COMBINED COVENANTS OF HEALING AND HEALTH

“For I will RESTORE HEALTH to you and HEAL you of your wounds,’ says the LORD…” – Jeremiah 30:17a

God’s Inheritance for His people includes the COMBINED COVENANTS of HEALING and HEALTH: “For I will RESTORE HEALTH to you and HEAL you of your wounds,’ says the LORD, ‘Because they called you an outcast saying: “this is Zion; no one seeks her”’ (Jer.30:17). In this passage, God was working by His Word among His people, Israel. Though they had been wounded in judgement, God promised to HEAL their wounds and RESTORE HEALTH to them. Yes, they deserved the consequences of their infidelities, but God would not leave them to wallow in their weakness. He promised to inaugurate a new day and extricate them from the effects of their sin. The period of captivity was a time of chastisement, yet it was not an end in itself, but a means to refine and restore Israel (v.11).

The promised salvation was comprehensive: individual and communal; present and future; spiritual, physical, social, economic, and political (vv.18-20). The devastated people could never find such “holistic healing” from any other source. Only God could be their Healer and Restorer of Health. His ultimate purpose was however greater: “you shall be My people, and I will be your God” (v.22). This remains the Heart of Redemption’s Story: “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God” (Rev.21:3b).

Christ’s package of Redemptions contains the blessings of Healing and Health, already bought and paid for through the Blood of Jesus Christ. It is God’s will to heal whenever His covenant-people are sick, but His perfect plan is to keep us in divine health. The ideal for every inhabitant of Zion is a life that’s totally free of sickness and disease: “And the inhabitant will not say, “I am sick”; the people that dwell in it will be forgiven their iniquity” (Isa.33:24). We have a combined covenants of healing and divine health. And the Word of God presents ample promises on both. Here are few examples:

Exodus 23:25-26 includes but transcends healing. Conditioned upon serving the LORD God diligently are: the provision of sound nutrition; wholesome health devoid of sickness; fruitfulness; and victory over barrenness, miscarriage, and premature death: “So you shall serve the LORD your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness away from the midst of you. No one shall suffer miscarriage or be barren in your land; and I will fulfill the number of your days.”

Deuteronomy 7:15 also describes a state of Divine Health, in which diseases have no place at all: “And the LORD will take away from you ALL SICKNESS, and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on those who hate you.” The curse of “terrible diseases” which God’s people had suffered from was broken, but beyond freedom from diseases, this covenant-promise includes commensurate retribution against haters of God’s people.

Psalm 105:37 portrays the reality of divine health among God’s people – the Israelites: “He also brought them out with silver and gold, and there was none feeble among His tribes.” God’s people operated in divine health even in the Old Covenant. We in the New Covenant need not be subject to diseases and sicknesses.

Both healing and health are entrenched in Redemption’s package (Is.53:4-5; 1 Peter 2:24). Christ has TAKEN AWAY SICKNESSES and REMOVED DISEASES from our domains: “He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses” (Mt.8:17b). God’s perfect plan is not for us to be pleading for healing under the incessant attacks of the devil and diseases, but to live in DIVINE HEALTH and Wellbeing. John the Beloved expressed this divine desire: “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and BE IN HEALTH, just as your soul prospers” (3Jh.2). Our Father has purposed that we enjoy the full Inheritance of His COMBINED COVENANTS of HEALING and HEALTH. Hallelujah!