Sunday 08/18/13
Topic: The Fear of the Lord & Healing
Series – And He Healed them all:
The Fear of the Lord and Health VIII.mp3
Key Text:
Prov. 3:7-8
Psa. 103:17-22
Psa. 25:1-17
The Fear of the Lord and Healing…
A few teachings ago I made the statement that healing does NOT negate the aging of our bodies and that the scriptures are clear on the fact that even now in the New Covenant, death is still residing in our bodies -Rom. 8:10 and that our bodies are in a constant state of present decay – 2 Cor. 4:16.
To illustrate this I used the example of Moses and perhaps I could not have found a worse example to illustrate my point. In fact, what it does is illustrate that for every rule there is an exception. For in Deut. 34:7 it says, “Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died. His eyes were not dim nor his natural vigor diminished.”
What I was thinking of was Isaac and Jacob, who where both full of days and their eyes were dim before they died.
Gen. 27:1 “Now it came to pass, when Isaac was old and his eyes were so dim that he could not see, that he called Esau his older son and said to him, “My son.” And he answered him, “Here I am.””
Gen. 48:10 “Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age, so that he could not see. Then Joseph brought them near him, and he kissed them and embraced them.”
So one might ask, why would God preserve the sight of Moses and not of Abraham and Isaac?
It is to easy to say, “We OBVIOUSLY Moses was in more faith than the others.” This is an over simplified answer which stands on absolutely no scriptural backing! IT is the kind of answer I might have offered many years ago because my religious “Word of Faith” box required it to be so, NOT because it was actually scriptural. The reason I would have come to that conclusion was due to a misunderstanding of God and healing as well as another passage of scripture which I always quoted as, “God shows no partiality”. So the natural “theology” which flows from this is that IF God did this for Moses and not for Isaac and Jacob then it MUST be because Moses was in faith and the others were not.
What does the Bible say about God and partiality?
One of the first verses which speaks about this is found in Deut. 10:17,
“For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe.”
Now in this translation if appears God is saying that He NEVER treats one person any different than another but always gives the same thing to everyone. however, if you just look two verses immediately before this God demonstrates that He in fact DOES do that – let’s look at it.
“The LORD delighted only in your fathers, to love them; and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day.” ~ Deut. 10:15
Hmmmm! God chose the nation of Israel above all other nations. Sounds like preferential treatment to me! But if that is what verse 17 is saying than it makes NO sense to say it RIGHT AFTER demonstrating a preference.
Let’s look at the verse from another translation which uses more accurate word English word choices to translate the passage,
“For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward”
The word “taketh” is a difficult word to translate for it has at least three slightly differing Semantic ranges. however, in the context of this verse it simply means – “without regard to the works and merits of men, their characters or circumstances.”
So it would be wrong to think that it means God does not sometimes do one thing for one person and another for someone else. What it does mean is that God does WHAT He does for His Own reasons and does not consult with man not regard him or his merits in the decision.
WOW – what a difference that makes! Can you see how misinterpreting this passage could lead to some terrible misunderstandings about God and even lead a person to a shipwrecked faith?
Let’s examine another similar passage,
“Wherefore now let the fear of the LORD be upon you; take heed and do it: for there is no iniquity with the LORD our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of gifts.” ~ 2Chron. 19:7
Here God is speaking to the judges of Israel who aided Moses as the “Judicial branch” of God’s Theocratic society. He tells them, not to respect one person above another. I know that it comes as a tremendous shock to you, but judges can be bought! Not just with money, but with prestige and power. People of high ranking influence might be able to persuade a judge to “look the other way” in order to procure a favor from them in the future. God says here, that they should fear the Lord NOT man, and respect Him NOT them.
Some examples are clarified just by looking up the words or by reading it in another translation. For example…
“Therefore men fear Him; He shows no partiality to any who are wise of heart.” ~ Job 37:24 NKJV
“Men do therefore fear him: he respecteth not any that are wise of heart.” ~ Job 37:24 KJV
Outdated Elizabethan English aside, the King James is far more accurate or rather – less misleading, than the New King James in this example. So -1 for style and +100 for accuracy!
The next example we will look at is an example of when and where God DOES NOT show partiality,
“Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.” ~ Acts 10:34-35
Concerning salvation, God has allowed the Gentile to join with the Israelites whom He singled out under the Old Covenant. While Israel is still God’s chosen people, in another way so are all men under the New Covenant – all who will believe.
The other examples found in Rom. 2:11; Eph. 6:9 & Col. 3:25 are all variations along the same theme. God does not respect human authority and offer preference based upon it – for all authority came from Him in the first place – God is NOT impressed nor swayed by such things. his judgements are righteous and not able to be swayed by the things which so easily impress man.
After this short sidestep , we spend nearly 45 minutes working through the exact same passages we covered on Wednesday. I felt impressed to take it slowly and examine ourselves and the attitudes of our “always in a hurry” hearts in light of these verses that we might better understand HOW to fear the Lord in our every day lives.
I hope this teaching helps bring clarity to fearing God as we continue to examine it in the light of the health it promises to our flesh.
“Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and depart from evil. It WILL BE health to your flesh, And strength to your bones.” ~ Prov. 3:7-8
For more, listen to the audio by clicking the above link.