He didn’t want to be healed! - All The Good Seed Daily Devotionals for 2025

Heal my soul, for I have sinned against you.

The chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed.
Psalm 41:4; Isaiah 53:5.

He didn't want to be healed!
The man whom I saw stretched out in the sun on the ground near one of the city's gates was begging.

When a tourist passed by, he would pull up his trouser leg to show a wound covered with dust, while he held out his other hand with a sad expression. That wound needed treatment! In the hospital opposite he could have received all the care necessary. A friend from the district explained to me that he was there every day and didn't want to be cured, since he earned his livelihood through that wound.

Imagine Jesus asked you: "Your soul, your spirit and your body need healing; do you want to be healed? Would you reply: "I don't need you", or "Heal my soul, for I have sinned against you"?

After hearing God's diagnosis of their condition: "The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it" (Isaiah 1:5.6), people revolt and put the blame elsewhere. They accuse God: "Why the suffering? Why illness? Why death?" God does not answer such questions. He sent His Son to cure the sick and forgive the guilty; He suffered the punishment that we all deserved, enduring all in our stead: divine wrath and judgment. He paid the ransom to grant peace of heart and mind. "By his stripes we are healed".

Today's reading: Ezra 8:1-30 · Proverbs 8:10-21