THE CURE FOR SICKNESS, DISEASE AND DEATH
There are many code words that identify the New Covenant and the Old/First Covenant. Leprosy, uncleanness, blindness deafness, infirmity and plagues are among those code words. The more complete list is found in Deuteronomy 28:15-68.

The first thing we notice in Deuteronomy 28:15-68 is that the condition upon which all the curses listed will be visited on people is that they do not hear and obey the voice of God. It does not say that these curses will come if they do not obey the literal word of God. This is a very important distinction that is discussed in detail in God’s Word and God’s Voice are Not the Same.

What we learn here is that failure to hear and obey God’s spoken voice is the cause of the curses (i.e. sickness, disease). What we also learn if we listen carefully, is that the cure for the curses exists in repenting for not obeying the command to listen and then begin listening.

This principle is so simple that it is hard to grasp. Here is another way of saying it.

If we get sick because we eat unhealthy food, the way we get well is by eating good healthy food. 

We see this principle often in the news and publications about physical health. Food with too much fat, sugar and man-made additives contributes to obesity, cancer, and other kinds of bodily ailments. Eating natural, unadulterated food is the best way to achieve physical health.

This principle also applies with respect to spiritual food. That is why God gives such clear instructions about what kinds of spiritual food can be eaten and what kinds cannot be eaten. These are discussed in detail in Bread, Food and Wine.

People get spiritually sick and die when they eat evil, soulish food served by false prophets. The only way to get spiritually healthy, therefore, is to eat good, spiritual food that comes from the mouth of God. That’s it. God’s spoken word is the cure to the curses. God’s spoken word is the cure to spiritual sickness, disease and death.

That sounds simple enough, but the problem is that religious people who have gotten fat and sick on evil, soulish food do not know that they are spiritually unhealthy to the point of being spiritually dead.

Religion has taught them that they will have fulfilling lives by practicing religion, and to a point that is true. But the only thing that is alive in religious people is their flesh which is busy doing religious stuff that excites their intellect and their emotions.

STUDY TIP: See Music, Singing and Dancing for understanding of the flesh and religion.

Religious people do not know that they are spiritually dead because they are religious. They are dead in their sin (i.e. religion).  For them, being fat and sick is normal because they look like and act like all other religious people. And even if they did know that they were sick, they would not know how to take the medicine that will heal them because they have never been taught to listen to God’s spoken voice.

STUDY TIP: See Death, Resurrection, New Life, Salvation, Heaven  for more about spiritual death.

Because religion teaches them to listen to religious leaders who claim to speak for God, they do not know that they should have never listened to false prophets. Nor do they know how to listen to God’s spoken voice. Therefore, for lack of a mediator who can explain to them why they are sick, and who can tell them what to do to get well, they remain sick. Because they are deceived and intoxicated by religion that depends on false prophets for teaching, listening to God for themselves is not an idea that they entertain — even though God clearly says many times that they should listen to his voice.

STUDY TIP: See  this link and this link for scriptures where God commands people to listen to his spoken voice.

Obviously this is a dead end situation unless someone intervenes to tell people that they are sick and tell them how to get well. In the interim, religious people insist on seeking for knowledge about God by consulting idols (i.e. religious leaders) and God steadfastly refuses to speak to them.Even though they worship God with their mouths, their hearts are far from God. Thus their verbal and physical worship means nothing to God. All he cares about is the condition of their hearts. Therefore, he steadfastly refuses to speak to them himself.

When we try to imagine what would change this situation, we could think in terms of a spiritual doctor who could diagnose the situation and prescribe a cure. In a very real sense, that is what God did/does. He sends an anointed messiah who can speak for God in languages that nonspiritual people can understand.

Messiahs are intercessors. But their job is not to pray that the sick will be healed of their physical sickness. The do pray of course, but their prayers are only supplements to what they do: Speak for God.

STUDY TIP: See The Lord’s Prayer for understanding of a messiah’s prayer.

More accurately, messiahs intercede as warriors, high priests and true prophets to speak God’s words to religious people. They are qualified to speak for God because God’s laws are written on their hearts. They are qualified to speak because they hear God’s spoken voice and they are unafraid to tell others what they hear God saying.

Jesus is the best known example of a true prophet/messiah who speaks for God. But both the Old and New Testaments are full of examples of prophets who put their lives on the line to speak (i.e. prophesy) for God to people who have strayed from listening to God’s voice. These are all intercessors who were willing to lay down their lives for the sake of their sick/dead brothers and sisters who need to hear God’s voice.

This is a good solution from God’s perspective, but there was and is a great problem in the execution. The problem is not that the prophets were unwilling to speak. They were willing to lay down their lives. Rather, the problem is that religious people were/are unwilling to listen to what they have to say.

A good share of the Bible contains stories of true prophets telling truths that religious people didn’t want to hear. They didn’t want to hear what the prophets said because the prophets were basically telling them to stop practicing religion and start listening to God.

Because religious people in the Bible (i.e. Israelites, Jews)  were so intoxicated with religion, they refused to hear what the prophets had to say:

Israelites and Jews were so invested and protective of their religion that they killed the prophets who threatened their religion by exhorting them to listen to God’s voice instead of listening to their religious leaders (i.e. idols).

It is hard to imagine, but Israelites and Jews killed the prophets, including Jesus, even though the prophets had the words of life (i.e. God’s words spoken through them) that would heal them from their spiritual sickness. It is even harder to imagine that this situation still persists in these modern times. Jews and Christians still resist what the true prophets have to say about listening to God’s spoken voice. Jews and Christians still choose to hold on to their strongholds of wrong thinking instead of listening to God’s voice spoken through true prophets or by God directly.

And so, they remain spiritually sick, blind, deaf and dead because they choose to listen to false prophets and refuse to listen to God’s voice.