January 4, Day 4 – No Sickness Is Worse Than Sin
- Dr. Eric Stricker
- Jan 4
- 3 min read
Today we come to Genesis 7-8, and one of the most important things we can learn from these chapters is that God wants us to trust Him totally – just like Noah did. Yesterday, we saw that “Noah did everything just as God commanded him” (cf., 6:22). In today’s passage, this verse is repeated – almost verbatim – “Noah did all that the LORD commanded him” (cf., 7:5). In our day and age, people engage in endless discussions, debates, and disputes about what is right or wrong, but this is not rocket science. God has already established His will regarding what is right or wrong, and He has expressed it clearly in His Word. People do not need to discuss, debate, or dispute it – we simply need to do it – just like Noah did. He “did everything just as God commanded him.” Noah demonstrated his complete trust in God by his obedience to God, and he did so in spite of all the unbelief around him. In our day, as in Noah’s, unbelief, disobedience, violence, and sin are rampant (cf., Genesis 6:5). God told Noah to build an ark – how does that require a debate? Noah built an ark. In 7:24, we read “the waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days,” and in 7:19-20 we read that the waters “covered all the high mountains under the entire heavens … to a depth of more than twenty feet.” It’s pure nonsense to say that this was a localized flood; science has shown, that if the altitude of all the mountains and valleys of the present earth were leveled out and equalized, the entire earth would then be covered with ocean – there would be no land mass whatsoever – anywhere on earth.
In Proverbs 1:1-7, we are introduced to “the proverbs of Solomon” (verse 1). Generally, Solomon is recognized throughout the world as the wisest man who ever lived, so it behooves us to read and listen to his wisdom. We are given God’s purposes for this book – “attaining wisdom and discipline; understanding … insight … prudence … doing what is right, just, and fair … instructing the simple … and giving knowledge and discretion to the young” (verses 2-6). Everyone who recognizes any deficits of these in his or her life (and only a fool would deny such limitations) should pay close attention to what Solomon presents in this book. Fools are not simply those who are intellectually impaired; they are morally defective. Solomon says that the road to correcting this problem begins with the “fear of the LORD” (verse 7).
In Matthew 4, we observe Satan’s temptation of Christ. Essentially, Satan desires the kingdom for himself and with great pomp – the way the Pharisees and the Sadducees envisioned that Israel’s kingdom should come in (cf., Matthew 3:7-12). Three times, Jesus responds to the Devil with Scripture from Deuteronomy (cf., 6:13; 6:16; and 8:3). In verses 12-25, we see the Lord’s beginning ministry after “He went and lived in Capernaum … to fulfill what was said through the prophet” (cf., Isaiah 9:1-2). Here we understand that our Lord Jesus placed Himself under the authority of the Scriptures in obedience to the Word and the will of His Father. This being true, how could any other individual think that he or she is somehow exempt from obeying God? Following this section then, we see that our Lord began to preach repentance, “for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (verse 17). In verses 18-22, we read about the calling of the first disciples, and then in the last section of the chapter, Jesus began to heal “every disease and sickness among the people” (verse 23). No sickness is worse than sin, so our Lord’s treatment of people’s physical ailments is a manifestation of His full authority over man’s acute sin-problem. Obedience is crucial – we just need to do it like Noah did! Try to imagine a sick person seeking a safe, simple, and secure remedy for a terminal illness but then defying his or her doctor by saying, “No! I refuse to take this treatment.” How foolish is that?
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