Healing Is a Part of Redemption
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Proverbs 10:13 says, “…a rod is for the back of him that is void of understanding.”
Proverbs 19:29 says, “Judgments are prepared for scorners, and stripes for the back of fools.”
Why would they need to beat them? Because they hadn’t listened to words. Talking to them does
no good. They’re rebellious after hours of instruction and pleading and everything else, so a
beating is the next recourse. I know this is politically incorrect, but it’s been in the Word from
ancient times. People were beaten as punishment for their crimes. This scourging has to do with
this, too.
There’s a difference between Roman scourging and Jewish scourging. He was tied to the
whipping post, and He was beaten. There is much debate about what instrument was used and
how it happened, but don’t get too carried away with that; just stay with what the scripture
emphasizes. He was beaten. He did not have to do this to go to the Cross. This is something else.
He could have gone to the Cross without doing that. It was an awful thing. It was terrible. They
tell us people sometimes died just from being scourged, and you know He was in bad shape after
the scourging. They made him carry His cross, and He was so weak, He stumbled and fell. Why
did He do that? People try to say, “It was for our sins,” but that isn’t what the Bible says. It says
“by whose stripes ye were healed.” The result of Him being beaten is you being healed. Whether
you understand this or not, you can believe it.
Proverbs 20:30 says, “The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil: so do stripes the inward
parts of the belly.” In fact, if you look up the word that’s in 1 Peter 2, where it says, “By His
stripes you were healed,” it’s the word for “bruise.” A bruise would be the result of being struck
with some kind of an object, usually a blunt object like a rod or a stick. But he said, “The
blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil.”
I saw an interesting comment. This is an old, colloquial expression used when someone’s child
was acting up or just acting sulky and pouting around. If someone asked, “What’s wrong with
that kid?” A person might reply, “Ah, all they need is a good dose of strap oil.” A good dose of
strap oil—that means they need a good whipping.
“Oh, they’re acting sick and puny.”
“All they need is a good dose of strap oil. That will fix them up.”
Healing and beating, beating and bruises and healing, how do these go together? It’s simple.
Sickness is punishment. It is punishment for breaking God’s laws, for rebellion and
disobedience. Don’t let your mind run off on some tangent; stay right here with me. Is that
statement true or not? In Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28, we just went through it verse by
verse. Was part of the penalty for breaking God’s law being sick and diseased? Sickness is
punishment. That’s why it is such a perversion for preachers to get up in their pulpits and act like
sickness is some kind of a blessing in disguise. No! Sickness is punishment. Poverty is
punishment. Hell is punishment, right? Grief and vexation of mind and soul is punishment. It’s
punishment for the disobedient, the rebellious. It is all part of the curse for breaking God’s laws.
