Incurable diseases are on the rise on planet earth. So says a September 2017 report. Why are they increasing? Is there any clue? Yes, thank God there is. The Word of God helps us to know why and also clues us into how to effectively close the door to them. Charles Kettering, the famous research scientist, is impatient with people who speak of insurmountable obstacles. “It is like the doctors with their incurable diseases,” he says. “Did you ever stop to think what an incurable disease is? It is one the doctor doesn’t know how to cure.” The doctors may not know but the Lord does. ¹

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You can view a basic transcript of this podcast at the bottom of this section.

Accept the Challenge

Each week’s podcast contains a call to action. The Word of God will not produce in your life unless you put into operation.
This weeks call is:

Build yourself up with healing scriptures from the Word of God. Think about these verses. Quote them to yourself. You can find a link to a healing scripture list here.

Join the Conversation

Each week’s podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony. Testimony is vital to a believers life. We overcome by it (Rev. 12:11).
This week’s question is:

Question: Now that you know that there is a connection between sin and incurable diseases, how does this new understanding change your perspective on Jesus sacrifice for our sins? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Episode Resources:

You can find additional information on the subject of the Kingdom of God in the resources listed below.

1. #S3-005: What Does Jesus Healing on the Sabbath Teach? [Podcast]
2. #S3-003: How to Minister Healing Like Jesus Did [Podcast]
3. #S2-036: Why Hearing is the Most Necessary Healing Component [Podcast]
4. #S2-034: How to Put Yourself In the Word for Healing [Podcast]
5. #S2-033: How to Get Faith for Healing [Podcast]

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 40 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. Both he and his wife Sharon of 35 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is both the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate it on Stitcher Radio and leave a review. If you have a suggestion for a Bible topic you would like to see taught, or if you have a question, please e-mail me at emery@emeryhorvath.com

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Podcast Notes

Healing Words Used in the Old Testament

Rāpāʾ רָפָא

• The Hebrew word ‘rāpāʾ’is a verb.
• And, it means to heal, to repair, to restore to health, heal, mend, fix, cure, to patch or stitch together, or sew up.
• It means to restore something to a condition of health or wholeness.
• It is the word for healing used most often in the Old Testament.

Genesis 20:17 (NKJV) — 17 So Abraham prayed to God; and God healed (rapha) Abimelech, his wife, and his female servants. Then they bore children;

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 (rapha) you.”

Psalm 103:3 (NKJV) — 3 Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals (rapha) all your diseases,

Psalm 107:20 (NKJV) — 20 He sent His word and healed (rapha) them, And delivered them from their destructions.

Isaiah 53:5 (NKJV) — 5 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 (rapha).

• He sent His word and healed or ‘rapha’ them.
• He sent His word and healed, repaired, restored to health, mended, fixed, cured, patched, stitched together, or sewed them up.

Marpēʾ – מַרְפֵּא

• ‘Marpe’ is the noun form of rapha.
• If one tries to explain what a noun form is, it can go something like this.
• In the sentence, ‘Jesus heals people,’ the word ‘heals’ is a verb or the Hebrew word ‘rapha’.
• If we say instead, ‘Healing is of God’, the word healing there is a noun or the Hebrew word ‘marpe’.
• In Second Chronicles, we see one use of the word ‘marpe’.
• We see ‘marpe’ referring to the natural process by which the body is healed.
• Jehoram, King of Israel was struck down in judgment by the word of the Lord.

2 Chronicles 21:5–19 (NKJV) — 5 Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. 6 And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab had done, for he had the daughter of Ahab as a wife; and he did evil in the sight of the LORD. 8 In his days Edom revolted against Judah’s authority, and made a king over themselves. 10 Thus Edom has been in revolt against Judah’s authority to this day. At that time Libnah revolted against his rule, because he had forsaken the LORD God of his fathers. 11 Moreover he made high places in the mountains of Judah, and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit harlotry, and led Judah astray. 12 And a letter came to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, Thus says the LORD God of your father David: Because you have not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat your father, or in the ways of Asa king of Judah, 13 but have walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and have made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to play the harlot like the harlotry of the house of Ahab, and also have killed your brothers, those of your father’s household, who were better than yourself, 14 behold, the LORD will strike your people with a serious affliction—your children, your wives, and all your possessions; 15 and you will become very sick with a disease of your intestines, until your intestines come out by reason of the sickness, day by day. 16 Moreover the LORD stirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines and the Arabians who were near the Ethiopians. 17 And they came up into Judah and invaded it, and carried away all the possessions that were found in the king’s house, and also his sons and his wives, so that there was not a son left to him except Jehoahaz, the youngest of his sons. 18 After all this the LORD struck him in his intestines with an incurable disease. 19 Then it happened in the course of time, after the end of two years, that his intestines came out because of his sickness; so he died in severe pain. And his people made no burning for him, like the burning for his fathers.

• You’ve heard the old saying, ‘Crime doesn’t pay?’
• Well, the saying was certainly true in Jehoram’s case.
• His sin which he sinned was surely not worth the price he had to pay because of it.
• Look at all the bad stuff which happened to Jehoram when he departed from the Lord.
  • Two nations revolted against him, Edom, and Libnah.
    • So, Jehoram had internal political problems.
    • These were nations which Israel had already conquered.
  • Two nations rose up against Jehoram from without, the Philistines and the Arabians so he had external political problems.
  • Judgment via plague also came to Israel because of Jehoram’s sin.
  • That’s what the words ‘serious affliction’ mean in the New King James.
    • Why did the plague come upon a nation for the sins of the king?
    • Doesn’t sound fair, does it?
    • Well, on the surface it doesn’t until you realize that Israel willingly followed Jehoram into sin.
    • No one forced the everyday Israelite to sin.
    • No one forces you to sin.
    • You do it on your own.
    • You sin of your own free choice.
    • The thing that’s so important about leadership, kings, queens, presidents, prime ministers etc., is that leadership is primarily influence.
    • What do real leaders do?
    • They influence people.
    • If the leaders are sinful, they influence people in that direction.
    • Now, they don’t make people do it but surely nudge people in that direction.
    • You see this kind of thing with television a lot.
    • There are all kinds of bad things which happen on planet earth.
    • And television writers, looking for new material, and new ideas, will find for example some exotic way someone was killed or murdered and they will make a show around that new thing.
    • What’s the next thing you see after the show is aired?
    • Bunch of people copycatting what they saw on television.
    • Now, the television writers didn’t make those people do those bad things but they surely influenced them in that direction.
    • Now getting back to Jehoram and all the trouble he had because of his sin…
  • The plague, which struck Israel, also came upon Jehoram’s family.
    • The children were struck by it as well his many wives.
  • The plague also came to the king himself.
    • He suffered from this plague of a disease for two years.
    • It was a disease so violent it caused his intestines to fall out in the end.
• What does all this with Jehoram have to do with the word ‘marpe?’
• ‘Marpe’ is found in the word ‘incurable’
• Incurable, in the Hebrew, is ‘en marpe’ or not able to be repaired.
• The natural healing process found in Jehoram’s body was not able to fix, repair, restore to health, mend, cured, patch up, stitch together, sew together, and or overcome the disease which attacked him.
• Because of his sin, Jehoram had no access to the divine healing ‘rapha’ power of God.
• Do you remember the man at the Pool of Bethesda?
• Do you remember what Jesus said to him after he was healed?
• “Go and sin no more lest a worse thing come unto you.’
• So, sin opened up the door to an incurable condition in the life of Jehoram.
• This incident in the life of this wicked Israel king shows a vital truth in the area of health and wholeness.
• It shows the reason why we need to know, the reason why we need to put our faith into practice in the area of our personal health.
• We need to know how to access Gods healing power because there are diseases which exist which are greater than our bodies ‘marphe’.
• They are greater than our bodies natural healing process.

Beyond Healing

• Now, I want to be very careful here and make sure that the following remarks are qualified correctly.
• Jehoram got over into sin which opened the door to an incurable condition.
• The Lord was trying to keep him from it but he was stubborn in his way.
• Diseases are part of the fall of man.
• So, generally, sin is the source of sickness.
• But, not every ‘incurable case’ is a direct result of an individual’s specific sin.
• Diseases are all tied to sin generally, but not always specifically.
• So don’t be tempted to look at a person who is fighting some sickness and think that there must be some sin in his life or they wouldn’t be sick.
• Don’t go there.
• The Blood of Jesus covers our sin, general and specific.
• Out in the world, it’s a different story.
• There is a key verse in the Book of Proverbs which helps us to understand why incurable diseases come upon some.

Proverbs 6:12–15 (ESV) — 12 A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech, 13 winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, points with his finger, 14 with perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord; 15 therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly; in a moment he will be broken beyond healing.

• The King James version says, ‘without remedy’.
• That’s a little bit cloudy.
• ‘Beyond healing’ is the right translation.
• And, in the Hebrew it is, again, ‘en marpe’, the same word used to describe Jehoram’s disease.
• These three verses must be taken in context.
• The next three verses are also part of the context.
• Look at all six of these verses together and look at the similarities.

Six Things God Hates

Proverbs 6:12–19 (ESV) — 12 A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech, 13 winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, points with his finger, 14 with perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord; 15 therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly; in a moment he will be broken beyond healing. 16 There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him: 17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, 18 a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, 19 a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

• You see ‘winks with the eyes’ in verse thirteen and ‘haughty eyes’ in verse seventeen.
• What about ‘signals with his feet’ in verse thirteen and ‘feet that make haste to run to evil’.
• You also see a ‘perverted heart devises evil’ in verse fourteen and ‘a heart that devises wicked plans’ in verse eighteen.
• Finally, ‘continually sowing discord’ in verse fourteen and ‘one who sows discord among brothers in verse nineteen.
• All of these negative attributes seen in these verses are things the Lord hates.
• The Hebrew word hate in this passage is a verb and it means to dislike with intensity. It means to feel antipathy or aversion towards.
• Why does He hate them?
• Because these verses in Proverbs gives us a list of wicked things which open the door to ‘en-marpe’ – beyond healing diseases.

One Reason Incurable Diseases Are on the Rise

• This verse in Proverbs and some verses in the New Testament clues us into why incurable diseases are on the rise in our day.
• Autoimmune diseases are on the rise says with more than eighty of them identified per a September 2017 report. ²
• The structure of many bacteria and viruses we find today are no longer the same as they were before.
• Many have evolved into new strains which are capable to resist even the strongest remedies.
• Aids is new to our era.
• Note the dates of these emerging diseases.
  • Hepatitis C – 1989
  • West Nile Virus – 1999
  • SARS – 2003
  • Chikungunya – 2005
  • Swine flu – 2009
  • MERS – 2012
  • Ebola – 2014
  • Zika – 2015
• There are thirty-three other emerging diseases since 1996.
• As we said already, these Proverbs 6:12-15 verses give us a list of some of what opens up the door to incurable diseases.
  • Wickedness
  • Crooked Speech
  • Winking with the eye
  • Signaling with the feet
  • Pointing with the finger
  • Heart perversion heart which devises evil
  • Continually sowing discord
• We will continue, in our next podcast, to breakdown Proverbs six so that we may be sure not to open the door to incurable diseases.

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