“Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.”
(Jn. 11:3)
Saints that Jesus dearly loved became ill, like the rest of humanity. Sadly, it is part of the curse that the Fall passed down to us. The “health and wealth” preachers like to use the text found in Matt. 8:17, “Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses,” to prove their point. Arguing the fact that since He took our sins away, He took our sicknesses away. Yes! He bore my sins, suffering the curse; but I still possess a sinful nature and body. He bears our infirmities and sicknesses in His body so that He might sympathize with us in our sufferings. He doesn’t take them away; He shares in them, (Isa. 63:9).
When John mentions in his third epistle that he wished the brethren be in health, it was not a specific promise, but a personal desire; like any of us would write to friends. And when God mentions that if His people live for Him they would not suffer the diseases other nations suffered (Ex. 15:26), He is speaking to the nation of Israel, with a Theocratic Kingdom. The truth of the matter is, both then and now, the godly among God's elect have suffered with the same ills as the world- cancer, HIV, heart attacks, etc.
Throughout Psalms we find David making references to his sicknesses and asking God to heal him; godly Hezekiah was sick; Jacob suffered sickness; saintly Elisha died from his sickness; Job, Daniel, Isaiah, Lazarus and Paul all had their times of being sick. Some were temporary, and others were lifelong.
Most certainly there are cases where a saint is sick because of his or her sin (1 Cor. 11:30); but more often than not, it is fulfilling the purpose of God in the saint's life. And of course, some sicknesses are just part of everyday life: colds, headaches, rheumatism, etc. added to the fact that often we do not take care of ourselves.
Don’t let the devil or some super-saint tell you that it’s all your fault that you’re suffering. My dear friend and evangelist, Dr. John R. Rice, used to say, “Healers die too!”
By An Old Disciple
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