2 Chronicles 21:12-20
The Hideous Inside
Our world today misses the color in ancient history. Massive armies clashing against each other in hand to hand combat, prophets proclaiming unknown diseases sweeping through populations, are just a few of the examples. In a world unlit by science and technology, the existential questions of an internal disease become purely spiritual. Why would the god(s) allow a painful disease kill people? What did they do to deserve this? All of these questions can be answered in the ancient world with one word, obedience. If sacrifices and oblations are left undone, the gods get angry. It’s a divine quid pro quo.
The ancient Israelite and todays Christian uniquely struggle with this question. We believe God is a God who loves us and wants the best for us. We also believe that He is responsible for everything, including a disease that shows up out of nowhere. How can two disparate ideas such as love and pain live in harmony? This huge question is outside our scope to fully develop, instead let’s focus on an example from the kingdom of Judah.
The year is 850 BCE and the fifth King of Israel assumed power by murdering his six brothers. King Jehoram is fighting off raiders and busily setting up pagan temples. One of the great heroes of the faith, the prophet Elijah notices sending the king an ominous message. In it he says, “You have not followed the ways of your father…you have led Judah and the people of Jerusalem to prostitute themselves… murdered your own brothers, members of your own family, men who were better than you… You yourself will be very ill with a lingering disease of the bowels, until the disease causes your bowels to come out.” (2 Chronicle 21:12). This disease lingers for two painful years before his insides fall out, killing him.
On the surface, this sure seems like the pagan version of quid pro quo. The king neglected God, thereby angering God and paying the price. Which is the case, if we completely discount his soul. That other half of us, which is sometimes overlooked. The soul and the body operate as one. If our body is sick, then our soul can suffer too. If our soul is sick, then our body can suffer. We see this in the sick person angrily turning away from God and in stress removing years from our bodies. God cares about the whole of us, our body and our soul.
Before King Jehoram and the people became physically ill, they were already spiritually ill. They were living their lives completely unaware of the spiritual disease growing inside of them. Like a doctor’s x-ray, God uses the literal physical disease to show the people that spiritually their insides are diseased. The people’s souls are killing them.
Christ describes himself as a physician sent to heal the sick. He certainly does physically heal them, but He is not calling himself a doctor in the traditional sense. Christ aims to heal the sickness of the soul. Christ’s prescription is not a divine quid pro quo, Christ prescription is relationship. Why bad things, happen is not the important question. The question is when these things happen, are we considering our relationship with our creator?
Dad Devotional 