Mark 5:26 Thoughts on a Healing

The first time I got cancer was 1996.  They told me to start chemo right away.  I said I wanted to pray about it first.

Over the course of the next few weeks, I found dozens of Scripture passages in my regular Bible reading that seemed to speak to my situation.  I ended up turning down the treatment.

This time I had a strong sense that I should be public about the whole thing.  Getting cancer is something that will impact most people, either directly in themselves or indirectly through their loved ones. 

Frankly I’m not thinking too much about all this.  I have too much else I’m doing in my regular life.  I’m rarely praying about it.  I do read the Bible a lot.  I have always done that. I follow a regular routine, so I’m not going out of my way looking for passages that might deal with anything that is going on here.

So far, I have written about two passages I believe God gave me regarding all this.  Several days ago, I read Mark 5.

There was a woman who had been sick for 12 years with an issue of blood.  I understand that as a menstrual cycle that never shut off.

Jesus was being mobbed by people, and this woman forced her way through the crowd to get to Jesus.

Her whole experience is instructive for people with serious health issues and who are looking to God for help.

Mark takes great care to note that this woman spent everything she had on medical care, much of her suffering was caused by it, and she ended up worse off than before she started.

Mark 5:26:  and [she] having suffered many things by many physicians, and having spent everything she had, and having benefitted nothing but rather got worse. [my translation]

We are constantly told that we must do all that we can before we should expect God to work.  Someone has said: act as if everything depends on you; pray as if everything depends on God.

I don’t think that the Bible is holding this woman’s experience up as an example here. 

Now over the last 4 years, I have spent a lot of time with doctors, nurses, and hospitals.  Way too much time.  But that’s another story for another time.  Wonderful, wonderful people.  And modern medicine is amazing. 

Often, too often though, modern medicine is about trade-offs.  This medicine or procedure will or can help you, but you may or will get these side effects.  And you decide which you would rather have.

They said I have an enlarged prostate.  My choice was a medicine with an undesirable side effect or a surgery that would eliminate the possibility of certain important (to me) prostate functions.  hmmm!  I prayed about it, and it’s now much improved without either.  [see the update at the end.]

The first time I had cancer, I had no medical treatment at all.  The second time I had cancer, I put off treatment for a long time, expecting that I wouldn’t need it.  I kept getting worse until I had to quit my job, and then eventually I started treatment.  The treatment (chemotherapy) had little effect for a long time.  Later though I went from stage 4 to 0 in a very short time, when the doctor was not hopeful at all. 

The first point here about the woman with the issue of blood is that I don’t think we should assume that medicine is either our first option or even our best option.  We need to be praying about these things every step of the way and not assume that we know the answer until we do.

A second point of instruction here is that she did not ask Jesus to heal her.  Jesus wasn’t even aware of her healing until after the fact.  Yes, I know that Jesus is God, but in His human body, there were certain limitations.  He did not know who had touched her.  When He asked who touched Him, this was not a rhetorical question to enhance a teaching moment.  He didn’t know.

The point is that we often think of healing as something we pray about and God may or may not answer that prayer.

We forget that our bodies are programmed to heal itself.  If you are injured or sick, the body will do what it can to restore you to normal without any thinking or effort on your part.

The woman saw Jesus as wanting to heal people and just filled with the power of God.  She only had but to receive it.

Then in verse 34, Jesus makes the astounding statement: “Daughter, your faith has saved you; go in peace and be well from your affliction.”  Mark 5:34

It was her faith that made the difference.

We always want to give God credit for any victories we have.  But just like we might say that God delivered Goliath into the hand of David, if David hadn’t gone out to meet Goliath in faith, it wouldn’t have happened.  If the woman hadn’t forced her way through the crowd to touch Jesus, it wouldn’t have happened.

She believed that if she would simply touch Jesus’ garment, she would be healed.  David was confident that Goliath would fall at his hand, though everyone around him wouldn’t dare attempt what he did.

When David saw the challenge that Goliath made to Israel, he ran to meet him.  When this woman heard about Jesus, she forced her way through the crowd to get what she needed.

When you are faced with a challenge like this, do you run toward it expecting a miracle, or are you fearful, unsure of what to expect from God?

 

Update:

I saw the oncologist Monday.  He said my bone scan is clean.  Does that mean the cancer hadn’t progressed that far, or that it has regressed from my bones?  We’ll never know.

He ordered another test.  A new kind of PET scan.  He saw some lymph nodes that he doesn’t know whether they are leftovers from the lymphoma or something that this prostate cancer triggered.  I will have that test in two weeks.  And then I’ll meet another doctor and then back to the oncologist. 

They said I had/have an enlarged prostate.  Whether it was/is from the cancer, he didn’t say.  Men often get them.

The prostate surrounds the urinary tract, so that when it gets enlarged, it restricts the flow of urine.  So your bladder doesn’t empty.  You feel like you still need to go after you finish, and you end up going a lot more than usual.  Often with sudden very strong urges.

He prescribed medicine for that.  The medicine is effective, but it messes with the function of the prostate.  No, thank you.

Now when I pee, I have been commanding the urine flow to flow freely and the bladder to empty.  In Jesus’ Name.  And they do.  I was getting up to pee up to six times a night.  Last night it was once.  I was peeing usually sitting down and just waiting until it was done.  Now I’m peeing standing up, and it seems pretty much back to normal.  Is the prostate still enlarged?  I don’t know.

Is this too much information?  The older men here will be thanking me.

II Chronicles 32:1 Not right now

One question that Christians often have when it comes to healing is how long should they expect to wait between the time they know they need healing and the healing itself.  We are used to reading accounts of healing in the New Testament where they are all instantaneous, and we think it should always be that way.  We see no reason why God should delay in healing us.

Yesterday morning at 5 A.M., I got up to pee.  It’s common for men as they get older to do that more often, and more noticeably, when they’re sleeping. 

The urinary tract runs right through the prostate.  The prostate often enlarges for various reasons, so it restricts the flow of urine, so you often don’t feel like you’ve emptied your bladder.

Now I am told I have an enlarged prostate and a cancerous one.  I don’t know if the cancer caused the enlargement.

But between the time I got up and the time I went to back to bed, I was thinking about my prostate, and the cancer, and the fact that this whole thing is still going on, and Hezekiah comes to mind.  And like I’ve said and will say so often, I listen to things that come to mind in the middle of the night.

Now Hezekiah is Old Testament, and Christians often don’t give the Old Testament the attention it deserves, because that’s the Old Covenant, and we are in the New Covenant.  But Paul says (1 Corinthians 10:11 NASB95): ¹¹ Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

The word ‘example’ τυπικῶς [tupikos, or typikos] is related to the English word ‘types.’  We often speak of types of Christ, things in the Old Testament that are pictures of Christ.  And things in the Old Testament picture things in the New Testament, so don’t be afraid to study them.  Sometimes things change, but often they are the same.

In II Chronicles, there are three long chapters telling us what a great king Hezekiah was.  There were a lot of bad kings before him, including his father Ahaz.

But as soon as Hezekiah becomes king, he begins to work to bring the nation back to God (II Chronicles 29:3 (NASB95) In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the LORD and repaired them.)

And after 3 chapters describing his faithful acts, his country is invaded by Assyria, which had been making its way throughout the neighboring nations, destroying and conquering them.   What is interesting is that the Bible connects the two.  When Assyria invades the land, it explicitly connects this with Hezekiah’s strong devotion to God.  (2 Chronicles 32:1 NASB95 After these acts of faithfulness Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah and besieged the fortified cities, and thought to break into them for himself.)

God would soon deliver them.  Miraculously.  Spectacularly.  But first, Assyria is allowed to wreak some havoc and try to intimidate and frighten the people of God by reminding them that no other nation had been able to withstand their might, so why should they think that they will be any different?

Disease, and particularly cancer, strike fear into people everywhere, and even Christians.  And why should Christians think that they will be any different? 

So like I said, all this came to mind between the time I got up and the time I went back to bed.  I’m lying there in bed, thinking about all this, so I got up and wrote most of this lesson. 

The whole situation is told in great detail 3 times in the Bible: II Kings 18,19; II Chronicles 29-32; and Isaiah 36-38.

Hmmm!  Do you think God wants to get our attention here?

The king of Assyria sends an emissary to Hezekiah, actually to the people hearing from the city walls: 2 Chronicles 32:13–17 (NASB95)

13 ‘Do you not know what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of the lands? Were the gods of the nations of the lands able at all to deliver their land from my hand? 14 ‘Who was there among all the gods of those nations which my fathers utterly destroyed who could deliver his people out of my hand, that your God should be able to deliver you from my hand? 15 ‘Now therefore, do not let Hezekiah deceive you or mislead you like this, and do not believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people from my hand or from the hand of my fathers. How much less will your God deliver you from my hand?’ ” 16 His servants spoke further against the LORD God and against His servant Hezekiah. 17 He also wrote letters to insult the LORD God of Israel, and to speak against Him, saying, “As the gods of the nations of the lands have not delivered their people from my hand, so the God of Hezekiah will not deliver His people from my hand.”

There are at least two important things in this passage that Christians need to understand and embrace.

The first is that God didn’t deliver Hezekiah immediately.  It was going to be a spectacular miracle, but He waited.  And that’s OK.  Maybe He waited so they could this all on record for people to read for thousands of years to come.

It seems like it, because God wanted everybody to be clear about what was going on here.  All these other nations had their own gods, but they couldn’t deliver their people from the hands of the Assyrians.  The Assyrians concluded that Hezekiah’s God was no different.

And this is the second thing.  The difference between the living and true God and the other gods is that the true God delivers His people from their enemies. 

I know a lot of people will object here and say that God often doesn’t deliver His people from either sickness or their enemies, and it wasn’t His will to do so. 

It would take a book to answer all the questions and answer all the objections, but we need to start with what the Bible teaches. 

We don’t know what happened with anyone else.  We only know what goes on inside of us. 

The whole point of this story is that God delivers His people, and you should expect Him to.

If you have not read the story of Hezekiah or at least not lately, I would encourage you to do so.  There is so much to learn there about how God works.

 

Personal update:

I went to my oncologist Monday. (9/27)

I had lymphoma from 2017 to 2019.  My prostate doctor gave me a name of a prostate specialist, who I will see in October.

My doctor ordered three tests to see if the cancer had spread: a blood test, a CT scan, and a bone scan.

He took the blood test Monday.  I will have the CT Thursday and the bone scan Friday.  I will see him again Monday. 

Psalm 34:19 All our tribulations

Last Friday, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer.  On the border between medium and high risk.

Normally I wouldn’t bring it up.  When I say normally, this is my third cancer diagnosis.  (1996,2017,2021)

The first time I had a really interesting year.  I wrote about it in a chapter for a book I wrote, The Importance of Healing.  I will attach a copy here to the emails I send out.

I expect this time will be just as interesting but different. 

Many of you at some time in your life will go through a really difficult time.  Hopefully, this video or article will be of help to you. 

And one of the first things you need to learn is to be able to hear from God.  I have learned to listen carefully at night or when I’m first waking up in the morning.  I haven’t used an alarm clock in maybe 30 years, even when I had to get up at 3:00 in the morning. 

This morning I had the strongest sense that I should do what I’m doing here.  Write and talk about this journey. 

The first time I got cancer, I was told to start chemotherapy right away.  I said no, I want to pray about it.  I had young kids.  I told them that you pray about all your problems, so I wanted to pray about this first.  Over the course of the next week or so, I found many, many Scripture passages that I felt spoke right to my situation.  I wasn’t looking for them.  They came in my normal course of Bible reading.

And today, one of the passages of Scripture I read was Psalm 34. 

I learned a long time ago that, when you study the Old Testament, if you can, read it in the Greek.  The Greek Old Testament was the Bible for most of the early Church.  That is the Bible they quote in the New Testament most of the time.

Three times in this psalm David talks about tribulations.  Christians often talk about tribulations.  The question is what God wants to do with them.

Psalm 34:6 ⁶ This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his tribulations.

Psalm 34:17 ¹⁷ The righteous cry, and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their tribulations.

Psalm 34:19 ¹⁹ Many are the tribulations of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.

Look at verse 19 again.  MANY are the tribulations of the righteous.  The Hebrew word for tribulation can be translated as evil, misery, distress, injury, wrong, harm, mischief.  The Greek word in all three verses is the word commonly translated in the New Testament as tribulations.  The Greek word for tribulations stresses the idea of pressure. 

Christians can expect tribulations in this life.  And when you experience them, you need to read in the Bible what God says about them. 

Psalm 34:19 ¹⁹ Many are the tribulations of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.

Romans 5:3    we rejoice in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces endurance,   

Romans 8:35    Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?     

2Cor 1:4    who comforts us in all our tribulation, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any tribulation, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.      

2Cor 4:17    For this slight momentary tribulation is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,      

Psalm 32:7 You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance.  Selah.
Psalm 34:6 This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.
17 The righteous cry, and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.
19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.
Ps 37:39 But the salvation of the righteous [is] of the LORD: [he is] their strength in the time of trouble. 

Psalm 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Psalm 50:15 Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me.”
Psalm 54:4 Behold, God is my helper; The Lord is the sustainer of my soul.
5 He will recompense the evil to my foes; Destroy them in Your faithfulness.
6 Willingly I will sacrifice to You; I will give thanks to Your name, O Lord, for it is good.
7 For He has delivered me from all trouble, And my eye has looked with satisfaction upon my enemies.
Psalm 59:16 But as for me, I shall sing of Your strength; Yes, I shall joyfully sing of Your lovingkindness in the morning, For You have been my stronghold and a refuge in the day of my distress.
Psalm 60:11 O give us help from tribulation, for deliverance by man is in vain.
Psalm 81:7 “You called in trouble and I rescued you; I answered you in the hiding place of thunder; I proved you at the waters of Meribah.  Selah.
Psalm 86:7 In the day of my trouble I shall call upon You, For You will answer me.
Psalm 91:15 “He will call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him.
Psalm 108:12 Oh give us help from tribulation, For deliverance by man is in vain.
Psalm 118:5 From my distress I called upon the Lord; The Lord answered me and set me in a large place.
Psalm 138:7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me; You will stretch forth Your hand against the wrath of my enemies, And Your right hand will save me.
Nahum 1:7 The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knows those who take refuge in Him.

The Bible records many miracles of God that He worked on behalf of His people.  And the miracles came because His people had needs.  Not only needs, but needs that were impossible to meet.  That’s why they were called miracles.

 

So when you face troubles, that is not the time to complain.  It’s the time to look up to God to see Him deliver you.