he wanted to make by writing larger.

Paul makes another interesting comment in this letter when speaking of how much the Galatian Christians loved him.

Galatians 4:13-15 - ¹³ You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, ¹⁴ and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. ¹⁵ What then has become of your blessedness? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me.

This could be taken to imply that Paul- when he first met the Galatians- was suffering some kind of problem with his eyes or vision. He said the Galatians loved him so much, they would have given him their own eyeballs (eww), which makes it sound like his bodily ailment had something to do with his eyes- or maybe he had just stayed up too late watching Minority Report the night before. It’s very possible that this is the same “thorn in the flesh” that he later spoke of in II Corinthians 12.

Don’t forget- Paul’s entire spiritual transformation happened because he had been blinded for three days on the road to Damascus (Acts 9). Though he gets his vision back, there’s a chance that he continued to have problems or a weakness in this area going forward. Certainly, this would cause someone to rely on God’s help in every step of ministry.

Take these ideas for what they’re worth. Though we don’t know precisely what the physical (or spiritual) problem Paul suffered was, the lesson of II Corinthians 12 is pretty clear. I hope that chapter makes more sense to you than ever after spending the past couple of weeks in it.

Have a great week- and a Weird Wednesday!

-Luke