As the end approaches, the power of the enemy is increasing, and he often seeks to display such by imitation. We are warned of this in 2 Tim. 3:8, where we are told of how the magicians of Egypt, under Satan's power, withstood Moses by imitation. This is the character of the last days.
The Christian who would be kept in an evil day, must learn the importance of meeting all the attacks of the enemy by the written Word of God. "By the word of Thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer." Psalm 17:4.
There is much false teaching around us about healing, and many dear children of God have been caught in this snare, and then led to wonder why they were not healed.
These lines have been written to bring out the teaching of the Word of God on the subject, so that we may be kept from making false claims. May we be like the men of Issachar of old who "had understanding of the times" (1 Chron. 12:32). Soon we shall be with and like Christ above, having glorified bodies like His, and meanwhile may we learn submission to all His ways with us, even in sickness.
It is well to remember that sickness and death came into the world through sin (Rom. 5:12).
The first mention in the Bible of disease is in Exod. 15:26. There it is stated that God had put such upon the Egyptians, but that such would not be put upon the children of Israel provided they walked in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord.
Blessing on the earth was the distinctive promise to Israel (Deut. 7:13-15). When they walked in disobedience and forsook the Lord, then the government of God brought upon them all the diseases of Egypt of which they had been afraid (Deut. 28:58-61). Their promised blessings were earthly (Deut. 28:1-14).
God took knowledge of their ways, for under law every transgression and disobedience must receive a just recompense of reward (Heb. 2:2). We see this principle strikingly in the case of Jehoram
the son of Jehoshaphat, recorded in 2 Chron. 21:18, 19.
Satan may be the instrument to afflict, or bring disease, but it is God who has allowed it, yea, even sent it, in the wisdom of His ways, whether it be to awaken the sinner to his need of salvation, to correct that which His watchful eye sees needful in the child of God, or for some other reason. These principles of the ways of God are strikingly brought before us in the book of Job. This book is very precious instruction for us, and gives us these moral ways of God which are true at all times. May we be exercised by all that His wisdom and love may send to do us good at our latter end.
Man tested and tried (Israel is just a sample of man in the flesh) has failed so completely that he has forfeited every claim to blessing on the ground of faithful obedience. No one can claim freedom from sickness on the ground of his own faithfulness. Grace alone is the ground of all blessing to ruined man. The first time the election of grace is mentioned in the Bible is on this principle (see Exod. 33:19; Isa. 1:9). It is of this election of grace that Paul speaks in Rom. 11:5.
Now God is never frustrated in His purposes, and all the counsels of God will have a full and blessed fruition; and so in the Millennium it is said, "There shall be no more curse" (Rev. 22:3). The healing waters will come from the south side of the altar (Eze. 47:1). The redeemed of the Lord will then be forgiven all their iniquities, and healed of all their diseases (Psalm 103:3). Then "the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick" (Isa. 33:24). They will enjoy the sabbath of rest according to the mind of God, for the sabbath is God's pledge of rest to the redeemed of the Lord on the earth (Eze. 46:1-3).
When the Lord Jesus presented Himself to Israel as their true Messiah and King, He showed them how He, "the LORD that healeth thee," could bring the promised blessing. He healed the diseases of all who came to Him, and, had the nation accepted Him, the kingdom would have been set up then. It is precious at this point to notice how He felt for those He healed with a perfect sympathy, entering into their sicknesses and sorrows in matchless grace. In this way it could be said of Him, "Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses" (Matt. 8:17). He even wept at the grave of Lazarus with the sorrowing sisters, Martha and Mary, before displaying His power as the resurrection and the life (John 11), in raising Lazarus from the dead. Truly He was "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief" (Isa. 53:3), and it was the compassion of His blessed heart that made Him so. But Israel rejected their King, saying, "We have no king but Caesar." They chose their sins, sickness, and death instead of Him; for the world did not and does not want Christ on any terms whatever.
Now we see this same power to heal manifested in Christ's name after His resurrection from the dead. This is in the book of The Acts (see Acts 4:26-30). Israel were given the opportunity as a nation of acknowledging their guilt; and Peter told them that, if they would, God would send Jesus and bring in the kingdom then (Acts 3:19-26). The gospel was therefore accompanied by signs and wonders in the name of the One whom they rejected, and thus the powers of the age to come were manifested (Heb. 6:5); but even this testimony was refused. Stephen was stoned, and thus they sent a message after Christ, saying, "We will not have this man to reign over us" (Luke 19:14). Once again they chose their sickness and sorrows, refusing the Holy Spirit's testimony to Christ's death, resurrection, and glory at God's right h a n d. Nevertheless, since "the gifts and calling of God are without repentance" (Rom. 11:29), we see that the power to heal remained during the life of the apostles.
The blessings of the Church, however, in this present period, are expressed by the Apostle in Eph. 1:3, wherein he says that we are "blessed... with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ." Heb. 3:1 contrasts this with Israel's earthly blessings by saying that we are now "partakers of the heavenly calling."
Christianity is a calling out of the world of a people whose "conversation [citizenship] is in heaven" (Phil. 3:20). The trial of man is completely over (John 12:31). The Christian is not called upon to build a better world, nor to interfere in its government, but to live Christ and to preach Christ while waiting for God's Son from heaven (1 Thess. 1:5-10).
God is now training His children for the coming day of glory when all will manifest the wisdom of His ways, which perfect love ordered with a view to that coming day of manifestation. Infirmity, sickness, and trial are often used of Him to this end, as we shall see in what follows.
First of all, He chose us in Christ "before the foundation of the world," that we should be to the praise of His glory (Eph. 1:4-6). Israel's blessings are "from the foundation of the world" (Matt. 25:34). The precious secret of the Church's blessing was hid in God, and revealed through the Apostle Paul by a special revelation from Christ in glory. Baptized by one Spirit into one body, we can now enjoy in blessed nearness all the affections of His heart, with a nature given of God. This nature will enable us to enjoy what the heart of God enjoys, forever. How precious! We shall also be the temple of God, reflecting His glory in all its moral excellence; for every glory is ours, except that which cannot be communicated; that is, deity itself.
God is preparing us now, by skillful training, for the place His grace has purposed for us in the building of God. He may pick up the most unlikely stone, one that entered the world physically deformed or deficient, and with such, display His marvelous skill as the Builder, in fitting it into the building of God (Eph. 2:18-22).
As the husbandman He must prune each branch of the vine of His planting with a view to fruit bearing. This is that we might in the communion of love bear fruit through the manifestation of the true nature of God as His children. How His heart rejoices when anything is done just to please Him, having learned what is pleasing through this communion in love (John 15:7, 8). His watchful eye that seeks this communion, sees when the old root of self has not been judged, and in the wisdom of love prunes each branch that it may produce fruit to His praise.
We also learn that grace may have communicated to some servant much of His mind, and of the largeness of His counsels, enabling such to communicate this to the beloved flock of God; but then with it He must give that which is a thorn in the flesh to keep "the pride of life" in the place of death (2 Cor. 12:7-10).
Then we have chastening, which may take the form of sickness, and this has the thought of child-training (Heb. 12:5-8). The same word is translated "nurture" in Eph. 6:4. This is for the correction of our ways, and may call for "scourging," which is the wise and gracious voice of the Lord, "that we may be partakers of His holiness" (Heb. 12:10).
We also learn from Paul's comment regarding Epaphroditus, that sickness may be the result of devotedness. This dear man of God did not regard his life, that he might supply Paul's need, in the Philippians' lack of service toward him (Phil. 2:25-30).
It is evident from reading 1 Tim. 5:23, that Timothy had infirmities that remained with him, in the wisdom of God, and that Trophimus was left at Miletum sick (2 Tim. 4:20), so that the gift of healing which Paul possessed was not used on behalf of these two brethren, beloved in the Lord.
In all these various dealings of God with His children, we know that the same One who once entered into the sorrows of those He healed here upon earth, is now living, a glorified Man, as our Great High Priest above. Although our promised blessings are heavenly, and not earthly, yet He sympathizes with us in our physical infirmities, and ever lives to make intercession for us (Heb. 2:17, 18; 4:14-16). When tried in sickness and pain, we can look up to Him for comfort and understanding, and for strength to bear up so that we do not become irritated and dishonor Him in the trial. The blessed Holy Spirit too, whose testimony the world rejects, as we have noticed, now indwells the bodies of all believers as the Comforter, to occupy our hearts with those heavenly glories that await us with Christ (John 14:26). He helps our infirmities too, and makes "intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered" (Rom. 8:26). He, with us, is waiting for the day when He shall quicken our mortal bodies (Rom. 8:11); and then, freed forever from this groaning tabernacle, we shall enjoy in fullness our heavenly blessings. This will be when the Lord comes for His own. "The Spirit and the bride say, Come." "Even so, come, Lord Jesus." Rev. 22:17, 20.
The subject of healing again comes before us in Jas. 5:14, 15. Here it is a soul exercised about the sickness; and, where there has been failure, it is owned (v. 16). Then the prayer of faith on the part of the elders who are called (there are none officially now), suggests their communion with the mind of the Lord, for confidence in prayer is the fruit of "abiding in Christ" (John 15:7). It is evident here that the sufferer owns the hand of God in his sickness, judges the failure there may have been, and then seeks healing through communion with the mind of the Lord that it is His will to raise him up. Such faith honors God, for it is from Him; but to claim healing today in every case, as a Christian blessing, is to fail to understand true Christian position. God can and does answer the prayer of faith, and we ought to be exercised by every trial He passes us through, but let us not confuse our blessings in Christianity with Israel's as an earthly people.
It must never be forgotten that the child of God is now called to an inheritance reserved in heaven (1 Pet. 1:4). The work of Christ has given the believer a perfect standing before God (Heb. 10:14). The wilderness life of the child of God is to put Christ practically in the heart, so that He may be seen in our ways (2 Cor. 4:11). Every child of God needs this training, whereof all are partakers (Heb. 12:8). Let us seek to profit by all through which the wisdom of God may pass us, for there will never be a trial without a "needs be" on our part, and without a purpose of love on His part.