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WEEKLY
Volume 3 Number 28
7 December 2008
The LORD That Healeth Thee
(Message delivered by Rev
Hien Nguyen at the Worship Service, 2:00 pm, Dec 7, 08)
Text:
Exod 15:22-27
Thank God and praise the LORD that He is All we need,
and it is wisest to seek Him and His Word first, trust in Him and His
Word, look unto Him, wait upon Him, and follow Him step by step at a
time. He is our Provider with His name Jehovah-jireh, “The
LORD will provide” (Gen 22:14), He is our righteousness with His
name Jehovah-tsidkenu, “The LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS” (Jer
23:6), He is our Shepherd with His name Jehovah-rohi, “The
LORD is my Shepherd” (Ps 23:1), He is our Victory with His name
Jehovah-nissi, “The LORD is my Banner” (Exod 17:15), He is our
mighty Defender with His name Jehovah-sabaoth, “The LORD of
Hosts” (1 Sam 1:3), He is our Sanctifier with His name Jehovah-m’qadishkhem,
“The LORD that sanctifies you” (Exod 31:13; Lev 20:8; 21:8).
Today we are learning our LORD’s name Jehovah-rapha, “The LORD
that healeth thee” (Exod 15:26). Then, what does His name mean to
you and me? Are you and I sick now? Is our LORD still willing to heal
us? What should we do when we are sick? What are our proper attitudes
towards illnesses or diseases?
Illness Is a Curse from God
to this Sinful World
After God had created the heavens and the earth and
everything in it, including the first human beings, Adam and Eve,
“God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good”
(Gen 1:31). Sadly, due to the disobedience of Adam and Eve, curse, sin
and death entered into the world (Gen 3:16-19; Rom 5:12).
Nowadays, thank God for granting human beings wisdom,
intelligence and skills to diagnose and treat many illnesses and
diseases with good doctors, nurses, modern medical equipment and good
medication, but they are still doing a lot of studying and searching to
treat new diseases, cancer or bacteria. Why? Because we are living in a
sinful and cursed world with ungodliness, immorality, wickedness, lies
and crimes increasing daily.
Even to His people, God may use illness to chastise
them to bring them back in repentance, “But it shall come to pass, if
thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to
do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day;
that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee: …The LORD
shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee
from off the land, whither thou goest to possess it. The LORD shall
smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an
inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with
blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou
perish…” (Deut 28:15, 21-22, 27-28).
God also warns us to examine ourselves to partake of
the Lord’s Supper properly or else He will judge us and chastise us,
“For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh
damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this cause
many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would
judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are
chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world”
(1 Cor 11:29-32).
God’s Redemption in Christ
Jesus
We thank God for His grace and mercy that Jesus
Christ came to die and bear not only our sins but also our curse,
“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse
for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree”
(Gal 3:13) and “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on
the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness:
by whose stripes ye were healed” (1 Peter 2:24). Jesus healed all
the sick that came to Him, and this fulfilled God’s Word concerning Him,
“When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were
possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and
healed all that were sick: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken
by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare
our sicknesses.” (Matt 8:16-17; cf. Isa 53:5). Thank God that God’s
healing is based on our Lord Jesus’ redemption for us, not on any good
thing or good work from us. When we pray to God for His healing, we must
look unto our Lord Jesus Christ and trust in His redemptive work on the
cross for our sins and our curse.
The LORD Is Sovereign
The Jews read and knew Deuteronomy 28 and concluded
that all the sick were cursed by God. Even Jesus’ disciples, when they
saw the blind man, they asked Jesus, “Master, who did sin, this man,
or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2). Our Lord did
not support their wrong presumption, answering them, “Neither hath
this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be
made manifest in him” (v 3). Then, you and I should not quickly
misjudge others when they are sick as the three friends of Job did to
him when he was afflicted (Job 11).
Our LORD is sovereign and nothing happening to His
children is by accident without His will or permission. Then when we or
our brethren are sick, we just pray to God and may God’s will be done:
(1) God may chastise His children (1 Cor 11:29-32); or (2) God may allow
Satan to afflict His children with illness to try, refine and purify
them as He did to Job (Job 2:4-8; 23:10); or (3) to keep them humble and
dependent like Paul (2 Cor 12:7-9); or (4) to prevent them from doing
their own plans, and we have experienced many times in our lives when we
planned to go somewhere or do something according to our own will and
plans, and God used illness to redirect us. Praise the LORD!; or (5) to
bring them home to be with Him like Elisha, “Now Elisha was fallen
sick of his sickness whereof he died” (2 Kings 13:14).
The LORD Is Our Healer
Here, the children of Israel went three days in the
wilderness and found no water, and when they came to Marah, they could
not drink of the waters because they were bitter, and they murmured
against Moses. Moses “cried unto the LORD; and the LORD shewed him a
tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made
sweet” (Exod 15:25). The LORD’s instructions and promise are to
each of His people individually throughout the ages, “If thou wilt
diligently hearken to (hear with attention and obedience)
the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his
sight, and wilt give ear (listen with an obedient heart) to his
commandments, and keep all his statutes (enactments, laws, decrees),
I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon
the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee” (v 26). Thank
God that the LORD is still our Healer and our Great Physician as
“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Heb
13:8).
Nowadays, many fake healers teach that sign-gifts
like speaking in tongues, healing, prophesying are still ongoing, and
that the Lord always wants His children to be healed and healthy,
“Wilt thou be made whole?” (John 5:6). They have deceived many by
their empty claims of healing the sick under their ministry. They also
blame those who are not healed for their lack of faith! We should not be
deceived by them. We must rightly understand that our Lord Jesus Christ
gave His apostles power to heal the sick to confirm God’s Word when they
preached in the first century, “And they went forth, and preached
every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with
signs following. Amen” (Mark 16:20) and that the sign-gifts have
ceased since the New Testament was recorded for preaching, teaching and
studying (1 Cor 13:8-10). At the beginning of Paul’s ministry, many were
healed by him in Jesus’ name (Acts 14:8-10; 19:11-13; 28:8; etc.) but
several years later Paul cried unto the LORD for mercy upon Epaphroditus,
who visited Paul in prison and “was sick nigh unto death: but God had
mercy on him” (Phil 2:27), and before being martyred, Paul left
Trophimus at Miletum due to his illness (2 Tim 4:20). The LORD is still
our Great Physician, so when we are sick, we just come to Him in prayers
with trust, fear and submission, not to any fake healers, “See now
that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make
alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of
my hand” (Deut 32:39).
Our Proper Attitudes
towards Illness
Be Not Surprised or Frightened but Trust in God’s
Sovereignty: Our LORD is still in control.
Trusting in God’s sovereignty, we should not be surprised or so
frightened when we are sick, even seriously sick. God is able to make
all things work together for good to His beloved and obedient children
(Rom 8:28). We must understand that our physical body or our outward man
is naturally getting older and weaker, “For which cause we faint not;
but though our outward man perish (keep on perishing), yet the
inward man is renewed day by day” (2 Cor 4:16), and God can call us
home any time, even tonight (Luke 12:20). Moreover, when we have a
strong desire to be with the LORD (Phil 1:21-23), we shall have peace in
Him as sickness is one of the means God may use to bring us home to be
with Him.
Examine Ourselves:
As God may use illness to chastise us and bring us back to Himself or to
refine us, it is always best to examine ourselves to see whether we have
loved the LORD with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind,
and with all our strength (Mark 12:30) or whether we have carefully and
submissively listened to His Word, kept His Word or done the right thing
in His sight. Then, we confess our sins to the Lord and confess to our
brethren if we have done something wrong against them, “Confess your
faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed.”
(James 5:16).
Seek the LORD First before Seeing the Doctor:
Many just seek the doctors or fake healers
when they are sick. Others think that they do not need to see the doctor
nor take medication because they believe in the LORD, their Healer. Both
attitudes are not biblical. God still uses doctors, nurses, medical
equipment and medication to heal His children. Jesus says, “They that
be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick” (Matt 9:12),
and Luke was still “the beloved physician” when he accompanied
Paul (Col 4:14). Therefore, when we are sick, we need a doctor, but we
must seek the LORD and examine ourselves first. King Asa was not blessed
nor healed at the end of his reign because “in his disease he sought
not to the LORD, but to the physicians” (2 Chron 16:12). We are also
taught to ask the church leaders to pray for our illness, “Is any
sick among you?
let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him,
anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith
shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have
committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to
another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual
fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much”
(James 5:14-16). We do need the “prayer of faith” and the
“fervent prayer of a righteous man” as nowadays many church leaders
even do not wholeheartedly believe in God’s Word with fear and
submission!
Dedicate Our Lives to the LORD with Trust and Submission:
The LORD will not heal us so
that we continue living in sins. Surely, He will not support sins,
ungodliness or worldliness, “Afterward Jesus findeth him in the
temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more,
lest a worse thing come unto thee” (John 5:14). We must rededicate
our lives and our bodies to the LORD to live for Him and for His glory
as a living and holy sacrifice acceptable before Him (Rom 12:1; 1 Cor
6:20).
Live Wisely As Our Body Is God’s
Temple:
Knowing that our body is
God’s temple, we must take care of it and live wisely, “What? know ye
not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you,
which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” (1 Cor 6:19). We
should not live to eat but eat to live and stop taking anything
harmful to our bodies
although it may be nice, delicious, or tasty nor taking tobacco,
alcohol, chemicals, etc. We also keep our hearts peaceful and joyful in
the LORD, “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken
spirit drieth the bones” (Prov 17:22). If we are hurt by others, we
shall ask the LORD to heal our hearts and then forgive the offender. We
should remember that stress, worry, pride, anger, hatred, revenge, envy,
etc. will be harmful to our souls and bodies.
Look Forward to Our LORD’s Coming:
We should look forward to our
LORD’s coming when He “shall change our vile body, that it may be
fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby
he is able even to subdue all things unto himself” (Phil 3:21) and
look forward to our blessed life in new heaven, “And God shall wipe
away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death,
neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for
the former things are passed away” (Rev 21:4). No more pain, no
more sickness, no more death! Praise the LORD!
Conclusion
Thank God that our LORD is
still our Great Physician. May God help us seek Him, trust in Him and
His sovereignty, and dedicate our lives and bodies to Him as a living
and holy sacrifice to Him and for His glory till He comes. Amen.
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