Physicians of no value

2 Chron. 16:12: “Asa . . . was diseased in his feet . . . yet in his disease he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians.” His error was in relying on the doctors and neglecting to seek the Lord, just as he “relied on the King of Syria, and did not rely on the Lord his God” (verse 7). It was not a sin to apply to physicians; but it was a sin to forget God. Hezekiah sought the Lord, and Isaiah the prophet became to him a physician who prescribed a lump of figs, which, being laid upon the boil, led to his recovery according to the word of the Lord (2 Kings 20.). Presumably the “faith-healers” would not object to this. Isaiah was an inspired physician “in the Truth.” So was Luke, whom Paul styles “the beloved physician” (Col. 4:14). It is to be hoped that the “faith-healers” will not quarrel with Paul for this saying. Paul himself, as Luke records, was a physician of no mean order by the power of the spirit of God (Acts 28:8, 9). The father of Publius being sick of dysentery, Paul prayed and laid his hands on him and healed him. And this was followed by the healing of others in the island. In the apostolic life, then, there was room for physicians of both sorts, natural and supernatural, and Paul and Luke appear to have agreed perfectly. It is true that there are physicians who are “of no value” (Job 13:4), but all are not of similar worthlessness; and the Lord himself in the days of the flesh admitted in his figurative discourse that the sick “had need of a physician” (Luke 5:31); as, indeed, had certain who thought themselves “whole”! Mark says of the woman who had suffered for twelve years, that she “had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse” (Mark 5:26). Luke, “the beloved physician,” while not abating the truth, contents himself with saying she “had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any” (Luke 8:43). It is “a beloved physician” who draws our attention to this. The poor woman did not sin in seeking to the physicians, and the poor men no doubt did their best to heal her; but a touch of Christ’s garment in faith cured her instantly. There is room for both treatments. We will go to the doctor (who, like Luke, may perchance be “in Christ”), but we will not expect him to do what Christ alone can accomplish.

(1917). The Christadelphian, 54(electronic ed.), 409–410.