The purpose of this series is to highlight the three things (points) Jesus accomplished by 1) willingly submitting to a public beating, 2) willingly being put to death in the most cruel fashion imaginable, and 3) being resurrected from the dead by the power of God’s Holy Spirit.  In the first posting of this series we studied Part A of Point 1 which involved the fact that the Lord promised obedient Israelites, along with those Gentiles who would become spiritual Israelites by obeying Him, that He is their God who HEALS them.  As the Prophet Isaiah so graphically noted, the terrible beating Christ endured enabled man to be healed of his sicknesses, diseases, injuries, etc.  The healing He promises covers every type of spiritual, physical, mental and situational problem known to man.  Man, as statistics prove, is in dire need of healing in a variety of areas.

The area most often acknowledged by man as in need of healing involves his physical body.  The medical profession works diligently and continually to meet mankind’s medical needs.  The industry surrounding medical science is the largest undertaking on earth in terms of numbers of people involved.  As I write this posting (4/3/’21) a travesty known as the COVID-19 pandemic has claimed over two million lives world-wide and is predicted to surge once again over the coming months.  Those who have not received medication are “self-medicating” by taking measures believed to prevent the spread of the deadly virus–wearing masks, segregation, staying at home, etc.  Ironically, while people line up for miles and wait for hours to receive the latest COVID-19 drugs, avoid other people, wear face coverings, etc., disease-carrying people by the thousands are pouring across the U.S. southern border.  Doctors who examine them tell us that they are infected by the virus on a level seven times higher than that of U.S. citizens.  Hospitals are overflowing.  Corpses are being stored in refrigerated trucks.  As this is happening, other corpses are being found in ever higher numbers in the desert areas north of the Rio Grande River that separates the U.S. from Mexico.  Which begs the question: Why is there so much sickness, suffering and death in the United States?

America touts herself as One Nation Under God and claims that she trusts in that same Biblical God.  So why are self-professed Christian people continuously in need of healing when God has promised His people that He would put on them none of the diseases He with which He has cursed other people.  For those who study God’s Word, He has the answer to that very important question.  The also know that the answer will be found in His “fine print” where His Truth can be studied by those who honestly seek it.

Jesus proclaimed that God’s Word is Truth (Jn. 17:17).  God’s Word/Truth reveals the reasons behind all things that happen to mankind–both positive and negative.  And the reason always involves man himself.  Pogo, a comic strip character from the distant past, proclaimed this Truth when he said, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”  In this posting the Lord will prove Pogo right.  Contrary to church-wide opinion, man, not Satan, is man’s worst enemy.  Satan can do to man only what man allows him to do.  God reveals in His fine print what man, including churchman, does or fails to do that opens his spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, etc. “doors” to the devil and enables him to wreak havoc in their lives.  No area of human life is off limits to his destructive work which produces pain, destruction and even death.  However, as the following will reveal, man owns the key to his “doors.”  It is man–not “fate,” not “nature,” not “just the way life is,” not “the luck of the draw,” etc. that determines if one’s “doors” open when Satan “knocks.”  What we are about to examine is part of God’s “fine print.”  Only those with eyes to see, ears to hear and a heart to embrace His Truth will hear His “voice,” believe it and obey it.  Jesus said in Matthew 7:13,14 that only a few will do so, and that though He calls many to believe and obey Him, only a few are chosen for having answered His call (Mat. 22:14).

Few passages of Scripture rival Exodus 15:26 and Isaiah 53:4-6,12 when answering the “Why me” question relative to sickness, disease, injury, accidents, natural disasters, etc.  Let us begin with the Lord’s words which He spoke to the children of Israel (Jacob) and the “mixed multitude” of Gentiles whom He had recently freed from Egyptian slavery.  As the previous verse stated, He was testing them when He said: “If you diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord your God, do that which is right in My sight, obey My commandments and keep all My statutes, I will put NONE OF THESE DISEASES upon you which I put upon the Egyptians, for I am the Lord that HEALS you” (Exo. 15:26).  Obviously, following their deliverance from Egypt (sin–Acts 7:39-43) and their baptism in the Red Sea (cleansing–1 Cor. 10:1,2) the people were free of sin, sickness, debility, etc.  Their PAST sins had been removed (justified) and consequently their physical infirmities had been healed.  Recall that Jesus equated the forgiveness of sins to the healing of the body (Mat. 9:1-7).  If the forgiveness of sin brings healing, then the commission of sin has to cause the need for healing.  This explains why mankind is continually in need of healing of some kind.

Let us now turn to Isaiah 53 for more proof of why man, including churchman, is in continuous need of healing.  In verses 4-6 we are told that Jesus bore our griefs and sorrows; He was wounded for our transgressions (sins) and bruised for our iniquities (Lawlessness); our rightfully-earned, sin-caused punishment was absorbed by Him–“AND BY HIS STRIPES WE ARE HEALED” of all of the above-mentioned, sin-caused infirmities from which all of mankind has rightfully suffered.  The message could not be more clear: SIN CAUSES GRIEFS, SORROWS, WOUNDS, BRUISES, SICKNESSES, DISEASES, ACCIDENTS, DEBILITATIONS, ETC.  Church people are told by their leaders that, due to Adam’s blunder, sin is natural, unavoidable, forgiven and forgotten immediately upon repentance.  If so, why are they afflicted by the latest plague, epidemic and pandemic exactly as are those who have no use for the Biblical God?  He tells us.

In the 5th chapter of John’s gospel we find Jesus healing a man at the pool of Bethesda.  Later He approaches the man and says to him: “Behold, you have been healed of your sickness; SIN NO MORE LEST A WORSE THING (SICKNESS) COME UPON YOU” (5:14).  Note that He identified the man’s sins as the cause of his sickness and the removal of his sins as the cause of his healing.  Note also that any future sin would result in an even worse sickness.  The lesson is this: WHEN GOD HEALS A PROBLEM HE FORGIVES THE SINS THAT CAUSED THE PROBLEM.  IN ORDER TO REMAIN HEALTHY THE HEALED PERSON MUST STOP SINNING.  IF HE SINS, HE PAYS AN EVEN HIGHER PRICE.  This is stated in another way in Luke 12:48 where Jesus said: “… unto whom much is given (healing), much is required (holiness).”  If holiness does not ensue, problems will continue and get ever worse.  The director of the Center for Disease Control is predicting “Impending Doom” relative to the COVID-19 pandemic.  We have seen no call by the religious community to do what God prescribed in 2 Chronicles 7:13,14.  In verse 13 He tells us that it is He who sends curses on those who claim to be his people.  In verse 14 He proclaims that, as a nation, if we will humble ourselves, pray, seek Him and STOP SINNING, that He will 1) FORGIVE OUR SINS AND 2) HEAL OUR LAND–REMOVE THE PROBLEM(S).  In Proverbs 26:2 the Lord tells us that “The curse without a cause does not come.”  Sickness, etc. is a curse from God that we have brought on ourselves by sinning–breaking God’s Law (1 Jn. 3:4).  Because there here has been no national repentance and turning from sin, look for even worse curses to arrive in the future.

For proof of the divine connection between man’s good or bad conduct and the Lord’s blessings or curses I ask you to read Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 in their entirety.  Notice the causes for blessings and curses.  For those who believe that the Old Testament is irrelevant in these New Testament times, remember that what happened to Israel in the past was recorded and preserved as a teaching tool for those in God’s latter day church (spiritual Israelites)–1 Cor. 10:11.  Also, the teachings of both the PROPHETS and the apostles form the foundation of God’s New Testament Church (Eph. 2:20).  Remember that Jesus and the apostles often quoted the Old Testament in their teachings.  Recall also that the apostles taught the church out of the Old Testament because the New Testament did not exist, and would not exist until all of them except John had been killed.   And recall that all Scripture is inspired by God (2 Ti. 3:14-16).  “All” means both Old and New Testament Scriptures. L.J.