2 Chronicles 13-17

[wolfpurplemoon]

King Asa has a diseased foot and died because he sought the assistance of physicians instead of God.

Comments

[leavesinspring.livejournal.com]

I think *instead* is the operative word here. Also, going to "physicians" in this time period would generally be a pretty sketchy idea (most were either pagan/witch doctors (obviously disobeying commandments there) and/or did generally stupid and unhelpful things like bloodletting, etc).I'm pretty sure God doesn't have a problem with legit medicine, but he definitely prefers that we ask him to get involved as well.

[wolfpurplemoon]

I can see that going to a physician in that time probably wouldn't have given you much more of a chance than doing nothing and praying would have done, but at least there were people trying to understand how to overcome the things that take people's lives.

I personally have a problem when people in our time give their God credit for curing them of a disease or injury, first of all it detracts from the immense human efforts involved in overcoming disease and health disorders and allowing people to live longer and healthier lives, and secondly I don't understand why God gets the credit for the cure but not the blame for the cause.

[(Anonymous)]

If God was the cause of sickness, then why would we bother going to a doctor. We can't exactly win against God, we would just stay sick, or die. Therefore, God is not the cause.

[wolfpurplemoon]

I totally agree with you, but if he's not the cause then he can't be praised for the cure either.

Diabetes?

[(Anonymous)]

I think it's quite likely having a disease in his foot or feet could have been a symptom of diabetes. The disease would have been highly uncommon due to the lifestyle of the general population, but a king would live a more opulent and decadent lifestyle.

Incidentally, it would take God's involvement, or at the very least, a miracle, to cure him if it were diabetes.