This topic is about healing. Healing in the physical body is restoration to a healthy condition from disease or damage.
Almighty God is the ultimate Healer. Eventually He will give us imperishable spiritual bodies, without the weakness or pain of our present natural bodies. 1Co.15:42-49 applies to us. “There is a natural body; there is also a spiritual body.” 1Co.15:50 our perishable flesh & blood bodies won’t inherit the Kingdom of God.
God provides good for our bodies of flesh. Php.4:19 “My God shall provide all your need.” Je.29:11-13 “I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘Plans for good and not evil, to give you a future and a hope. You will pray to Me, and I will hear you.” John wrote in 3Jn.2, “I desire you to prosper and be in good health”. But our earthly bodies will encounter sickness, and need healing.
The Lord is the real Physician. It’s been said…all others are just ‘practicing’! Yet they can often help.
{Sidelight: Jn.6:46, 5:37 Jesus said no human had ever seen or heard Father God (Jesus revealed Him, Jn.1:18). Jn.1:1, 14 the Word/Jesus is also YHVH. (cf. Ge.19:24 two YHVHs!) Is.6:1, 5 & Jn.12:41-44 John said Isaiah saw the pre-incarnate Word/Jesus (not the Father). It was Jesus Christ who was the visible Spokesman God of the Old Testament! see the topic “Jesus Was the Old Testament God”.}
Ex.20:1-ff the Lord Jesus spoke His Decalogue to Moses! Ex.15:26 “If you will obey the Lord your God, and hearken to His commandments and keep His statutes; I AM the Lord your Healer.” God said in Ex.23:25-26, “I will fulfill the number of your days”. Gill Exposition “The number of days which was fixed for each of them.” Christ will remove sickness, and promises a person will live the number of days/years God intends for that one! De.7:15 the Lord would put sickness on the heathen hateful. De.28:58-61 those who disobey God’s laws will be diseased & destroyed! Ps.55:23 “Bloody deceitful men shall not live half their days.” The years of evil men may end early, in the prime of life.
God is Sovereign! Jb.14:5 “Since a person’s days are determined, the number of his months are under Your [God’s] control, You have set his limit that he cannot pass.” A man’s days are known and initially fixed by God. 1Sm.2:6 “The Lord brings death and gives life.” The power of life and death is in God’s hands. Since God is the Author of life, He has the right to take life. It’s God’s prerogative.
Jesus’ basic dietary, cleanliness and sanitation laws are found in: Le.11 clean versus unclean, De.14:2-21 (similar to Le.11), Le.15, Le.17:10-16. (also see “Unclean versus Clean Food”.)
Good health is more than luck. Paul said in Ga.6:7, “Be not deceived, whatever one sows he will also reap”. We reap what we sow. It’s a basic principle of God. Jesus is the God of cause and effect. Action and reaction. Obedience results in blessings, but disobedience can result in misery. This principle is foundational to our health and healing! De.30:10-20 “The Lord is your life and the length of your days.” Here Christ makes the point that choosing to obey results in life and length of days (v.20)!
But what should we do when we encounter illness?
Healing is more than a removal of physical symptoms. Mt.9:2-6 God’s healing includes forgiveness! Jn.5:11-14 Jesus told the sick man He’d healed, “Don’t sin, so that nothing worse may befall you”. Sin can result in sickness. Yet 1Jn.1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is just to forgive our sins.”
We confess and repent! Mk.6:12-13 we’re to repent of sin…many were anointed & healed via His disciples. Ja.5:14-16 “Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will restore the sick. If he has committed sins, they will be forgiven. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous person avails much.” Amen.
Olive oil was a common base oil in Old Testament (OT) Israel (and a point of contact). Numerous essential oils of herbs/trees in God’s creation have properties which contribute to healing. Moreover, Re.22:2 “The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” Ex.30:22-38 God’s holy anointing oil mixture and holy incense mixture at His ancient tabernacle contained powerful antiviral, antibacterial and antifungal agents. Those blends were made from spices and essential oils. The Lord even stayed the plague when Aaron held up the holy incense mixture (Nu.16:46-48)!
Heartfelt believing prayers are effective! Ps.34:15 “The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears open to their cry.” Ps.119:172 the righteous obey God’s commandments (ref Lk.1:6). Lk.11:9-10, 18:1-7 we too can give God no rest in prayer!
It may be that God will wait to see how much we desire something, before He answers. If we want healing, intervention or some blessing enough, we can supplicate on our knees/face until breakthrough. God will hear! When we get our breakthrough, we’ll know that we know in our knower…we’ll be healed! Strong believing faith comes.
2Ki.20:1-11 God healed king Hezekiah from a terminal condition, using a poultice of figs. The king had prayed earnestly and wept bitterly. v.5 the Lord said, “I will heal you”. In so doing, God used plant therapy to add 15 years to Hezekiah’s days. And he didn’t have a personal breakthrough (v.8).
Je.8:22 “Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there?” Ancient Gilead was known for its balm (from the balsam tree), used for healing wounds.
1Ti.5:23 Paul prescribed wine therapy for Timothy’s frequent ailments. Most often we have our part to do, in some form or another.
King Asa, however, became disobedient to God. He trusted in allies and sought physicians, rather than seeking God first…and he died from a severe foot disease (2Ch.16:7-9, 12-13)!
Mk.5:25-29 this woman had endured much from physicians. But then Jesus healed her miraculously!
Yet it’s not always lack of faith to seek medical aid too. Mt.9:12 Jesus said it’s those who are sick who need a physician (He too is a Physician). Col.4:14 “Luke, the beloved physician.” Wisdom of Sírach 38:1-4 “Honor the physician with the honor due him, and according to your need of him. Healing comes from the Most High. The Lord created medicines from the earth, and the sensible man will not loathe them.” It is thought that all 1st century Judean towns had a doctor to treat symptoms, set fractures, dress wounds, ease pain. Today’s practitioner of alternative medicine, naturopath, herbalist may compare.
God is omniscient…He knows the end from the beginning (Is.46:10). Also God is love (1Jn.4:8), and wants to do us good during our days He’s given us in the flesh. We reap what we sow, and God lovingly chastises us for disobedience along the way (He.12:5-7, Re.3:19). But since Jesus took the rap to acquit us, God may heal before we’ve fully reaped what we’ve sown! The Lord is our ultimate healing Physician…in this physical life, and/or in the future via an incorruptible spiritual body.
1Co.10:13 God doesn’t allow us to experience trials greater than we can bear! David wrote in Ps.39:4, “Lord, make me to know my end and what is the extent of my days”. Some may desire to remain in the flesh past the “extent of our days”. To accomplish more or desiring to be with loved ones here; to delay our going to be with Christ and other loved ones who’ve passed on. (see “Life and Death – for Saints”.) God loves us. Perhaps He may honor our choice? The Lord did add 15 years to Hezekiah’s life!
We can seek advanced medical treatment or have surgery(s) which possibly may add to our time in this natural body. It may be that God won’t override one’s desire to do so. God knows. One way or the other…Ps.116:15 “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.”
It’s risky to ignore a persistent strange pain or sickness in the body. Mk.9:43-47 may also broadly apply to skin cancer from sun, or gangrene. Remove tumors if need be. A mixture of eggplant and oils or vinegar can be effective against basal cell and squamous skin cancers.
God basically heals through three means: miraculously, naturally, normal body rejuvenation over time.
There’s no individuals named in the gospel accounts to whom Jesus refused healing! The Messiah even healed male Israelite lepers, Mt.8:1-4! However, lack of faith in Nazareth limited even Jesus, Mk.6:5.
Lk.7:1-10 Jesus healed gentiles too. Mk.7:24-30 He delivered the Syro-Phoenician’s daughter. (Maybe those individuals there kept the dietary laws Christ had instructed Moses?) At least 1/3 of Jesus’ healings were deliverance from spirits. Trespassing spirits can cause disease. Ac.28:3-10 God healed ignorant heathens on Malta…they’d believed God’s miracle with Paul and respected his shipwrecked group. The Most High is kind to all (Lk.6:35b).
God is great at putting out fires…He’s the ultimate Fireman! But God’s kindness and mercy may not repudiate His principle of sowing and reaping.
In 1Ti.5:22a, Paul said to be circumspect in laying-on hands. I may not have expectant faith to lay-on hands for the healing of one who’s knowingly unrepentant. But with faith and confidence in God’s promises, we can readily lay hands on the person whose heart is sincerely trying to obey the Lord!
1Co.12:8-10 some Christians are gifted as special agents of God’s healing & miracles. Ac.5:14-16 God even healed through Peter’s shadow! Ac.19:11-12 at Ephesus, Paul used anointed cloths in healing.
Often God heals through created bodily processes and rejuvenation over time. Living in disobedience for years can weaken our system. But if an unknown pain or illness is still present after giving the body reasonable time to be renewed…it’s our decision whether or when to seek medical aid and expose a weakened immune system to sicknesses prevalent in today’s hospitals & waiting rooms.
Prescription drugs? Drugs have side effects. But if one’s immune system has become too weak or we don’t know what will remedy our condition naturally or the belief isn’t there…antibiotics may be necessary. Garlic (raw) is a potent natural antibiotic…its use even prevented soldiers in the 20th century world wars from getting gangrene!
2Ti.4:20 Tróphimus was sick. But, tradition says he died later from beheading by Nero. 2Co.12:7-10 Paul’s thorn in the flesh…affliction from an adversarial spirit to keep Paul humble, or perhaps cataracts with age. Or possibly Paul was reaping (2Co.11:24-25) what he’d sown as Saul, the trauma he’d caused Jewish Christian saints (e.g. Ac.9:1-4)? God loved & forgave Saul/Paul…yet God is just. (Paul himself even wrote to the saints in 2Th.1:6, “It is just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you”.)
Ps.119:84 “How many are the days of Thy servant?” Most of us (non-terminally ill) don’t know the number of our days. Is.57:1-2 sometimes, “The righteous is taken away from evil to come. They rest on their beds.” 2Ti.4:6-7 Paul knew his spirit was soon to depart his body. 2Pe.1:13-15 Peter knew his time to go was imminent. (Ja.2:26 the body without the spirit is dead. cf. Ac.7:59 with Lk.8:55.) And the day will come when God will no longer heal our physical shell surrounding our spirit…you and me.
God has blessed my son’s family so far in this life. Yet he’s told me that he also looks forward to being with the Lord. Php.1:23 “To depart and be with Christ is far better.”
Ps.103:1-5 “Praise the Lord and forget not all His benefits. He pardons all your iniquities and heals all your diseases.” (Again, Mt.9:5 pardon & healing.) Healing the obedient from illness is one of the many benefits Jesus promised. It’s not magic…it’s mercy and grace. God knows our hearts, knows whether or not we’re sincere in trying to overcome an issue. Full repentance may take some time.
Besides obeying God’s laws & principles, our environment and diet affects our health. We’re advised to: wash our hands, keep a clean house, get enough exercise; and avoid blood, smoking, nicotine, sugary soft drinks. To neglect doing our part, or taking for granted our God-given bodies, can result in illness.
We may inadvertently catch a bug at school or at work in this ‘fallen’ world. We’re affected and infected by the actions and sins of others. Not all that we suffer is due to our personal sin (ref Lk.13:1-5). Yet we may have a trial where we suffer some physically.
Pets can get parasites and make us sick. Caring for pets is a good teaching tool for children, or keeping a yap-yap dog for protection. But it’s our personal decision whether the pros outweigh the cons of keeping an unclean animal inside the home. (There’s no Bible record of unclean pets in OT Israel!)
What about healing through televangelists? For example, I’ve heard that Benny Hinn eats clean and verbally gives God the glory for the healings. A Christian I know described to me his own healing at a Benny Hinn crusade (a female co-worker of mine likewise). Many pray and fast going into such crusades. There’s usually a high faith level and expectancy at such events.
But a person may later lose their healing through disobedience. The Lord mercifully puts out the fire and heals, but then with continued disobedience that person may again start reaping what they sow. Railing on satan with the tongue while disobeying God’s commandments may not bring physical relief! A level of faith is also necessary to believe and obey God’s written word.
My wife tries to obey Jesus’ dietary & sanitary laws. She’s not used my health insurance or antibiotics in 35 years. It’s cause and effect, in part. Mt.9:28-30 Jesus said, “According to your faith be it done to you”. I wear glasses. Other than my eyes and having skin lesions removed (probably too many hours outside without sunscreen), I rarely go to a doctor. I take herbal supplements & essential oils, but no meds. I have dental checkups & cleanings twice-a-year. When I catch a bug or get injured, usually the first thing I do is ask for anointing and for the Lord to heal me. To God be the glory!
For sure, most of us don’t want to die an untimely death. 1Pe.2:24 “By His [Jesus’] wounds you were healed.” Until we’ve reached the number of our days God is giving us…He provides our physical healing needs. The Lord says in He.13:5, “I will never leave you nor forsake you”.
As we’ve seen, the concept of healing is multifaceted. Healing accompanies forgiveness…and consummates in the Christian’s new life in eternity.
God is Sovereign. He’s in charge. God is for us, and will cause all things to work together for our good (Ro.8:28-32)! Php.3:20-21 “Our citizenship is in heaven, from which we eagerly await the Lord Jesus; who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body.” That’s our hope, our spiritual body!
For now…let’s continue to have faith in God and in His word, keeping our hearts focused on obeying and trusting Him. It is possible to live in near divine health, as God promised. Until we too fulfill the number of our natural days, according to God’s will…and go to be forever with the Lord!
Bible Topic Exposition 