Day 19 – Thorn

(𝐴𝑙ℎ𝑎𝑔𝑖 𝑚𝑎𝑢𝑟𝑜𝑟𝑢𝑚)

“After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning thorn bush.” Acts 7:30 NASB 

Except for our botanist friends, few people find thorns captivating. They are not considered beautiful and don’t seem very useful. “Thorns and thistles” (a Hebrew phrase referring to the entire class of thorns) were not in the original creation, but when man sinned, God cursed the ground with thorns – a negative, hurtful, even repulsive element that intruded into the original creation’s perfection. Every pricked finger, every overgrown field, every ugly thornbush, reminds us of the frustrating pain of sin. 

The negative associations of thorns are what make their appearance in the Bible so intriguing, for God weaves these very thorns into the revelation of His grace. He gives them a star role in the unfolding drama of His judgment and unbelievable mercy.

Thorns appear next in the Bible as the burning bush where God chose to appear inside the thorn bush on the mountain, where He later gave the law. The whole event at the burning bush is almost a parody of the curse in Eden. The One who appeared in the Garden and pronounced the curse of thorns now reappears amid thorns, promising deliverance.

Through Jesus Christ, thorns take on a whole new meaning because they symbolise our focused thoughts on God’s plan of redemption. While Adam’s sin disrupted the beauty of God’s creation, the Son of God came to earth to set things right. God wove even the harshest elements of the original curse into His beautiful plan of ultimate redemption through Christ.

Prayer: Father, thank You that while you cursed the world with thorns, You still use the thorn powerfully through Scripture to bring a message of redemption – the revelation of Your grace. Open our eyes to see the beauty in what we deem thorny and look for Your Holy fire in the thorns of life. Amen.

Love, Pastor Iriza