The God Who Heals

"I am Jehovah who heals you." It was a remarkable statement. God's mighty hand had delivered the Hebrew people from the bondage of Egypt. On the eastern side of the Red Sea, they wandered into the wilderness of Shur. There, they encountered the bitter waters of Marah. But by a miracle, the waters were made sweet, a "healing," so to speak.

In that connection, the Lord gave the Hebrews a test ordinance.

If you will diligently listen to the voice of Jehovah your God, and will do what is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commands, and keep all his statutes, I will put on you none of the diseases which I have put on the Egyptians: for l am Jehovah who heals you (Exodus 15:26).

This did not imply, of course, that no Israelite would ever become ill, even if he kept God's law perfectly (which was not anticipated). Death is the common lot of all men (Romans 5:12), and disease is a preliminary companion to that terminal event. It is not the will of God that humanity live in this earthly environment of sin eternally. A better realm exists where such evils do not exist (Revelation 21:4; 22:1-5).

The Lord's promise to Israel, therefore, assured general well-being to those who diligently pursued his will. An old writer has noted that the Israelites, in general, enjoyed "a very good state of health" (Clarke, 378). Godliness can facilitate longevity (see Ephesians 6:1-3).

In his remarkable book, None of These Diseases, Dr. S. I. McMillen shows that although Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians (Acts 7:22), the Hebrew health code far outpaced Egypt's. He concluded that the only explanation was that God ultimately gave the Pentateuch (11-24).

It goes without saying that a God who can create a man from the "dust of the ground" (Genesis 2:7) can also heal, if he so chooses.

But healing comes in different forms. Miraculous healing is when God operates directly—independent of nature's laws. Then there are ordinary cures through nature's biological mechanisms. In such cases, the Lord has provided intricately designed systems to heal physical bodies. Let us briefly look at both.

Miraculous Healing

Numerous cases in both biblical Testaments show God's supernatural healing power.

During the days of the prophet Elijah, God's prophet restored a young lad to life (1 Kings 17:17-24). A similar event occurred in the days of Elisha (2 Kings 4:8ff). Naaman was an officer in the Syrian army, but he was afflicted with leprosy. At the Lord's bidding, however, he dipped himself seven times in the Jordan and was cured immediately (2 Kings 5:1ff).

The New Testament gives healing even greater prominence. Some twenty-six miracles in Jesus' ministry alone are associated with healing. The Lord could instantly cure blindness (John 9:1ff), deafness (Mark 7:31-37), hemorrhaging (Luke 8:43-48), a withered hand (Matthew 12:9-14), leprosy (Luke 17:11-19), or an amputated ear (Luke 22:49-51).

Healing miracles also appear throughout the book of Acts (2:43; 3:7; 5:1-5,12-16).

This article does not develop an extensive argument for the validity of healing cases in the New Testament record. We simply note in passing:

1. The healing incidents in Christ's ministry are entirely credible because the vast volume of evidence demonstrates the divine essence of these documents.
2. Even Jesus' enemies conceded his healing power (cf. Matthew 12:22-24).
3. The Savior's supernatural cures were never characterized by bizarre circumstances, as with counterfeit "healings" in both ancient and modern times.
4. The healings performed by Jesus were never associated with monetary enrichment, as Pentecostal cases are today.

Though many have been led to believe otherwise (and in vain, we must add), miraculous healing is not being performed in this age. While such claims are made profusely, nothing today rivals the healings the Son of God accomplished in the first century.

I have attended the "healing" services of various Pentecostal groups many times over the years. I observed scores of folks go through prayer lines with mangled bodies. I have never seen anything that could even remotely be characterized as a miracle. I have seen hundreds claim healing when no observable malady existed. Modern healers are pathetically impotent!

Supernatural healing, designed to confirm revelation (Mark 16:17ff; Hebrews 2:2-4), ceased by the end of the apostolic age, when the New Testament documents were finished (cf. 1 Corinthians 13:8-10). It is vain to look for healing miracles today.

Healing by Design

Just because we deny that supernatural healings are being experienced in this age does not mean we should not praise our Creator for the incredible healing mechanisms in the human body. Moreover, we are confident, in the providential scheme of things, that the Lord can work through means to facilitate well-being, though, as suggested earlier, it is not his intention that we remain eternally mortal.

Just for a moment, imagine the following conversation.

A wife says to her husband, "Honey, the kitchen ceiling is leaking; would you repair it?"

He replies, "Never mind, dear; it will fix itself."

Yeah, right!

What would you think of a machine that could repair itself time after time? And yet that is precisely the circumstance that prevails in the human body.

A cut on your finger triggers one of the most baffling physiological processes known to modern medicine. This healing phenomenon, which unfolds gradually in several well-defined stages and can even restore your fingerprint, remains poorly understood, even in our modern world of medical knowledge.

Physicians struggle to describe it. In a book titled ABC's of the Human Body (published by the Reader's Digest Association), the body's healing ability is called "a miracle" (Guinness, 99). Similarly, Miller and Goode, two evolutionary science writers, describe one phase of the healing process as "miraculous," an "astonishing performance" that "scientists do not cease to marvel" at (43).

These authors are not using the term "miracle" in the biblical sense. They are simply grasping for jargon to conceal their ignorance of how this terribly complex process came to be. The late Dr. William S. Beck of Harvard, a prominent apologist for Darwinism, described the initial stage of the healing mechanism as "among the most complex and interesting self-regulating processes in physiology." He asserts that it "had to emerge in evolution if species were to survive" (p. 265). The baffling question is: How did species survive while this process was developing over those eons of evolutionary time?

Moreover, are we to believe that this intricate mechanism was forged blindly by "Mother Nature" through a materialistic, evolutionary process, when even the most brilliant minds in science today do not fathom how "healing" occurs? Incredible!

The healing process of a skin wound has five phases. Beck describes it as a "complex process requiring the coordinated functioning of many tissue elements and regulatory agencies" (p. 748). That statement literally screams, "Design! " – a term, in fact, incorporated into the title of Professor Beck's textbook, Human Design. Of course, "where there is design, there must be a designer." This is fundamental logic.

The first phase of healing is blood coagulation. Blood is the body's life stream. Why does it flow easily throughout some 100,000 miles of pipeline within the body, only to mysteriously solidify (congeal) when a cut occurs? All the elements for coagulation are present at all times, yet the clotting mechanism triggers only under the most precise circumstances. Who designed this timing device?

The clot is a tough, solid meshwork of fibrin strands which entrap red blood cells. This is the first line of defense as the deeper healing process begins. Next, inflammation occurs (redness and swelling). Capillaries permeate the area, allowing plasma and white blood cells to enter and fight infection. Collagen fibrils develop. A scab forms to protect the area as the wound begins to contract from within.

As healing continues, cell multiplication increases tenfold. It is as if a computer program signals, "full speed ahead!" A regenerative function begins as epidermal and connective tissue form. Eventually, a tight scar sutures the cut's edges together. Long after the wound appears to be "well," vigorous healing activity continues beneath the surface.

Believing this highly specialized operation developed by accident defies critical thinking. It is the fantasy of fools.

Facilitating God's Healing Process

I once debated a representative of the "Church of the Firstborn." This cultish group repudiates the use of medicines and physicians. One member of the congregation in that community, very sincere but woefully deluded, had allowed his grievously ill baby to die, rather than consult a doctor. Curiously, the same gentleman used a veterinarian when his milk cow fell ill. Is not a child "of more value" than an animal (cf. Matthew 10:31)?

Other groups are misguided also. Christian Scientists refuse medical treatment, and Jehovah's Witnesses prohibit blood transfusions.

Scripture does not sanction these views. Medicines are alluded to in the Bible on numerous occasions (cf. Proverbs 3:8; 17:22; Isaiah 1:5-6; 3:7; Jeremiah 30:13; 46:11; Ezra 47:12). In addition, Jesus suggested that those who are in health do not need a physician, but those who are ill do (Luke 5:31). Too, Paul referred to Luke as "the beloved physician" (Colossians 4:14), a descriptive that would not have been employed if the use of doctors is evil.

Since God has clearly designed the human body with a marvelous albeit limited capacity for healing, we should use common sense and work with nature's laws to support the mending process. We can do this in several ways.

1. We can eat nutritious foods and get exercise.
2. We can try to get adequate rest (see Sleep: An Evidence of Divine Design).
3. We can seek to avoid stress.
4. We can pursue the joys of serving God and others.

Conclusion

Finally, as we emphasized earlier, we must have a realistic view of life. Neither good health practices, physicians and medicines, nor faith, prayer, and godly living will bestow eternal physical longevity. The main point is: Trust God and faithfully serve him no matter what.