A Biblical View of Medicine
11/10/2017
I read an article from a 2015 Sunday School packet from Gospel Publishing House and it struck a chord with me because I was dealing with a medical issue, as most seniors do. I have known some people that believed in Divine Healing as the only way to receive your healing. Then there are the people who do not believe in divine healing and only use doctors. Then there is the majority (in my opinion) of Christian’s that fall somewhere in the middle. Now due to my husband showing me this article I have some Biblical foundation for the way I have believed for many years.
I have seen miracles, my niece’s clubfoot straighten while walking down the church isle after being prayed for, tobacco users stop smoking overnight as well as others. At the same time, I have seen people prayed for many times for the same illness and never receive their healing. I have never put much thought into the why’s and why not’s about this till recently.
I had one person tell me that many years ago, he dipped tobacco and after several years, he asked for deliverance, God delivered him, and then he took the habit up again. The second time he asked for deliverance he stated that God told him something along the line of “I did it and you picked it back up, now it is up to you.” He further stated that the devil kept tormenting him for years after when he got upset or mad.
Yes, God does give divine healing and yes, man has turned their back on it and some have even thrown it away. Sometimes God does not give divine healing. This does not mean that some people are God’s favorite people and some are not. This depends on God’s will for our lives. If we have given God complete control of our lives then we need to leave it up to him to decide on how we receive our healing.
The article that I read gave several verses that deal with this issue and I was glad see how God looks at it.
The first verses looks at a man that looked everywhere for help but to God. The first verse shows where he looked in worldly matters and the second shows where he looked for his healing. This type of person probably looks at his soul’s condition in the same manner.
2 Chronicles 16:7, 12 (KJV)
7And at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah, and said unto him, Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and not relied on the LORD thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thine hand.
12And Asa in the thirty and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great: yet in his disease he sought not to the LORD, but to the physicians.
Then we have an example of a woman that sought help from the doctors then when Jesus came her way, went to him for her healing. She was blessed with her healing right then and right there, what we would call a miracle but is really a divine healing.
Mark 5:25-29, 34 (KJV)
25 And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years,
26 And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse,
27 When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment.
28 For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.
29 And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.
34 And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.
Then there was the time when Jesus sent the lepers to the priest (Luke 17:14) because under the law the priest was in charge of diagnosis, quarantine and health (Leviticus 12:2; 14:2 and Matthew 8:4). Therefore, Jesus has shown us that he recognizes that doctors have a place in the world. I think God gave mankind the knowledge for a reason, since he is in control of everything, and we should use the resources that God has given us, but first we are to look toward him.
Of all the examples shown in the Bible, the only one that God condemns is the one where we seek not the Lord. This is something that we have to pray about and seek what God wants in our lives. God just wants us to put him first in our lives, which includes our health.
By: C.I. Wilson