Harlan C. Vanden Einde is pastor of the Oakdale Park Christian Reformed Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

“SICKNESS”

From a Bible Study Group in Iowa comes a question about sickness. “Does God allow or cause sickness to come to us or does He allow the devil to do this to us? Does God cause us to be sick to test us?” And in further comments, a reference is made to Job as an illustration.

For me to try to exhaust all the ramifications of this question seems well–nigh impossible, for it is, in some sense, of the nature of a mystery, But the main concern of the questioner appears to be how we are to view and respond to human sickness and suffering. In the case of Job, to whom reference is made in the letter of the reader, the Bible is quite clear in pointing out that the devil was the instigator of Job’s difficulties, with the permission of God (see Job 1:12 and Job 2:6).

A question of equal importance to that of whether or not God actively sends sickness is this: what is sickness? and what is the reason for the reality of such a thing as sickness in the world?

Surely, sickness was never intended by God in His creation. He created all things good. Sickness was no more purposed by God in His creation than was death. Yet both are a reality. In fact, death is spoken of in the Bible as “the last enemy that shall be destroyed” (I Cor. 15:26), and sickness and illness often precede death.

So sickness, as does death, finds its cause in sin, Sin has wrought havoc with God’s good creation, causing it to groan in pain (Rom. 8:22), and making us subject to all manner of physical and mental sicknesses, Isaiah prophesied about the holy city in which there would be no more sin in chapter 33:24, “And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.” So too in the vision of the new heaven and earth as seen by John: “and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more” (Rev. 7:4).

Sickness, therefore, is not natural for us, but a consequence of sin in the world. This is not to say that every sickness is a result of personal sin. It may be so, but not necessarily. For example, we cannot wreck our body with strong drink, and then say that God has done this to us. We cannot waste our goods in riotous living as did the prodigal son, and then say God has sent us adversity. Our suffering and sickness may come from personal sin.

But not always is it so. The disciples once asked Jesus the question: “Master, who sinned, this man, or his parents, that he should be born blind?” And Jesus answered, [Neither did this man sin, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him” (John 9:2, 3). This particular “sickness,” if we may call it that, was not a result of God’s creative work, that is, not “natural” in God‘s good creation, but one of the consequences of the sin of the human race. God did take this particular ailment, however, which He permitted him to have (and of which all of us are worthy) and use it for His glory.

In the midst of this very difficult problem of God’s will and human illness, let us be reminded that the Word of God assures us that He “worketh all things after the counsel of His will” (Eph. 1:11), That His “will” also includes sickness and death is seen from such passages as Amos 3:6, “. . . shall evil befall a city, and Jehovah hath not done it?”, and Deuteronomy 32:39, “See not that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.” It was God who brought the plagues as judgments upon the Egyptians, and occasionally also upon the Israelites (Numbers 11:33 and II Sam, 24:15). He struck King Jehoram with an incurable disease (II Chron. 21:18) and in a similar way dealt with King Herod (Acts 12:23). In spite of many voices today speaking to the contrary. the Bible does teach the absolute sovereign rule of God over all things, including sickness. We as His people are taught to find comfort in this truth of His sovereign rule, however, and because no sparrow falls to the ground without His will, and the hairs of our head are all numbered, His exhortation to us is; “fear not therefore” (Matt. 10:29.31, Luke 12:6, 7).

In summary, let me say this. Though God is in control of it, He is not the cause of sickness; sin is. Without sin, no sickness would be thinkable. Everyone of us, therefore. has not so much as a claim to one day of health. But God in His grace often spares us from what we deserve; and when He does not, He has the glorious purpose in mind of refining us (I Peter 1:6,7), and chastening us as His children (Heb. 12).

I conclude with a quotation from an old but profitable book by Abraham Kuyper, When Thou Sittest In Thine House, p. 373, “. . . from its nature sickness is disposed to make small what was too high. to turn self-confidence into confidence in God, to place our own work and God’s work in more accurate proportions before the eye of our faith, and no less to awaken the pity and compassion of others. the love and sympathy of many, to rouse into action what lay slumbering in the brother-heart, yea, above all. along these ways to make great and glorious the Name of that Knower and Operator of hearts, Who through the dark cloud of suffering makes to shine forth so sunnily and cherishingly the glow of His holy compassion.”