Automatic Transcript Generated:
Speaker 1
Alright, so Roger is asking how common was cancer in biblical times? I like this question. Yeah, that’s a really great question. And I was actually kind of excited because that’s actually something that I researched quite a bit. It many years ago, I used to do health talks and there’s actually a mention of a few times in the Bible of something called Emirates.
Speaker 1
Now, if you look in the Bible, you never see the word cancer, but there was something called emerods. Like if you look in the King James Version and it’s found in two stories, basically the first instance is in the book of, I believe, Deuteronomy, chapter 28 and verse 27. And it’s basically God talking about Israel leaving Egypt. So this is the time when Moses delivered Israel out of Egypt out of bondage. And God says something very interesting in this chapter in Deuteronomy 28 and verse 27, it says the Lord will Smite.
Speaker 1
So basically the context, before I jump into the verse, the context is that God made a promise of a blessing and also the promise of a curse based on Israel’s decision. So again, this goes back to our daily decisions. And so God is saying, like, hey, if you go back to sinning and you go back to your old ways, like the ways of Egypt, it says the Lord will be with the botch of Egypt and with the Emirates, which are tumors, which is basically cancer, and with the scab and with the itch and thereof, thou canst not be healed. So God basically said that if you turn your back on God’s way after being delivered and you go back to the ways of Egypt, to the old lifestyle of sin, that God is not going to give you the promise of health because God said, I will lay none of these diseases upon you that I laid upon the Egyptians. That was a promise God gave to his people when he delivered them.
Speaker 1
But he said, but if you go back, you start making those bad lifestyle changes or decisions that were going on in Egypt, then, yeah, all these diseases are going to come back upon you, which are things like tumors and cancer. And what’s interesting is, in recent history, archeologists have dug up the mummies and things from ancient Egypt. And they’ve looked at their bodies and they found things like cancers. They found the ligancies’. They found also some really interesting things were in their bodies, kidney stones, that was a really common thing, kidney and bladder stones, which indicates that they weren’t drinking enough water and they were drinking things that were dehydrating, like sugary drinks or alcohol.
Speaker 1
Also things like appendicitis, which shows that they had a high fat diet. And we know that in the ancient Egyptians, they were eating a lot of meat and probably unclean animals. And so God was saying, follow my way. I want to lay out for you a healthy life plan. We look in the books that Moses wrote in The Law of Moses that he wrote his people.
Speaker 1
And God laid out the right kind of diet. And God says, don’t live in excess, don’t drink alcohol in excess, don’t drink fresh water. And we see basically a lifestyle plan in the story of Israel. As they came out of Egypt, they were probably partaking in the diet of Egypt, which was, again, not drinking pure water, drinking either sugary drinks or alcohol, and eating a high fat, high low fiber kind of a diet. But when God delivers them, he puts them on a walking plan.
Speaker 1
They walk every day. God gives them water out of the rocks and he gives them Nana, which is basically a grain. So it was a vegetarian diet, and he did give them Quail, but that was only after they bugged God for it. And it really wasn’t for their health or for their good. It actually ended up not being good for them.
Speaker 1
So not to say you can’t every meat, you can eat clean meat, but definitely God wants for us a healthy lifestyle where we’re getting exercise and Sunshine and fresh air and clean water and a healthy diet which has lots of nutrition in the food that we’re eating. So I really think that God’s original diet in the garden, as well as what he then shows his people in the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt, just kind of gives us an idea of God’s plan, as opposed to the world which leads to disease. God’s plan leads to health and to life. And there is one other instance in the Bible where we see tumors, the Emirates, which are in essence, cancer. And that’s in a very interesting story in first Samuel, chapters five and six.
Speaker 1
And the context of the story, I’ll just summarize really quick is that the Philistines, who were basically one of the biggest enemies of Israel, this is just before the time of David and Goliath, before that great battle. This is just a few years earlier in the early days of the Prophet Samuel, when Israel didn’t have a King, but they did have a priest, a high priest named Eli, whose sons were not good. So Israel wasn’t really in a great state at this time. And so because of that, the Philistines, which were the arch enemies of Israel, came and they actually stole the Ark of the Covenant out of the temple. And what happened is God in his judgment laid upon the Philistines.
Speaker 1
These Emirates are tumors. And this is in the inward parts. If you look at one Samuel, chapter five, verse six, you read about that as the first instance. And so what happens basically is that the Philistines are like, what is happening? Why is this happening to us?
Speaker 1
And they realize it is because they stole the Ark of God. And so what they did is they made some golden images of Emirates or tumors and they put them in the Ark and then they gave the Ark back to Israel. We’re like, please this God that you serve just have mercy on us because we don’t want to die from these tumors. And so we do see the enemies of God being plagued to it these cancerous tumors or tumors, at least as a form of judgment. Now, does that mean that anytime somebody gets cancer that’s God’s judgment on them?
Speaker 1
Absolutely not. We just live in a central world and sometimes things just happen with our health. But just like the man who was born blind in the book of John and God the Pharisees accused Jesus and say, why was this man born blind? Was it because of his sins or the sins of his parents? And Jesus is neither but that the glory of God might be revealed.
Speaker 1
So sometimes we get these things like cancers and other diseases not because we’ve sinned or that sort of a thing, but just that there is something that God maybe wants to teach us and refining our character for heaven through these difficult experiences. So that would be my answer. There are definitely two instances that we see tumors or cancers in the Bible. It goes back to the ancient Egyptian times and yeah, that’s what I would say about that. Jr.
Speaker 1
Do you have any other thoughts? No, I’m just blown away about how much you found in the Bible on that like, Whoa, I didn’t even know all that. God is good. I think you covered it pretty thoroughly. Sorry.
Speaker 1
I know I chatted.
Speaker 1
I’m just fascinated though, how much science there is in the Bible I’m fascinated with how much practice things there are that God has written to us. And if we just read it and we just spend the time to look into God’s word, there’s so much there for us.
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In His Service
BibleAsk Team
