Healing Is a Part of Redemption
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Study this for yourself. Many other times, this same word is translated “sickness” or “disease.”
How does the scripture read if that’s so? “Surely he has borne our sicknesses and carried our
pains.” Read it out loud: “Surely He has borne our sicknesses and carried our pains.”
I’m telling you, that is literally what these words mean, but if you have any question about it, I
have the answer for you right here. I don’t care if you don’t know Hebrew or Greek or anyone
who does, or if you can’t find a concordance. I know of a Commentator on this in the New
Testament. His name is the Holy Spirit. He’s the One Who inspired Isaiah to say this, so I
believe He would know what He said, and He quoted it in Matthew 8. If you couldn’t read a
concordance, or if you didn’t know about it but wondered about it, all you have to say is, “Holy
Spirit, what were You saying over there in Isaiah when You said that? What were You saying?”
Matthew 8:16 says, “When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed
with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick.” ALL that
were sick. Is healing for everyone? Is redemption for everyone? Is believing in Jesus for
everyone? He “healed all that were sick; That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah
the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.”
If the Holy Spirit told us that’s what He had said through Isaiah the prophet, then I reckon that’s
what He said. Friend, when you come to believe this just as strongly as you believe that He bore
your sins, you’ll be healed, just like you’re saved. Surely, He has borne our sicknesses. Surely,
He has carried our pains. Why? So
we
could bear them for His glory? That doesn’t work. So He
could continue to teach us things through being sick and diseased? That doesn’t work. Why did
He bear our sins and the penalty of our iniquities? So we could be free from it! So we wouldn’t
have to bear it. Why did He bear the chastisement of our peace? So we could have peace. Why
did He bear our sicknesses and carry our pains? The very next verse in Isaiah says that we are
healed by His stripes.
Surely, He has borne our sicknesses and carried our pains, “yet,” it says, “we did esteem him
stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.” How is it that we are healed by His stripes? Stripes are
the result of a beating. There are numerous thoughts about this, but go back to the original words,
and you’ll see why. The word for “stripe” in the Old Testament and New Testament means “a
wound” or “a bruise.” It also has to do with the idea of a welt, like when you’re struck with a
rod. In fact, the word “rod” is frequently used in connection with this.
Beatings are punishment for disobedience, for rebellion, and for breaking God’s laws. Under the
Old Testament, the people were given instructions about how these kinds of things were to be
carried out.
Deuteronomy 25:2-3 says, “And it shall be, if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, that the
judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, according to his fault, by a
certain number. Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed: lest, if he should exceed, and
beat him above these with many stripes, then thy brother should seem vile unto thee.”
They were not beaten because they did well or because they obeyed. They were beaten as
punishment for disobedience and rebellion.
