God’s holiness heals
Series: Holy – Holy – Holy | Bible text: Exodus 12; Hebrews 11:13
Through the simple prayer of Moses «Oh God, heal them«Miriam was healed of leprosy. It is also true today that God’s holiness heals. Ever since man first challenged God in the Garden of Eden, sickness has been part of our existence on earth. When we pray for healing, we do so with the great certainty that God always heals – sometimes in the now, one hundred percent in the tomorrow.
After the encounters with the holy God, Moses» face shone so strongly that he covered it with a cloth. He was sanctified by the holiness of God. One day, a family quarrel arose with sister Miriam, who was a prophetess, and brother Aaron, who was a priest. The two siblings spoke disparagingly about Moses» wife because of her brown skin colour. Presumably, however, it was not so much about racial issues, but about Moses» special prophetic position. «They asked, «Has the LORD really spoken only through Moses? Has he not also done it through us?» And the LORD heard it» (Genesis 12:2 NLB). Envy, jealousy and competitiveness are the parents of this question. Moses bears this humiliation silently: «Moses was very humble, there was no one on earth more humble than him»(V.3 NLB). So he leaves the matter in the hands of the Lord.
Illness in a fallen world
The result of this attempted coup was devastating for Miriam. After a short dialogue in which the Lord confirmed Moses» special position, she became white as snow with leprosy. Since the first questioning of God by man in the Garden of Eden, sickness has been part of our existence on earth. Sin is the cause of sickness. Sin means putting one’s trust in something other than God.
Recently I came across two tragic stories. In the magazine AufAtmen 1/2023, Mirjam, a mother of three schoolchildren, describes how her husband Sebastian fell ill with cancer and died at the age of 42. Almost at the same time, I read about a family of six in the Easter edition of the newspaper «Quarter Hour for Faith». The father named Elias, a secondary school teacher, died of a pulmonary embolism on 1 December 2021, aged just 41. Sebastian and Elias – two family fathers in their prime – fall ill and die. That is the sad reality in a fallen world. And what does God do? Nothing?
At one point Jesus asks if the eighteen men killed by a falling tower were the greatest sinners (Luke 13:4). «No. I tell you again: if you do not repent and turn back on your way, you will perish just the same.»(Luke 13:5 NLB). In Miriam’s case, fate struck directly and immediately after she missed her target. But that is not the case in most cases. Illness and sinfulness in a human being do not run parallel. Nevertheless, illnesses belong to the category «consequence of the Fall».
Healing in a fallen world
To be holy means to be whole, complete and whole. The holy God heals! It was the same with Mirjam. «And Moses cried unto the LORD, O God, heal them.»(Exodus 12:13 LUT). The healing did not happen immediately. But after seven days Miriam was allowed to return to the camp of the Israelites in good health. God’s self-image is: «[…] I am the LORD, your Physician» (Exodus 15:26 LUT).
Does God always heal? The stories of Sebastian and Elijah and a thousand other experiences show that God does not always heal. If Jesus had assumed that healing was always available, he would not have praised his followers in the Last Judgment: «I was sick, and you nursed me» (Matthew 25:36 NLB), but: «I was sick and you healed me.» And if God always healed, no one would die any more. Ageing is a form of physical decay. Cell division slows down, the skin becomes flabbier, the hair on the head falls out, eyesight decreases. The whole thing leads inexorably to death. Thus Paul states: «For we know that all of creation groans with us until this moment, as under the pain of childbirth»(Romans 8:22 NLB). The quality of a church is not first shown by how powerfully it heals, but how lovingly it accompanies sick people.
I am convinced that immediate healing is by no means always effective. Sometimes the holy God also wants to set us right. There are, in fact, also diseases that we ourselves cause. Bitterness in the heart, for example, can lead to psychological or even physical complaints. Recently there was a programme on Swiss television about nutrition. As an example, they showed a former ice hockey player who only became healthy by changing his diet. Others have joint or back problems because they don’t exercise enough. In such cases, a spontaneous cure would be an inadmissible shortcut that does not help to sustainably improve the quality of life. We should definitely ask ourselves the question of our own responsibility in the case of an illness.
And yet it is true: The holy God sanctifies and heals! In Moses» time, leprous people had to live outside the camp because the danger of spreading the disease was too great. Jesus, however, defied this convention and healed leprous people by touching them. The holy is stronger than impurity. Therefore, it is about connecting sick people with the holiness of God. I am inspired by the simple prayer of Moses: «Oh, God, heal them!» No ten-point programme, no magic formula, just a simple, convinced invocation of the Lord. It is the prayer of a man who regularly exposed himself to God’s holiness. Out of this being sanctified grew his humility and authority. These are basic requirements for a healing ministry.
We live in the «already now» and «not yet» with regard to the Kingdom of God. We can already experience the power of God’s new world in a symbolic way, and yet we are not yet experiencing God’s kingdom in its completion. Healing of the sick is a harbinger of the new world, which we are already experiencing as signs, but unfortunately not yet across the board. We expect that healings will also take place in our midst. We want to create space for this and promote prayer for the healing of the sick.
Healing in a new world
Sebastian dies at home, in Mirjam’s arms. One of the sons later says: «We always prayed that the cancer would be beaten. Now the cancer is dead and Dad is alive.» Elias» roommate writes: «Our prayers for healing were answered, albeit in different ways. Elijah will never have to suffer again.» The wife of the deceased Elijah says: «We do not stop at Good Friday. We go over to Easter. That was always very comforting.»
Is this cheap consolation for the hereafter? Simply an expression of disappointment and weak consolation that God did not heal? For me, the most important sentence in the Bible on the subject of healing the sick is: «All these people believed until they died without having received what God had promised them. But they saw what was promised to them from afar and looked forward to it, for they had recognised and testified that they were only guests and strangers here on earth» (Hebrews 11:13 NLB). When we pray for the sick, we do so with great conviction that God’s holiness heals. Therefore, we pray with Moses without ifs and buts: «Oh God, heal!«In prayer and faith we bring sick people into contact with God’s holiness. In doing so, we focus not only on temporal life but also on eternal life. One of the sons of Elijah says: «The loss is great. At first I screamed at God: Why are you doing this? Then peace came. The sadness is there, but not hopelessness.» Does God always heal? Yes, he does, but not always in the temporal life. From God’s perspective, our salvation is above healing. That is why Wilhelm Busch once said: «It is better to belong to Jesus paralysed and to be a child of God than to jump into hell with two healthy legs!»
If you are not healed despite prayer for the sick, it is not a sign that God has forgotten you or does not love you. The deeply hurt and abandoned Hagar prayed: «You are a God who sees me»(Genesis 16:13 LUT). God sees your need, He hears your cry and designs a rescue plan that will one day be implemented. We want to be a church that not only prays for the sick, but also accompanies them. «I was sick, and you nursed me»(Matthew 25:36 NLB). Ask God if He wants to tell you something through the illness. Should you change something in your life? Reconcile with someone? Work through your life story? But it is important to maintain a holy composure in this questioning process. When God wants to tell you something, He does it in a way that you understand. But if in your suffering you hear nothing, let prayer be made for you again and worship the Lord in reverence. It is part of the mysterious holiness of God that we do not understand everything. And especially difficult times are invitations into God’s glory.
My mother recently had to have surgery on her hand. When I asked her how she had fared, she said: «I prayed so hard that it wouldn’t need surgery. But then she reported full of joy that she felt very safe and supported during the operation. The involvement of a doctor and the expectation of healing by God is not a contradiction. The question is rather in what we place our trust. About King Asa it says: «In the 39th year of his reign, Asa was afflicted with a foot ailment. But even in this terrible illness he did not seek help from the Lord, but only from his doctors.» (2 Chronicles 16:12 NLB). He trusted the doctors more than the Lord and that sealed his downfall.
God’s holiness always heals – sometimes in the now, one hundred percent in the tomorrow! Out of this conviction we want to offer the prayer for the sick diligently in seetal chile. We expect healing – we leave the timing to God. The vessel of the evening service is made for this. We want to do this service like Moses: With the radiance of God’s glory on our face, humbly, in all simplicity and out of full conviction of faith.
Possible questions for the small group
Bible text reading: Deuteronomy 12 and Hebrews 11:13
- Miriam was healed of leprosy (Genesis 12). What was the cause of the disease? What was her contribution to the healing? What was Moses» contribution?
- How would you describe the connection between sin and illness?
- What is the potential of illness? What could be the reason when healing does not happen despite prayer?
- As an affected person, how could you deal with the fact that the disease does not go away despite prayer? How should non-affected people deal with affected people?
- Read Hebrews 11:13, what impact does this verse have on our prayers for healing?