GOD’S WORD HEALS

STUDY TIP: See Sickness, Disease, Blindness, and Deafness. and Death, Resurrection, New Life, Salvation, Heaven before reading this page.

In many places in the Bible, God says that he will bring or send many kinds of misfortunes on his people: famine, plague, bloodshed, pestilence, arrows, wild beasts on his people. He also says that he will bring diseases on his people:

Deuteronomy 28:58-61: If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law, which are written in this book, and do not revere this glorious and awesome name—the LORD your God— 59 the LORD will send fearful plagues on you and your descendants, harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses. 60 He will bring on you all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will cling to you. 61 The LORD will also bring on you every kind of sickness and disaster not recorded in this Book of the Law, until you are destroyed.

It is hard to understand why God would purposely bring disease and misfortune on his people. But in Deuteronomy 28:58-61 he explains the reason:

“If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law, which are written in this book, and do not revere this glorious and awesome name —the LORD your God— 59 the LORD will send fearful plagues on you and your descendants, harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses. 60 He will bring on you all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will cling to you. 61 The LORD will also bring on you every kind of sickness and disaster not recorded in this Book of the Law, until you are destroyed“. 

This scripture may be summarized this way: People who do not listen to and obey God’s spoken words/laws will suffer misfortune and disease. They have made the wrong choice about who to listen to. The words to which God refers are his spoken words — not his written words.

STUDY TIP: The difference between the two kinds of words are discussed in God’s Written Word and God’s Spoken Voice Part 1 and in God’s Written Word and God’s Spoken Voice Part 2.

God’s spoken words contain the words of his spiritual laws which he writes on the hearts of New Covenant disciples. God’s laws (i.e. words, commandments) embody his name (i.e. character). The “book” referred to in Deuteronomy 28:58-61 is the heart of New Covenant disciples. We know this because the heart is the where God writes his laws. This is how we come to know God. Thus, people whose hearts contain God’s spoken words have God’s name (i.e. character) written on their hearts. Their hearts are created in God’s image.

STUDY TIP: See Third Commandment for more about God’s name. Also see Place Where God Will Place His Name.

Putting all the above together, we conclude that God brings misfortunes and diseases of all kinds on people who do not have his name/character in their hearts. And they do not have his name/character because God has not given them eyes to see or ears to hear his voice which is the medium through which he writes his laws on hearts.

But we must ask why God opens the eyes and ears of some people and not others? They answer is that they have chosen to eat fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil instead of the Fruit of the Tree of Life. In Biblical symbolism, this choice is represented as going down to Egypt.

STUDY TIP: See Egypt, Babylon and Canaan for understanding of Egypt.

When people choose religion over listening to his voice, God lets them have what they want. It is the principle of God giving people the desires of their hearts. If their hearts desire to listen to false prophets and desire to practice religious traditions, he does not interfere with that choice. We see that principle in the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

The diseases of Egypt mentioned in Deuteronomy 28:58-61 are symbolic references to religion in all of it various manifestations.

What God does, in effect, is punish people by allowing them to be religious if they choose to be religious. So, the matter of suffering from the diseases of Egypt (i.e. religion) is not so much a matter of God bringing disease and misfortune on people as it is a matter of the choices people make. They can either choose life and blessings by listening to God’s word, or they can choose death, disease and cursing by being religious.

The reason God punishes people for practicing religion is that he wants them to listen to his voice. They will not listen, however, until they learn that listening to the voices of false prophets who preach religion leads them into bondage. See Religion is Injustice, Slavery, Oppression and Affliction. The principle here is that they will not be able to understand and appreciate true freedom and true love until they have experienced bondage and fear. Or, to put it another way, it is impossible to fully appreciate good health until we have been sick to the point of death.

What we see, then, is that punishment/discipline has a purpose. He punishes them for practicing religion. He does this to turn people from listening to idols (i.e. false prophets) so that they will listen to his voice. Only then will they know God.