Do you have to be sick to die?
Preventive medicine?
Bodily exercise?
When I was a new Christian and began reading Bible, I saw something … Moses was not sick. God told Moses the time had come he would die. God took Moses on top of mountain and Moses died
God buried Moses.
Deuteronomy 34 … 5 So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. 6 And HE (God) buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Bethpeor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.
7 And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.
I knew by this scripture that we do not have to be sick to die.
Since reading this back in 1975, I have also heard reports where the daughter went in to call her elderly mother to breakfast and she was dead, no illness.
I’ve heard of individuals falling asleep (dying) in their chair, no physical illness. My great grandmother was 106 and died this way. She was not sick. She just slipped away.
The world teaches one thing … The Bible often teaches something else about physical illness and physical death.
The subject of this book is building your house on the word of God.
Psalm 22:29 … All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul.
There are many diseases listed in Bible.
Deuteronomy 28 … Blessings and curses … 1 And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:2 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God.
…14 And thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
15 But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:
…21 The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest to possess it. 22 The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish. 23 And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron.
…27 The Lord will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed. 28 The Lord shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart:29 And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways:and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.
…35 The Lord shall smite thee in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore botch that cannot be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head.
…45 Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee:
…59 Then the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance. 60 Moreover he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of; and they shall cleave unto thee. 61 Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, them will the Lord bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed.
Psalm 91 … 1 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in HIM will I trust.
3 Surely HE shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler,
and from the noisome pestilence.
…5 Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
6 Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness;
nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
7 A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.
If we who are Christians eat and drink the Word of God incorrectly, we bring a destruction upon ourselves.
Paul says … I Cor. 11 … 29 For he that eateth and drinketh (The Word of God) unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. 30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep (die). 31 For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
Not every illness is a result of sin … but some illnesses are results of sin.
Here is one that was a result of sin. John 5 … 1 After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. 3 In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. 4 For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water:whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. 5 And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? 7 The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool:but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. 8 Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. 9 And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked:and on the same day was the sabbath.
…14 Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.
There are examples in Bible of physical problems that are meant that the works of God may be manifest … John 9 … 1 And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
3 Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
4 I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
6 When HE (Jesus) had thus spoken, HE spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and HE anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, 7 And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.
I have seen certain unexplainable illnesses which I believe could fit into this category. During the illness, the person with the illness, was a witness to belief in God and understanding of the resurrection and salvation by the blood of Jesus and people around him marveled that in his physical condition he was such.
Paul had some form of physical problem… II Cor. 12 …7 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. 8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. 9 And HE said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee:for my strength is made perfect in weakness.
Preventive medicine is widely practiced today. What do we see in Bible about going to doctor when there is no problem?
Jesus said: Lk. 5:31 … And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick.
I do not practice preventive medicine. (I’m 78 at time of this writing) This is something unknown to us as a child. So I didn’t grow up with this concept. In our little community, you went to doctor if you were really sick. Most things in those days were home remedies.
I’m not saying it is wrong to practice preventive medicine.
I’m just saying I don’t do this. My belief is what Jesus said in Luke 5:31.
If I have a physical problem, I first pray, and after prayer I go to doctor, if I feel led to do so. (Often I just wait and problem goes away. Sometimes I realize I’ve eaten wrong food. Sometimes after prayer, I will realize I need an antibiotic and I will go to doctor. But I always try to pray first, asking God what I should do.)
The last time I went to doctor, he said to me, “Don’t you want to have tests to see if you have cancer.”
I replied, “I understand your asking … but no thanks.”
He said, “Don’t you want to know if you have cancer?”
I didn’t pursue this. I have a level of faith that I wouldn’t want to try to explain to this doctor.
But I didn’t accept his offer to see if I had cancer and he and I parted peacefully from his office. I am free to return there if I should have a need. And I wouldn’t hesitate to return if there was a need to do so and if I felt God was leading me after prayer to do so.
My goal is to build “my house” on the Bible and on what God would show me …
The people of this world teach and say a great many things I wouldn’t want to build my life on.
If God speaks something, I feel very assured in that word.
Psalm 91 … 5 Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; 6 Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
7 A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.
… 9 Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; 10 There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
Bodily exercise is greatly observed by many today.
What does the Bible say about bodily exercise?
The apostle Paul warned Timothy not to get caught up in bodily exercise …
I Timothy 4 … 7 But refuse profane and old wives 'fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness.
8 For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.
9 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. 10 For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe. 11 These things command and teach.
I don’t like flaunting such things in front of the people of the world … but I believe what Paul said about this matter.
In 2010, I fell over a box and broke a hip. During surgery the bone in my led shattered from hip to knee. Surgeon said this greatly complicated everything. He put a metal rod in place of the bone and I could not put any weight on left leg for 7 weeks. I spent a month in rehab hospital and was required to go to physical therapy which I did. But I knew I would heal in time without exercise … or I would not heal … I knew exercise was not the key. So I didn’t do any more exercise than the therapist could force out of me. I never shared scripture with the therapist. It sort of became a game with me. I liked the people who were the therapist and I would groan a lot when they made me do exercises. One day the therapist said, “Joan … I know you are faking with that groan.” I laughed. He was right!
As I was getting ready to return home, the therapist warned me: “One of the greatest problems we have when we dismiss patients is this. They often overdo thinking more exercise will make things better. And they do harm to themselves by too much exercise.” Then he paused and looked at me and said, “But I don’t think you are in danger of that.” We both laughed.
When I was in hospital, I didn’t know if I would ever walk again … God gave a man in our little church group a dream about me. In the dream, I was walking without a cane or walker. After this, I knew I would walk again. And in about 5 years I could walk pretty well although I do use a cane when I go into store where it is crowded.
I want to build my house on the Word of God … I avoid sayings of humans, especially concerning medical things … so many things in this field come and go with time and people think these saying are right and they live their lives by these medical theories, often without benefit.
I prefer praying, asking God for HIS wisdom, paying attention to what the Holy Spirit says to me and what the Bible says.
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. James 1:5
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