Is Sickness from God?

Is sickness from God? This is a big question because there is a world of controversy out there about whether or not God is the one behind sickness. Several occurrences of sickness have caused a lot of people to put the blame on One whom they consider as the wicked tyrant of the universe—God. In this article, we would consider if God, really, is the one behind sickness.

You see, if you take a careful look at how things were in the beginning, you’d find out that everything God made was all good. They were so good that even God Himself called them ‘very good.’ Now, if God calls something good, you can be sure there’s no such thing as sickness in it. After all, sickness isn’t good, and he knows that already.

So how did it start, it started when man declared independence from the kingdom of heaven through Adam by choosing to eat the forbidden fruit. In other words, man disobeyed God’s instruction, God cursed man and caused him to be driven out of the Garden of Eden and thus, alienated from the kingdom of heaven.

If man had not sinned and was not sent out of the Garden of Eden, he wouldn’t have been able to get sick. ‘Why?’ you may ask, it’s because Eden wasn’t just an ordinary place, it’s a place of pleasure, it from the Hebrew word ‘Eeden’ and it signifies pleasure or delight (1). Apart from that, Eden wasn’t a place it was a presence, the presence of God. No wonder it connotes a delightful or pleasurable place or presence. And if it was in the presence of God, there’s certainly fullness of joy, not sickness (Psalms 16:11).

When man was let out from Eden, he became alienated from God, in fact, he was dead as far as God was concerned, not physically but spiritually. That’s because the life of God in him that could not harbor sickness was cut off from his spirit, and then, he became susceptible to sickness.

So, sickness could enter into man only when he was:

• Disconnected from the presence of God (sent out of Eden);
• Disconnected from the life of God (became dead spiritually);
• Unaligned with the commandment of God (didn’t obey God).

After the fall of man, we see cases where God seem to imply that if the Israelites refused to do such and such, that he was going to send sickness upon them. Now, this is only what the literal King James Version of the Bible says. Thus, it would be important to take a closer look at the Hebrew rendering for such places.

An example of such verse of scripture is Deuteronomy 28:60 it says, “Moreover he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of; and they shall cleave unto thee.” A casual look at the above verse of scripture will literally imply that God was the one bringing sickness upon people but that’s not really what’s there.

By the way, did you know that the Bible is like a gold mine and if you really want to get things of extreme value you would have to dig deep to get them. Yea, there’s treasure in the word but it’s hidden for KINGS to find them out (Proverbs 25:2). So you better follow me as we’re about to dig deep.

Now, there was a Hebrew Scholar of the Bible whose work—Young’s Greek and Hebrew Analytical Concordance—was the only authorized translation of the Hebrew Scriptures by the Jewish Orthodox Church. He name is Dr. Robert Young. In his book, Hints to Bible Interpretations. He explains that the Hebrew language contains idioms which cannot be translated into the English language and properly understood. He further points out that, at the time the King James Version was written, there was little understanding of permissive and causative verbs. (2)

For example, in the verse we just quoted, Deuteronomy 28:60, he explains that in the King James Version it was translated in the causative verb (“I will bring…”), but if it were to be translated today, where we have a better understanding of permissive and causative verbs, it would have been translated with a permissive verb (I will permit…”). More accurately and contemporarily, it should read, “Moreover he will allow upon you all the diseases of Egypt, which you were afraid of; and they shall cleave to you.”

You see, there’s no sickness in heaven. God couldn’t have put sickness on anyone when he himself didn’t have any. You can’t expect darkness out of light, you can’t expect a mango fruit from a banana tree. It’s pretty much simple. The Bible says in 1 John 1:5: “…that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.”

The expression ‘…no darkness at all’ connotes a strong negation [Greek: skotia ouk estin oudemia: 'no, not even one speck of darkness']; no ignorance, error, untruthfulness, sin, death, impurity. (3) The purity of God wouldn’t allow impurities like sickness or any such thing, hence, never think God causes sickness to come upon people.

Of course, that leads to a similar question: If God is not the source of sickness, does he allow the devil to torment people with sickness? Well yes! The devil is surely the problem; that’s pretty much where there’s plenty of sickness and disease. The Bible shows clearly that all those who were healed by the Jesus suffered demonic oppression. Luke 6:18 says, “And they that were vexed with unclean spirits… were healed.

Some people always seem to have a problem with God’s will about sickness, they say, “I don’t know whether it’s God’s will to heal me.” Well, it will behoove you to know that Jesus was the will of God in action and he never did anything that was outside the will of God (John 5:30).

So Jesus is the healer and deliverer and Satan is the oppressor. As a matter of fact, Acts 10:38 affirms, “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.”

In fact, I like how David puts it in the book of Psalms, it reads: “Some became fools through their rebellious ways and suffered affliction because of their iniquities. They loathed all food and drew near the gates of death. Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He sent forth his word and healed them; he rescued them from the grave. Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men. (Ps 107:17-21 NIV).

If you were having questions on God’s position about sickness, I believe this article has been able to give answers to some of them. The lack of knowledge in some area such as this is what the devil uses as a foothold to torment the people of God.

Your lack of knowledge actually makes you a prime target for the devil. Come to think of it, imagine how many people have died of sickness having the mindset that God put the sickness upon them to teach them one or two things. Where in fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

You must know that God loves you and he has no pleasure in the sickness or death of any of his children (Ezek. 18:32). Go with this picture of God and let the truth sanctify you. Don’t forget to share this article, it might be of value to some ignorant folks.

Bibliography

• Clarke, Adam. Adam Clarke's Commentary. s.l. : Electronic Database, Bliblesoft, Inc., 1996, 2003.
• Young, Robert. Hint to Bible Interpretations.
• Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary. s.l. : Biblesoft, Inc., 1997, 2003.