I want to speak about Passover. This year it comes one month after Easter, and I think this is good to bring one's attention to this Hebrew feast day without being in the shadow of Easter (a pagan holiday). After all, the early Christians kept Passover in celebration of the Lord's death and resurrection. The story of the institution of Passover is found in Exodus 12, mentioned many places including Psalms, and of course, Paul relates that to the work of Christ in the New Testament.
But before we talk about that, let's talk about sickness and healing. What? What do you mean? I'll get to Passover in awhile. I'll keep the best for last. However, Passover has EVERYTHING to do with healing, and I know where I am going here.
Here we are at church. Another parishioner (perhaps the 10th one this month) gets some far-out left field disease (or maybe even a common one). Their life is on the line. We pray and pray and pray, but there is no healing. Another death. It's a wonder with a God like this, anyone has any faith left at all. What of it? Is it God's will to heal everyone or not?
Well, let me give you some reasons a person may get ill. And in each situation, the Lord may or may not heal them depending on the circumstances. I'll state more scripture shortly. However, I'll start with a list stating the "bad" reasons, or, "it's my fault" reasons in which a person cannot blame anyone but themselves. Then, there are "beyond one's control" reasons which imply a definite cosmic chess game for all involved. After all, if we are to look at such a misfortune, we have to discern our own doing vs. circumstances beyond our control. To take an example, Mike may disobey his boss over and over again and finally lose his job. Now, he has no medical coverage and gets lung cancer from the years of smoking two packs a day. His treatments cost all his resources, and finally he loses his house. Joe, on the other hand, was a victim of a lay-off and also lost his livelihood and insurance. To top it off, a tornado came and ruined his house. Besides that, the tornado ruptured some caustic gas tanks nearby and he accidentally inhaled enough fumes to splinter his lungs---- now he has myriads of medical bills that cost him all his resources.
In both cases, both men lost their jobs, had severe health problems and lost their homes. But one does not have to be overly perceptive to see that Mike was a lunk-head that lost his job due to his own undoing. In addition, he developed a bad habit that led to his cancer, and without the insurance (which was his fault), he ended up losing everything. Joe, on the other hand, was a victim of circumstances beyond his control. He did not contribute to the loss of his job, and he certainly could not cause a tornado to wreck his house and ruin his health. So, we do not lump both men into the same lame-brained category.
I am using these examples to help us to discern the difference so that if someone has gotten ill, we don't assume they did something wrong necessarily. They may have, but we have to look at the individual circumstances. So, for want of a better term, I will cite "Mike" reasons for illness and "Joe" reasons. These lists are by no means an exhaustive list, but they will give us some insight as to what may be going on. Let's start with "Mike" (self-inflicted reasons for bad health).
1. JUNK IN, JUNK OUT. The bible teaches this and even the worldly medical establishment knows this much. The real question is what is defined as junk. We already had a message about eating according to the bible here. While "clean" foods are shadows of spiritual truths, such as feeding ourselves with good doctrine or bad, they have a practical side as well. I will not hold one legalistically to eating good foods as if to make it a salvation issue, but if we stay away from the bad foods that God says are bad, and eat the good ones, we'd be better off. Now here's where there may be a problem with the bible's way vs. the world's way. Oftentimes what the world says is "good" is really bad and vice versa. Someone may protest that they have been eating right and yet are sick. Well, maybe they thought they were eating right. Sometimes you have bad advice because it is worldly instead of biblical. For example, have you noticed like I have lately more and more marathon runners dropping over dead suddenly? I'll wager they were on a "healthy" low sodium diet with their exercise. After all, we all know that salt is bad for you, right? Not according to God's Word. As a matter of fact, there are areas in this world where the population with higher salt consumption lived longer. Then we come to church and snivel when God suddenly took such a young life? "God must have His reasons" so we are told. No, the problem is the runner believed false doctrine instead of the bible and brought it on himself because the body needs to have salt because of excessive sweating. Likewise, another person may be "eating all the right things" and died of cancer. The one thing they may have been eating was artificial food such as sugar substitutes because we all know this is supposed to be more "healthy". Basically, besides the dietary laws in Leviticus, I've observed that any food that man modifies or creates is bad. Also, I have shunned most advice regarding eating any natural, God-given foods that are deemed bad (as if man knows better). Even so-called saturated fats, when consumed reasonably, are not bad for you. The body needs fats and cholesterol to convert vitamin D for example which keeps away some of these caustic type illnesses. Even thought the bible teaches lean, bloodless meat, nobody can tell me that even lean meat has NO fat in it. It sure has. The body needs some. Likewise, don't take idiotic advice like separating egg yokes from the albumen. Enough said, I think you get the idea.
2. WE LIVE IN THE FLESH. The bible says, "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." "Amen!" shouts the Holy Roller next to you. I once read that we should not establish doctrine based on a verse (that's how cults are formed), but should consider the context of it. The Roller may think this is applicable to everything, but the true context had to do with stinginess. What does the verse before it state?
"Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things"
This basically means pay the man of God. That's how he makes his living, especially if he brought to you spiritual food and life. Let's read the verse after the "be not deceived" part:
"For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting."
You see that? If you sow to the flesh, you will REAP CORRUPTION! That means "decay" and "ruin" in the Greek. So, here comes Rich Mr. Caddy in his big Cadillac to church. He puts enough in the offering plate to feed the pastor one Happy Meal this week. Heck, a guy this rich should give enough to feed the pastor AND his family for the whole week. Rather, he sowed more to his material things and his Cadillac. So, now Mr. Caddy gets a stroke and we pray and pray for him and wonder why he died. After all, he was so good and loved by everyone. Now if you were God, would you have healed him? He sowed to his flesh and reaped corruption. The bible says, GOD WILL NOT BE MOCKED.
Well, maybe one may say I'm associating "corruption" with illness only. I did not say that, but I believe it does involve illness. How do I know? How do I make the association of giving with health? Again, the bible says it. Turn to Psalms 41:1-3. A man is blessed that considers the poor, and verse 3 states that God will turn his ill health around. Now, you will have those who debate whether "considering" the poor means to support them financially only. Agreed. There are other ways, but giving will definitely qualify as well. That's because when one gives, they are not sowing to their flesh. The point in this Psalm is that there is a connection to healing with doing good to the poor, which would include giving. Likewise, the "God is not mocked" verse promises the opposite, corruption, if one does not help the man of God by not giving.
3. WE DO NOT DISCERN THE LORD'S BODY. I suspect this is a bigger factor in illness than we realize, and Paul warned about this when we partake at the Table of the Lord in I Corinthians 11:26-30. "For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come. Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. "
Paul was warning the partakers if they take of the bread and cup unworthily, that sickness and even death will come upon them. Now, before I scare the Bejesus out of anyone here, notice that Paul said "unworthily" which is not the state of the partaker, but the manner of his partaking instead. After all, none of us are worthy. How do we partake in a worthy manner? Paul said it; by discerning the body of the Lord and proclaiming his death until He comes again. This is where I suspect problems. What does the wine represent? The shed blood of the Lord. How about the bread? It symbolizes the body of the Lord. Why? Most people neither know nor were they taught. How can one proclaim Christ's work if they do not know what it means? Instead, they focus on THEMSELVES by confessing sins as if to make them worthy to partake and then in effect take their eyes off the Lord by doing so. This is the very thing that makes one partake in an unworthy manner. I will state the details at the end of this message as to what all this really means. If this is so (partaking in an ignorant and unworthy manner), this will cause many people to become sick.
Now, I will state some "Joe" reasons that are not from being dumb or disobedient, but to other circumstances that are beyond one's control.
4. TESTING. One only needs to read the book of Job to see the truth in that. It was not God, but Satan that made Job sick. In the end (as is often the case) God does heal this illness and often restores things several times over.
5. TO SHOW THE GLORY OF GOD. Like most of us, even the disciples wanted to blame the illness on personal fault. This brings to mind the question that the disciples asked Jesus regarding the blind man in John 9:
"And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
Notice the man was blind from birth, yet. So the principle involving illness does not only apply to those who get it, but to those who were born that way. The core reason for illness is sin (considering that illness is a state of decline leading to eventual death), and that's what the disciples thought in this case. But Jesus stated otherwise, and it was to show the glory of God.
Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him."
Oftentimes, this type of illness is also healed since the goal is to show the glory of God. "But Lord, we prayed and he still died!" What of that? John 11 answers that one:
"Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. (It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.) Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby."
Of course we know that Lazarus did die in spite of what the Lord said, but Jesus raised him again. In our case, the sick person will be healed and raised again, in the resurrection! That's the hope of our faith. If God does not show His glory now, it will be later. The whole point in showing God's glory is that God takes a hopeless circumstance and totally reverses it, either now or later and that shows His glory by shoving sickness and death back into the devil's face.
6. FOR HUMBLING. Of all the people that should have been healed, the apostle Paul should have been high on the list, right? Well, he was not. Paul wrote about a thorn in the flesh which he asked the Lord three times to remove. Most theologians believe this to be some sort of illness such as weak eyes to even depression.
"And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. or this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me."
The Lord would not heal Paul of this thorn. Why? Jesus said,
My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.
To which Paul stated,
Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Paul was proud of having revelations like any good evangelist. But unlike them, he had the discernment to realize this would result in pride and self-sufficiency. The Lord put some brakes on his glory in the revelations. This way Paul had to depend solely on the Lord. Unless the Lord is done using this type of person for His work, they will not be healed of their illness, but usually it is not severe enough to die from it, either. I once knew a missionary lady that was in such a situation. She had a back operation for a slipped disk that went bad. Nevertheless, she lived for the Lord, and even wrote books. She lived in that unhealed state for many years until accidentally overdosing on pain pills. She was in constant pain, and the end result was that she no longer had a good recollection as to when she took her medication last. Like Paul, she was humbled for whatever reason, the Lord used her for some years, and them called her home. It was not the back problem, but the accident that called her home. And even at that, I refrain from calling this an accident. The Lord may have used her bad memory to finally put an end to her suffering.
Now for Passover. We know that Passover was instituted in Egypt when the Lord was ready to deliver the Israelites out of Egypt. The bible compared Egypt to a type of bondage and sin, and therefore the New Testament compares this event to our coming out of our sins in Christ. What was the procedure the Israelites were to follow for their deliverance? Exodus 12 tells us. They were to take a young lamb or goat on the tenth of the month. On the evening of the 14th day, they were to slaughter that lamb. One instantly realizes that if a lamb was kept for close to 5 days, that the family surely would have identified with it and perhaps grown attached to it. This was a hard thing to do. In I Corinthians 5:7 Christ is compared to that Passover lamb slain for us. In short, the exercise in Egypt was a prophetic type of what was to yet come. We remember reading stories where the disciples did not want Jesus to go to Jerusalem on the tenth day because of the upheavals and danger involved. They were likewise attached to their Lord like that lamb. When we continue reading The Exodus story, they were to take the blood from the lamb and put it on their doorposts and lintels, some commentators suggesting that the blood formed a shape of a cross by doing so. When the angel of death was to pass over that night and saw the blood, they would escape death. We likewise escape the second death by the blood of Jesus. Clearly, then, the blood saves us from death, and in the spiritual sense, the second death by forgiveness of sins. (Ephesians 1:7).
Now, when we take communion, that is an extension of the Passover feast. We have wine for the shed blood of Christ, but what about the bread? We take communion where Jesus is quoted as saying that the bread is his body broken (i.e. the bread) for us. Yeah, we already have the blood to save us. What does the bread stand for? Again, let's turn back to Exodus 12 where the Israelites ate bitter herbs (for the bitter life of sin and oppression in Egypt), the unleavened bread, and the roasted lamb, the body of the Lord. They were to eat the roasted lamb in haste, staff in hand. They were to eat and run so-to-speak. Now it does not take too much imagination to understand that the bread and lamb both represented Christ, as He identified Himself as "the bread of life" and called "the lamb of God".
If we turn to Psalms, we see that the Israelites not only ate that first Passover meal in haste just for a ceremony alone, but in it contained healing and strength. Psalms 105:37 says,
He brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was not one feeble person among their tribes.
Can you imagine Israelites numbering in the millions coming out of Egypt, and yet not a feeble person in their midst? So, the bread represents physical healing in our lives as well. Isaiah 53 clearly says:
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
Thus, eating of Christ's flesh as we are told in the communion equivalent to eating that Passover lamb and with his stripes we are healed. Peter looking back at the event quoted this same passage in Isaiah when he said,
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.
Therefore, physical healing comes on the same basis as our salvation: the finished work of Christ.
The conclusion of this message is this; although we may do things that make us sick, or again, maybe because we became the pawn in the cosmic chess game where the illness is for a reason, the bottom line is that we already have healing in Christ by his death. And if the healing does not happen here, it will "over there". Just like we are positionally justified by faith from our sins, we are in the same manner with healing.