What was Paul's thorn in the flesh? Part 3

In the story of Job we not only see that God allowed attacks by Satan but He brought Job to Satan's attention and sat back and allowed Satan to buffet Job on many fronts. Job 1:8 The LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil." and again in Job 2:3 The LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man fearing God and turning away from evil. And he still holds fast his integrity, although you incited Me against him to ruin him without cause." Satan was allowed to take everything away from Job. So why should we be surprised when God allows spiritual attacks against Paul even though Paul asked God to remove them on three different occasions? II Corinthians 12:8 - 9 Concerning this I entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." 


In both of the cases of Job and of Paul, God used the attacks brought on them by Satan to make them aware of pride in their lives. Pride is the one area in all of our lives that Satan can find a foot hold. Pride has destroyed more men than any other sin and pride is rampant in the US. If we even begin to think that we don't have a problem with pride then obviously we do. We have pride in the fact that we don't have pride. We like to think more highly of ourselves than we should. Paul warns against this in Romans 12:3 For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more  highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.


I think we can learn a lot from looking a little closer at Paul and Job and their similarities when it comes to the sin of pride. First lets look at Job. Was Job a Godly man? Of course he was. We see on several occasions that God said he was. We have already quoted Job 1:8 and 2:3 but also look in Job 1:1, 1:20, 1:22, and Job 2:10 all of these verses make it clear that Job was a man who was God fearing, was blameless and served God. But as we read the book of Job we learn more about him and the pride that God is going to deal with. In Job 7:20 he begins to take pride in the fact that he is not aware of any sin in his life. In Job 12:4 he starts to think about what others will say of him. Job challenges his friends to find any sin in his life in 13:23. Job boasts of how he would reason with God as the "upright" in 23:7 and then in 27:6 Job declares that "I will hold fast my righteousness." In chapter 30 Job talks about his humiliation in his present state. In chapter 31 he declares his integrity. Then in Chapter 32:1 we are told "then these three men ceased answering Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes." Elihu a younger friend has been quiet up to this point as Job argued with his three other friends but Elihu has heard enough and blasts Job for "justifying himself before God" and for the three friends who "found no answer yet had condemned Job." In verses 8-12 in Chapter 32 Elihu quotes some of the prideful things that Job has said and then in verse 13 tells Job that God does not answer to him. In verse 17 Elihu directly talks about Job's "pride". Then in chapter 34 he vindicates God's justice and then in chapter 35 he sharply reproves Job. He asks Job in verse 2 if he knows better than God how things should be done. He tells him in verse 8 that his "righteousness is for the son of man". He tells Job in verse 12 that God does not answer "because of the pride of evil men." He then tells him in verse 14 that he must wait on God. He gives Job quite the sermon and sums it all up in Job 37:24 Therefore men fear Him; He does not regard any who are wise of heart. 


Now God speaks up. He picks up where Elihu left off. God asks Job in Chapter 38:4 where were you when I created the world and all that is in it. And in verse 18 do you understand how all of these things work? God takes the next two chapters to question Job and his understanding of how God works. In Chapter 40 God tells Job if he knows better than God in how to deal with things then speak up and tell Him. But Job has nothing to say so in verse 6 God starts up again and in verse 7 God says he wants Job to instruct him on how to deal with all that God has to deal with. Then in verse 8 God asks Job, "Will you condemn Me that you may be justified? In verses 11-14 God tells Job to take his anger and tell Him how to deal with all the self righteousness which is pride in the world and then God will confess to Job how his own righteousness can save him. "Pour out the overflowings of your anger; and look on everyone who is proud and make him low. Look on everyone who is proud, and humble him; And tread down the wicked where they stand. Hide them in the dust together; bind them in the hidden place. Then I will also confess to you that your own right hand can save you." Then God finishes His talk with Job in Chapter 41 by talking about how the entire world shows God's power. Then in verse 34 He says of Himself, "He looks on everything that is high; He is king over all the sons of pride." 


The book of Job ends in Chapter 42. It starts with Job humbling himself and praising God and then in verse 6 he says, "Therefore I retract, and I repent in dust and ashes." It was not until after Job's repentance of his self-righteousness, anger against his friends and his pride did God restore his fortunes in verse 10 " And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed..." So we see that Job was a righteous man but he drifted into an area of pride. God knew this and allowed Satan to attack Job in many ways all for the purpose of drawing Job closer to God. We will see this same sort of thing when we look at the pride in Paul's life. 

We will stop here for now and finish up next time as we look at Paul's struggle with pride and how it ties in to the demonic messenger that continually attacked him.