A TREATESE ON THE ROOTS OF SICKNESS

‘As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying,

so the curse causeless shall not come.’ Proverbs 26:2

HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO BE HEALTHY? -

A minister preaching in England in 1901 said he believed that - “Jesus focused his ministry on healing the sick, not just to convince men that he was the Christ, but because disease impacts a person’s spirituality, and prevents them from serving God as they ought.”

Being healthy at all times, is the same as coming to terms with obedience. Ceasing the sins of our youth. Not ‘returning to thine iniquity’. I mean for this study to convince you of the sin/sickness connection as GOOD NEWS, since knowing it - is half the way to a cure. The way to examine this connection, is to compare men and women in Scripture, who did, and did not ever get sick.

There are people in Scripture that were never recorded as being sick. Notice how many of them are the patriarchs mentioned in Hebrews 11, the hall of fame of the giants of faith: (I mean, if you believe the Bible, obviously obedience has a lot to do with our physical condition).

1. Able

2. Enoch

3. Noah

4. Abraham

5. Isaac

6. Joseph (The son of Jacob)

7. Samuel

8. Elijah

9. Daniel

10. Nehemiah

11. Mary

12. Joseph (The husband of Mary)

13. The 12 Apostles

14. Jesus Christ (Jesus Christ bore OUR transgressions. He bore OUR sicknesses- the 2 are inseparable). Isaiah 53:5)

NOW - THOSE in SCRIPTURE - WHO GOT SICK:

NOTE: In most cases the sin behind someone’s sickness is recorded, if not in the historic records, than in another record. This is the difference between similiar records in the the Books of Kings & Samuel → which are historic records - and the Book of Chronicles → which is God’s viewpoint - i.e.. the spiritual perspective of events.

An example of this is in the death of King Saul - I Samuel 31:4 records him as having committed suicide (the literal truth).

Whereas - I Chronicles 10:13 records Saul as dying for visiting the witch of Endor - (the Spiritual Truth)

The BIBLE is very clear about the sin/ sickness connection. NOTE these Scriptures pairing sin and sickness.

^‘Who forgiveth all thine SINS; who healeth all thy DISEASES.’ -Psalm 103:3

^‘But he was wounded for our SINS, he was bruised for our INIQUITIES..’ - Isaiah 53:5

‘Afterward Jesus said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: SIN NO MORE, lest YOU GET EVEN SICKER. - John 5:14

‘For whether is easier, to say, Thy SINS be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and BE HEALED? - Matthew 9:5

PEOPLE WHO GOT SICK/ and their sin

1. Uzziah (Uzziah walked with God and did mighty works, until his pride lifted him up, and God struck him with leprosy).

2. Miriam - (A burst of pride led to God striking her with Leprosy. Leprosy - a very visual affliction - was the poetic punishment for pride in the old testament. Uzziah and Naaman suffered the same penalty for the same sin; (Today a penalty for pride is Parkinson’s disease).

3. Aaron (Aaron’s sin was the same as Miriam’s - pride - and speaking against God’s prophet; Though Aaron immediately repented and asked for forgiveness, likely sparing himself Miriam’s fate).

4. Rachel (Lied to her father; Her husband unwittingly put a word curse upon her. ‘ - Let the one with whom you find your gods die; Genesis 31:32)

5. King Ahab (Was an idolator, led Israel into idolatry, a murderer, a baal worshipper and whose name is synonymous with being the most evil of all Israel’s kings.)

6. King Hezekiah - II Chronicles 32:24,25 & Isaiah 38:1 - (His pride and sins led to his being terminally sick. He repented and was given 15 more years).

7. King Asa (II Chronicles 16:7 & 10 & 12) Asa was angry with the seer, and so enraged he put him in prison. At that time Asa brutally oppressed some of the people… in the thirty and ninth year of his reign Asa was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great: yet he sought not to the LORD, but to the physicians. (So he died).”

8. King Jehoram - II Chronicles 21:6 & 19 And Jehoram walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did the house of Ahab: he married the daughter of Ahab: and wrought that which was evil in the eyes of the LORD… And it came to pass, that after two years, his bowels fell out by reason of his sickness: so he died of sore diseases.”

9. King David - Murdered Uriah - committed adultery with Bathsheba - is forgiven but severely punished with the torments of sickness. Here in Psalm 38 David describes his suffering with long term sickness - King David’s sickness, for the saints, is the most revealing, seeing as he was a man who God forgave. I have emphasized words that refer to sickness, and sin, and their direct connection that david was obviously aware of.

O Lord, REBUKE ME NOT in thine anger, neither chastise me in thy wrath.

² For THINE ARROWS have light upon me, and thine HAND lieth upon me.

³There is NOTHING SOUND in my flesh, because of thine ANGER;

neither is there REST IN MY BONES, because of my SIN;'

For mine INIQUITIES are gone over mine head,

and as a weighty burden they are too heavy for me.

My WOUNDS are putrefied, and corrupt because of my FOOLISHNESS (cause and effect)

I am bowed, and crooked, very sore: I go mourning all the day.

For my reins are full of burning, and there is NOTHING SOUND in my flesh.

I am weakened and sore broken: I roar for the very grief of mine heart.

Lord, I pour my whole desire before thee, and my sighing is not hid from thee.

Mine heart panteth: my STRENGTH FAILS me,

and the light of mine eyes, even they are not mine own.

My lovers and my friends stand aside from my PLAGUE and my kinsmen stand afar off.

10. Jeroboam (I Kings 13:4 & II Chronicles 13:30) A terrible man, died a terrible death - losing also his son, the verse says ‘The Lord made him sick’.

11. Gehazi - II Kings 5:27 - Lied to the man of God, and was struck with Leprosy (The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever. And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow.) II Kings 5:27

12. King Ahaziah - I Kings 22:51 (followed in the evil of his father Ahab’s footsteps; got sick and inquired of Baal instead of God - died (I Kings 1:17)

13. Syrian King - Ben Ha’dad - I Kings 20: curses himself - verse 10, gets drunk when he should be alert - believes those who mock God I Kings 20:28 - attacks Israel (II Kings 6:24) is sick (II Kings 8:7) is murdered (II Kings 8:15)

14. The multitudes in Jesus’ day - Their collective sins are shown as ‘unbelief’, though there were undoubtedly many more than that.

15. Herod - Josephus states that Herod suffered from “a loathsome disease” which “descended upon the ruler as a judgment from God on ACCOUNT OF HIS SINS.” Josephus describes a burning fever, ulcerated entrails, foul discharges, convulsions, stench, etc. (Antiquities 17.6.5). What was Herod’s sin? Killing all the babies 2 years and under (Targeting Jesus of course). God didn’t like baby killing then, and doesn’t like it now.

16. Lazarus - the brother of Mary (whatever his sin was, it is not listed in any record)

17. Peter’s mother (whatever her sin was, it is not listed in any record)

Children that died (or got sick) for their parents’ sins.

There are Christians who do not believe that children can be punished for the sins of their parents. The Scriptural records teach otherwise. This consequence however, applies strictly to idolators and people who hate or mock God. One verse to consider is;

‘Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them;

for I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God,

VISITING THE INIQUITY of the fathers UPON THE CHILDREN

unto the third and fourth generation

OF THEM THAT HATE ME.’ Deuteronomy 5:9

The alternative is seen in Ezekiel 18, where God explains that if a man who commits iniquity has a son who turns away from the sin of his father, that son shall live.

‘Yet say ye, Why? doth not the son bear the iniquity of the father?

When the son hath done that which is lawful and right,

and hath kept all my statutes, and hath done them,

he shall surely live.’ Ezekiel 18:19

Here - Israel complained to God that His ways were (not equal) confusing to them, shall they live..? shall they die..? To which the Lord God condescends to explain himself to them. The bottom line being, ‘stop sinning and you’ll have nothing to worry about’. ‘Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.’ (Ezekiel 18:30)

• King Saul’s son Jonathan apparently died for his father’s sins. Jonathan is not recorded as having had any.

• The first child of King David got sick and died; (born in sin of Bathsheba) II Samuel 12:13, 14 - Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” (The LORD has taken away your sin,” Nathan replied. “You will not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have shown utter contempt for the word of the LORD, the son born to you will surely die.”)

• The first son of Jeroboam got sick and died. (I Kings 14:1- 13) In this record we see where - because of the sins of Jeroboam - his INNOCENT child died. (Arise thou therefore, get thee to thine own house: and when thy feet enter into the city, your child shall die.^. And all Israel shall mourn for him,… because in him there is found some GOOD thing toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.)

• The son of the woman that fed Elijah got sick- (I Kings 17:18) And she said to Elijah, (“What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!”) We do not know what the woman’s sin was; it is not recorded, only that there was something.

• The firstborn of all the people of Egypt died - Exodus 12:30 ‘(There was not a house in Egypt where there was not one dead’. )

KEY Verses to consider:

‘Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works:

but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images.

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’. Exodus 23:25 -

‘Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye will obey my ordinances, and keep them…,

And the LORD will PROTECT YOU FROM ALL SICKNESS

He will not let you suffer from the TERRIBLE DISEASES YOU KNEW IN EGYPT’.

Deuteronomy 7:12, & 15

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‘I gave them MY STATUTES and showed them my judgments,

which IF A MAN DO, he SHALL LIVE in them.’ Ezekiel 20:11

I have had people point out James 5:15.. ‘And IF there are sins, they will be forgiven’.

I’m glad they pointed that confusing verse out. It’s not confusing. It’s the same reason Jesus could heal some people without admonishing them (as in John 5) ‘Now go and sin no more..” The sin may have been a one shot deal. There may not be any more of that ‘sin’ to return to. Let me be clear - ONE sin is enough to make a person sick. The habitual sins, though, can kill you.

BEST NEWS:

The best news in the Bible is Proverbs 26:2 - The Curse (Sickness) comes NOT without cause… I.e.. all sickness has a reason. Remove the cause, so goes the curse In these simple Bible truths, lies everything a man needs to know to get well.

But, you may ask - HOW DO I KNOW WHAT MY SIN WAS?

At the risk of serial redundancy - Get baptized in the holy spirit, and learn how to hear His voice. Then as all Bible record disciples - ASK HIM AT HIS MOUTH.

And he will answer you.