In
Exodus 15:26, God says that He is Jehovah-Rapha (the Lord our Healer or Jesus the Great Physician)
We teach that God heals in different ways:
1. Natural healing.
This is the way our body which is fearfully and wonderfully made responds to injury and sickness. If a bone is broken, it heals back in time. If there is a cut or gash, the body bleeds, then the area scabs over while healing takes place. Infections are fought by the body. Some times a heart produces new arteries for a natural bypass.
2. Assisted healing.
Over time we have discovered certain herbs, manufactured drugs, procedures, etc. which assist healing. We have pain medications like aspirin, motrin, etc. that fight pain. We have antibiotics that fight infection. We sew up a wound so that the natural healing is facilitated. We set a bone, aligning it properly, so it is properly aligned when healing takes place. Surgery removes damaged organs and keeps the damage from spreading. Radiation and chemotherapy can kill cancer.
3. Accelerated healing.
We see this often. Some times a person heals or recovers with assisted healing, but the process is greatly accelerated. Recovery may come much sooner than anticipated by the doctor because God has accelerated the natural or assisted healing process.
4. Miracle.
Some times God acts and healing or recovery takes place when it was not expected to. People who have been told that they will die shortly are still alive years later. There is no explanation other than the intervention of God.
5. Ultimate healing.
Any healing in this life, no matter how spectacular, is just temporary. This human body will die some day. That's an appointment we all must keep unless we are alive when Jesus raptures His people. When we die, our body goes to the grave, crematorium or whatever and our inner person goes to be with Jesus. That inner person in the presence of Jesus is sound, well, and whole. At the first resurrection our body will be raised incorruptible and immortal.
Jesus said that those who are sick need a physician in
Matthew 9:12
and
Proverbs 17:22 says that medicine does good.
There is a passage in the book of Ecclesiasticus (also known as "The Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach" or just "Sirach") that speaks of medication and treatment by a doctor. This book is found in the older King James Version Bibles but is not included in newer versions of the KJV. It is also found in several of the Bible versions I have at home such as the Jerusalem Bible, the NRSV, and the NEB.
Ecclesiasticus 38:1-15 reads:
1 Honour physicians for their services,
for the Lord created them;
2 for their gift of healing comes from the Most High,
and they are rewarded by the king.
3 The skill of physicians makes them distinguished,
and in the presence of the great they are admired.
4 The Lord created medicines out of the earth,
and the sensible will not despise them.
5 Was not water made sweet with a tree
in order that its power might be known?
6 And he gave skill to human beings
that the pharmacist might be glorified in his marvellous works.
7 By them the physician heals and takes away pain;
8 the pharmacist makes a mixture from them.
God’s works will never be finished;
and from him health spreads over all the earth.
9 My child, when you are ill, do not delay,
but pray to the Lord, and he will heal you.
10 Give up your faults and direct your hands rightly,
and cleanse your heart from all sin.
11 Offer a sweet-smelling sacrifice, and a memorial portion of choice flour,
and pour oil on your offering, as much as you can afford.
12 Then give the physician his place, for the Lord created him;
do not let him leave you, for you need him.
13 There may come a time when recovery lies in the hands of physicians,
14 for they too pray to the Lord
that he will grant them success in diagnosis
and in healing, for the sake of preserving life.
15 a man sins in the eyes of his Maker
if he defies the physician.
Verse 15 can be linked to
Proverbs 18:9. In some versions of the LXX it is used by some to show that God expects us to have enough sense to use whatever means (medical and other) are available.
The verse says:
"He who does not use his endeavors to heal himself is brother to him who commits suicide."
And remember that the Apostle Paul advised Timothy to drink wine instead of water because of his stomach problems and many infirmities (see
1 Timothy 5:23)
Luke was a physician (ref
Colossians 4:14). When the Apostle Paul, accompanied by Dr. Luke was shipwrecked on the island of Malta, probably in November AD 59, he prayed for the father of the leading Roman official on the island and the man was healed.
Afterward, others came for healing. Some have called attention to the fact that two different Greek words are used for healing there in the original manuscripts. One word is used for the father of the Chief Deputy in
Acts 28:8 where it says Paul laid hands on him and "healed" him and another word in verse 9 where it says others came and "were healed." William Barclay in his commentary on Acts, page 189 says:
"But in verse 9 there is a very interesting possibility. That verse says that the rest of the people who had ailments came and 'were healed.' The word used is the word for 'receiving medical attention;' and there are scholars who think this can well mean, not only that they came to Paul, but that they came to Luke who gave them of his medical skill. If that be so, this passage gives us the earliest picture we possess of the work of a 'medical missionary.'"
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