Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20090705.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Exodus: God's Forming The Nation Israel For His Abrahamic Covenant
Part I: God's Deliverance Of Israel From Egypt, Exodus 1:1-15:21
H. God's Glorifying Himself By Egypt's Plagues, Exodus 7:14-12:36
6. God's Exalting Himself As The God Of Health In The Plague Of Boils
(Exodus 9:8-12)
Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

The world's health care systems are in immense need:

(1) Leaders in Congress claim that nearly 50 million Americans lack health care insurance, a statistic they use to urge public support for a costly bill to implement a government run health care program.

(2) However, the U. S. Census Bureau last week reported that only 35.65 million citizens lack health insurance, and that Congress is including about 10 million "undocumented citizens" (i.e. "illegal aliens") in its figure to sway the public to agree to a health care bill!

(3) Aside from such a land mine of political debate, just getting Congress to pass a health care bill will be hard. (a) The June 27, 2009 issue of The Economist, p. 40, ran an editorial, "The senator-in-chief" noting: "Now two competing health-care bills, both unacceptably expensive in their current forms, are winding their way through the Senate and seem to be on a collision course, while in the House there is a third bill that must be melded into a compromise Senate version." (b) Getting the bills "melded" will itself be a big task, for "Individual members of Congress are more concerned with their own districts than with the future of the republic. The chairmen of committees are obsessed with defending their turf. The House is dominated by veteran liberals, who are well to the left of the electorate, and the Senate is full of prima donas. Around 40 members of Congress have spouses who work in the health-care industry, as did Michelle Obama." (Ibid.)

(4) Nevertheless, were every person in America, citizen or otherwise, to be given health care coverage by the passage of such a bill, many fear it will lead to inadequate health care as in Britain: there, the government has only so much money for its system, so some care for the elderly is limited or denied depending on one's condition or age!

(5) Besides all of this, Kenneth W. Gronbach, a demographer who wrote the bestseller, The Age Curve, argued last week on "The Talk of Connecticut" radio talk show that the health care crisis will take care of itself when America's largest generation in the nation's history, "Generation Y", gets into the work force in the next five years and takes up the financial slack in paying their share of taxes!

Mr. Gronbach believes Congress should not pass a costly health care bill, but let demographics solve the health care system's problems!

Need: "With the uncertain future of the world's health care systems, what would GOD want ME to do, and WHY?!"

  1. The plague of skin boils critiqued Egypt's gods of HEALTH, revealing man's need to view GOD as the SOLE God of HEALTH:
    1. The Exodus 9:8-12 plague involved festering boils on man and beast.
    2. This plague contaminated even Pharaoh's magicians who religiously tried to be pure (Bib. Know. Com., O. T., p. 122), critiquing Egypt's gods of health like (1) Sekhmet who had rule over disease, (2) Sunu the plague god and (3) Isis, goddess of healing, Ibid., p. 123; Russell Grigg, "The Ten Plagues of Egypt," Creation, Dec.-Feb. 2005, p. 37.
    3. Pharaoh's heart was still hardened against letting Israel go, Ex. 9:12.
  2. [Greta Hort's view that many evangelicals have adopted (Ibid., p. 34) offers a natural explanation for this plague opposite belief that it was a divine miracle, but scientific evidence counters her view:
    1. Greta Hort held that the biting flies bred in the dead plants left by the retreating Nile, and, by additional contact with the dead frogs, they acquired and passed skin anthrax on to man and animals, Ibid.
    2. However, (1) anthrax does not infect aquatic animals like frogs (Ibid., p. 36) and (2) there are no known cases anywhere in the world of fly bites passing anthrax on to humans, cattle or sheep. (Ibid.)]
  3. Now, the WAY God CAUSED the plague of boils reveals He wants MAN to HEED HIM in HANDLING his HEALTH NEEDS:
    1. The plague erupted when God had Moses take a handful of ashes from a furnace and sprinkle it into the air, Exodus 9:8-9 NIV, ESV.
    2. In primitive lands, patients with boils apply such ashes to their skin to treat their discomfort, a practice that Job of antiquity used in Job 2:7-8; Ibid., Bible Knowledge Commentary, O. T., p. 721.
    3. Yet, since what man used to treat such boils God used to cause them, God showed He was the SOLE God of HEALTH and HEALING!
  4. We must then heed God's Word for health and healing (as follows):
    1. First, Scripture reveals that unlike under the Law, in the dispensation of the Church, uprightness in believers is not necessarily rewarded by good health, Deut 28:1-2, 11 and 28:15, 21 opposite Phil. 2:25-30.
    2. However, 1 Timothy 5:23 with 3:14-15 reveals God wants us to try to keep our bodies healthy so we can better serve Him in this life.
    3. Yet, with the big problems in health care, 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 implies we should function as free of the world's health care systems as possible! Evidence exists on how this can be effectively done:
      1. The July 29, 1993 New England Journal of Medicine, in the article, "Reducing Health Care Costs By Reducing The Need And Demand For Medical Services," by James F. Fries, C. Everett Koop, et al., noted the National Center for Health Statistics and the U. S. Dept. of Health and Human Services claimed preventable illnesses are around 70% of the burden of illness and related costs in America!
      2. These preventable ills arise from (a) smoking, (b) obesity, (c) hypertension, (d) high cholesterol and (e) diabetes (Ibid.), and Scripture ("D" below) reveals these are LARGELY correctable!
    4. So, to minimize illness and exposure to troubled health care systems, we should heed Scripture in practicing preventative care as follows:
      1. Though 1 Timothy 4:1-5 teaches a believer may now eat any food God has created, 1 Corinthians 6:12a reveals he should not eat foods known to be unhealthy like man's processed foods that are high in sugar, salt, cholesterol and fat, but to replace them with natural foods (as money allows, Philippians 4:19)! Any other item that then harms a specific believer's body he should avoid.
      2. [Health experts often differ on the value of various foods, and on the types and amounts of exercise and sleep one needs to supply good health, so one should heed Proverbs 11:14 and gain as much information as feasonable from multiple reputable sources, and experiment to see what works best for sustaining his health.]
      3. To manage stress well, a believer should (a) rely on the Holy Spirit to stay calm in his behavior (Gal. 5:16-23), and (b) read Scripture to sustain his mental health (Isa. 8:19-22) and to (c) gain insight on avoiding needless stressful situations in his life (Psalm 119:105).
      4. For the power and motivation to do each of the above, the believer needs to rely upon the Holy Spirit, Gal. 5:16-23; Phil. 2:12-13.
Application: In view of the uncertain future of the world's health care systems, may we (1) trust in Christ to become children of the God of health and healing, John 3:16! (2) Then, may we heed His Word in the Holy Spirit's power to maximize good health and to minimize our need for health care systems so we might do His will!

Lesson: God brought the plague of boils on Egypt to reveal that HE was the ONE TRUE God of HEALTH and HEALING, and that His PEOPLE were to HEED HIM to have the HEALTH they NEED to DO HIS WILL.

Thus, we may ask, "In view of the uncertain future of the world's health care systems, what would GOD have us do?!" Conclusion:

 Evidence abounds in the realm of science that a life lived by the Holy Spirit's enabling and in obedience to God's Word will dramatically minimize health care problems at all levels of society:

(1) Brenda C. Coleman's AP article, "Unhealthy habits hitting Americans in the wallet" in a 1993 Torrington Register-Citizen noted that smoking and alcohol abuse were the biggest money drainers in America's health care system. She cited Dr. Daniel Johnson, Jr., an AMA official to say: "'Just in those two . . . abused products . . . reside an opportunity for enormous savings in our health care system . . .'"

(2) The March 7, 1997 Waterbury Republican-American, p. 15A ran a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article, "To improve health odds, stick to the basics" noting that angry, grumpy men were two to three times more likely to develop coronary heart disease than others!

(3) The same article reported depressed and socially isolated folk are four times more likely to have a heart attack than others.

(4) Even ACTING like godly Christians do improves one's health! Dr. Harold G. Koenig, a professor at Duke University Medical Center in 1997 claimed (a) religious people do not die as soon as the non-religious, (b) frequent church-goers have the lowest stroke rate in the general population, (c) the death rate after cardiac surgery is 12 times higher for people with the lowest levels of church attendance and (d) the rate of depression for those who attend church weekly or more is half that of infrequent worshipers. (Gerald Renner, "Prayer pays off in good health, doctors believe," The Hartford Courant, 4/12/97, p. E1)

(5) Psychiatrist and Christian, Dr. Frank B. Minirth, in his booklet, You Can Measure Your Mental Health, 1980, p. 14 asserted that in psychological testing performed on a group of Christians to see if time spend in God's Word affected their maturity, it revealed: "The maturity level was found to be consistently and proportionately related to time spent with the Word . . . [T]hose who spent time daily with the Word, were found to be more mature, more mentally healthy, and to show no significant pathology [abnormalities]." (brackets ours)

Biblical fellowship with God best and inexpensively helps our health and minimizes our vulnerability to the world's problem health care systems! Thus, may we trust in Christ for salvation, and rely on the Holy Spirit for the power and motivation to heed Scripture on caring for our health, that we might do God's will!