God’s Medicine: A Meditation on Proverbs 4:20-22
By Russ Mason

Pastor Bruce Latshaw has assigned me the honor of kicking off a new venture for the Barn: written articles to be posted on the VCF Website.  In accord with the recent teaching series on the wisdom of the Book of Proverbs, I’ve taken my text for this first teaching article from two passages:

Proverbs 4:20-22 “My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings.  Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; for they are life to those who find them, and health [medicine] to all their flesh.”

Proverbs 18:21 “Death and life are in the power of the tongue….” (NKJ)

While listening to Bruce’s teaching in this series, I felt the Spirit quicken these verses to me and prompt me to share some thoughts on God’s will concerning healing and His methods of healing.  These lines from Proverbs suggest three fundamental themes that appear again and again in Scripture: healing, meditation, and the power of words.

First, it is clear from the first passage that God’s deep desire for all of His children is that they be physically well and overflowing with abundant life.  Scripture is a message from God’s heart to yours, and the Bible is bursting with proofs on nearly every page that He wants us to be well.  I can think of at least 25 reasons (demonstrated by major bible themes, commandments, and promises) why you and I can be confident that God wants us to be healed.  He has demonstrated this truth again and again in the Scriptures and in the works of Jesus.  Here, in Proverbs 4, our loving Father has revealed His will to heal quite plainly.  God’s words are for everyone!  If His words are a healing medicine to a person’s whole being, then it is clear that God’s will in this matter is for everyone to be healed of every kind of infirmity.

In describing the effect of God’s words, the Amplified Bible translates the last part of verse 22 like this: “healing and health to all their flesh.”  The Jerusalem Bible reads: “health for the entire body”, and Taylor’s Living Bible puts it: “they will mean real life for you, and radiant health”!  The Hebrew word translated “health” means “curative” or, literally, “medicine”.  It is derived from the same word used in Exodus 15:26 where God revealed His Covenant Name, Jehovah Rapha: “I Am the LORD that heals you!”

Words are spiritual containers.  If God’s very nature radiates life and health, then it makes perfect sense that His words would be spiritual containers of life and health—medicine to every part of our being.  But, in order for medicine to be effective, in order for it to do its work and bring about healing and health, it has to get into our system.  It has to reach the critical target.  We have to take the medication properly, according to the doctor’s instructions.  What does the Great Physician have to say about the proper handling of His Word?  What is God’s prescription for taking His medicine?

In order to answer this question, we must come to the second great and fundamental truth of the passage: we are commanded by God to cultivate a lifestyle of continual mediation upon His words.

Let’s examine the passage more carefully.  First, we are told to attend to God’s word.  He says, “Pay attention to what I say!  Incline your ear to Me, and listen carefully!  Never let My instructions out of your sight!”  Why would God tell us to fill our senses with the truth of His word?  One reason may be that we are continually subjected to contradictory data from the material world through the avenue of our senses.  It is through our five senses that we become aware of the “attacking” symptoms of sickness.  This “sense knowledge data” contradicts what God says about us.  However, our Lord reminds us that we are not to fix our attention on the temporal, material world or on our changing feelings but on unchanging spiritual realities (Heb. 12:2, II Cor. 4:18, Heb. 11:27).  Divine healing is a spiritual reality.  If I give heed continually to what my senses tell me, I am likely to forget the truth that: by His stripes, healing is provided for me.  We are instructed to resist the attacks of the enemy (sin, oppression, sickness), choosing to hold fast to the promises of God.

The direction to continually pay attention to God’s word also means that God and God’s words should have first place in my life.  What God says is true is true.  He defines my reality.  If I call Jesus, the Living Word, my Lord, my Master, and my King, then I am to focus my attention on Him, listening intently for His command and instantly obeying it.  Hearing, believing, and faithful obedience go hand in hand.  This passage aligns with many other Bible verses in which we are commanded to meditate continually on God’s word.

In modern use, the term “meditation” has come to be identified with silent contemplation.  Although the Bible does teach the importance of waiting silently on the Lord, the kind of meditation referred to here is a very different spiritual discipline.  The Hebrew word most often translated “meditate” is “hagah” (pronounced “haw-gaw’”; Strong’s number 1897), and its primary meaning is “to murmur”.  Secondary meanings include: to ponder, imagine, meditate, mutter, study, talk, and utter.  The second most common Hebrew word translated “meditate” is “siyach” (pronounced “see’akh”; Strong’s number 7878), and its meanings include: to ponder, meditate, speak, and converse with oneself aloud.  If we are to meditate on God’s word according to His instructions, that means that we must not only ponder it but also confess it out loud, audibly mulling it over.

The famous linguist, researcher, and language teacher, Charles Berlitz, carefully investigated a variety of learning techniques.  He discovered that saying a word out loud, so that your own ears hear your own mouth speaking it, is as much as ten times more effective than merely thinking about or reading the word silently.  Oral repetition is a tremendously powerful learning technique as it makes a deep impression on the mind.

The Lord God, who created human beings and who understands us intimately, commands us to meditate on His words in order that we may move beyond mere intellectual assent to a condition of believing, or “knowing” a truth in our hearts.  It is not enough to agree mentally with God.  It is not sufficient to believe that God can heal or even that He sometimes heals.  I must know that I know that God wants for me to be healed NOW.  This is the prerequisite for receiving from God by the prayer of faith.  So, how am I to get and keep God’s words “in the midst” of my heart, as He commands?  One way is through the spiritual discipline of meditation for: “…faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” (Rom. 10:17 NAS)

Therefore, in the Old Testament, God commands His people through the mouth of Isaiah the Prophet (Isa. 59:21) saying: “…This is My covenant…My Spirit that is upon you, and my words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouths of your children’s children, says the LORD, from now on and forever.” (NRSV)

As Joshua was about to lead the Children of Israel into the promised land, the LORD commanded him: “This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to act in accordance with all that is written in it.  For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall be successful.” (Joshua 1:8, NRSV)  The “law” here refers to the five books of Moses, which was the entire body of scripture that existed at that time.  Therefore, the command here was to meditate on the Scripture: the recorded words and acts of God.

David writes of those who are “blessed” in the first Psalm that God inspired: “Their delight is in the law of the LORD; and on His law they meditate day and night.  They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither.  In all that they do, they prosper.” (Psalm 1:2-3, NRSV)

The writer of Psalm 119 cries: “With my lips I declare all the ordinances of your mouth! …I will meditate on your precepts, and fix my eyes on your ways, I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word!” (Psalm 119:13-16, NRSV)

So God’s prescription for taking His medicine is to meditate upon His words day and night: while sitting in the house, while walking in the way, when lying down, and when rising up (Deut. 6:6-7).  Meditation upon God’s “medication” is the way of life!  His words are to be continually in our mouths and in our hearts!

This brings us to the third and final truth that resonates in our two passages: life is in the power of the tongue.  Our words have creative power!

Hebrews 11:3 (NEB) “By faith we perceive that the universe was fashioned by the word of God, so that the visible came forth from the invisible.”

God first said, “Light be!” And then light came into existence as the first feature of the material universe, and God saw it and pronounced it “good.”  Things that exist in the spirit world are called into being in the material world through the agency of faith-filled words.  This is how our Father God operates.  This is how our Lord Jesus operates.  And this is how we, God’s faithful children, are instructed to operate.

Jesus tells us: “Have faith in God!  Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and if you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you.  So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” (Mark 11:23-24, NRSV)

Like Abraham, our father in the faith, we are made in the image and likeness of God.  Like Jesus and like Abraham, we are to agree with God, who: “summons things that are not yet in existence as if they already were.” (Rom. 4:17 NEB)

How can we speak and pray in faith?  Faith begins where the will of God is known!  As the Apostle John wrote: “This is the boldness we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.  And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of Him.” (I John 5:14-15, NRSV)

And how can we know that we are praying the prayer of faith in accordance with the will of God?  God’s word is the revelation of His will.  By prayerfully and continually feeding and meditating on God’s words, our hearts become established in the will of God and in faith in His promises.  This is how we enter into faith, into the state of full heart persuasion: by hearing God’s word.  Then, when it is time to receive by faith, to release the creative power of our words, we can do so in all boldness and confidence that what we are speaking is not simply our personal desire but it is the will and purpose of the Lord of Heaven and Earth. When our words, our faith, and the purpose of our hearts are in perfect agreement with the words, the faith, and the purpose of the Lord of Heaven, then we will see God’s will done on earth as it is in heaven.

God’s words are life, and health, and medicine to all our flesh!  Let us meditate on the truth of God’s healing word.  Some great “medication for meditation” on the subject of healing can be found in the following verses: Ex. 15:25-26, Psalm 103:3, Prov. 4:22, Isa. 53:4-5, Mat. 8:17, I Pet. 2:24, James 5:14-16, and III John 2.

There are many ways to receive healing.  However, I believe that what God prefers for His own dear children is that we simply walk in the truth of who we are in Christ—and that includes living in the state of divine health!  His words are life to those who find them and health to all their flesh!

1. Russ Mason

   May 30, 2011 at 12:05 pm

   You’re welcome, Helene! Thanks for taking the time to read the article and comment. I trust that the gift of abundant life in Christ will radiate vibrant health in you as you put this into practice and make it a part of your daily life.

   Reply
2. Helene E. Schmidt

   April 25, 2011 at 5:45 pm

   That was really, really good! Thanks Russ!

   Reply