COVENANTS SESSION 6
THE HEALING COVENANT
As we discuss the Sixth Sessions of the Divine Covenants we will examine the Healing Covenant.
The Original Hippocratic Oath - I swear by Apollo Physician and Asclepius and Hygeia and Panaceia and all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfill according to my ability and judgment this oath and this covenant: To hold him who has taught me this art as equal to my parents and to live my life in partnership with him, and if he is in need of money to give him a share of mine, and to regard his offspring as equal to my brothers in male lineage and to teach them this art - if they desire to learn it - without fee and covenant; to give a share of precepts and oral instruction and all the other learning to my sons and to the sons of him who has instructed me and to pupils who have signed the covenant and have taken an oath according to the medical law, but no one else. I will apply dietetic measures for the benefit of the sick according to my ability and judgment; I will keep them from harm and injustice. I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy. In purity and holiness I will guard my life and my art. I will not use the knife, not even on sufferers from stone, but will withdraw in favor of such men as are engaged in this work. Whatever houses I may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all intentional injustice, of all mischief and in particular of sexual relations with both female and male persons, be they free or slaves. What I may see or hear in the course of the treatment or even outside of the treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account one must spread abroad, I will keep to myself, holding such things shameful to be spoken about. If I fulfill this oath and do not violate it, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and art, being honored with fame among all men for all time to come; if I transgress it and swear falsely, may the opposite of all this be my lot.
Hippocratic Oath—Modern Version - I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant: I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow. I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism. I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug. I will not be ashamed to say "I know not," nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient's recovery. I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God. I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person's family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick. I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure. I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.
After reading these I believe more strongly that Jesus is my Healer and I must rely more on him and less on the other. There is nothing wrong with doctors or with medicine. I believe the Lord provided both to help His people, however, just as there is the worldly truth, there is the heavenly truth, heaven has always been better than the world. Luke was a doctor and the following four verses speak of medicine:
Proverbs 17:22 (AMP) - 22 A happy heart is good medicine and a cheerful mind works healing, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.
Ezekiel 47:12 (NLT) - 12 Fruit trees of all kinds will grow along both sides of the river. The leaves of these trees will never turn brown and fall, and there will always be fruit on their branches. There will be a new crop every month, for they are watered by the river flowing from the Temple. The fruit will be for food and the leaves for healing.”
Jeremiah 8:22 (NLT) - 22 Is there no medicine in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why is there no healing for the wounds of my people?
Revelation 22:2 (NLT) - 2 It flowed down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month. The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations.
The Apostle Paul writing in Hebrews 11:6 states: “ But without faith it is impossible to please and be satisfactory to Him. For whoever would come near to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He is the rewarder of those who earnestly and diligently seek Him [out].”
Having said this, we are now going to study the healing that the Word of God contains. One of the healing provisions that He made for us was the Healing Covenant. We are going to speak primarily of the Old Covenant when we speak of the Healing Covenant because that is where it is contained. However, our Lord Jesus Christ performed a better covenant when He died on the cross so that our New Covenant healing is based on better promises that the one contained in the Old. You could say then, why are we doing this? So that we can see that the basis was laid in covenant and we need to understand that it continues in covenant. Also, I believe if we are to receive the Lord’s healing, we must be fully convinced that it is His will to heal, and for us to be healed. We must be convicted of His covenant and His Covenant of Healing.
Exodus 15:20-27 (NLT) - 20 Then Miriam the prophet, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine and led all the women as they played their tambourines and danced. 21 And Miriam sang this song: “Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; he has hurled both horse and rider into the sea.” 22 Then Moses led the people of Israel away from the Red Sea, and they moved out into the desert of Shur. They traveled in this desert for three days without finding any water. 23 When they came to the oasis of Marah, the water was too bitter to drink. So they called the place Marah (which means “bitter”). 24 Then the people complained and turned against Moses. “What are we going to drink?” they demanded. 25 So Moses cried out to the Lord for help, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. Moses threw it into the water and this made the water good to drink. It was there at Marah that the Lord set before them the following decree as a standard to test their faithfulness to him. 26 He said, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his sight, obeying his commands and keeping all his decrees, then I will not make you suffer any of the diseases I sent on the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you.” 27 After leaving Marah, the Israelites traveled on to the oasis of Elim, where they found twelve springs and seventy palm trees. They camped there beside the water.
This is where the Lord introduced His Covenant of Healing. In these scriptures He identified Himself as I AM and then as the Lord who heals you. Notice immediately preceding that it says “the following decree.” In the King James it says “there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them,.” So in essence we have the Lord God creating a covenant for healing. He says “if you will, then I will” which is covenant language where there are conditions to the covenant.
The Book of Exodus contains three promises that relate to the Healing Covenant, they are:
He would not put disease upon them.
Exodus 15:26 (NKJV) - 26 and said, "If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you."
He said “For I AM the Lord who heals you.”
Exodus 15:26 (NKJV) - 26 and said, "If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you."
He would take sickness away from the midst of them.
Exodus 23:25 (NKJV) - 25 So you shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness away from the midst of you.
However, the Books of Exodus and Leviticus also contains six commands for them to obtain the promises above, they are:
Thoroughly pay attention to God’s voice.
Exodus 15:26 (NKJV) - 26 and said, "If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you."
Do what is right in His sight.
Exodus 15:26 (NKJV) - 26 and said, "If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you."
Listen to His commandments.
Exodus 15:26 (NKJV) - 26 and said, "If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you."
Obey His statutes.
Leviticus 26:3-4 (NKJV) - 3 'If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, and perform them, 4 then I will give you rain in its season, the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
Serve the Lord.
Exodus 23:25 (NKJV) - 25 So you shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness away from the midst of you.
Consecrate yourself to the Lord.
Exodus 32:29 (NKJV) - 29 Then Moses said, "Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord, that He may bestow on you a blessing this day, for every man has opposed his son and his brother."
In addition to these Scriptures concerning the healing promises of God we have many more. Some of which are:
Jeremiah 30:17 (AMP) - 17 For I will restore health to you, and I will heal your wounds, says the Lord, because they have called you an outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no one seeks after and for whom no one cares!
Isaiah 58:6-8 (NASB95) - 6 "Is this not the fast which I choose, To loosen the bonds of wickedness, To undo the bands of the yoke, And to let the oppressed go free And break every yoke?
7 "Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry And bring the homeless poor into the house; When you see the naked, to cover him; And not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
8 "Then your light will break out like the dawn, And your recovery will speedily spring forth; And your righteousness will go before you; The glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
Malachi 4:2 (NLT) - 2 “But for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture.
Isaiah 53:4 (AMP) - 4 Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses, weaknesses, and distresses) and carried our sorrows and pains [of punishment], yet we [ignorantly] considered Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God [as if with leprosy].
Isaiah 53:5 (AMP) - 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities; the chastisement [needful to obtain] peace and well-being for us was upon Him, and with the stripes [that wounded] Him we are healed and made whole.
Now I would like for us to look at the New Covenant and examine the healing promises contained in it. Jesus brought a covenant of complete healing when He came and did His work on this earth.
1 Corinthians 11:20-34 (NASB95) - 20 Therefore when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper, 21 for in your eating each one takes his own supper first; and one is hungry and another is drunk. 22 What! Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I will not praise you. 23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me." 25 In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. 27 Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. 28 But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly.
30 For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. 31 But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. 32 But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world. 33 So then, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. 34 If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that you will not come together for judgment. The remaining matters I will arrange when I come.
These Scriptures in 1st Corinthians refers to our partaking of the Lord’s Supper. Notice it says that the cup is the New Covenant in His Blood. He is saying that we are in covenant with Him (we will examine the New Covenant more in a future teaching). Because we don’t acknowledge it as covenant and make light of our responsibilities in it we are sick and die early. How much stronger can it be stated that healing is part and parcel of the covenant.
Following are some of the New Covenant Scriptures pertaining to healing:
Matthew 8:16 (NLT) - 16 That evening many demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus. He cast out the evil spirits with a simple command, and he healed all the sick.
Matthew 9:35 (NLT) - 35 Jesus traveled through all the towns and villages of that area, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness.
Acts 4:29-30 (NASB95) - 29 "And now, Lord, take note of their threats, and grant that Your bond-servants may speak Your word with all confidence, 30 while You extend Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of Your holy servant Jesus."
Luke 9:1-2 (NLT) - 1 One day Jesus called together his twelve disciples and gave them power and authority to cast out demons and to heal all diseases. 2 Then he sent them out to tell everyone about the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick.
Acts 5:14-16 (NLT) - 14 Yet more and more people believed and were brought to the Lord—crowds of both men and women.
15 As a result of the apostles’ work, sick people were brought out into the streets on beds and mats so that Peter’s shadow might fall across some of them as he went by. 16 Crowds came from the villages around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those possessed by evil spirits, and they were all healed.
James 5:14-15 (NLT) - 14 Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven.
1 Peter 2:24 (NLT) - 24 He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed.
Acts 10:38 (NLT) - 38 And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
