The Curse of Sickness

Deu 28:15 ESV

(15) "But if you will not obey the voice of the LORD your God or be careful to do all his
commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall
come upon you and overtake you.

Deu 28:22 ESV

(22) The LORD will strike you with wasting disease and with fever, inflammation and
fiery heat, and with drought and with blight and with mildew. They shall pursue you until
you perish.

Deu 28:27-28 ESV

(27) The LORD will strike you with the boils of Egypt, and with tumors and scabs and
itch, of which you cannot be healed.
(28) The LORD will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of mind,

Deu 28:61 ESV

(61) Every sickness also and every affliction that is not recorded in the book of this law,
the LORD will bring upon you, until you are destroyed.

Deu 30:19 ESV

(19) I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life
and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may
live,

The Israelites were presented with a covenant. Every covenant has blessings and curses –
what you can expect if you obey and what you can expect if you don’t. Sickness is
clearly listed under the curses.

As Moses is finishing up the reading of the covenant, He makes an important statement:

This covenant is set before you – therefore YOU CHOOSE! It wasn’t a matter of God
randomly assigning health to one and sickness to another. Those who obeyed God were
blessed and those who didn’t were cursed.

Well that’s all and good you may say – that’s Old Testament.

Hebrews 7:22 ESV

(22) This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant.

And Hebrews is in the New Testament! What we have in Jesus is better than what they
had in the Old.

Hebrews 8:6 ESV

(6) But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the
old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.
So we have established that sickness is part of the curse, the choice is ours, and the
covenant of Jesus is better than that of Moses.

Galatians 3:13-14 ESV

(13) Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us--for it is
written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree"--
(14) so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that
we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

No longer are we made righteous through the works of the Law or Torah. We are made
righteous through the shed blood of Jesus. When Jesus was crucified on a tree – He
broke the curse off us so that we could receive the blessing of Abraham through faith.

1 John 3:8 ESV

(8) Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning
from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works
of the devil.

Acts 10:38 ESV

(38) how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went
about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with
him.

We see that in the ministry of Jesus – He warred against the works of the devil – by
healing all those oppressed by him. Sickness is a work of the devil – a result of the fallen
condition of mankind. It is part of the sin curse upon the world. That’s why Jesus said –
is it easier to say “your sins are forgiven” or “rise, take up your bed and walk”? The
same power that forgives sins, heals sickness!! It’s the same blood, the same redemption
that triumphs over the same curse!

Let’s look at one more example.

Isaiah 53:4-5 ESV

(4) Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him
stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
(5) But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon
him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.

Matthew 8:16-17 ESV

(16) That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he
cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick.
(17) This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: "He took our illnesses
and bore our diseases."

The passage in Isaiah is perhaps the strongest passage in the bible about our atonement.
Jesus fulfilled that scripture how? – by healing all who were sick. Matthew says Jesus’
healing ministry is a direct fulfillment of Isaiah 53:4-5.
When Jesus died on that tree – He broke every curse of sickness, when the soldiers
whipped His back, every stripe was for your healing. Every drop of blood that was shed
was to purchase complete redemption for you – spirit, soul, and body!

Hallelujah!!