Daily Manna · Day 187 · July 6
The LORD That Healeth
“And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.”
This verse has been used to hurt people, so the hard question has to come first. Read carelessly, it seems to say that the healthy obeyed and the sick did not. Anyone who has buried a faithful believer knows that is false.
So walk through the list the verse actually gives, in its own order. There are four parts, and together they describe a people listening to their God, which is very different from a machine that turns obedience into good health.
"If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God." Listening comes first. The Hebrew says the verb twice, hearing you will hear, which means steady attention over time more than a single decision.
"And wilt do that which is right in his sight." The standard is what is right in God's sight, outside of you, and that is the whole difference between obeying Him and simply doing what you prefer.
"And wilt give ear to his commandments." This is a second listening word, and now it has something definite attached to it. It means paying attention to God's particular instructions, more than having a general openness to Him.
"And keep all his statutes." To keep is a guarding word. It is what a watchman does at a gate.
The promise that follows is specific: "I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians." These diseases are the ones from the plagues, the ones the people standing there had just seen fall on one nation with their own eyes. So this is no general rule about all illness. God spoke it at Marah, after three days in the wilderness without water, right after He made the bitter water sweet and shortly before He sent the manna.
The last line has no condition in it at all: "for I am the LORD that healeth thee." Here God is telling His people His name, which is to say, He is telling them who He is.
So bring Him the specific thing, more than health in general: the shoulder that aches, the memory that still hurts, the marriage that is wearing thin. Name it to Him today. Then make the doctor's appointment you have been putting off. Trusting the Healer and phoning the clinic have never been rivals.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 187 is One Sentence, Two Verses (Romans 3:23-24).