With several of the last few lessons we have published, The COME AS A CHILD BIBLE STUDY has been covering the curses for disobedience found in Deuteronomy Chapter 28.
We feel these scripture references are of great importance, not only in knowing the history of ancient Israel; but in knowing how to live in the modern-day Christian world.
PLAGUES AND PANDEMICS
As we continue to deal with the fallout of a recent world-wide pandemic in our own lives; we read of the plague that God said would come upon Israel if they disobeyed His ways. Are the two facts related?
The words we read in Deuteronomy 28:21-22 are; “the LORD will plague you with diseases until he has destroyed you from the land you are coming to possess. It will be a wasting disease with fever and inflammation.”
Does that sound familiar?
I’m thinking of those words “fever” and “inflammation.’ These are two disturbing traits of the latest plague in the current pandemic we have only recently experienced in this modern world.
WHEN THE WHOLE WORLD BECOMES DISOBEDIENT
Funny too; we have experienced those things (disease, fever and inflammation) during a time when immorality and great disobedience towards keeping the ways of God have been sweeping throught the nations in every direction. This is happening everywhere; but especially in the U.S.A.
It would seem as if humanity has no shame, not even the shame of not being ashamed.
We’ve become so bold and arrogant with our sins.
Was Israel ever as bad as America is today?
I wonder.
WASTING DISEASES
And what about that strange mention of these diseases being called “wasting” diseases?
Out of curiosity; I looked up the definition of “wasting diseases” and found that in today’s culture these diseases which are called “wasting diseases” are “prion diseases.”
They are a type of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), which are from a family of rare progressive neurodegenerative disorders that can affect both humans and animals.
The puzzling thing about such “wasting diseases” is that they have long incubation periods. The unaware patients seem to be just fine; then at some point much later than the original infection, the patient will experience neuronal loss. After that, their bodies will experience a failure to induce inflammatory responses.
In other words; their natural responses of immunity would either be impaired, or completely lost. Their natural immunity would then become unable to fight the disease raging through their body.
PRIONS
Such wasting diseases are said to be caused by agents called prions.
A “prion” is an abnormal, pathogenic agent which is transmissible.
These “prions” are able to induce abnormal folding of specific normal cellular proteins called prion proteins. Prion proteins are found mostly in the brain.
This activity of the prions, eventually leads to brain damage, which; in the end, is the main characteristic of the wasting disease.
It is a very progressive and fatal disease.
WHAT DO WE KNOW OF SUCH WASTING DISEASES TODAY?
As far as we know today; the CDC has established five such diseases among humans.
They have also established five such diseases among animals.
ANIMALS
One of the animal diseases is very descriptively named Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD.)
CWD can be found among deer, elk, reindeer and moose living in North America, Canada, Norway and South Korea.
The infected animals will be fine for up to a year after they contact the disease. Then; suddenly they will experience drastic weight loss followed by stumbling and listlessness. Eventually, they will die. There is no known cure available.
PROTECTING THE HUMAN FOOD CHAIN
This disease in animals has been known by scientists since 1997.
So far; there have not been any reported transmitted infections to people.
However; there is a deep concern by The World Health Organization for keeping such animals away from the human food chain. The reason for this concern stems from reports of monkeys who ate from the bodies of the dead infected animals and later became infected themselves.
Another “prion” related disease found in animals is Mad Cow Disease.
HUMANS
The prion diseases that affect humans are Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) and its variant (vCJD), Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker Syndrome, Fatal Familial Insomnia, and Kuru.
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a rapidly progressive, invariably fatal, neurodegenerative disorder. This disorder is believed to be caused by an abnormal isoform of a cellular glycoprotein known as the prion protein.
CJD occurs worldwide, and the estimated annual incidence in many countries, including the United States, has been reported to be about one case per million.
COMPARING US TO THE ISRAELITES
I was curious as to whether or not such diseases ever existed in the Hebraic and/or Jewish cultures. I wondered if the diseases had increased or decreased throughout history, according to the people’s and/or nation’s obedience or disobedience.
While researching the facts for clues to this question; I discovered that the Hebraic word for “wasting disease” is “schachepheth.” In modern day Hebraic language this word would be “schachefet”; which is their word for “tuberculosis.”
Of further interest was the fact that the King James translations of the bible translates the word for “disease” in Leviticus 26:16 and Deuteronomy 28:22 as “consumption.”
When the King James translations of the bible were most popularly published, the word “consumption” was commonly used to refer to tuberculosis.
The word “consumption” derives from the Latin consumptio, a noun that means “wasting” and is in turn derived from consumo, consumere; one meaning of which is “to use up.”
Two well know philosophers; Ovid and Cicero; each used consumptio to refer to “wasting from disease.”
SCIENTIFIC AND ARCHEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE
Both scientist and archeologists have confirmed that ancient Egyptian mummies contain remnants of the tuberculosis disease; and ancient Egyptian drawings show people suffering from “wasting diseases” all the way back to over 3,000 years.
The disease which we now call tuberculosis was most likely quite common when the People of Israel were slaves in Egypt.
Let’s think about that association a bit. We just noted that diseases of “wasted” lives was very common in ancient Egypt; a country well-known for idol-worship and pagan practices such as witchcraft, sorcery and divination.
These would definitely be disobedience against the ways of The One True God of Heaven and Earth.
Disease was prevalent and so was disobedience. They just seem to pair off together. Whenever we read of one; we always find the other.
HEBRAIC LANGUAGE REVEALS MUCH
Another Hebrew word “razon” is used in Psalms 106:15 and Isaiah 10:16, two verses which would have been written anywhere from 2700 to 3000 years ago. These references could also refer to tuberculosis, but it is not for certain.
Zechariah 14:12 (written approximately 2500 years ago) is yet another reference to tuberculosis. The Hebrew word in this scripture is “Maquq, which means “to dwindle or waste away.”
In more modern Hebrew this word would be “nemek” and the Hebrew word “necrosis” derives from it. This plague, however, extended to horses, mules, and other animals that more than likely would not have experienced tuberculosis, so it could have referred to another type of “wasting” disease also.
In other places in the scriptures the word “maquq” means “to pine away, or to rot away, or to fester, and to waste away.”
When I think of rotting and festering and wasting away, I have to consider the horrible disease called leprosy. Several biblical stories evolve around this disease and the fact that it was un-curable. The people were amazed whenever Jesus touched someone with such a transmittable and contagious disease and he never came down with the disease; plus he healed so many who would never have been healed otherwise.
LEPROSY TOO
I would certainly classify leprosy as a type of “wasting” disease.
There are so many stories evolving around that disease, but in my first thoughts on this subject, I remember how God used the disease called leprosy to punish Miriam when she was trying to lead Moses instead of following Him.
Miriam definitely once received the curse from disobedience.
She came down with leprosy and had to travel “outside-the-camp” until God forgave her sins and healed her.
Again; we see another time that the “wasting” disease was caused by disobedience to the will of God.
CHRISTIANS MUST LEARN HOW TO EXAMINE OUR LIVES
This discussion could take us so much further; but I think we all are having our eyes opened to the fact that some of the troubles and diseases we have experienced in the days of our lives are caused by our own disobedience and unwillingness to turn back to the ways of God and repent of our human stubborn ways.
There are also stories of those who innocently suffered such diseases because of the sins of those who were from the generations behind them. They did not sin themselves; but they suffered because of the careless sins of others.
It was thought that this could possibly be why the beloved leader of Jerusalem who was called The Leper King, had leprosy during the times of the Crusades. Maybe King Baldwin experienced generational curses in his royal family’s background.
GOD WILL BE THE JUDGE; WE ARE SIMPLY TO OVERCOME
Whatever the case, he made the decision to overcome and eventually portrayed a type of shadow or type of the suffering of Christ as he ruled his kingdom with great honor and dignity and used the blessings that God HAD given Him to God’s glory.
There are so many other examples of such scriptural importance here; not excluding the fact that Jesus gave us an example of a man who was infirmed but NOT guilty of sin, nor were his ancestors; but God had used his infirmity in order to bring people to The Kingdom of Heaven.
We can’t judge others; only God can do that; but we CAN know and pay attention to the fact that God has called us to obedience and if we take that path, most of our problems and circumstances will work themselves out and turn into unexpected blessings.
In just the few illustrations we have mentioned today, we can see such a difference between those who rise above their curses and those who deliberately choose to destroy their blessings.
The world is full of both types and God is ever watching to see who will meet his challenges for The Kingdom of Heaven.
LEARNING TO THINK ETERNALLY
As I watch the leaders of our world today and listen to their theories on the science and process their political reactions while we all wait to see when the next human-thinking mandate will be handed down; it occurs to me that our thinking is so backwards.
Our problem is spiritual in nature, but we are trying to cure the plague with physical, ideological, political and scientific actions which are clearly not working.
A spiritual cure would require a spiritual action which would involve a national repentance, prayer, fasting and a national turning away from idols and immorality.
I would love to see the results of that solution; but as I look at the lessons of history; it is pretty scary to know how long that usually takes.
A DAILY PRIORITY
Will America find the cure in time?
It probably depends on how many people are willing to fall before God and ask for it in the way that He has commanded.
Who remembers how to be obedient to God?
Those of us who still believe must make these prayers our daily priority.
As I typed these words of hope; I experienced a beautiful vision of a joyful movement of millions of people walking together and singing that popular song from The Prince of Egypt, a song that I try to teach to my grandchildren every Passover.
It is a vision of sheer joy with Miriam leading the way. She is healthy and happy; her face is beaming with a huge smile. She is dancing and singing those lovely words; “There can be miracles; when we believe…..”
And somehow in my heart I know there is still hope.
Miracles have been known to happen before, and they CAN happen again.
If we decide to obey God and turn.
Only if we believe.