Seeking Only Physicians!
Scripture reading for July 24: 2 Chronicles 16:9, 12-13 “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward Him. You have done foolishly and from now on you will have wars.” . . .“In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was diseased in his feet and his disease became severe. Yet even in his disease he did not seek the Lord, but sought help from physicians. And Asa slept with his fathers, dying in the forty-first year of his reign.”
King Asa started out right in serving the Lord, doing what was good and right in His sight. God blessed Asa and the land of Israel because he removed all the idols and high places where they were worshiped. He repaired the altar of the Lord and even removed his mother who had an idol. (2 Chronicles 15:16) God was with him and blessed him for his faithful obedience.
But a good beginning doesn’t always lead to a good ending. After 36 years of faithfulness and peace, Israel attacked King Asa and the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. King Asa turned to Syria for help instead of God. This angered the Lord and He sent Hanani the seer to warn King Asa of his failure to seek the Lord. He reminded Asa that God’s eyes are always searching for those whose hearts are blameless to give them strong support. King Asa had done a foolish thing and would reap wars and trouble. Instead of repentance and renewed faith, Asa continued in rebellion. He contracted a disease in his feet, but only sought doctors, not the Lord. Because of this, his time on earth was cut short and he died.
This story has great encouragement for us today. God is watching over each person who with sincere hearts have trusted in Jesus Christ. He hears their prayers and desires to show Himself strong against any enemy or sickness. It’s not wrong to go to doctors, but seeking the Lord first is the best approach. God is eagerly watching and listening to bring the needed help.
Prayer: Father God, thank You for this encouraging story of Your faithful watching out for those whose hearts are sold out to you. Thank You for hearing and answering our prayers. We love You. Amen.
God Knows All Hearts!
Scripture reading for July 23: 1 Kings 8:37-40 “If there is a famine in the land, if there is a locust or caterpillar, if their enemy besieges them in the land at their gates, whatever plague, whatever sickness there is, whatever prayer, whatever plea is made by any man or by all Your people Israel, each knowing the affliction of his own heart and stretching out his hands toward this house, then hear from heaven Your dwelling place and forgive and act and render to each whose heart You know, according to all his ways (for You, You only know the hearts of all the children of mankind, . .”
Prayer is a matter of the heart. Hearts that were humble and sincere and revered God and His Word were invited to ask the Lord, Whose presence had filled Solomon’s temple to bring healing or deliverance. Solomon asked God for grace in hearing and acting on each request. He stated that he believed God would bring an answer according to the condition of the heart. Only God knows each person’s heart.
Even in this time of the Old Covenant, God made provision for healing sickness, plagues, and disease. He loved His people and wanted them to enjoy health and blessings. He also knew that the law could not truly change the heart of His people, it could only reveal sin like a mirror. God encouraged His people to pray and seek Him for all their needs. The temple of the Lord built by Solomon as a dwelling place of God was given to help His people grow in faith and build a relationship with Him. As their hearts moved them, they could pray and God would respond.
But God’s plan was not a physical temple, but to dwell intimately with His people. Each person now can ask God in Jesus’ Name for whatever is needed and it will be supplied. “In that day you will ask nothing of Me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in My Name, He will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in My Name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” (John 16:23-24)
Prayer: Father God, thank You for grace for each of us Your children to ask for healing or provision and knowing that You will hear and answer. Examine my heart and heal it. Amen.
Consequence of Breaking God’s Law
Scripture reading for July 22: Deuteronomy 28:15,22-23 “But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all His commandments and His statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. . . . . .The Lord will strike you with wasting disease and with fever, inflammation and fiery heat, and with drought and with plight and with mildew. They shall pursue you until you perish.”
God’s people were to be blessed and kept from sickness and disease by the presence of their Lord in their midst. God required them to listen to Him and obey His commands and their lives would be blessed and they would avoid the curses that would result from living in disobedience.
Deuteronomy 28 was part of the Old Covenant of Law under Moses. God clearly stated that His people would be blessed by carefully following His instructions. The blessings would run after them and overtake them. He also clearly warned them that there would be definite consequences called curses that would also pursue them if they lived in rebellion to His commandments. God had made provision for inadvertent sins in that animal sacrifices could be offered to obtain forgiveness and mercy for the one who broke God’s command without knowledge or accidentally.
Jesus Christ came to pay our penalty for breaking God’s laws. He completely kept God’s laws and was the only man to ever live a sinless life. He took the curse of the broken law for us on the cross and paid sin’s penalty of death in our place. (Colossians 2:13-15) Peter declares “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24)
Prayer: Father God, thank You for the blessings of Your salvation which provides us with forgiveness of sins and healing for our bodies. May we by faith experience Your blessings running after us and overtaking us! Amen.
Prayer for Healing
Scripture reading for July 21: Numbers 12:10-13 “When the cloud removed from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, like snow. And Aaron turned toward Miriam, and behold, she was leprous. And Aaron said to Moses, “Oh, my lord, do not punish us because we have done foolishly and have sinned. Let her not be as one dead, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes out of his mother’s womb.” And Moses cried to the Lord, “O God, please heal her–please.”
James 5:16 “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”
Sometimes sin brings disease. Miriam and Aaron, Moses’ sister and brother, had spoken foolishly against Moses for marrying a Cushite woman. This was spoken from jealousy of Moses’ authority and friendship with God. Moses was the mediator of the Old Covenant and chosen by God for that position. He was not sinning at that time in marrying the Cushite woman Zipporah.
God summoned Moses, Miriam and Aaron to come meet with Him at the tent of meeting. He came down in a pillar of cloud radiating His glory. He reprimanded Aaron and Miriam for their jealousy and confirmed His selection of Moses to be His spokesman. As He and the glory cloud departed, Miriam was left with leprosy, a skin disease that was painful and often fatal. She must be removed from the camp as it made her unclean.
Aaron saw his sister and cried out in confession of their sin, asking for mercy through his brother Moses. Moses immediately cried out to the Lord a humble prayer: “O God, please heal her, please.” God heard and answered. In seven days outside the camp, Miriam would be healed and restored. This is an Old Testament example of James 5:16 where believers are told to confess their sins to the elders and the prayer and anointing with oil would heal the sick person and they would also be forgiven.
Prayer: Father God, thank You for showing mercy to those who sin. How often we speak with our mouths sinfully out of jealousy or envy. Some of our wasting diseases require us to confess and humbly ask those who are mature to pray for us that we may be forgiven and healed. Give me wisdom today. Amen.
Healing a Barren Womb
Scripture reading for July 20: Genesis 17:15-18 “And God said to Abram, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before You!” God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish My covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.””
As we continue to explore what Scripture says about healing, we go back to Genesis where we read the story of Abram and Sarai. At seventy five years of age, God called them to leave their home and go to a land that He would show them. God promised to bless them and to make them a great nation and through them to bless the nations of the earth. (Genesis 12:1-3) They began their journey of faith, trusting God’s Word. But nearly twenty five years later they found themselves still with no children of their own, only Ismael, the son of Abram through Sarai’s slave Hagar.
God appears to Abram again at this point and renews His promise. God gave Abram a new name–Abraham, meaning “father of a multitude” and to Sarai, a new name, Sarah–meaning princess. These names were exchanged as a part of a new or renewed covenant. God was showing them that He would do what they had not been able to do naturally–have a child. Abraham and Sarah had both laughed at the possibility of having a child in their advanced ages, so God gave the child that was to come the name “Isaac” which literally means laughter! Faith rests not on our age or ability, but on God and His faithfulness to fulfil His promises. God healed Sarah’s womb and restored Abraham’s sexual vigor and Isaac was born as He had promised! Everyone laughed with joy, including God!
Prayer: Father God, as I study Your Word to find faith for healing, thank You for stories like that of Abraham and Sarah. I am reminded of Your faithfulness to Your Word. I am reminded that faith rests in You and waits on You. Nothing is too hard for You or to old and dead. Bring me the laughter of faith. Amen.
Out of Anguish–JOY!
Scripture reading for July 17: Isaiah 53:11-12 “Out of the anguish of His soul He shall see and be satisfied; by His knowledge shall the Righteous One, My servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will divide Him a portion with the many, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.”
Hebrews 12: 2 “. . .looking to Jesus, the Founder and Perfecter of our faith, Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Isaiah’s prophecy of the Messiah paints a picture with words of a suffering Savior Who willingly and faithfully obeyed God’s Will. He submitted Himself to God’s will, praying, “Your will be done.” (Matthew 26:42) While suffering on the cross, He made intercession for the transgressors, praying “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34) He came to earth to identify with those transgressing against His Father and He willingly bore their sins as an act of intercession that would open heaven’s door (His own body pierced) for all who would repent and believe.
Another revelation is that in the midst of His anguish, Jesus saw many being made righteous through faith. He understood that faith would bring revelation and salvation as a gift of grace, enabling sinners to call God their own Father. (Galatians 4:6-7) In the midst of anguish of suffering with other’s sins and its penalty of death, Jesus found joy set before Him of brothers and sisters walking in love. He endured the cross and it’s shame and rose again from the grave to sit at His Father’s right hand where He intercedes for us who believe! He is coming again to reward those who faithfully believe and follow by faith.
Prayer: Father God, what an amazing blessing to receive grace through Your sacrifice of Your own Son on my behalf! Because of His joy in showing mercy to lost sinners like me, many will enjoy eternal life and experience joy in Your presence. Amen!
God’s Will Be Done–on Earth as in Heaven
Scripture reading for July 16: Isaiah 53:9-10 “And they made His grave with the wicked and with a rich man in His death, although He had done no violence, and there was no deceit in His mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush Him; He has put Him to grief; when His soul makes an offering for guilt, He shall see His offspring; He shall prolong His days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.”
Isaiah continues his prophetic picture of the Messiah given about 700 years before Jesus Christ. Messiah would die and be buried in a grave. His death would be that of a wicked man but in His death, He would be buried in a rich man’s tomb. This was because He had done no violence nor was He speaking anything false or blasphemous. This prophecy was fulfilled in Jesus’ death on the cross as a criminal. Pilate, His Roman judge, found no fault in Him but the crowd demanded He be crucified. After His death, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea asked for His body and wrapped it in linen and burial spices, burying Him in a new tomb with a secure entrance. (Matthew 27:57-60)
According to Isaiah, this was all God’s will and plan. His Son, Jesus Christ, would become like a sacrificial lamb, crushed and slaughtered for the sins of the world. Jesus willingly agreed and obeyed His Father, taking man’s sins in His own body, and offering Himself willingly as an offering acceptable to God. He could do this because He Himself was without sin, violence, or deceit.
As a result of His sacrifice, death and burial, the grave would not hold Him. He would see His offspring, souls who would believe on Him in faith and become children of God. He would rise from the dead as the firstborn of many brothers and sisters who also would enjoy eternal life–the ultimate prolonging of days! Because of Messiah’s obedience and offering, God’s will to save mankind from sin’s penalty of death would prosper to the saving of the whole world through the preaching of this Good News.
Prayer: Father God, thank You for completing and prospering Your will here on earth as in heaven. I pray today as Jesus taught us, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed by Your Name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as in heaven.” Amen!
Messiah Suffered Silently
Scripture reading for July 15: Isaiah 53:7-8 “He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away; and as for His generation, who considered that He was cut out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of My people?”
Romans 5:8-9 “. . but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God.”
Isaiah goes on describing prophetically the Messiah Who would come to save Israel, His people. This Messiah would come as an ordinary man, having no form or majesty that people would recognize. He would suffer oppression and be afflicted with suffering. Isaiah described Him to the people as a “Lamb that is led to slaughter” or “a sheep silent before the shearers.” The implication is innocence and willingness to be slaughtered or sheared! Jesus did not protest His innocence or promote the cause He was willing to die for. He humbly obeyed His Father’s plan.
It was justice that would take His life from the human point of view. The religious folks were plotting His death and setting up false accusations. They demanded a guilty verdict from Pilate and a criminal be set free. But it was to satisfy the justice of God that motivated the Messiah to suffer silently. God’s heart of mercy was demonstrated through the willing sacrifice of His only Son for sinners and rebels who pridefully oppressed Jesus and demanded that He be crucified. Isaiah again posed a question: “as for His generation, who considered that He was cut out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of My people?” The answer was most did not because they failed to believe God’s prophetic Word and receive revelation of the saving mercy planned through His Messiah.
Prayer: Father God, I am amazed that You would love us so much as to willingly and silently take the penalty for our sins in Your own Son’s body. Forgive me for remaining silent about this Good News. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit and heart of mercy for the lost that I might proclaim Jesus as Lord. Amen.
Jesus our Sin Bearer
Scripture reading for July 14: Isaiah 53:4-6 “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned –everyone–to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
Isaiah, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit about seven hundred years before Jesus Christ, pours out the prophetic account of God’s plan to send His Messiah to earth on a mission. That mission was to save lost people from the consequence and penalty of their sins through substitutionary sacrifice. He has asked God’s people if they believed the report from God that he was delivering. This understanding would come by revelation from believing God’s Word.
Isaiah described the Messiah as One Who bore our grief and carried our sorrows. He would experience the life of fallen humans in a sin-cursed world full of sickness, disease, and sorrows of death. But those observing Him would think that God was punishing Him for His own sins. But the very opposite was what this Messiah would do. He would willingly be pierced for sinners’ transgressions, He would suffer crushing punishment for our own sinning. The beating that He would endure was for our own peace and the wounds He suffered would bring lost people healing.
Isaiah then noted that all of mankind were like sheep who had gone astray. Each person had turned away from God’s way to his own way of sin and self-will. Truly, all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. (Romans 3:23-24) But God’s plan through His Son, Jesus Christ was that our iniquity would be laid on Him. He would suffer the penalty of sin–death–on our behalf. Through Him we would be justified by faith in God’s Good News.
Prayer: Father God, thank You for Your amazing plan of redemption for all of us who have turned to our own way! Thank You for bringing healing and forgiveness and restoration of eternal life through the willing obedience of Your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. By His wounds, I am healed! Amen!
“Who has Believed?”
Scripture reading for July 13: Isaiah 53:1-3 “Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; He had no form or majesty that we should look on Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as One from Whom men hide their faces.”
Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.”
One of the most famous passages in Isaiah describing God’s plan of salvation and healing is found in chapter 53. We will explore this passage this week in relation to God’s revelation of His heart to bring restoration to His people through faith in the One that He would send. Matthew 8:16-17 applies this passage in Isaiah to Jesus’ ministry of healing and deliverance.
Today’s passage begins with two questions for God’s people. The first question asks about our faith: “Who has believed what he has heard from us?” Faith is foundational to pleasing God, for without it, it is impossible to please God. (Hebrews 11:6) Faith comes by hearing the Word of God. (Romans 10:17) Isaiah asked God’s people if they trusted and believed what God said to them through his ministry.
The second question concerns revelation knowledge. This is knowledge gained from God’s Word that is beyond what our senses may be able to discern. “To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” asked the Israelites to discern beyond their human understanding. God revealed that His Messiah/Servant would come out of ‘dry ground’, not appearing to be anyone special and in a time of spiritual dryness. This ‘Servant’ would have no human characteristics that would mark Him as Messiah. In fact, He would be despised and rejected by men. He would be a man of sorrows and experience much grief. Some would want to hide their faces from Him. To discern God’s Messiah would require revelation knowledge beyond human reasoning.
Prayer: Father God, thank you for speaking to us, Your people. Thank You for revealing Your Son, Jesus Christ, that we might find our help in the Arm of the Lord that You provided to save us from our sins, sickness and disease. Open the eyes of our hearts to behold You. Amen.