A Thorn In The Flesh….

Have you ever had a thorn in your flesh? I once ate the fruit from a cactus. It was really good. The only issue was no one told me about the teeny-tiny thorns that are on them. They are so small that you can’t see them. You touch them with your uncovered hands and they stick in your flesh. They are so small you can’t see them in your hand either. But, boy, do you feel them! They irritate the skin with ever slight movement. And they are almost impossible to remove. It’s so frustrating. You feel the irritation and discomfort, yet you can’t see the cause. And it takes someone else with tweezers and a magnifying glass to remove them. In order to taste the fruit, you have to take extreme precaution in gathering and preparing this succulent delight. If you don’t, you’ll be regretting it for hours and hours on end later. This was the plight of Israel’s disobedience to God’s commands to drive out the people who lived in the Promise Land. The consequences and conflict still haunt them today. They are like thorns in the flesh. Just think this could’ve been eliminated simply by following God’s command. And people today think they are wrong for still having this kind of attitude. A thorn in the flesh isn’t worth being disobedient to God. It will constantly inflict pain with every movement. And it will take a lot of time and work to relieve its effects on the body. Obedience is better than sacrifice. Learn from them this lesson of not fully following God’s instructions. You’ll save yourself some pain.

55 But if you fail to drive out the people who live in the land, those who remain will be like splinters in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will harass you in the land where you live. 56 And I will do to you what I had planned to do to them.” Numbers 33:55-56