Pricks in your eyes, & Thorns in your sides

[capnator]

Numbers 33:55 But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them [shall be] pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell.

What things have we left as pricks in our eyes and thorns in our sides? Do not go halfway in driving out the worldliness, which if left will only cause us problems and like the Israelites of old cause us to fall.

Remember God is light and in Him is NO darkness. And by His grace that is what He wants for us, no darkness left within.

 

[Gregory Thompson]

i recall a passage in the new testament that mirrors that .

2 Corinthians 12

6Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say.

7To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

but it comes to a slightly different conclusion .

 

[Gregory Thompson]

Sometimes an obvious infirmity that cripples a visible ability is to keep a less obvious one from manifesting that would cripple your ability to serve people .

 

[Jeffz]

Good points, I know that for myself those things that I am weak in cause me to trust in His strength. So as Paul says I glory in my weakness, for in them He shows Himself strong.

 

[capnator]

Sometimes an obvious infirmity that cripples a visible ability is to keep a less obvious one from manifesting that would cripple your ability to serve people .

Thankyou for your input, that's an excellent point you have brought up there. So now we can see there are two sources of thorns in our sides.

Firstly those things that those things which should be removed, those things which God would have us drive out. Things that will ultimately cause us pain and possibly even cause us to fall away from God. When we refuse to give up certain things, or move fully into truth at the leading of the spirit.

And secondly, those things which God allows to come on us, which seem unpleasant but are working a good work in us.

Now what is interesting is this. In the first case these thorns are often things we or rather the flesh desires or burns for, they are sweet in the mouth and bitter in the belly and are working towards our detriment.

and in the second instance these seem to be in the form of trials or things God allows to come on us that the flesh very much will dislike, but are working for our good.