Divine Healing & The Power of the Tongue
Miriam, mighty woman of God that she was, is spoken of in the prophecy of Micah as one of the divinely appointed leaders of Israel.
Hers was the alert intelligence and watchful affection that God employed to secure for Moses, her brother, the shelter of his father’s rooftree; the pillowing of his infant head upon his mother’s bosom, with all that these things implied of godly training, and instruction in the ways of the Lord. When the daughter of Pharaoh drew him out of the water in the rustic little ark in which his mother had placed him, was she in despair? Never; it was in faith, for we find her on the Faith Honor Roll of the 11th of Hebrews, where we are informed that she and the child’s father “were not afraid of the king’s commandment.” They had no need to be, for they were trusting in the King of Kings in whose hand Pharaoh’s breath was.
It was Miriam’s bright eyes that watched the frail little basket with its precious contents, as it drifted hither and thither in the breezes that rippled the surface of the Nile. It was Miriam’s insight that recognized the softening of the proud Princess’ heart toward the helpless babe, who did all a baby three months old could do to plead his cause. “Behold, the babe wept.” And who had the courage to step boldly forward and suggest a Hebrew nurse for him? It was in Miriam’s tender arms that the young hero was borne home in loving triumph. How Miriam loved him in that hour! Every woman who is a real woman knows what I am talking about! The only wonder is how she refrained from hugging him to death before she got him home.
As he grew to manhood, and revealed such splendid powers which were carefully developed and matured under the very best teaching that the advanced civilization of Egypt could provide; and as he became mighty in word and deed, her love doubtless grew with his growth, and intensified with his development.
We next find her leading the hosts of Israelitish women after the Red Sea crossing, where God brought His people through dryshod; and where the Egyptians who attempted to follow them went to the bottom like so many stones.
It was she who led the inspired song, known ever since as “Miriam’s Song.”
Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously;
The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.
But this wonderful woman, wonderful because of the marvelous way in which God used her to affect his purposes, and to put his plans into execution, made a terrible mistake. She committed an awful sin which cost her and the leaders of God’s people untold suffering, besides holding back the onward march of the Lord’s host for seven full days. As a result of this sin, she became a leper, white as snow. In other words, she was afflicted with the most hopeless, most loathsome of all diseases, the disease that so devours and disfigures the human form and visage that often no resemblance to humanity remains.
“O tell us without delay what this terrible sin was, so that with all our might we may resist any temptation that might have a tendency to lead us in the same direction; tell us that we may watch against it with constant prayer,” does some one say?
To be sure that we get it exactly right, I shall read it out of the word of God; “And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married; for he had married an Ethiopian woman. And they said, ‘Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? Hath he not spoken also by us? And the Lord heard it’” (Num. 12:1-2).
“The Lord heard it.” It is a good thing to remember that He who planted the ear can hear. We are apt to forget it at times.
The Lord heard them talking against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married, for the scripture plainly states that he had married an Ethiopian woman.
I think I can see how Miriam’s very love for her brother, mighty man of God that he was, one of the outstanding figures of all time, with her pride in the achievements of the one whom she under God had rescued from a watery grave, tempted her to commit this sin.
“How could he ever have married her?” she must have asked herself again and again.
Each time she looked at her sister-in-law, no doubt she seemed more alien, and altogether more unsuitable for the position to which she had been elevated. Indications are not lacking in the scriptures that there were things about Moses’ wife, quite apart from her foreign appearance, that would make it very difficult for Miriam to understand how a man who lived in such close and intimate communion with God could have selected her for a life companion. But then she did not have to understand why Moses did so; to his own master he stood or fell; but she did need to mind her own business and keep her mouth shut.
As the Holy Spirit says in 1 Thessalonians 4:11, “Study to be quiet and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you.”
Miriam had her own God-appointed work to do, part of which was to accord to Moses every particle of authority and preeminence which God had seen fit to bestow upon him; and to do it ungrudgingly and whole-heartedly; and to command and exhort those under her control or influence to do the same.
Instead of attending strictly and quietly to her own business, she became Moses’ harsh critic, and evidently induced Aaron to follow her evil example. For this she was dealt with by God as the prime offender. “And the Lord heard it…And the Lord spake suddenly ... And the Lord came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle,” and defended his servant, and said, “Wherefore.. were ye not afraid to speak against thy servant?” (Num. 12:4-8). And the cloud departed and behold Miriam had become leprous. And Aaron recognized the awful disease which had seized her its clutches and turned imploringly to Moses crying to him to forgive, and not to let her be “as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he cometh out of his mother’s womb” (Num. 12:12).
And what did Moses, the ex-Egyptian prince and physician do? He took out his medicine chest. Do you recall what is to be found there? No Egyptian remedies, whether pills, powders, poultices, or tinctures. Not even so much as a dose of castor oil for the thousands of babies he had under his jurisdiction; no opium to relieve pain, though they had plenty of opium in Egypt, and Moses knew all about it. But he also knew of something as much better than castor oil and opium as the heavens are higher than the earth.
And it was well for Miriam that Moses’ medicine chest was not filled from Egyptian drugstores, for there was nothing in such remedies, and there never has been anything in any collection of remedies concocted by human hands, and devised by human brains, that could touch a case like Miriam’s. But the remedy, the one remedy of Moses’ medicine chest exactly met her need, and cleansed her from the foul virus of leprosy that had infected every cell of her body to the very corpuscles of her blood and the marrow of her bones. And it never fails to cure any person who honestly takes it, for it is the word of the living God and cannot fail.
That word was the covenant of healing. You will find it in the 15th chapter of Exodus and the 26th verse, the concluding words of which are, “I am the Lord that healeth thee.” Thank God, He is the one who changes not (Heb. 13:8).
And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, “Heal her now, O God, I beseech thee.”
There was no “if it be thy will.” It was not necessary to prefix any such conditional phrase to His prayer; nay, rather it would have been an affront to Him who is the true and living God to have done so; for had He not revealed Himself under His covenant name of the “Lord that healeth”? Praise God, His name is still the same, and they that know His name will put their trust in Him.
Miriam and Aaron had sinned, but when God gave His people the covenant of healing for all diseases, and even of immunity from attacks of sickness, conditioned upon their obedience to His statutes and commands, He showed Moses a tree and Moses never forgot the sight. It was in type the tree of the cross which bore such precious fruit for us through the dying agonies of our Lord, even the salvation of our souls and the healing of our bodies. And remembering that sight Moses had courage and faith to call confidently upon God for his sister’s deliverance. And there could be but one answer to that prayer. Since it was in accordance with God’s will, Miriam was healed.
And now what is the lesson to be learned by us from this thrillingly interesting scripture incident? What is its practical bearing upon our lives here and now? Simply this: that we are under the care—spirit, soul, and body—of our Lord who is our Physician as well as our Savior. Rather, would it be correct to say that He is our Physician because He is our Savior and, must therefore, provide for the healing and preservation of our bodies, as well as for the deliverance and salvation of our souls. It behooves us, therefore, to study untiringly the laws of health which our Physician has placed in His Word for our instruction and guidance, and having learned them, to obey them implicitly, looking to Him for grace and strength. Only thus can we get well and stay well; but we can do it this way, for it is God who worketh in us to accomplish all His holy will in and through us.
Now one of the points on which we are repeatedly warned in the Bible in relation to our physical health and longevity, is in regard to the use we make of our tongue. In Proverbs 12:18, we read that “the tongue of the wise is health,” i.e., health to the speaker and health to the listener.
We once had a neighbor, a very clever woman, an artist of no mean ability, and a woman of very keen sensibilities, though I am sorry to say, not a saved woman up to the last we knew of her. She was always talking about “vibrations” and always moving around in order to find a spot where the “vibrations” were good, life-giving, healing, strengthening, and soothing. There was no lack of money in her case, hence she was able to indulge all her whims. While she was living near us, she greatly felicitated herself upon the “waves” which she received from our house. I do not know whether to attach much importance to her views, but this I do know, that there are no such life-imparting, healing, strengthening and soothing “vibrations” as those which are set afloat by continually speaking as the oracles of God; letting your conversation be seasoned with salt, and your lips as a thread of scarlet.
When I find myself in the midst of such heavenly converse, immediately I am consciously uplifted, stimulated, strengthened, soothed and empowered, not only in spirit but in every vein, nerve, artery, muscle, and blood corpuscle. “The tongue of the wise is health” (Prov. 12:18). “He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life” (Prov. 13:3). How can we keep our tongues, those unruly little members? Only by having our hearts kept by the indwelling Christ; for out of the fulness or abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh (Matt. 12:34).
“Death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Prov. 18:21). What does this mean? Just what it says. I believe it to be possible that a sin unto death may be committed with the tongue, and that when we come to pray for a person who has committed such a sin, the Holy Spirit will warn us to desist (1 John 5:16). Upon one occasion, I entered the room of a dying woman. She had double pneumonia, she was not young and was also very much overweight, which as you may know, is a very serious handicap in that disease. As I looked at her and thought how hopeless the case appeared, the Lord spoke to me as plainly I think as He ever did in my life, and said, “She has not committed a sin unto death; ask life for her.” I did so, and she was healed.
On another occasion, a group of believers were gathered in our home to pray for the recovery of the Christian husband of one of our sisters. One of the brethren united with us for a short time, and if I am any judge, he is one of the strongest men on divine healing, if not the strongest, I have ever met. I have been able to watch his life for years amidst tremendous testings in his own family. After a few minutes he arose and walked quietly out of the room, making a sign for me to follow him. Once outside, he led the way to the front verandah, and carefully closing the door, uttered these words, no more and no less, “That is the chamber of death.” Having said so he walked out, closing the gate behind him. He had no means of knowing anything conclusive about the condition of the patient whom he had not seen. But in a few short hours the man was dead. God had shown him not to pray for his recovery.
Longevity is associated with the proper use of the tongue in Psalm 34:12-13; where we are told that if we would see good days and long life we are to refrain our tongue from evil, and our lips from speaking guile. On the other hand, we are warned that, “There is that speaketh like the piercings of the sword” (Prov. 12:18). When we speak harsh words of any one, we may stab them, but we need to remember that we are transfixing our own vitals at the same time. We may not be conscious of it at the moment, but we shall realize it to our awful cost later, for God is not mocked. His Word is true, and means exactly what it says. “The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly” (Prov. 18:8).
How terrible are some of the diseases which are developed in the intimate structure of deep-seated organs! How mysterious their origin from the standpoint of medical science! How agonizing the suffering which often has to be endured! How hopeless the outlook from a human standpoint! I believe from the Bible that the origin of these is often in the misuse of the tongue, especially in carrying tales. May God deliver us all from this sin which doth so easily beset us! He will do so if we will yield wholly to Him. He will make the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts acceptable in His sight (Ps. 19:14), quickening and upbuilding to all who are brought under the range of our influence; for divine health is catching. I am glad of it, for in this dark world there are so many evil things like fear, sickness, and vice which are contagious.
You can let God so vitalize and energize you with His own life that it will stream through you to all about you. God wants men and women through whom He can “stream.” Are you a candidate? Let this become your testimony: “I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches” (Ps. 119:14).