Exodus 15:26 And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.
Exodus 23:25 And ye shall serve the LORD your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.
Psalms 41:3 The LORD will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness.
Psalms 103:3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
Ask any believing Jew in Old Testament times this question: “Who is responsible for providing your healthcare?”, and it is unlikely they would have even had to think about the answer. The answer was very clear in the Old Testament writings: The LORD our God, the one who created us, is the one who heals us and gives us our health.
Ask that same believing Jew who they would turn to for help if they were sick, and their answer would be equally as quick in their reply: the priests. They were the ones who administered God’s health care plan:
Leviticus 13:3 And the priest shall look on the plague in the skin of the flesh: and when the hair in the plague is turned white, and the plague in sight be deeper than the skin of his flesh, it is a plague of leprosy: and the priest shall look on him, and pronounce him unclean.
Deuteronomy 24:8 Take heed in the plague of leprosy, that thou observe diligently, and do according to all that the priests the Levites shall teach you: as I commanded them, so ye shall observe to do.
Now let’s fast forward to the believers living in the days of Jesus and ask them the same question: Who is responsible for providing your healthcare?
Matthew 4:23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.
While the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to Him; and laying His hands on each one of them, He was healing them.
Matthew 15:30 And great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet; and he healed them:.
Luke 5:15 But so much the more went there a fame abroad of him: and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by him of their infirmities.
The news about Jesus and his power to heal spread far and wide, and crowds sought him out. Everyone who believed in Jesus knew that he had the authority and power to heal, because they witnessed it first hand. They trusted in him for their health. But it was not yet time to set up his physical kingdom, and he was a threat to those in power at that time, so he allowed the authorities to kill him. His sacrificial death on the cross satisfied God’s punishment against sin. As we have noted in other places, sin is the cause of all sickness, either directly or indirectly. If there had never been any sin, there would never have been any disease or sickness in a perfect world. So Jesus’ death took care of that problem once and for all.
In the Old Testament times, continual blood sacrifices were needed to cover up the effects of sin.
But Jesus’ healthcare plan did not stop when he died his physical death. Jesus still lives today, and he passed the administration of his healthcare plan on to his disciples:
Matthew 10:5 These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not:
6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
7 And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.
Luke 9:2 And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.
At the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were taking place among the people; and they were all with one accord in Solomon's portico. But none of the rest dared to associate with them; however, the people held them in high esteem. And all the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women, were constantly added to their number, to such an extent that they even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on cots and pallets, so that when Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on any one of them.
Acts 5:12 And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; (and they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch.
13 And of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people magnified them.
14 And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.)
15 Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them.
16 There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed every one.
Acts 19:11 And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul:
12 So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.
So believers living at the time of Jesus or during the beginning of the church right after his death, would answer the question as to who was responsible for their healthcare by stating their belief that Jesus was their healer, and the one who restores them to a relationship with God, resulting in health. The apostle Peter wrote:
1 Peter 2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
Healing was not seen as simply dealing with sickness in the physical realm only, but also as a spiritual problem with sin that only Jesus could heal. And if you would ask these believers in Christ who they would turn to for help when they were sick, they would reply that they turned to their leaders in the church, because Jesus passed on his ministry of healing to his disciples. James, the brother of Jesus who became one of the key leaders in the church at Jerusalem wrote the prescription for us:
James 5:13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.
14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:
15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.
18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
19 Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him;
20 Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.
Now fast forward to today, the 21st century, and walk into any church in America and ask the believers this same question: Who is responsible for providing your healthcare? What would be the response? Would they respond in a similar way that believers have always responded throughout the history of the Bible, a book which is the written record of God’s people and their faith in God? I don’t think so.
I think most believers today think “healthcare” is equivalent to “medical care” and the domain of drugs, doctors, insurance companies, and hospitals, which in most cases only deal with the physical realm, and is part of a multi-billion dollar industry that controls our economy. I think most believers today would take sides in the debate as to who should be paying for this medical system that is called “healthcare,” rather than discuss what true health is, and what true healthcare is.
The world system built upon the foundation of humanism and Darwinian evolution has defined the term “healthcare” for us, and Christians are not even debating it.
Wake up America! You have traded the truth for a lie, and equated “healthcare” with what is actually medical care: a system that for the most part only manages disease and brings great profit (and power) to those in charge of the system. Instead of seeing Jesus as the one who is responsible for our healthcare, and the leaders of the church as responsible for administering it, we have turned to the world system built upon the lie of evolution and humanism, and made it our idol as we trust in it for our “health.” The result is a highly technical system, but very sick people.
But as we have noted in other places, real health is not something that can be purchased. It is a free gift given to those who put their trust in the right things, instead of lies. When will we repent and turn to the one who truly can offer us real health? Let’s stop participating in the debate of who is going to make the providers of the medical system richer, and instead start debating the true meaning of healthcare!
Exodus 15:26 And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.
Brian Shilhavy at created4health.org
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