By: Prof. J.W.Kanoy
There is an age old question that always comes to mind when considering the thought of suffering and divine healing. “Why do the righteous suffer?” “Why do the wicked go unpunished?”
David said in Psalm 73:2, “But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped” Why did David say this? The answer is found in the third verse. Job, you will remember, after his three friends came to him and wouldn’t speak to him for a week, reasoned with God about his suffering. Job knew that his friends misunderstood his trial of faith. They argued that Job was a secret sinner and God was dealing with him in judgment. Of course, they believed like so many people today, the reason people suffer is because of some sin which they or their parents have committed. Jesus Himself said this wasn’t true, for He declared in John 9:3a, “Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents.” So you can see that a man does not always suffer because of some sin that has been committed, or his parents, nor does the wicked always suffer in this life because of the way he lives. I was reading a book one day that had a very good illustration that went something like this: “A farmer wrote to a news editor and said that he had been trying an experiment on his farm. The farmer went on to tell of how he had a field of corn which he planted on Sunday, plowed on Sunday, hauled to the barn on Sunday, and found he had more corn than ever before, even more than his neighbors. The farmer sent his letter to the editor sure that he could have no answer to the sneer implied in it. In the next issue the editor printed his story and at the end made this remark, “God does not make full settlement in this life or in October when you gather your corn.”
Before we take up our subject let us ask ourselves a few questions and then answer them from the Word of God. God has a message for those who suffer and for those who are afflicted.
1. Why does God permit this affliction upon me or somebody else? a. For Jesus sake.
“For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake.” Phil. 1:29.
b. To bring you close to the Lord Jesus.
“Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.” Ps. 119:67.
c. To make you a real strong Christian.
“Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.” II Cor. 12:10 2. Does God heal our afflictions?
“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.” Ja. 5:15
3. What should we do about our afflictions?
“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.” Ja. 5:16
In Revelation 2:9 notice the words “I know”, the plight was well known to the Lord Jesus who came walking in the midst of the church in Smyrna as well as the seven churches mentioned in Revelation. Their tribulation, suffering, sorrow, agony, and their poverty so far as the world’s goods were concerned. But He says, “Thou art rich”. They have treasure in heaven. Their suffering came from within, as well as the enemy of religious character which caused them to suffer. On the outside there was the pagan world.
The name “Smyrna” means bitterness. Many times our suffering comes from within, and many times our suffering is from without.
Sometimes we suffer because of our ignorance. Sometimes we suffer because of our carelessness. Sometimes we suffer because of evil speaking. Sometimes we suffer because of evil thinking. Sometimes we suffer because of evil whispering. Sometimes we suffer because of our evil plotting. Sometimes we suffer because of our evil working.
To keep us from thinking that suffering is something foreign to us when we are called upon to suffer, we should remember:
1. What we are. (A child of God) I Jn. 2:1-2
2. Where we are. (Enemy Territory). Jn. 17:14 3. What our destiny is. (Heaven) Rev. 21
4. What our present is. (Secure in Him) Rom. 8:28
It is natural for people to say if God is just and good, why does He permit all this suffering that is going on in the world. But God reminds us as He did the church in Smyrna “Be Thou Faithful.” The old song says:
Days of darkness still come o’er me
Sorrows path I often tread
But the Saviour still is with me
By His hand I’m safely led.
Remember Hebrews 13:5b, “and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”
NOW LET US NOTICE THE QUESTION OF SUFFERING:
I. IS GOD CONCERNED WITH SUFFERING?
God is always concerned about his children in every age. God has always tried to be close to His people. At one time God was for the people, helping them win battles, supplying them with Manna from Heaven forty years. Then when Jesus came it was God no longer for the people, but it was God among the people in the person of Christ. Now since Jesus has finished the work He came to do and ascended back to heaven, the Holy Spirit has come and it is God in us through the person of the Holy Spirit.
God reminds us many times in His Word about how concerned He is for us. He tells about the birds that fall to the ground and how concerned He is. He tells about the hairs of our head and how they are numbered. If God is so concerned about such little things as this, don’t you suppose that He is much more concerned when one of His children suffers. What would you think of a mother who would have no pity when one of her children suffers? So we can believe and be sure that God is concerned.
II. THREE THINGS WE CAN DO ABOUT SUFFERING.
First: Suffering is real. It is something that is in the game of life. God in His Word plainly tells us this and gives us many illustrations of this fact. We can say that suffering is only in the mind and that we are going to stop thinking this way and be healed, but this is only ignorance on our part. Because of sin, our bodies are subject to disease and a man is a fool to look around him and think suffering is not a reality.
Second: We can have self pity. This is what thousands of people are doing today. They are always thinking of themselves and no one else. Someone once said, “I wept and cried because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet.”
Third: We can let the devil take charge of our lives. We can say God is not what He claims to be, and blame Him for our suffering. This will lead to holding a grudge in our hearts against God. We shall become backslidden and out of fellowship with Jesus and the devil will sit back and laugh.
One thing I admire about a boxing match, is not only the man that can give it out, but also the man who can stand in the ring and take it.
III. SUFFERING AND THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.
The Ten Commandments are God’s moral laws. The first four are related to God and man’s relationship to God. The fifth commandment is a man’s relationship to his parents. The last five are concerned with a man’s relationship to other people.
You do not have to tell people that they do wrong when they break God’s laws. Man suffers if he breaks God’s moral laws. Not all the time does the one who breaks the laws of God do the suffering but at times someone else will suffer. Ill. An auto wreck in which a man is killed when a drunk driver runs through a stop sign. Any time men break the laws of God, they suffer. Gal. 6:7
IV. WAYS OF DEALING WITH THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING.
The most terrible thing about sin is that it brings suffering. Look at the jails, orphanages, etc.
First: Try to get rid of it, see if we can find the source of the problem. For instance, if we have the stomach ache, maybe it is because we have eaten some green apples. If our feet hurt it might be because we bought our shoes the wrong size. If we have a cold it might be because we went out in the rain bareheaded and etc. Paul tells us in I Cor. 11 to examine ourselves.
Second: Pray and ask God to heal us by His power. But we are not to ask God to do this until we have examined ourselves. The reason Paul says what he does in the Corinthian letter is because some had failed to judge themselves and for this reason many were weak and sickly.
Third: Go see a doctor. Luke was a doctor of medicine and was used of the Lord to write the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts. God has given doctors knowledge of our bodies and of medicine, and through medical research have been able to correct many ailments which cause us to suffer. A man is a fool who refuses to go see a doctor and not use common sense.
In some cases God preferred, and was pleased to cure the sick without means, yet in other instances He both appointed and approved means. For the bitter waters of Marah (Ex 15:25) Moses cast in a tree “which the Lord showed him.” When God promised to heal Hezekiah who was sick unto death, Isaiah bade the King to “take a lump of figs” and we are told “they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered” (1 Kings 20:7). So with Timothy in I Timothy 5:23.
The cures we have today (and we have many) are uncertain, indefinite and unreliable and differ in many ways from the miracles of our Lord jesus. Notice the following in Lk. 17:11-19:
1. He cured all who came.
2. He cured them instantly.
3. He cured them perfectly. 4. He cured them permanently.
5. He cured them without charge.
The wondrous work of Jesus had a threefold value:
1. They were “signs” attesting His claim to be the Messiah. 2. They were acts of compassion and deeds of benevolence. 3. They were enacted parables, each of them having some spiritual lesson to teach.
That some saints are called to live all their lives in suffering is a well known and undeniable fact. To even hint that they are not in God’s will, or lacking in faith is mere ignorance. Many are raised up in answer to prayer, so let those who suffer continue to pray the prayer of faith. Then let us remember that James says, “Is any among you afflicted (Ja. 5:13a), Is any sick among you (Ja. 5:14a).” Affliction is from without, sickness is from within. God heals some in time, some are permitted to suffer, but God will heal all his people in the resurrection (See Romans 8:23, John 5:28-29), These sicknesses, suffering, and death are still permitted by God, and are overruled to serve His purpose in our lives. Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath, shalt thou restrain.” (Psalm 76:10:)
Fourth: Learn to live with it. After we have examined ourselves, pray and do all we can to find the trouble, and we still suffer, we must by the grace of God learn to live with suffering. Do you remember that in Il Corinthians 12 Paul prayed three times the thorn in the flesh would be removed? God told Paul that He could use him better like he was, and that His grace was sufficient for Him. The Lord knows how much we can suffer and will not allow any more than we can stand. An example of this is Job, the perfect one. Fanny Crosby who was blind from birth learned this truth, as did James H. McConkey and other saints of the Lord Jesus. So we must remember that when we suffer, there are two that enter into suffering, namely both God and man.
V. GOD CAN USE SUFFERING.
When we speak of the sufferings of God we stand on holy ground, but we know the Word tells us of the suffering of our Lord. God can use suffering because He used it first in Himself on the cross. The cross was not the starting place of the sufferings, nor is it the end of His sufferings. When Christ suffered He looked to the glory beyond. All our sufferings and trials are nothing to be compared to what Jesus went through on the cross to save a soul from hell. So we see God can use suffering because He used His own suffering.
NOW LET US NOTICE THE QUESTION OF DIVINE HEALING:
Let me say first of all that any healing is divine. No Bible believer can help but acknowledge the power of the Lord to heal these bodies, as well as save the soul. God has healed. God can heal. He heals in answer to prayer. He has often healed in answer to the prayer of another individual. He heals where there is no prayer at all by the recuperative power of nature.
I. IS DIVINE HEALING IN THE ATONEMENT?
First: In Matthew 8:16, 17 we read, “When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.”
Now I will admit that this passage seems to prove that the Lord Jesus bore our infirmities and sicknesses on the cross in the same sense that He bore our sins in His own body on the tree…that is, He suffered instead of us. But a more careful study of this passage will show that the inspired writer is not referring to the atonement of the cross, but explaining something that happened during the earthly ministry of our Lord. To refer the bearing of sicknesses to the cross instead of linking it with the life and ministry of our Lord on his way to the cross, is to misunderstand grossly His entire mission. If we can find in the Word any instance whatever where christians were allowed to be sick, and were not miraculously healed, then the whole theory above falls through. There are four mentioned in the scripture.
First there is the Apostle Paul himself. You will recall that he had been stoned and had been caught up to the third heaven. Upon his return to the earth there was sent to him a thorn in the flesh, “a messenger of Satan to buffet him” lest he be exalted above measure. There was no danger for this saint in the third heaven, but there was a great danger when he came back to earth and be lifted up in spiritual pride by the great things that he had seen. Do you remember that Paul prayed about this thorn three times and was never healed from it. Since God did not heal him he learned to say, “I will glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” II Co. 12
Second, there is the case of Epaphroditus in Philippians 2:25-30. We learn that he was unselfish, faithful and a fellow soldier and companion of Paul. He was sick, very sick, so sick he was about to die. He was sick so long that his condition was heard about all the way from Rome to Philippi, and the people were very concerned about him. No divine healer appeared on the scene to lay their hands on him. Neither was he rebuked for his lack of faith in God. His companion had prayed for him many times I am sure. His illness was permitted to run its course, and at last God saw fit to cure him.
Third, is the case of young Timothy. Paul loved this young son in the ministry. The climate and polluted water had affected his health. Instead of sending a divine healer to Timothy he gave him a common sense prescription. He wrote, “Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.” I Tim. 5:23.
Fourth, and last which deals with Trophimus. In II Timothy 4:20 we read, “but Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick.” The Bible does not tell us much about this man, but when Paul went down to Troas on his second missionary journey he was in his company. We do know that he was sick, so sick that he could not accompany Paul to Rome. Thousands have been in the same circumstances in spite of the fact that Christ died on the cross. So we see from these Bible examples that none of these mentioned knew anything of this modern doctrine of Christ bearing our sicknesses on the cross and therefore Christians should never be sick.