The Covenant To Healing

by Ray Hawkins

It was after the nation of Israel's deliverance from Egypt and when they faced the test of the bitter water at Marah (and failed) that Moses, after curing the waters, received a decree and a law from the Lord: "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" (Exodus 15:26).

Here is the Covenant of Healing.

Here is the place to understand Isaiah chapter 53, for to understand Isaiah 53 it is necessary to go back to the Covenant-dealing of God with Israel in Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy. To ignore this background is to misapply the Word of God and probably give rise to all sorts of distortions.

The Covenant is with Israel, and this foundation is enlarged upon in Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 26.

It is important to notice the promise: "I will put none of the diseases on you (the nation) which I have brought on the Egyptians . . . " That is, Israel had the opportunity of missing out on the judgement of God as long as they conformed to His will. The ten plagues were acts of judgement on Egypt and would be expressive of the fact, if suffered by Israel in the promised land, that it had become as Egypt. National health depended upon obedience and holiness, whilst the wages of sin had a sickness clause built in.

Much misinterpretation of the prophets and teaching of the New Testament occur because people do not grasp the significance of the Covenant to Israel. When it was broken by the Nation in the Land the curses became operative and increased in intensity as foretold. To this the prophets referred; upon this they called for repentance; out of this they longed for renewal and blessing.

It is imperative to look again at the blessings and cursings as recorded in Deuteronomy 28 to 30 and Leviticus 26, for from out of this will come a greater appreciation of the message of the prophets and a clearer understanding of what health and healing meant to Israel. Then we will be able to understand what Isaiah was stressing in chapter 53.

As we read it becomes evident that the signs of God's pleasure and displeasure would be tangible. There would be no doubting what was taking place nor in what spiritual state the Nation was at precise times. Nor would they be able to say that bad luck had overtaken them or that alien forces had prevailed or poor sanitation had produced sickness or plague. God is very clear when He declares that in the Land, and upon Israel, He would pour out famine, pestilence, defeat, captivity only because of the national apostasy from the Covenant.

"If you diligently heed the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in His sight . . . I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD who heals you" (Isaiah 15:26).

Deuteronomy 28:21 "The LORD will make the plague cling to you until He has consumed you from the land which you are going to possess."

Deuteronomy 28:22 "The LORD will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, will severe burning fever, with the sword . . . they shall pursue you until you perish."

Deuteronomy 28:59 "Then the LORD will bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary plagues – great and prolonged plagues – and serious and prolonged sicknesses."

Deuteronomy 28:61 "Also every sickness and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, will the LORD bring upon you until you are destroyed."

God was in effect saying, "You break the Covenant, you violate the Peace Treaty, you transgress the legal constitution and the blessings transform into curses.

When we turn to the prophet Isaiah it becomes clear that he is steeped in the Covenant concepts. He lays hold of much of the imagery employed by Moses to hold a mirror up to what at that time was a proud, hypocritical and corrupt nation. His opening chapter reveals the religious yet rebellious society, and the diagnosis reveals sickness unto death. It seems almost like a direct quote from Deuteronomy and prepares us for the prophet's stinging words and the call to repentance, which was destined to be unheeded: "Hear O heavens! Give ear, O earth! For the LORD has spoken: I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me. The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master's crib; but Israel does not know, My people do not consider . . . They have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away backward.

"Why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; they have not been closed or bound up, or soothed with ointment" (Isaiah 1:1-6).

They considered themselves religious, rich and self-reliant, enjoying good times, but God saw them as cursed, sick, diseased treaty-breakers. Even Isaiah himself identified with the condition of the people when he saw "the LORD sitting on a throne, high and lifted up" , as he exclaimed, "Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips . . . " (6:1,5).

So all of this prepares us for the reality expressed in chapter 59:1,2 but permeating the whole of the book: "Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But the iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He will not hear."

On another later occasion Jeremiah seemed to sum up the situation and the critical condition of the people. In the grief of a broken heart he cried: " Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no recovery for the health of the daughter of my people?" (8:22) The prophet realized that the illnesses affecting Israel were beyond the power of physicians to cure. The problem was in the spirit; it was transgression of the Law by an unrepentant Nation fit for the sword or captivity.

"Come, and let us return to the LORD; for He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His sight" (Hosea 6:1,2)

The sad and forlorn story of Hosea and Gomer is a dramatic portrayal of Jehovah and Israel. Within this story is the outworking of the Covenant, especially its curses, and the longing of the Almighty to transform cursing into blessing.

Hosea 4:1-3 "Hear the word of the LORD, you children of Israel, for the LORD brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land: there is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land. By swearing and lying, killing and stealing and committing adultery, they break all restraint, with bloodshed after bloodshed. Therefore the land will mourn, and everyone who dwells there shall waste away . . . "

Hosea 8:1 "Set the trumpet to your mouth! He shall come like an eagle against the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed My covenant and rebelled against My law."

Hosea 13:9 "O Israel, you are destroyed, but your help is from Me."

The realization that the God of the Covenant is not vindictive nor is He gaining any pleasure in inflicting the dark side of the Covenant is grasped when we see that the judgements are therapeutic: "I will return again to My place till they acknowledge their offence. Then they will seek My face; in their affliction they will diligently seek Me. Come, and let us return to the LORD; for He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His sight" (5:15, 6:1,2).

Within the scope of the book of Hosea it is evident that the concept of salvation and healing embrace each other. Both depend upon repentance and a restored relationship that unleashes the forgiving and transforming power of God, so that the blessings of the Covenant can become operative. "Yet I am the LORD your God ever since the land of Egypt, and you shall know no God but Me; for there is no saviour besides Me" (Hosea 13:4).

"O Israel, return to the LORD, your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity . . . I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, for My anger has turned away from him. I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall grow like a lily, and lengthen his roots like Lebanon" (Hosea 14:1,4-5).

Once again it is evident that the concept of healing is national in character and has an indissoluble link with the Covenant of God reaching back into the wilderness of Horeb.

"For I will restore health to you and heal you of your wounds, says the LORD, because they called you an outcast, saying, This is Zion; no one seeks her" (Jeremiah 30:17).

The gulf that exists between cursing and blessing is humanly unbridgeable. It also seems to us to compromise His holiness and justice if He merely overlooks rebellion, treaty-breaking and depravity. The magnificent contrast in Jeremiah 30 poses a dilemma: "For thus says the LORD, Your affliction is incurable, your wound is severe. There is no one to plead your cause, that you may be bound up; you have no healing medicines . . . for I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the multitude of your iniquities, because your sins have increased. Why do you cry about your affliction? Your sorrow is incurable. Because of the multitude of your iniquities, because your sins have increased, I have done these things to you.

"But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and

by his stripes we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5).

"Therefore all those who devour you shall be devoured; and all your adversaries, everyone of them, shall go into captivity; those who plunder you shall become plunder, and all who prey upon you I will make a prey. For I will restore health to you and heal you of your wounds, says the LORD, because they called you an outcast, saying, This is Zion; no one seeks her.

"Thus says the LORD, Behold, I will bring back the captivity of Jacob's tents, and have mercy on his dwelling places; the city shall be built upon its own mound . . . Then out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of those who make merry. I will multiply them . . . I will also glorify them . . . their children shall be as before, and their congregation shall be established before Me . . . for who is he who pledged his heart to approach Me? says the LORD. You shall be My people, and I will be your God."

What has happened in the mind of God that makes it possible for Him to pronounce the Nation incurable and thus worthy of judgement and then promise restoration? How is it possible for the Nation, or any individual, to suffer the judgement upon their sin, which is death, and live to tell of it in a new relationship?

That is the unique feature of Isaiah 53.

Here the Servant Messiah is seen to step in between the Nation Israel and the holy judgement of Jehovah. The result: He suffers in their place.

"Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted" (53:4).

The 'our, we' is not speaking of individuals as such, but the Nation as a whole. This is a key factor in understanding this Scripture, and its application by Matthew and Peter in the Gospel and Epistle.

"But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed" (53:5).

What is being revealed here is a judicial statement that the sentence has been passed, the transgression paid, the requirements of holiness satisfied, justice has been fulfilled. In no way can such an awesome event with universal implications and eternal consequences be turned into a type of formula for personal health or be considered as Heaven's 'medicine cabinet'.

What happened to the Servant Messiah in His substitutionary role? Was His intervention successful? Could He stand in the Nation's place and survive? For if He suffered and died, how can we be sure that His mission was successful unless He rose from the dead to confirm the fact?

"Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the travail of His soul, and be satisfied" (53:10,11).

Isaiah had no doubt that the Servant Messiah would triumph and the truth of this would be the resurrection. This would fulfil what he had declared earlier: "He will swallow up death for ever, and the LORD God will wipe away tears from all faces; the rebuke of His people He will take away from all the earth; for the LORD has spoken. And it will be said in that day: Behold, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for Him; we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation – His Yeshua" (25:7-9).

Matthew grasped the significance of Isaiah's prophecies and how they related to the Messiah, and he quotes nine times from him. To the heart and mind of the former tax collector the Messiah embodied the reality of Isaiah's suffering Servant. We read: "When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses" (8:16,17).

If the Old Testament promises were to find fulfilment, then national apostasy, meaningless ritual and Gentile domination had to go. The conquest of evil, sickness, demons and death was a signpost that the other factors would ultimately be dealt with. Healing was one of the credentials of the Messiah. What He did was a declaration of who He was and what he had come to do.

"And he cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses" (Matthew 8:16,17).

"Then great multitudes came to Him, having with them those who were lame, blind, mute, maimed, and many others . . . and He healed them. So the multitude marvelled when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel" (Matthew 15:30,31).

The people marvelled! So they should and we would too. However, there is more to the list Matthew highlights. I see in it, and other emphases by the Gospel writers concerning specific healing miracles a pointer to the Messiah as being the embodiment of what the Old Testament said Jehovah would do.

The blind: "I, the LORD, have called You in righteousness, and will hold Your hand: I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles, to open the blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house" (Isaiah 42:6,7).

The lame, deaf and dumb: "Say to those who are fearful-hearted, Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God; He will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing" (Isaiah 35:4-6).

Was it any wonder the Scribes and Pharisees had a tough time with the Messiah? They knew the Scriptures and the inferences that were being made in His healing and teaching ministry. It was not a case of His being a showman when He said to the disciples of John the Baptiser: "Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them" (Matthew 11:4,5). He was re-inforcing in John's mind that the Lamb of God was fulfilling the Scriptural requirements for the Servant Messiah.

"I, the LORD, have called You in righteousness, and will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house" (Isaiah 42:6,7).

The holiness of God is unbending. This is particularly evident in the book of Leviticus which deals with the requirements for worship. Health and wholeness are prerequisites for this ministry. "And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to Aaron, saying, No man of your descendants in succeeding generations, who has any defect, may approach to offer the bread of his God . . . a man blind or lame, who has a marred face or any limb too long, a man who has a broken foot or broken hand, or is a hunchback, or a dwarf, or a man who has a defect in his eye, or eczema or scab, or is a eunuch.

"No man of the descendants of Aaron the priest, who has a defect, shall come near to offer the offerings made by fire to the LORD. He has a defect; he shall not come near to offer the bread of His God. He may eat the bread of His God, both the most holy and the holy; only he shall not go near the veil or approach the altar because he has a defect, lest he profane My sanctuaries; for I the LORD sanctify them" (21:16-23).

So, surely one of the aspects of the healing ministry of Jesus was to make it possible for such people to enter into the presence of the Lord God of Israel in a ministry sense. The Epistle to the Hebrews underscores this fact. We can enter boldly regardless of defects because in Him we can not only be saved, but we are made whole without blemish. We are part of the cleansed, forgiven, made-whole community of faith.

This leads us to an appreciation of what Peter was stressing: " . . . who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness – by whose stripes you were healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls" (I Peter 2:24,25).

When this whole Scripture is examined it becomes evident that Peter is once again speaking with a community in mind. It is not individual, but family, the family of faith. It may be scattered, but it is ONE body. It may be made up of slaves and freemen of doubtful lineage, but they are a kingdom of royal priests; they may be scorned by the world, but they are chosen by God; they may be poor, but their inheritance is secure in heaven; they may wear stripes of suffering, but they are the reminders that by His stripes they are 'healed' and are destined for glory.

Peter's use of the sheep and shepherd analogy may well stem from his appreciation of the promise given to Ezekiel in chapter 34 concerning the Shepherd who would come and save the sheep and would rule over them in righteousness and truth. Again the use of sheep gives the impression of community. As the flock of God they are without blemish and are thus acceptable in worship and sacrifice.

"Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing" (Isaiah 35:5,6).

This does not mean that individuals would not become sick. The mere fact that persecution was raging against them would indicate that many would be suffering emotional and physical illnesses. The Letter of James confirms this fact. The reference to Timothy, Epaphroditus and Paul being sick makes it very clear that the saints are not immune from pain, paralysis or other diseases.

The fact that God does heal individuals according to His grace and mercy is undeniable. He is Sovereign. He is working His purposes, and sometimes these are not plain to us. What is required from us is the conviction based upon the character of God and the high calling we have to honour Him in sickness or in health, in poverty or plenty, in life and in death. Not to be healed, nor to be wealthy, are not expressions of God's anger or necessarily a personal lack of faith.

"Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them" (Matthew 11:4,5).

There is another Old Testament Scripture that has bearing on the concept that Isaiah 53 relates to the Nation of Israel first and foremost, and then secondly to the family of faith. In I Kings 8 and II Chronicles 7 is the account of the dedication of the newly-completed Temple. Solomon, in the majestic prayer he uttered, expressed his faith in the covenant-keeping God and laid claim to the blessings as promised in Deuteronomy chapters 28 to 30.

Solomon prayed: "When there is famine in the land, or pestilence, blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers; when their enemy besieges them in the land of their cities; whatever plague or whatever sickness there is . . . " (I Kings 8:37), and he went through other aspects of the covenant curse and asked that when Israel repented, God would transform cursing into blessing.

The response of God puts into perspective the link between the people, the land, and the Covenant of Healing. "When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land" (II Chronicles 7:13,14), this of course referring to Israel.

Today the wonder of Isaiah 53 is that we may glory in the triumph of His death and resurrection and bear testimony to His promise to return and rule in righteousness. For us today "by His stripes we are healed" is the privilege of young and old, of ill or deformed, rich or poor, male or female to enjoy.

"By His stripes we are healed" still awaits a Nation chosen by God through covenants with Abraham, Moses and David. They are as "dead bones" in relation to God and His purposes, but Ezekiel 37 will be completed in His time. One day they will say, "Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies" (Psalm 103:1-4).

Isaiah saw that day and wrote: "Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts; your eyes will see Jerusalem, a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that will not be taken down; not one of its stakes will ever be removed, nor will any of its cords be broken. But there the majestic LORD will be for us a place of broad rivers and streams . . . for the LORD is our Judge, the LORD is our Lawgiver, the LORD is our King; He will save us . . . and the inhabitant will not say I am sick; the people who dwell in it will be forgiven their iniquity" (33:20-24).

Then it will be plain to all the price behind the Covenant of Healing and health was even "before the foundation of the earth" for "by His stripes we are healed."

"If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land" (II Chronicles 7:14).

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