Notes of Faith October 23, 2024
Heavenly Health
And the inhabitant [of Zion] will not say, “I am sick”; the people who dwell in it will be forgiven their iniquity.
Isaiah 33:24
The World Health Organization estimates that global healthcare spending rose to $9 trillion in 2020—when the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread. That dollar amount represented around 11 percent of global gross domestic product. Nine trillion dollars is an incomprehensible number, but imagine how those dollars could be spent if the world wasn’t subject to illness.1
Ps 103:1-3
Bless the Lord, O my soul;
And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
2 Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget not all His benefits:
3 Who forgives all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases
There was no sickness in the Garden of Eden, but when sin entered the world, sickness followed. All sickness is the result, directly or indirectly, of sin—of living in a fallen world. Scripture clearly connects sin and sickness in the same discussion (Psalm 103:3; Isaiah 53:4-5; Matthew 8:16-17; Mark 2:8-11; James 5:14-16). But in the Millennium, things will be different. The world will be a healthier place (Isaiah 4:2; 27:6; Joel 2:24) and most people will live in resurrected, immortal bodies not subject to illness (1 Corinthians 15:43-53).
Even though we may be subject to illness today, we can seek and trust “the Lord who heals [us]” (Exodus 15:26). His words are “life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh” (Proverbs 4:22).
Health is a good thing; but sickness is far better, if it leads us to God.
J. C. Ryle
1 “Global Spending on Health: Rising to the Pandemic’s Challenges,” World Health Organization, December 8, 2022.
Rev 21:2-4
2 Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. 4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."
Original creation will be made new! The fall of man into sin will be forever gone. An unimaginable world awaits those believing the gospel of Jesus Christ, His saving power and love, His authority over all things, eternal life with God in our midst! The life to come is one of overwhelming blessing surrounded by the glory of God. Let us pursue intimacy with God in this life and know that we have been promised greater intimacy in the life to come!
Pastor Dale