There is a big controversy that has been raging in the Church for ages and it is whether God is against medical science or that visiting doctors and the like is an act of unbelief.

People have taken positions depending on Church traditions or personal beliefs but what does the bible say if anything about this? Is there are anything in the Bible that supports any of these positions to the exclusion of the other?

Here are a few thoughts to guide us

Medical science in Bible days was very crude & rudimentary in comparison to our times, many ‘treatments’ were based on natural cures and guess work.  The woman with the issue of blood had been to many doctors and had suffered much at their hands (Mark 5:25), so you can imagine what it was like.

The Jews had a history and a revelation of divine healing, God had revealed himself as the ‘Lord that health thee’ (Exodus 15:26)

David said of the Lord He healeth all my diseases (Psalm 103:2). The Covenant of Abraham made provision for the wellness of God’s people.

Jesus saw the woman stricken by a spirit of infirmity and declared ‘ought not this woman being a daughter of Abraham be made whole on the Sabbath day?’ (Luke 13: 10)

Isaiah recommended a natural cure for the healing of King Hezekiah’s illness (2 Kings 20:7).

Paul recommended another natural cure to help with the stomach troubles of his protégé Timothy (1 Timothy 5:23)

In all these instances the one common denominator was that the people trusted God as the source of their healing even though the channel through which it came was sometimes natural or medical.

On the other hand, there is the notable example of King Asa of whom the Bible writes

 And in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa became diseased in his feet, and his malady was severe; yet in his disease he did not seek the Lord, but the physicians.

2 Chron 16:11-12 NKJV

Did you notice the phrase ‘yet in his disease he sought not the Lord but the physicians (doctors)’ on first reading it would suggest that God was condemning his going to doctors, but you will need to go back a bit to understand the context.

At one time the Prophet Hanani had to rebuke the King with these words

And at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah, and said to him: “Because you have relied on the king of Syria, and have not relied on the Lord your God, therefore the army of the king of Syria has escaped from your hand. Were the Ethiopians and the Lubim not a huge army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet, because you relied on the Lord, He delivered them into your hand. For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him. In this you have done foolishly; therefore from now on you shall have wars.”  Then Asa was angry with the seer, and put him in prison, for he was enraged at him because of this. And Asa oppressed some of the people at that time.

Chron 16:7-10 NKJV

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King Asa’s was a story of a man who began well putting his trust in God and ending badly trusting in man. In the early stages of his reign King Asa walked in faith towards God but as time went on his heart began to lean more on man than on God, it was in this place of heart backsliding that he became ill and died trusting in man not God.

This is the key issue, what or whom are you trusting or leaning on. The believer just like the Jew is a covenant person, the heart of the covenant is faith in the God of the Covenant, The leaning of your whole person and being on Him who is your source for all things.

The big question is, are you trusting in God or the doctors, who is your source for healing, God or the doctor? The covenant person knows that God through Jesus is his source, so he seeks God and trusts HIM for healing knowing that healing can come through different channels.

David said

I will look unto the hills from where my help comes, my help comes from the Lord who has made the heavens and the earth (Psalm 121:1-2)

When trouble comes knocking, where do you turn to FIRST? God or man?

Jeremiah has something to say about this

Thus says the Lord:

“Cursed is the man who trusts in man

And makes flesh his strength,

Whose heart departs from the Lord.

For he shall be like a shrub in the desert,

And shall not see when good comes,

But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness,

In a salt land which is not inhabited.

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,

And whose hope is the Lord.

 For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters,

Which spreads out its roots by the river,

And will not fear when heat comes;

But its leaf will be green,

And will not be anxious in the year of drought,

Nor will cease from yielding fruit.

Jer 17:5-9 NKJV

Is God against doctors? No! God is against putting your faith in anything or anyone other than Him. He is our source for all good things. He is the One who has made healing and wholeness available through Jesus.

Putting your faith outside God is unbelief towards God, it will lead to death, if not physically most certainly spiritually. Jesus told his disciples ‘have faith in God’, It is impossible to have faith in God outside the realm of what you know, someone said faith begins when the will of God is known. This is why we teach and preach along certain lines.

God wants us well, but we need to know this and trust him for wellness and healing if need be.

We also need to guard our hearts so that we don’t slip from looking unto Jesus to looking unto man. The arm of the flesh will fail but the arms of Jehovah God will carry us into our safe places.

In our magazine Power that Heals the Sick this quarter, we have teaching to establish your faith in God for your healing. Click on the link and the magazine will download automatically.

God bless you