The first scripture we wish to consider is in the Old Testament, and refers to the dealings of God in that governmental dispensation. "If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in His sight, and wilt give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee." Ex. 15:26. This was a promise to the people of Israel. They were to be blessed here in this world, if they did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. Their blessing was conditional on obedience. This is more fully explained to them in Deut. 33. The Lord is clearly the healer of the body, "For I am the Lord that healeth thee." Indeed all these blessings have reference to the body here on earth.
To apply this to the Christian would be a great mistake. We are blest, not with earthly blessings, but "with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ." Eph. 1:3-7. When Jesus left His little flock on earth, He gave no promise that they should, if obedient, be exempt from tribulation, but He said they would have it in the world. And the more obedient they have been to His Word, the more the world has hated them and persecuted them. The most obedient and devoted servant of Christ could say, "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort: who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble." 2 Cor. 1:3-6, etc.
May it not be said to some, "Ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him: for whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth." Heb. 12:5-8, etc. Is it not a great mistake to suppose that the absence of chastening is a proof that we are right? Rather, it may prove we are deceived, and Satan's purpose is to deceive.
Ex. 23:25, 27 is a similar promise to Israel: "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.... and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come." How important to bear in mind the difference of dispensation in the dealings of God! One would think no one could apply such a scripture to Christians. And it is a serious thing to say we are Jews when iv are not, but do lie. (Rev. 3:9.) For the Jew, affliction was a mark of rebuke; to the Christian it may be a token of love to one whom He loveth.
The next scripture given is the same character, and could not possibly be applied to us now. "And the Lord will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee. And thou shalt consume all the people which the Lord thy God shall deliver thee; thine eye shall have no pity upon them." Deut. 7:15,16. This was God's governmental dealing in that dispensation. Can any one suppose it is the same in this period of infinite grace to man?
We will now look at the next scripture and it is most solemn. "And Asa in the thirty and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great: yet in his disease he sought not the Lord, but to the physicians." 2 Chron. 16:12. Here was a man of God who had committed the very common sin of making alliance with the world. He made a league with Ben-hadad, King of Syria. He gave him silver and gold; he relied on the King of Syria, and did not rely on Jehovah. (2 Chron. 16:7.) He was then rebuked by the prophet Hanani, "Herein hast thou done foolishly." Did he repent at the word of the Lord? Far from it! He, in his folly, persecuted the prophet. And now the Lord, in His love to him, afflicts him in his feet. Does he now repent, and turn to and rely on the Lord? No, he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians.
And as Elihu says, "Lo, all these things worketh God oftentimes with man, to bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living." Job 33:29, 30. God's gracious object in such cases, and they are common when a believer has sinned, is to bring him to repentance and confession. (see James 5:13-16, and 1 John 5:16.) How often may you see a Christian like Asa. He fails grievously, and refuses to bow to his Father's afflicting hand. He gets chafed and angry. If it is in his circumstances, he will borrow money wherever he can get it, and thus struggle against the hand of God. And if it is affliction of the body, he may struggle against God in the same disobedient spirit. He refuses for a time to rely on God his Father, and to return to Him, in confession and humiliation.
It is not going to the physician that is wrong, but the state of his soul in doing so, as to his sin, and the Lord's claims. In fact, where there is brokenness of spirit, as in the case of Hezekiah, as he explains this matter when he had been sick, the Lord may use the physician-indeed, He used Isaiah as a physician. No doubt there was faith, but there was also a plaster made of the lump of figs laid upon the boil. (Isa. 38:21.) And are there not physicians who never see a patient, without first looking to the Lord for guidance as to what remedy they shall prescribe?
Afflictions are not always because of some failure. This was not the case in Hezekiah. (Isa. 38.) His history up to this point is beautiful and refreshing to read. But the Lord saw a great temptation coming upon him in the letters, flatteries, and presents of the King of Babylon. His affliction and restoration should have prepared him against the seductions of the enemy. If we are not conscious of some sin for which the Lord is afflicting us in His love, let us take it as a warning, and look to the Lord for increased watchfulness lest we are entangled in the flatteries of Babylon. In every one of these Old Testament histories, we see a picture of our own experience.
The writer looks back over more than half a century of the experience of his own failures and God's goodness, and he can say, "It was good for me that I was afflicted." Deep humiliation, surely, becomes him that he needed those afflictions, but he could not have done without them, and would not have been without them. The Lord doeth all things well. We hope shortly to turn to the New Testament scriptures, but in the meantime let us remember that, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all." Psa. 34:19. C.H.M.