From: Luis
To: The Path of Truth
Sent: Wednesday, October 05, 2016 7:33 PM
Subject: Just a remark
Dear Victor and Paul my name is Luis and I agree with a lot of your analysis of false teachers. But in one of them you say that no faithful servant of God could die of a decease or accident and there is no one single case in the Bible of situations like those. I have readed my Bible and I found that Elisha died of a dicease (2 Kings 13:14) and he actually suffered because of it. I would like to know your position in this case.
Thank you I will be looking forward for your answer.
Luis
From: Paul Cohen
To: Luis
Sent: Wednesday, October 05, 2016 7:57 PM
Subject: Just a remark
Hi Luis,
The following, from God Heals Today, His Way, answers your question.
Paul
Illness Without Sin where God Does Not Heal
There are varying exceptions or qualifications to all that has been said heretofore. That is to say that there are cases where sin is not directly involved in some situations of illness or suffering but also wherein it is not necessarily God’s will to heal:
“Death Illness” – A Condition that Comes with Death
In such cases, persons are not dying because they are ill; they are ill because they are dying. Jacob and Elisha are such examples:
“And it happened after these things, that one told Joseph, Behold, your father is sick. And he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim” (Genesis 48:1).
“And Jacob finished commanding his sons, and he gathered his feet into the bed. And he expired, and was gathered to his people” (Genesis 49:33).
2 Kings 13:14-21 MKJV
(14) And Elisha had fallen sick with his illness in which he died. And Jehoash the king of Israel came down to him and wept over his face. And he said, O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen of it!
(15) And Elisha said to him, Take bow and arrows. And he took bow and arrows to himself.
(16) And he said to the king of Israel, Put your hand on the bow. And he placed his hand. And Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands.
(17) And he said, Open the window eastward. And he opened. And Elisha said, Shoot! And he shot. And he said, The arrow of the LORD’s deliverance, and the arrow of deliverance from Syria. For you shall strike the Syrians in Aphek until it is finished.
(18) And he said, Take the arrows. And he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, Strike on the ground. And he struck three times and stopped.
(19) And the man of God was angry with him, and said, You should have stricken five or six times, then you would have stricken Syria until it was finished. But now you shall strike Syria three times.
(20) And Elisha died, and they buried him. And the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at first of the year.
(21) And it happened as they were burying a man, behold, they spied a band. And they threw the man into the grave of Elisha. And the man went down and touched the bones of Elisha, and revived and stood up on his feet.
Many professing faith in Christ do not believe in disease as necessarily caused by sin, nor do they believe in miraculous healing as a legitimately common or viable event in the believer’s life today. It is a remarkable thing that people are willing to take any remote or isolated example to justify their sins or sicknesses, like citing Deborah, a judge of Israel, to justify women in leadership of authority over men. So they use Elisha’s illness unto death as argument for their own illness as not caused by sin. They do not perceive that Elisha died of the “death sickness,” and not a sickness that caused death, as I have related earlier.
It is argued that sickness did indeed bring Elisha’s death because the King James has it worded this way:
“Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died. And Joash the king of Israel came down unto him, and wept over his face, and said, O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof” (2 Kings 13:14).
However, other versions say it somewhat differently:
“Some time before the death of King Jehoash, Elisha the prophet was very sick and about to die” (2 Kings 13:14 CEV).
“Elisha became fatally ill” (2 Kings 13:14 GW).
“Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness of which he died” (2 Kings 13:14 HNV).
“Elisha came down sick. It was the sickness of which he would soon die” (2 Kings 13:14 MSG).
There is more than one way to interpret those words. The Strong’s definition for “sick,” and the root word for “sickness,” as used in 2 Kings, is:
“A primitive root (compare H2342, H2490); properly to be rubbed or worn; hence (figuratively) to be weak, sick, afflicted; or (causatively) to grieve, make sick; also to stroke (in flattering), entreat: – beseech, (be) diseased, (put to) grief, be grieved, (be) grievous, infirmity, intreat, lay to, put to pain, X pray, make prayer, be (fall, make) sick, sore, be sorry, make suit (X supplication), woman in travail, be (become) weak, be wounded.”
Does that not support the sickness of death? Worn out? Yes, it does. No problem there. That is not to say that the word cannot be used for other afflictions, as it is on other occasions in Scripture, but it certainly does not rule out what I said about Elisha’s condition, comparable perhaps with King David’s, whose body was ceasing to function at old age (1 Kings 1). Furthermore, where is there proof that Elisha was afflicted otherwise, with a “disease of the Egyptians,” for example? Anyone surmising so is doing just that, surmising.
But let us grant for a moment that Elisha’s death was indeed due to illness. Will anyone dare accuse one doubly anointed of dying a disease of the Egyptians, a condemnation that comes only if one does not keep God’s commandments (Exodus 15:26)? God’s Word says that we are to establish a thing by two or three witnesses (Deuteronomy 19:15). Elisha is but one example in the whole Bible where sin is not so easily identified as the cause of illness and death, being that he was a great prophet. I know of no other such examples.
However, the question remains: How is it that Elisha would die in illness while Moses, for example, would die seemingly strong and whole, and Elijah, his predecessor, who had only half the anointing, would not even die? Why could not Elisha simply and comfortably expire? I believe the answer is that Elisha needed to be humbled. The Bible clearly states that no man is righteous, not one (Romans 3:10-18). That includes Elisha. Was his sin one he deliberately committed? No. Was it something he neglected to do that was required of him?
No. Was it a sin of attitude? No. He was prepared to obey in all things. However, disposition is another thing, and there is the key.
When Elijah asked Elisha what he would request, he asked for, and received, a double anointing. Now why would one ask for an anointing that was double of one already extraordinary? Selfishness, pride, and ungodly ambitions make such requests. That is why Elijah, though he did not write off Elisha’s request, did say, “You ask a hard thing” (2 Kings 2:9-10). It would not have been hard for God to give him ten times the anointing of Elijah. What then was hard about it?
Think of it: Elisha cursed the children, wherein 42 died (2 Kings 2:23-24)… an unusual thing, which demonstrated something of the spirit Jesus rebuked of James and John (Luke 9:52-56). Though God’s grace was undeniably upon Elisha, Elisha had to die a humbling death. God was dealing with his disposition. “He saved others, but could not save himself” (Matthew 27:39-43).
Elijah’s dealings with the two captains and their fifties upon whom he called down fire from heaven to devour them (2 Kings 1:10-14) are different from Elisha’s cursing the children that cursed him. Elijah was not reacting. When the captains came to arrest him by command of their wicked king, they were not coming at him personally. In fact, they addressed him as “man of God.” On the other hand, Elisha reacted to the children because of personal attacks, though the power of God was enforced in both cases.
I believe that Elisha died humbled. Would it not be humbling, and perhaps for him, humiliating, that he should have double the anointing Elijah had, yet die sick, while Elijah did not even die? Elisha’s disposition was one that fell short of God’s will. “They that live by the sword, die by the sword.” Also, “As a man sows, so shall he also reap.”
This leads us to another important point. There are sins of commission, omission and attitude, which kill. These are to be confessed and disposed of. In obedience to God, we have the opportunity and likelihood of His forgiveness and healing, as He has promised. Yet, there are other cases, as with Elisha, matters of disposition, which bring the “best in Christ down.” We are all in “wrongness,” our unrighteousness commending God’s righteousness. We serve Him with and in our infirmities.
What then is the point of all this? If we are all in wrongness, what chance do we have of remaining healthy unto death?
The point is that repentance and healing are available in the vast majority of cases, if people will only believe and obey. If they wish to use Elisha’s excuse, though dissimilar, so be it, or if their case is similar to, or the same as, Elisha’s case, so be it. If people who insist upon an unnecessary death wish to justify themselves in their sins, who can, or wishes to, argue? Besides, God has appointed vessels of mercy and vessels of wrath.
I will not be chagrined in failure to dissuade vessels of wrath, but I am privileged and thankful to present the truth to those vessels of honor, so they might be saved.
From: Luis
To: Victor Hafichuk
Cc: Paul Cohen
Sent: Wednesday, October 05, 2016 8:53 PM
Subject: RE: Just a remark
Thank you Victor I totally agree. I believe that the heart of man is not perfect (even the hearts of great men like Jacob ir Elisha). I also believed that God is sovereign and He deal with everyone according to his perfect plans and purposes. As Job said, the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blesses be the name of the Lord.”
Best Regards
Luis