We cannot comprehend God’s ways! Being content in our suffering is very pleasing to God, and that may be part of what He’s doing in us. Of course, you can pray for her healing and God sometimes choses to answer that prayer, but He knows what He’s doing (Rom 8:28). “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted” and led to the slaughter (Isaiah 53:7), but not so that your aunt can feel better. I don’t think that’s what the author was thinking about when he wrote, “All we like sheep have gone astray we have turned-every one-to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6), and so we cannot claim healing from this verse, unless you are talking about eternal healing in the sense of having your sins removed by the blood of Christ upon repentance and faith. It says Jesus “was pierced for our transgressions he was crushed for our iniquities” and with these wounds He incurred, “we can be healed,” but not from a common cold. Most leave out the fact that this chapter mentions our “transgressions” and “iniquities” (Isaiah 53:5a), but nowhere in this chapter does it refer to the context as being a claim for physical healing for all who claim it. If we take one text out of context it can become a pretext, and I believe that’s what happens with Isaiah 53:5. He was slowly being conformed into the image of Christ and sharing in His sufferings (Rom 8:17 1st Pet 4:12-19), and the truth is, “if we are children, then we are heirs-heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory”(Rom 8:17). Some even say it was gout or some other health problem, but Paul trusted God. Some say it was his eyesight and others believe it was the constant hounding of the Jews who followed him and persecuted him wherever he went. ![]() God uses suffering to refine us just like gold passes through the fire and the dross is removed. Besides, suffering is never wasted (John 3:16). ![]() If Paul was strong in himself, he’d actually be weak, but in his chronic “thorn,” he could be strong in Christ (Phil 4:13). But 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 of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2nd Cor 12:8-9), with God’s point being, “For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2nd Cor 12:10b). Paul writes, “Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. Since Paul was an Apostle and had a thorn in the flesh, why didn’t Peter or one of the other Apostle’s come lay their hands on him and heal him? Earlier we read that even some in Peter’s shadow were healed, so did Peter lose his touch (Acts 5:12-16)? I think God explains why Paul was never healed and maybe gives us a possible clue as to why he doesn’t heal everyone. ![]() In fact, I would say, it’s infinitely more than that (John 3:16). But why didn’t Paul claim, “with his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5d)? We know he believed the Scriptures, because that’s what most of the Book of Roman’s contained, so he must have known Isaiah 53:5 and understood what it meant, but the silence of this verse being used for healing in the New Testament is evidence that the context was not about having someone physically, although we cannot limit God, but this verse is not an unlimited promise for God to heal everyone who believes it. ![]() Paul had a problem and it was a thorn in the flesh, and even though he prayed three times to have it removed, God’s answer was “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2nd Cor 12:9). He understood that his suffering today was no comparison to what’s coming (Rom 8:18), and I think that kept him content. Paul even said that the Lord Himself stood by Him (2nd Pet 4:17), but whether that was literally or in his spirit, only he knew this, but Paul trusted in God’s sovereignty and trusted it enough to know that whatever happened to Him, nothing could separate him from God (Rom 8:35), and that everything that was happening to him was going to work out for his ultimate best (Rom 8:28). If anyone was close to God in the first century church, it was the Apostle Paul.
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