Why Sickness Comes

Man’s original sin produced our present environment in which sickness, disease, and death hold sway. However, there are some specific causes of sickness, disease, and infirmity that we need to consider. Every type or kind of sickness cannot be explained as to why it comes or whether we will be healed or bit, Those given are general points of reference from the Scripture to enable us to understand better some root causes.

If you are suffering some tragic illness, perhaps you can find help and direction from this lesson; and when healing comes, give God the glory. If healing does not come, never doubt Him or His ability to heal; learn to trust Him and lean upon Him inspire of pain and suffering. Above all, be sure your soul is right with God. That position assures you of a new body free from sickness and death.

Consider these causes of sickness and how to be healed.

1. To Test Our Faith and Loyalty to God

Job serves as an example of what can happen in the life of a person living for God. (Study chapter 1-2 of Job.) God held Job up to Satan as one who feared Him. As a final result of Satan’s accusations, God removes the hedge from around Job and allowed Satan to take his possessions and finally his health.

Some calculate that Job had to endure this terrible tragedy and malady for a year or longer. Eventually the trial came to a close, Satan was shown Job’s dedication, and Job was healed.

Trials come in many forms and these trials can come through the avenue of sickness. If your sickness is a trial such as Job’s, healing will come at the end of the trial. Our task is to be faithful during such times and not charge God foolishly (Job 1:22; 2:10).

2. Because of Sin and Disobedience

Man’s original sin caused all of us to be subject to sickness. On the other hand, our individual sin and disobedience can subject us to a personal encounter with sickness, disease, and even death.

• Miriam – was smitten with leprosy because of her conduct (Numbers 12:1-16).
• Israelites – were bitten of serpents because of their wrongdoing (Numbers 21:4-9).
• Corinthians – many were weak and sickly because of their wrongful handling of the communion service (1 Corinthians 11:26-34).

People in our world, especially those who do not know God, suffer untold personal suffering because of their individual sin and rebellion. Consider the results of drinking, smoking, immorality (disease of AIDS), etc.

If the sickness of believers is due to personal sin and disobedience, the route to healing is repentance and restoration. God is trying to awake these individuals, get them to turn from sin, and save them form the second death.

3. To Keep Us Humble

Although it may sound cruel, this may be the only way to keep pride form destroying us. Some people’s attention cannot be arrested outside of physical pain and suffering. Far better is it for God to use physical suffering to keep us humble than for us to be lost.

• David – His testimony was, “Before I was afflicted, I went astray: but now I have kept thy word” (Psalm 119:67; see Psalm 118:18).
• Paul – Was given a thorn in the flesh to keep him from being exalted (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). What this was, we are not sure, but he referred to it as an infirmity (Galatians 4:13-15). Infirmity comes from a Greek word often translated as sickness, along with other meanings.
  
  Study 1 Timothy 5:23; Luke 13:11-16; Matthew 8:16-17; Luke 5:15 in relation to infirmity.
  
  Job gives tremendous insight on this topic; however, we will need to analyze it carefully to understand what Job said (Job 33:16-30).

If infirmity comes to keep you humble, you may never be healed or delivered from it. Nevertheless,God’s grace is sufficient to keep you and help you bear it. Personal reflection and discernment are needful at this juncture. Paul realized the basis of his infirmity and accepted God’s grace to sustain him.

4. To Reveal the Power and Glory of God

No one wants to get sick, but before the glory and power of God can be manifest in healing someone must be sick. Could it be that we encounter sickness and disease in order for God to receive glory by healing us? Apparently so, according to the following references.

• Man Born Blind – Jesus made it clear that this man’s blindness was not a result of his or his parent’s sin. Rather it happened so that the works of God could be made manifest (John 9:3).
• Lazarus – Apparently Lazarus’s sickness and even death happened to bring glory to God and manifest His resurrecting power (John 11:1-4; see John 2:11).

Whenever we are healed of sickness and disease, God deserves all the glory. We must recognize God as our healer, not the minister or the ones who pray for us.

5. Because of Demon Possession and Sin

Note that only the unsaved are referred to in this topic. God’s people, even the weakest saint, is not demon possessed. Sinners and backsliders can be demon possessed but not saints of God! “Because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4). If you are a child of God, stop listening to the devil or someone who tells you that you are demon possessed.

Note also that saints or sinners (who are not demon possessed) can and often have some of the same problems discussed here. Demon possession must be discerned, not decided by physical handicaps!

Old age, birth defects, accidents, and other things can create or cause physical handicaps and impairment. Common sense, good judgment, and fairness must accompany our encounters with physical problems, along with compassion, love, and prayer, for the afflicted.

Each example given here is a direct result of personal sin and demon possession; in context, each person involved was in such state before coming to Christ.

• Boy Who Was a Lunatic – Matthew 17:14-21; 4:24.
• Man Who Was Dumb – Matthew 9:32-35.
• Boy Who Was Deaf and Dumb – Mark 9:14-29. (Same boy as in Matthew 17, yet native that a deaf and dumb spirit possessed him).
• Man Blind and Deaf – Matthew 12:22.
• Demoniac of Gadara – Mark 5:1-19. (This man was so possessed of demons until he was mentally deranged.)
• Girl Vexed of the Devil – Matthew 15:21-31.
• Man With Infirmity – John 5:1-14. (When Jesus healed this man He told him, “Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee” [John 5:14]. A powerful principle is presented here: sin apparently cause his problem, and it would be worse if he quit following Christ and returned to sin).

Upon encountering any person with one or all of these problems, we should be cautious in pronouncing its cause as demon possession. If physical problems are a direct result of demon possession, when the demons are cast out then healing and restoration will occur. In each instance where Jesus cast out demons causing physical problems, the people were healed.

If physical impairment in a sinner’s body is not a result of demon possession, the person may be born again of the water and Spirit and still be physically impaired. Remember, the essential thing is to be born again and live in accordance to God’s Word. All who do so will go to heaven whether they are sick or well while on earth.

6. Because of the Aging Process

Due to our limited life span, having bodies designed to deteriorate, we encounter sickness and disease. Elderly people with health problems should not be condemned because of their weak and sick bodies, nor be made to feel that they have lost their faith or favor with God.

• Study Ecclesiastes 12:1-7 for an allegory of what happens in old age. If you are not old yet, observation will indicate that these things happen exactly as described.
• Paul taught us that the outward man perishes (2 Corinthians 4:16), and this earthly tabernacle will be dissolved (2 Corinthians 5:1-9). The dissolving of our bodily tabernacle involves sickness and disease to accomplish it.
• Asa was stricken with a disease in his feet when he was old (1 Kings 15:23).

One visit to aged parents, friends, or a nursing home, will drive home this point. Ministers and saints alike are not immune to the aging process. Neither is their illness an indication that God has forsaken them or that they have lost faith for healing.

Yes, God heals elderly people, but they are still old. Healing is not a fountain of youth – it is relative to our age. Sickness comes through many avenues, and the aging process is one of the,

Note: Along with the six things already mentioned in determining the cause of sickness, we should also consider childhood illnesses such as measles, mumps, chicken pox, etc. Some people have seasonal afflictions such as sinus, flu, asthma, etc. Others are involved in accidents creating paralysis, mental derangement, blindness, etc. Birth defect can cause serious physical problems.

Whatever the cause (how can we even identify them all?), God is able to deliver and heal any type, form, pr kind of sickness or disease.