Hebrew Insights on the Connection Between Spiritual and Physical Health

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. My guest today claims that Jesus never existed and that He, in fact, is the true Messiah. It's time for The Line of Fire with your host, biblical scholar and cultural commentator, Dr. Michael Brown. Your voice for moral sanity and spiritual clarity.

Call 866-34-TRUTH to get on The Line of Fire. And now, here's your host, Dr. Michael Brown. I was just thinking that it's likely that today's show is going to be one of the most unique shows in the history of The Line of Fire broadcast.

And I doubt that with the hundreds of thousands, even millions of other podcasts and radio shows that will be taking place today and over the course of the next month, I don't know that any is going to be more unusual than today's. We've also got some really edifying, important scripture truths to share with you. Welcome to the broadcast.

It's Thoroughly Jewish Thursday. Michael Brown, delighted to be with you. So, we're going to start in a moment getting into the word, the Hebrew Bible, as our theme for the month of January is let's get healthy. Let's get healthy spiritually, mentally, emotionally, physically. Let's get healthy. Next week, we want to introduce a new sponsor to you with some great health supplements. Really exciting stuff. I've been counting the days to get there, to share this with you, and I believe you're going to be greatly blessed.

And these folks really believe in The Line of Fire, want to help us blanket the nation with this broadcast. So, that's coming next week as we continue on the let's get healthy theme. But today, Thoroughly Jewish Thursday, we're going to look at some Hebrew scriptures and get some insights from the Hebrew Bible about health and wholeness.

That's first. Then I want to give you an update on where things stand with a black Hebrew Israelite leader in terms of a public debate. And we don't have it scheduled in terms of a day locked in, but we've agreed on the topic. But I want to give you the history and let you know what he has declined to debate me on. And then, as we open the door, we said if you're a Hebrew Israelite leader, etc., and you want to debate me on a certain subject, well, we were contacted by one group, one individual, and obviously, obviously the vast majority of Hebrew Israelites do not believe that this person is, quote, the Messiah. But they wanted to talk to me.

I said, well, great, let's do an interview on the air. And this gentleman claims that Jesus never existed, that he himself is the true Messiah. So, of course, my heart goes out to this individual, this deeply deceived individual. But I'm going to allow him to share with you what he believes, and this way we can better pray for him and for those that might be deceived into following him. If you have a Jewish-related question, any Jewish-related question of any kind, Hebrew-related, modern Israel-related, Jewish tradition, Jewish background to the New Testament, Messianic prophecy, give me a call, 866-3 for truth, 866-348-7884.

A little later in the show we'll get to some calls. All right, so, many of you know that my doctoral dissertation was on the Hebrew word for healing, the Hebrew root rafa, and I said its fundamental meaning was to restore, make whole, and then can be applied in various ways to a physical body healing, to undrinkable waters made wholesome to severe disease in the body or in the house, a skin of affliction or mildew in the house, then that rafa would mean that that was remitted, that that was gone. It was used for repairing a broken altar. In other words, the root had a wider meaning of restoration, making whole, and then these various specific applications. And we know it most as the root for heal. What is clear, undeniable, reading through the Old Testament, is that sickness in and of itself is negative. It's associated with death, it's associated with sin, it's associated with judgment, it's associated with curses.

Sickness in and of itself. At the same time, healing and health are looked at as blessings from God, and they are associated with life, they are associated with his favor. Now it doesn't mean that every individual who's sick is there for sinning, and it doesn't mean that everyone who's healthy is there for godly, but there's no question whatsoever that sickness would be in the category of curse, associated with death, associated with judgment, associated with sin, and that healing and health would be in the category of life and blessing. And by the way, that mentality is reinforced when Jesus comes into the world, and in demonstration of the Father's character, and in demonstration of the kingdom of God breaking out, and in demonstration of him being the Messiah, heals the sick and sets the captives free. But for now I just want to focus on the Hebrew Bible. Alright, so let's start in Exodus 15 26, this is part of the covenant that God gave with the children of Israel as they were coming to Mount Sinai had been delivered from Egypt. God said this, if you'll heed the Lord your God diligently doing what is upright in his sight, giving ear to his commandments, and keeping all his laws, then I will not bring upon you any of the diseases. So call him a hello to share something that's wrong.