Healing and God’s Covenants Some time ago, in a local church prayer service, one of the recent converts was heard to pray, “O God! Please do something; please do something!” The pastor did not interrupt the prayer, but after the service he counseled the young man, explaining, “Son, it isn’t necessary to address God so indefinitely. He is a covenant-making and covenant-keeping God. You can ask for, and receive from the Lord, any one of His precious blessings and benefits revealed in His Holy Word. The Bible contains hundreds of such promises.” The dictionary defines a covenant as follows: “A formal, solemn, and binding contract between two or more parties especially for the performance of some action, or transfer of assets, usually modified by certain conditions.” The Bible is actually a Covenant revealing what God will do for His people under what conditions. Many scholars prefer the terms Old and New Covenant to Old and New Testament. In fact, the Old Covenant contains several lesser covenants, some of which are conditional and some of which are unconditional. In Exodus 15:26 God makes a healing covenant with His people: If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you. (Read the whole context, vv. 22–27.) In this passage, called the Old Testament Divine Healing Covenant, the Lord God not only makes a covenant to heal, He reveals one of His names, “Yahweh Rapha.” The Lord actually stated, “I am Yahweh Who Heals; this is My NAME.” In the Old Testament (Covenant) we find at least nine compound names of Yahweh, each of which reveals a specific facet of God’s nature. Other such compound names which reveal God’s nature and covenant relationship are Yahweh-Yireh, “the Lord our Provider”; Yahweh-Tsidkenu, “the Lord our Righteousness”; Yahweh-Raah, “the Lord our Shepherd”; Yahweh Shalom, “The Lord our Peace”; and Yahweh-Sabaoth, “the Lord of Hosts.” Whatever the Lord God is by nature—revealed by one of His stated names—He never ceases to be in relation to His people. From this covenant in Exodus 15 we know that the Lord will never cease to heal His people. We, of course, must take note that the promise is conditional. To receive the healing we must be obedient to His wishes. Perhaps it would be helpful for us to examine the conditions on which divine healing is contingent, according to the Old Testament healing covenant; they are four: 1. Listen to the voice of the Lord. 2. Do what is right (righteous behavior) in His sight. 3. Give ear to God’s commandments. 4. Keep all His statutes. Make a brief elaboration in your own words of what each of those 4 conditions says and how each might apply to you today. 1. 2. 3. 4. The last two conditions actually merge into one:“Listen to and keep all God’s commandments or statutes.” That commandments and statutes are synonyms can be seen, for example, in verses 105–112 from Psalm 119, which is a Psalm about knowing and living by God’s holy Word. In those verses, word, judgments, law, precepts, and statutes are synonymous terms having reference to God’s revealed will by which His people will order their lives. It is clear that the psalmist was praying for both physical and spiritual healing (see v. 107). As he sought God, he vowed to walk by God’s Word and keep His statutes in exact conformity with the Old Testament healing covenant. For New Testament believers, fulfilling the conditions of the healing covenant means living our lives according to the Word of God. If we desire to have strong faith for divine healing we need to hide God’s Word in our hearts, and with the help of the Holy Spirit walk according to scriptural guidance. Word Wealth Heals, rapha˒. To cure, heal, repair, mend, restore health. Its participial form rophe˒, “one who heals,” is the Hebrew word for doctor. The main idea of the verb rapha˒ is physical healing. Some have tried to explain away the biblical teaching of divine healing, but all can see that this verse speaks of physical diseases and their divine cure. The first mention of rapha˒ in the Bible (Gen. 20:17) refers unquestionably to the cure of a physical condition, as do references to healing from leprosy and boils (Lev. 13:18; 14:3). Scripture affirms, “I am Yahweh your physician.”1 Who prayed to God for the healing of another in Genesis 20:17? What was the result of the above prayer? For what does the writer (David) pray in Psalm 6? What was the result? How does God answer prayer for the psalmist in Psalm 30? (v. 3) Behind the Scenes The healing covenant promise given in Exodus 15:26 is given in connection with historical events in which God has taught us important spiritual lessons. After the crossing of the Red Sea in flight from Egypt and their great rejoicing over their miracle deliverance from Pharaoh, the children of Israel came to the dry desert wilderness. They traveled for three days without water. They finally arrived at an oasis called Marah. There was water at Marah, but it was so bitter they couldn’t drink it. The people began to complain against Moses and against the Lord. When Moses, the intercessor, cried out to God, He showed him a healing tree whose branches, when cast into the bitter waters, sweetened the water. God’s revealed remedy healed the bitterness. The waters of Marah typify the bitter experiences of life, some of which are sicknesses. Sometimes sickness is a testing experience in which God teaches us a lesson of faith and patience. When we cry out to God, He supplies the branches of healing that turn bitter water to sweet. Not only did the Lord heal the bitter waters, He led them to Elim, where there were twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees for their encampment. God led His people from the Red Sea to Marah to Elim. God so orders that all things work together for good. If your Marah is a sickness, Yahweh-Rapha may well have an Elim awaiting you. What was the sin of the people when they complained against Moses? ( Rom. 14:23) What ought the people to have done instead of grumbling? Can you think of any current example of human bitterness or complaint, and how that might hinder God’s flow of healing grace? Another of the Lord’s covenants, called the New Testament Healing Covenant, is found in James 5:13–16. (Read this passage.) The human author of the Book of James, from which the New Testament healing covenant is taken, was James, the brother of the Lord Jesus. After the martyrdom of James the brother of John, James the brother of Jesus became the leader of the apostolic church (Acts 15; Mark 6:3). Being the brother of the Lord and the leading apostle, he certainly understood the Lord’s plan for the people of the Christian church. It is not likely that James, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, would have prescribed prayers by “elders” as a remedy for the sick and afflicted of the church if divine healing was soon to be abandoned along with everything miraculous, as some teachers contend. James does not say that prayer by elders is the only remedy for sickness. Actually, all real healing comes directly or indirectly from God. No medicine would cure sickness unless God had created man with built-in healing characteristics. What James says is that prayer should be the believers’ first recourse when they are sick. The discoveries and applications of nature’s therapeutic substances, such as antibiotics, were no doubt in the Creator’s forethought. The believers are in no way deprived of precise surgical skills. However, for believers, praying for God’s healing power applied by the blessed Holy Spirit is their first step toward wholeness. There is no conscientious physician who would not welcome prayer as a remedy along with his medicines and procedures. What benefit is there for a Christian to experience direct healing in answer to prayer? What benefit comes to the local church when sick members are healed in answer to the prayer of faith by the elders? Is there not a special blessing for the church when a member has a remarkable recovery from sickness or surgery and united prayer has preceded the surgical or medical procedure? Let’s take a look at several aspects of the healing covenant as set forth by James. 1. When sickness comes, pray. “Is anyone among you suffering? let him pray.” Paul wrote to the Thessalonians: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thess. 5:16–18). If we have developed the habit of regular, systematic prayer, then prayer will be a natural reaction to everything that happens. Someone will ask, “What if a sudden emergency develops? Shouldn’t the first step be to call 911?” Perhaps, but one can pray all the way to the phone. Jesus tells us that we are not heard for our much speaking; if someone else makes the 911 call, pray all the way to the emergency room. 2. Next, James addresses people who are not sick: “Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms.” How are we to take this admonition inserted into the midst of teaching about healing for the sick? There are two ways, at least, that this may be taken. First, if people were joyful in spirit, with a song in their hearts, they undoubtedly would have better health and be sick less. Counselors are quite agreed that a positive attitude is an aid to good health, and that a negative frame of mind, from which come fear, worry, anger, suspicion, and strife, brings on many kinds of illness. It can also be taken that the joyful hymn singing of the healthy members can do much to strengthen the faith of the weak members, giving them a positive upward look. Sick people are likely to become discouraged. Joyful praise in song can lift spirits. There is something in the idea of a collective psychology. However, the cheerful singers may be those whom God has already healed of afflictions. Their joyful singing could help the sick members to believe more strongly in the healing power of the Holy Spirit. Describe an experience of having your faith lifted by being among joyful, singing people? Can you remember ever being depressed by being in the midst of joyless people? 3. Call for the elders of the church. Some sick people seem to think the verse instructs them to “wish for the elders of the church.” They tell no one of their plight; and, when no one calls to visit them, they feel slighted and sometimes criticize the pastor and the church for neglecting them. The covenant here in James 5 places the responsibility on the sick person to call for the elders, or to have someone call on their behalf. On the other hand, it does not say that the sick person must go looking for the elders. The original Greek word for “call” means “bid [the elders] to come.” The elders James had in mind made house calls. However, if the sick person is able to attend the church service, it is reasonable that he or she should ask for prayer by the elders during or at the end of the service. It appears, though, that every church should have available to visit the sick those who have a gift of the Spirit or who are people in whose faith the sick have confidence to pray for healing. The modern equivalent of “elders” could be the “pastors,” “assisting pastors,” “lay elders,” “deacons,” “visiting committee,” and so on; however, such should be able to pray the prayer of faith. Word Wealth Elder, presbuteros. “An old man, elder, one more advanced in age, or experienced to lead.” In the Jewish synagogue the leader was called an elder. The church followed the same nomenclature (Luke 7:3). Peter called himself an elder (1 Pet. 5:1). Paul summoned the elders of the church at Ephesus for a final charge (Acts 20:17), and, in verse 28, Paul referred to the elders as overseers, which was the job description of elders who were to shepherd the flock. In Titus 1:5–7, Paul admonishes Titus to appoint elders in every church in Crete; then, in verse 7, he calls them bishops, or those who were to oversee the church. An elder, then, was one who was the overseer/bishop of the affairs of the church. Paul, in 1 Timothy 5:17, calls upon Timothy to give honor to the elders, and special honor to those who ministered the Word. Apparently there were teaching elders and ruling elders. There were usually several elders in the average church, with many in the larger churches. Since the church in Bible times, under Roman rule, could not build sanctuaries, they often met in houses of the members (Rom. 16:5) with an elder over each house group; when the whole body met together there would be a plurality of elders. The relationship of spiritual gifts to the healing ministry of the “elder” deserves discussion. The Book of James in which we find the New Testament healing covenant makes no mention of the spiritual gifts discussed in 1 Corinthians 12. At least three of the spiritual gifts of 1 Corinthians are related to divine healing. The first is called “the gifts of healings.” The fact that gifts and healings are both plural suggests that the gift is for the whole church, not to any individual. The plurality of the term “gifts” could indicate that each case of healing is a gift which God bestows through a spiritual church. The Bible makes no mention of a “gift to heal,” and practically no one makes claim to such a gift. Another charisma is termed the gift of “faith.” Since all faith is a gift from God, this gift is usually called by Bible scholars “the gift of special faith.” The gift is probably seen in action in Acts 3:2–9 and Acts 14:8–15 where both Peter and Paul prayed for, and brought deliverance to men lame from birth. In both cases the apostles commanded the lame men to rise and walk. Paul in 1 Corinthians 12 lists another gift called “working of miracles.” Again, the plural form suggests that the gift belonged to the church rather than to any individual. Some feel that this gift applied not so much to healings as to other types of miracles, such as the raising of Dorcas from the dead (Acts 9:39–42). Sometimes the gift of a “word of knowledge” is said to describe the capacity to reveal that certain persons are suffering from a certain type of sickness; there are no clear biblical examples of this particular operation, and many scholars believe that the gift of the “word of knowledge” is intended for the ministry of the teacher. Make a quick overview of Acts. How many healing miracles can you readily identify in that book? Can you note any healing accounts in the Book of Acts that might be an example of calling for the elders of the church? (Could 9:36–43 be a case of such?) 4. The Catholic church tradition has called the passage in James 5:13–15 the sacrament of “extreme unction,” making it the basis for the anointing of one who is at the point of death. Pentecostals and charismatics can see in the passage justification for a sacrament of divine healing, but death was far from present in the mind of James, for he says of the sick that “the Lord will raise him up.” Can you find in James 5:13–18 three clearly positive results of prayer? 1. 2. 3. 5. What is the meaning and purpose for the anointing with oil? There are some Bible teachers who see in the oil a medicinal remedy and who contend that oil was often used in Bible times for medicinal purposes. That the word was used in a symbolic anointing is clearly seen in Mark 6:12, 13. In whatever way people of Bible times may have used olive oil, James states that the “prayer of faith will save the sick,” not the application of olive oil. Furthermore, if we believe that the Scriptures are Holy Spirit-inspired, we cannot believe that the Lord would recommend an oil massage as the remedy for every kind of sickness. The oil was used as a symbol of the work of the Holy Spirit. Its application declared that the healing was a result of the work of the Spirit of God, not the power and holiness of the elders who prayed (Acts 3:11–16). James, speaking under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, said concerning the results of the prayer and anointing, “the Lord will raise him [the sick] up.” Jesus anointed a blind man’s eyes with clay and sent him to wash away the clay in the Pool of Siloam; the blind man obeyed and received his sight (John 9:6–12). No one will suppose that the clay was a medicinal remedy for blindness. The use of the clay was as the anointing with oil in James 5, a symbol and act of obedience. By no means are we saying that the use of proven remedies is wrong for a Christian, but in the case of the healing covenant no curative property of oil is intended. Probing the Depths “And the Lord will raise him up” clarifies the true source of the restoration. James thus excludes the idea that the anointing oil possesses any magical qualities. “The Lord” is again best understood as denoting the Lord Jesus Christ, the one in whose name the anointing was done. As the Lord over the lives of His people, He heals according to His will. “Will raise him up” virtually repeats “will save” earlier in the verse, meaning that the sick person will be raised up from his sickbed.2 What reasons can you suggest the Holy Spirit may have for the act of anointing with oil along with prayer for the sick? 6. Several avenues to divine healing are mentioned in the passage in James 5. a) The sick person can pray for himself or herself (v. 13). Many healings are the result of sick persons praying for themselves. One may be in a place where there are no available elders or other persons to help in prayer. b) In verse 16 believers are commanded to pray one for another in order that they might be healed. This is called intercessory prayer and is a high form of supplication. Many persons have testified to having been healed as a result of forgetting self to intercede for another. Jesus taught, “Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven” (Matt. 18:19). c) Verse 16 also suggests that one might seek out someone like Elijah who is known to have great faith, adding, “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” All believers are righteous in the righteousness of Christ; those who believe are justified; however, some persons devote much time to prayer, the Word of God, and to walking in the Holy Spirit. Elijah had his weaknesses, but he was a man of faith who walked with God. In every church there may be several, besides the pastors (elders), who humbly walk with God, who pray the prayer of faith. Whom do you know in your church to whom you might go for the prayer of faith? Have you ever called for the elders or someone in whom you have confidence to pray for you in a time of sickness or suffering? Review what happened. 7. In 5:16, James suggests that believers confess their trespasses to one another as an avenue to bodily healing. This is not always easy, for one cannot always find someone mature enough to be a reliable auditor of confession. It may be that James has in mind here confessions where there are offenses. If we have offended someone or been offended by another person, prayer for healing, or for any other need may be futile until we have forgiven and been forgiven. If we cannot find someone to whom we may make a confession of sin or transgression, we certainly do well to confess to the Lord. It may be that the only barrier to complete healing may be unconfessed sin of envy, jealousy, hatred, or slight. Have you ever confessed an offense to another, or had another person confess to you? What happened? Have you any area of life that needs this discipline now? Faith Alive Quite clearly, divine healing is one of the blessings which the Lord has provided for His people. We learned that one of the Lord’s names is Yahweh-Rapha, “the Lord our Healer.” We saw that what the Lord reveals about His nature, He will always be to His people. When Jesus the Redeemer came in the fullness of time, He spent much of His earthly ministry healing the sick, not only to demonstrate His deity, but because He was moved with compassion, seeing people as wounded sheep without a shepherd. Jesus sent His followers forth, commanding them to “heal the sick” (Matt. 10:8). In His Great Commission, He promised His disciples that signs would follow their preaching and teaching—that they would lay hands on the sick and the sick would be healed. James, the brother of Jesus and the leader of the apostolic church wrote, inspired by the Holy Spirit, “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.” Since these provisions have been made for Christian believers, it is our privilege to receive divine healing in answer to prayer. It is our divinely ordained prerogative to seek healing through the channel of prayer—prayer by another believer or prayer by the elders of the church. If we lack faith, we can pray for faith. This is not to say that we will be remiss if we resort to medical remedies or surgical procedures. However, there is no blessing much more fulfilling than to experience the power of God healing our physical bodies. Even if we resort to remedies, we have the avenue of prayer that God will energize the medicine or the practitioner. We might be surprised to know how miraculously God can and is willing to work in us if we put our full confidence in His great and loving power. “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray.”