“My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, nor detest His correction, for whom the LORD loves He corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights” (Proverbs 3:11).
This particular proverb holds a place in my heart of extraordinary meaning and we find it quoted in the 12th chapter of Hebrews. It was thirty-three years ago when I came to a deep and abiding realization that God genuinely loved me and was aware of all taking place in my life. Accepting He did indeed know the count of the hairs on my head helped to realize that He also was aware of afflictions which came my way. So it was that recognizing God is love and that sickness in my life did nothing to bring Him glory or honor, I determined to consider adversity that came my way as perhaps indicating there might be a lesson or two for me to learn from whatever I experienced.
When I developed a fast growing, high grade cancer of the prostate at age 58, it did not escape my awareness that patients with a similar cancer whom I’d treated over the years as a radiation oncologist had died within a few years from metastatic disease. When my own blood tests (PSA) became elevated two years after treatment along with severe pain in my lower back, it was no surprise an MRI revealed “hot spots” in the spine said consistent with spread of cancer. However before starting treatment, I found myself reading about the disciples in a storm on the sea when Jesus appeared walking toward their boat on the water and Peter asked Jesus to tell him to come to Him.
I had always admired Peter for his courage when Jesus called the disciple to come to Him and the fact that Peter got out of the boat and even began to walk on water…..that is until he focused on the wind and waves, became afraid, and immediately started to sink. It was as I again read this story that Holy Spirit spoke to my heart: “Trust your Savior and you’ll walk on water with this cancer.” Immediately I told my wife that God had spoken to me and I was determined to trust what I’d been told and refrain from receiving any treatment of a medical kind. It was a leap of faith that could only be responded to through obedience. Having practiced as a cancer specialist for 25 years, and having treated scores of patients with the identical problem I faced, this was hardly a routine circumstance.
It took a month thereafter before the pain subsided completely. That was 23 years ago and repeat scans since that time have never shown an abnormality in my spine or elsewhere in my skeleton over that period. Looking back in retrospect, I realize that I was in need of chastening as I was failing to practice another proverb in the chapter: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5). For there were other issues in my life at the time, and I was far from trusting the LORD with all my heart. I suspect the same can be said for many of us during times of trial and tribulation. But God is faithful, even in those situations when our faith is unsteady if not completely lacking.
During forty years of medical practice, I encountered many like myself who never stopped to consider the possibility that their illness might have been the chastening hand of God. Since diagnosis with cancer, I have been diagnosed with an extreme type of autoimmune autoimmune disease coming rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and multiple sclerosis (16 years ago), congestive heart failure (8 years ago), and wet form of macular degeneration leading to blindness (2 years ago). In each instance, spiritual issues were revealed to me, and today I require no treatment for autoimmune disease or congestive heart failure, and amazingly my eyesight has improved to 20/30 and for the first time in 75 years, I do not require use of glasses for either distance or reading.
So it is this proverb is held tightly in my heart. I am saddened to observe such a tendency for professing Christians to seek remedies of every conceivable type for medical issues, yet never consider that they might be experiencing the chastening hand of the Lord. God says of His people that they perish for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6). There is a false doctrine widely held that the curses of sinful behavior were abolished by Jesus’ atoning sacrifice on the Cross. Were such true, one must explain why serious if not fatal diseases are equally as common in our churches as among those who never darken the door of a church. And why just as many die prematurely of disease among both groups.
