Lesson 18: Why Do People Get Sick?

 A Healthy Lifestyle for Your and Your Family

Lesson 18: Why Do People Get Sick?

Before doing this lesson, it will be helpful to read the following scriptures: Mark 2:1-12; 2 Kings 5:15-27; and Job 2:1-8.

1. The man who was let down through the roof to Jesus was afflicted with what disease? Mark 2:3

The Greek word translated palsy means paralytic. Paralysis is the loss of muscle function, or the loss of feeling or it may be both. It can be produced by any one of several causes from poisoning to disease to congenital defects or birth injury.

2. What did Jesus say to the paralytic man? Matthew 9:2

Jesus, God in human flesh, was able to read the sick man’s thoughts and knew that what he most wanted was forgiveness. He told him to cheer up, that his sins were forgiven. The man knew that he had sins which had led to his illness and desired forgiveness of his sins most of all.

3. How did the palsied man leave the house? Mark 2:10-12

4. Who was Gehazi? 2 Kings 5:20

5. What wrongs did Gehazi do? 2 Kings 5:20-25

6. What happened to Gehazi as a result of his wrongdoing? 2 Kings 5:26-27

Greed led Gehazi to run after Naaman and claim some of the gifts for himself that had been brought for Elisha but which the prophet had refused. To cover his greed Gehazi also had to lie. By his actions he dishonored the God of heaven in the eyes of the Syrian, who had just been healed of leprosy, as well as the men who were with him. Naaman had been led to declare that he would never again worship any god but the God of the Israelites. Gehazi’s sins brought a swift punishment of leprosy on himself and into his paternity.

7. What had Job done to deserve being afflicted with disease? Job 1:8 and 2:3

8. Who was it that afflicted Job? Job 2:7

9. Why did God permit Job to be afflicted with boils? Job 2:3

10. How does Job’s story end? Job 42:12-17

11. What question did the disciples ask Jesus about a man that had been born blind? John 9:2

12. What did Jesus reply to the disciples question? John 9:3

The man was not blind as retribution for some sin he or his parents had committed.

13. On who is the iniquity of the fathers (and mothers) visited? Exodus 20:5

God does not punish the children for the sins that the parents have committed. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.” Ezekiel 18:20 

But the sins of the parents are often copied by the children in imitation of their parents’ transgressions. Our habits can affect our genes (science has found many gene mutations that are linked to specific diseases), causing our offspring to inherit genes that can trigger diseases and health harming practices. Examples of genetic problems that can be passed on to children for several generations are heart disease, alcoholism, obesity, diabetes, cancers, and congenital deformities and malformations.

14. While He lived on earth, Jesus went about healing all kinds of diseases and sicknesses. When He would leave a town where He had been teaching, there would not be one sick person left. All had been healed. What are some of the specific diseases that Jesus healed? 

A. Matthew 4:24

B. Matthew 8:15

C. Luke 7:2, 10

D. Matthew 9:20

E. Mark 10:51, 52

F. Luke 14:2, 4

G. Luke 7:22

H. Luke 13:11-13

I. John 11:1, 32, 43, 44

15. God also gave power to prophets and apostles to heal diseases. What kinds of diseases did they heal through God’s power? 

A. Matthew 10:1

B. Acts 28:8

C. 1 Kings 17:17, 21, 22

D. Matthew 10:8

E. Acts 3:2, 6, 7

F. Acts 8:7

16. What should be our attitude toward those who are sick? Job 6:14

17. How did Jesus feel about the sick? Matthew 14:14

18. What story did Jesus tell as an example of showing compassion for those who are sick or injured? Luke 10:30-35

19. How did David show kindness to someone who was sick? 1 Samuel 30:11-13

Even if we are sure that a person is sick because of something they have done, we are to feel compassion and pity for them. We can never be certain that a person’s illness is in part or in whole the result of sins they have committed. That was the problem of Job’s “miserable comforters” (Job 16:2). They were certain that Job must have done something terrible to have all this calamity come on him. But the Bible says that he wasn’t guilty of anything. It was Satan who had struck him. God permitted it, for He has told us, “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten” (Revelation 3:19). It would make his character stronger.

20. When a person is sick, what does the Bible counsel them to do? James 5:14

21. What does God promise to do? James 5:15

22. What does James imply should be the condition of the heart? James 5:15

When we ask God to heal us, we should make our wrongs right in as far as we are able. Then we leave a clear path to the throne of God and there is nothing between the soul and the Saviour that would prevent healing, if it is God’s will to do so.

Next Lesson: Faith and A Cake of Figs