There He made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there He proved them, And said, 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.
—Exodus 15:25-26
Israel was just released from Egypt when their faith was put to the test. God promised He would not put on the children of Israel any of the diseases that He had brought upon the Egyptians, as long as the Israelites would obey Him. They would be exposed to other trials. They might sometimes suffer hunger or have to contend with mighty foes, but sickness would not touch them. Had He not said, “If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God…I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee”? Elsewhere He said, “Ye shall serve the Lord your God,…and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee” (Exodus 23:25). (See also Leviticus 7:12–16; 26:14–16; 28:15–61.)
This calls our attention to a truth of the greatest importance: the intimate relationship that exists between obedience and health; and between sanctification, which is the health of the soul, and divine healing, which ensures the health of the body. Both are comprised in the salvation that comes from God. Salvation is the redemption that the Savior has obtained for us; health is the salvation of the body, which also comes to us from the divine Healer; and, sanctification reminds us that true salvation and true health consist in being holy as God is holy. Thus it is in giving health to the bodyand sanctification to the soul that Jesus is really the Savior of His people.
Most Christians see nothing more in divine healing than a temporal blessing for the body, while in the promise of our holy God, its end is to make us holy. The call to holiness sounds stronger and clearer daily in the church. More and more believers are coming to understand that God wants them to be like Christ. The Lord is beginning, again, to make use of His healing virtue, seeking thereby to show us that, in our own day, the Holy One of Israel is still “the Lord that healeth thee,” and that it is His will to keep His people both in health of body and in obedience.