2 Corinthians 12:7

To keep Paul from pride over such revelations, God allowed a painful 'thorn in the flesh,' a messenger of Satan, to torment him. It matters because God can use even Satan's affliction to humble and protect his servants.

Cross-references · 20

• Num 33:55But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land before you, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides; they will harass you in the land where you settle.
• Judg 2:3So now I tell you that I will not drive out these people before you; they will be thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a snare to you.”
• 2 Chr 32:25–26But because his heart was proud, Hezekiah did not repay the favor shown to him. Therefore wrath came upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem.
• Gen 32:31The sun rose above him as he passed by Penuel, and he was limping because of his hip.
• Gal 4:13You know that it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you.
• 1 Cor 5:5hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the Day of the Lord.
• Dan 5:20But when his heart became arrogant and his spirit was hardened with pride, he was deposed from his royal throne, and his glory was taken from him.
• Job 2:7So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and infected Job with terrible boils from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head.
• 2 Chr 26:16But when Uzziah grew powerful, his arrogance led to his own destruction. He was unfaithful to the LORD his God, for he entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense.
• 1 Tim 3:6He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same condemnation as the devil.
• Deut 8:14then your heart will become proud, and you will forget the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
• Gen 32:25When the man saw that he could not overpower Jacob, he struck the socket of Jacob’s hip and dislocated it as they wrestled.
• Ezek 28:24For the people of Israel will no longer face a pricking brier or a painful thorn from all around them who treat them with contempt. Then they will know that I am the Lord GOD.’
• 2 Cor 10:5We tear down arguments and every presumption set up against the knowledge of God; and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
• Deut 17:20Then his heart will not be exalted above his countrymen, and he will not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or to the left, in order that he and his sons may reign many years over his kingdom in Israel.
• 2 Chr 32:31And so when ambassadors of the rulers of Babylon were sent to him to inquire about the wonder that had happened in the land, God left him alone to test him, that He might know all that was in Hezekiah’s heart.
• 2 Cor 11:20In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or exalts himself or strikes you in the face.
• 1 Cor 4:11To this very hour we are hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clothed, we are brutally treated, we are homeless.
• Luke 13:16Then should not this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be released from her bondage on the Sabbath day?”
• Matt 26:67Then they spit in His face and struck Him. Others slapped Him

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