2 Corinthians 12
Zechariah received a vision while serving in the temple, and was told that his prayer had been heard and that his wife Elizabeth would bear a son whose name would be John (the Baptist) (Luke 1:8–23). Jesus’ transfiguration is called a vision which was given to Peter, James and John (Matt. 17:9). The women who went to Jesus’ tomb reported that they had seen a vision of angels who said that Jesus was alive (Luke 24:22–24). Stephen, just before his death, saw a vision of ‘the Son of man’ standing at the right hand of God (Acts 7:55–56). The Lord spoke to Ananias in a vision when he instructed him to seek out Saul of Tarsus after the latter had been struck blind on the Damascus road (Acts 9:10). Peter was made ready to receive the call to visit Cornelius’ household by a threefold vision of unclean animals descending from heaven in a sheet (Acts 10:17, 19; 11:5). On another occasion when he was released from prison by an angel Peter thought he was seeing a vision (Acts 12:9). The book of Revelation is the description of revelations made to the author on the Isle of Patmos (Rev. 1:1).
In the literature of both the Jewish (e.g. 1 Enoch 39:3 f.) and Gentile (e.g. Plato, Republic, 10:614–621) worlds there are parallels to the apostle’s experience of rapture. And in the Babylonian Talmud (Hagigah 14b) there is the story of four rabbis who were temporarily taken up into Paradise, but so awesome was the experience that only one, Rabbi Akiba, returned unharmed. The story post-dates Paul (R. Akiba died c. AD 135) but indicates nevertheless the sort of accounts that were circulating in the first and second centuries of the Christian era.
All these literary parallels, whether in terminology, concepts or the experience of being taken up, serve to show three things. First, that what Paul spoke of was understandable to his contemporaries. Second, that the experience of being taken up into Paradise was believed to be awe-inspiring, and this explains in part Paul’s great reticence in describing it. Third, the experience of being taken up to the third heaven would place the apostle on a level with the great heroes of faith, and by claiming such an experience Paul could completely outflank his opponents
In the Old Testament tradition two men were translated bodily to heaven, Enoch (Gen. 5:24) and Elijah (2 Kgs 2:9–12), but their translations were permanent not temporary. It is also said of Elijah that he was carried off bodily from one place to another by the Spirit of the Lord (1 Kgs 18:12).
In the New Testament the accounts of Jesus’ temptation tell of him being taken by the devil to the pinnacle of the temple and to a high mountain (Matt. 4:5, 8), but the mechanism (whether bodily or in the imagination) is not specified. The writer of Revelation tells of his being carried away ‘in the Spirit’ to a wilderness (Rev. 17:3), and to a great high mountain (Rev. 21:10). Whether being ‘in the Spirit’ means out of the body or simply denotes a visionary experience is not clear.
Philo appears to have believed that heavenly experiences necessitate being out of the body for he explains that should the strains of heavenly music ever reach our ears irrepressible yearnings and frantic longings would be produced in us causing us to abstain from necessary food. And alluding to Exodus 24:18, he says that Moses was listening to heavenly music ‘when, having laid aside his body, for forty days and as many nights he touched neither bread not water at all’ (On Dreams 1, 36). Such an idea of non-bodily rapture would be in line with Gnostic beliefs that there cannot be any contact between the heavenly and material worlds, the latter being regarded as evil by definition. When Paul says that he does not know whether his temporary translation was in the body or out of the body he keeps open the possibility of both, and thereby makes clear that he would not accept the Gnostic view that the material world is inherently evil. At the same time he does not exclude the possibility of a spiritual experience out of the body.
The apostle’s reason for making less of his past experience than he might is that he wishes people’s evaluation of him to be based upon what they see of him and hear from him now. Both the verbs sees and hears are in the present tense, emphasizing that it is upon present performance that Paul wants to be judged. This stress upon the present lends some support to the suggestion that Paul’s use of the third person in the account of his experience of fourteen years ago was a device to distinguish between the Paul of that past experience and the Paul as people see and hear him now. It is on the latter, and in the light of all his weakness, that he wishes any evaluation of him to be made.
The word skolops, found only here in the New Testament, was used for anything pointed, e.g. a stake, the pointed end of a fish-hook, a splinter or a thorn.
skolops is used to denote something which frustrates and causes trouble in the lives of those afflicted. That Paul’s thorn was a trouble and frustration to him is clear from his thrice-repeated prayer for its removal (v. 8).
God permitted Satan to afflict Paul, just as He permitted Satan to afflict Job (see Job 1–2). While we do not fully understand the origin of evil in this universe, or all the purposes God had in mind when He permitted evil to come, we do know that God controls evil and can use it even for His own glory. Satan cannot work against a believer without the permission of God. Everything that the enemy did to Job and Paul was permitted by the will of God.
Paul had gone to heaven—but then he learned that heaven could come to him.
Strength that knows itself to be strength is actually weakness, but weakness that knows itself to be weakness is actually strength.
But God does not give us His grace simply that we might “endure” our sufferings. Even unconverted people can manifest great endurance. God’s grace should enable us to rise above our circumstances and feelings and cause our afflictions to work for us in accomplishing positive good. God wants to build our character so that we are more like our Saviour. God’s grace enabled Paul not only to accept his afflictions, but to glory in them. His suffering was not a tyrant that controlled him, but a servant that worked for him.
1. The spiritual is far more important to the dedicated believer than the physical. This is not to suggest that we ignore the physical, because our bodies are the temples of the Spirit of God. But it does mean that we try not to make our bodies an end in themselves. They are God’s tools for accomplishing His work in this world. What God does in developing our Christian character is far more valuable than physical healing without character.
2. God knows how to balance burdens and blessings, suffering and glory. Life is something like a prescription: the individual ingredients might hurt us, but when properly blended, they help us.
3. Not all sickness is caused by sin. The argument of Job’s comforters was that Job had sinned, and that was why he was suffering. But their argument was wrong in Job’s case, as well as in Paul’s case. There are times when God permits Satan to afflict us so that God might accomplish a great purpose in our lives.
4. There is something worse than sickness, and that is sin; and the worst sin of all is pride. The healthy person who is rebelling against God is in worse shape than the suffering person who is submitting to God and enjoying God’s grace. It is a paradox—and an evidence of the sovereignty of God—that God used Satan, the proudest of all beings, to help keep Paul humble
5. Physical affliction need not be a barrier to effective Christian service. Today’s saints are too prone to pamper themselves and use every little ache or pain as an excuse to stay home from church or refuse to accept opportunities for service. Paul did not permit his thorn in the flesh to become a stumbling block. In fact, he let God turn that thorn into a stepping-stone.
6. We can always rest in God’s Word. He always has a message of encouragement for us in times of trial and suffering.
The great French mystic, Madame Guyon, once wrote to a suffering friend, “Ah, if you knew what power there is in an accepted sorrow!”
Paul knew about that power, because he trusted the will of God and depended on the grace of God.
That same power can be yours today.