By Whose Stripes We Are Healed

Some time ago, labwork came back with a suspicion that I had a brain tumor, the kind that could potentially press on my optic nerve and cause sudden blindness. The test was considered to be over 90% accurate for tumor, so my doctor scheduled an MRI to see where it was located.

During the following weeks, as I waited for official results, I thought a lot about what life would be like if I went blind. I would just sit and watch my children play, or I would notice the look of notes racing across my piano music, or I would touch my husband’s beard and wonder if I would ever see him grow white with age. I wondered how I would apply makeup for my morning YouTube videos 🙂 or manage to make challah for Shabbat.

Thankfully, the results came back with good news — no tumor! However, I’ve also been sick with a chronic disease called Addison’s disease for almost 10 years now. While there are several kinds, mine is the type where my adrenal glands simply don’t function at all (which is quite different from adrenal fatigue, where the glands are fatigued and do not function to their full capacity). I like to compare it to blindness. Some women’s adrenal glands just wear out, much as our eyes get tired when we work them too hard. My adrenals are completely broken, much like a woman who is permanently blind.

Without divine healing, there is no diet, no supplement, no medication, and no essential oil that can fix such things.

He Gives and Takes Away

I’ve written before on what the Bible says about health, so I won’t revisit all of that today. However, I decided to look up the word “blind” in Scripture and see what I could learn. Why? Because if I ever lost my eyesight, I wanted to know what my theology on healing was!

(Selfish, I know… But isn’t it true that problems drive us into the Word?)

The very first thing I learned was that YHVH alone controls our health!

“Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, YHVH?” (Exodus 4:11, NKJV).

Yeshua Heals the Blind

Only YHVH can open the eyes of the blind, and it seems this is a job He has given to His anointed one, the Messiah of Israel.

“Behold! My Servant whom I uphold,
My Elect One in whom My soul delights!
I have put My Spirit upon Him…
To open blind eyes,
To bring out prisoners from the prison,
Those who sit in darkness from the prison house…
I will bring the blind by a way they did not know;
I will lead them in paths they have not known.
I will make darkness light before them,
And crooked places straight.
These things I will do for them,
And not forsake them” (Isaiah 42:1, 7, 16).

In fact, Luke records for us that Yeshua fulfilled this Messianic prophecy, and we certainly see that He went about healing and doing good.

“Then Yeshua returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region. And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.

“So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:

“‘The Spirit of YHVH is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of YHVH.’

Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, ‘Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing'” (Luke 4:14-21).

In fact, Isaiah also states,

“But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).

Because of His blood shed for us, we can be healed!

But does that mean we are guaranteed healing now? That’s what I really wanted to find out.

Why Are So Many So Sick?

First, I needed to find out why so many of us are so sick.

(Am I alone in thinking that disease is hitting epidemic proportions, especially in a world that is supposedly so scientifically smart, with improved hygiene, adequate food for many, and new medical cures invented every year?)

The cause of sickness, disease, and death comes from the beginning, when our first parents (Adam and Eve) chose to disobey YHVH’s voice. The consequence of their sin was death, and that death has been passed down through DNA to each of their descendants, including you and me. All humanity is under this curse, no matter the nationality.

“And YHVH God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die'” (Genesis 2:16-17).

“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12).

“For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

However, when God brought His people out of slavery in Egypt, He gave them a promise:

“If you diligently heed the voice of YHVH 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 YHVH who heals you” (Exodus 15:26).

Healing was promised to all, but yet, He also warned what would happen if they would not obey.

“But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of YHVH your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you…

“YHVH will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me. YHVH will make the plague cling to you until He has consumed you from the land which you are going to possess. YHVH will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with severe burning fever, with the sword, with scorching, and with mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish…

“YHVH will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, with the scab, and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed. YHVH will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart. And you shall grope at noonday, as a blind man gropes in darkness; you shall not prosper in your ways…

“YHVH will strike you in the knees and on the legs with severe boils which cannot be healed, and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head” (Deuteronomy 32:15, 20-22, 27-29, 35).

As I read this list, I am struck by two things:

1. The entire world (not just Israel) has forsaken the commands of its Creator. From the foods that we eat to the lusts of our flesh, we have disregarded our God. Even if we narrow the list down to the ten commandments alone, there are very few who live righteously before God. (Take just the fourth command alone…)
2. Pretty much everyone I know has a disease from this list of curses.
   • Wasting diseases and tuberculosis
   • Fever
   • Inflammation
   • Infections
   • Allergies
   • Boils
   • Tumors and cancer
   • Scabs
   • Itching with no relief
   • Mental illness
   • Depression
   • Eye problems
   • Bad knees
   • Neuropathy
   • And more… “from the sole of your foot to the top of your head”

We like to think that there is some other cause for our diseases, something other than our own sin. (And indeed, the Bible teaches that not all sickness is because of sin.)

However, when we open the Bible and read it in plain English, the bold facts stare us in the face. We have sinned. Sin causes death. God always keeps His promises.

“Now see that I, even I, am He,
And there is no God besides Me;
I kill and I make alive;
I wound and I heal;
Nor is there any who can deliver from My hand” (Deuteronomy 32:39).

But I Know Many Who Have Repented!

Scripture is very clear that just as sin brings disease and death, repentance brings restoration and healing.

“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).

Repentance is not saying, “I’m sorry.” Repentance is turning from our sin and walking in obedience.

“Then they cried out to YHVH in their trouble,
And He saved them out of their distresses.
He sent His word and healed them,
And delivered them from their destructions” (Psalm 107:19-20).

“Bless YHVH, O my soul,
And forget not all His benefits:
Who forgives all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases,
Who redeems your life from destruction,
Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,
Who satisfies your mouth with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s” (Psalm 103:2-5).

Sadly, the Bible seems to say that at many times in the history of our world, YHVH intentionally blinded the hearts and minds of people so that they could not see, would not repent and obey — or He would have healed them!

“Make the heart of this people dull,
And their ears heavy,
And shut their eyes;
Lest they see with their eyes,
And hear with their ears,
And understand with their heart,
And return and be healed” (Isaiah 6:10).

These are very hard things to consider!

So I am presented with a logical question.

When Will This Healing Come?

“‘For behold, the days are coming,’ says YHVH, ‘that I will bring back from captivity My people Israel and Judah,’ says YHVH. ‘And I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.’

“‘Therefore do not fear, O My servant Jacob,’ says YHVH,
‘Nor be dismayed, O Israel;
For behold, I will save you from afar,
And your seed from the land of their captivity.
Jacob shall return, have rest and be quiet,
And no one shall make him afraid…
For I will restore health to you
And heal you of your wounds,’ says YHVH”
(Jeremiah 30:3, 10, 17).

This is a prophecy that has never been fulfilled, for both houses of Israel (the northern and southern kingdoms, Israel and Judah) have never yet been completely returned to the Land.

So we see that this promise of healing for all of YHVH’s people is still future. Let’s see if any other passages confirm this.

“Moreover the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun,
And the light of the sun will be sevenfold,
As the light of seven days,
In the day that YHVH binds up the bruise of His people
And heals the stroke of their wound” (Isaiah 30:26).

And some more…

“‘I have seen his ways, and will heal him;
I will also lead him,
And restore comforts to him
And to his mourners.
I create the fruit of the lips:
Peace, peace to him who is far off and to him who is near,’ says YHVH,
‘And I will heal him'” (Isaiah 30:26).

“Then your light shall break forth like the morning,
Your healing shall spring forth speedily,
And your righteousness shall go before you;
The glory of YHVH shall be your rear guard” (Isaiah 58:8).

“And it shall be that every living thing that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live. There will be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters go there; for they will be healed, and everything will live wherever the river goes” (Ezekiel 47:9).

“Come, and let us return to YHVH;
For He has torn, but He will heal us;
He has stricken, but He will bind us up.
After two days He will revive us;
On the third day He will raise us up,
That we may live in His sight” (Hosea 6:1-2).

“But to you who fear My name
The Sun of Righteousness shall arise
With healing in His wings;
And you shall go out
And grow fat like stall-fed calves” (Malachi 4:2).

“I will seek what was lost and bring back what was driven away, bind up the broken and strengthen what was sick” (Ezekiel 34:16).

Sometimes Now, For Sure Then

I’m not saying that YHVH does not heal right now. Surely healing is available to us now, and always because of Yeshua, for He has promised that we may ask anything in His name.

“And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13).

However, sometimes we just have to trust Him. Sometimes we just have to wait on Him, even when we don’t understand what He is doing and why.

“Heal me, O YHVH, and I shall be healed;
Save me, and I shall be saved,
For You are my praise” (Jeremiah 17:14).

However, the Scriptures give me so much hope for the future. A day is coming when all sickness, disease, and death will be eradicated, forever! Hallelujah!

“Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’

‘O Death, where is your sting?
O Hades, where is your victory?’

The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Master Yeshua the Messiah.

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of YHVH, knowing that your labor is not in vain in YHVH” (1 Corinthians 15:50-58).