What the Bible says about Healing

Topics chevron-right Healing

Isaiah 41:10

10 So do not fear, for I am with you;
    do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
    I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Do not fear (41:10). A similar word of encouragement is given several times to Esarhaddon from the goddess Ishtar of Arbela, and to Ashurbanipal by Ishtar and Ninurta, “Don’t be afraid!” Naram-Sin similarly exhorted the readers of his stele not to fear. Such cases, like that of Isaiah, promise divine intervention on behalf of someone in trouble.

My righteous right hand (41:10). See comment on 9:12, 17, 21. Being the dominant hand, the right had special significance. In the Seleucid period, a property mark was inscribed on a slave’s right hand. In an Egyptian Aramaic liturgical text, the chief god, Mar, says: “Be strong ... your enemies I will destroy ... I shall support your right hand,” apparently the hand used in battle. Gods and other people took one’s hand in order to assist them. “When my lord the king took my hands, he brought me back to life.” In an early second millennium Babylonian seal, a minor deity takes with his right hand the hand of a supplicant, leading him before a major god.

Hittite god Sharruma protecting King Tudhaliya IV with arm around him and holding him by the wrist to guide him

M. Willis Monroe

Read more from Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary of the Old Testament

Jeremiah 17:14

14 Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed;
    save me and I will be saved,
    for you are the one I praise.

The Case For Faith: Jeremiah 17:14–17
Praising God for the Pain

Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise. —Jeremiah 17:14

In heaven, we will thank God for the pain that we experienced on earth,” says philosopher Dr. Peter Kreeft. “We will say to him, ‘Thank you so much for this little pain I didn’t understand at the time, and that little pain that I didn’t understand at the time; these I now see were the most precious things in my life.’

“I do think that any fairly mature Christian can look back on his or her life and identify some moment of suffering that made them much closer to God than they had ever thought possible. Before this happened, they would have said, ‘I don’t really see how this can accomplish any good at all,’ but after they emerge from the suffering, they say, ‘That’s amazing. I learned something I never thought I could have learned. I didn’t think that my weak and rebellious will was capable of such strength, but God, with his grace, gave me the strength for a moment.’ If it weren’t for suffering, it wouldn’t have been possible.”

—Adapted from interview with Dr. Peter Kreeft

Read more from NIV Case for Christ Study Bible

1 Peter 2:24

24 “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”

2:24 bore our sins. See Isa 53:12. Although dealing with the example set by Christ, Peter touches also on the redemptive work of Christ, which has significance far beyond that of setting an example. Peter here points to the substitutionary character of the atonement. Christ, like the sacrificial lamb of the OT, died for our sins, the innocent for the guilty (see Ro 5:6; 1Jn 2:2 and notes). tree. A figurative reference to the cross (see note on Ac 5:30; see also Ac 10:39; 13:29; Gal 3:13 and note). that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. Cf. Ro 6:3–14. Peter here highlights how the cross bears on our sanctification. As a result of Christ’s death on the cross and believers’ union with Christ in his death, they are “dead” to sin so that they may live new lives and present themselves to God as instruments of righteousness (see notes on Ro 6:11–13). you have been healed. See Isa 53:5 and note; not generally viewed as a reference to physical healing, though some believe that such healing was included in the atonement (cf. Isa 53:4 and note; Mt 8:16–17). Others see spiritual healing in this passage. It is another way of asserting that Christ’s death brings salvation to those who trust in him.

Read more from NIV Case for Christ Study Bible