I have been asked if it is wrong for us to go to doctors. Some are told that it was a lack of faith to do so. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is no more a sin to go to a doctor to have a broken ankle set back in place than it is to receive the antidote for a poison snake bite. Let’s simply go to the scriptures and see what they have to say on this subject:

Gen 50:2 And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel.

You see, Joseph had servants who were physicians. Now those who tell you not to go to a doctor will very likely tell you that these are simply embalmers. This is absolutely untrue. Anyone seeking only the Truth, can go to the trouble of looking up the Hebrew word for ‘physicians’, and he will find that this is the very same word that is most often translated ‘heal’ or ‘healed’ in the scriptures. Here is merely one example of dozens in the Old Testament where this word is translated ‘healed:’

Gen 20:17 So Abraham prayed unto God: and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maidservants; and they bare children.

Notice how Job describes his self- righteous ‘comforters.’

Job 13:4 But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.

Job, like the apostle Paul, knew that there were physicians that were of much value.
Now here is Strong’s number and definition for this word translated ‘physician’ in Gen 50:2.

Strong’s # 7495
raw- faw’, raw- faw’
A primitive root; properly to mend (by stitching), that is, (figuratively) to cure: – cure, (cause to) heal, physician, repair, X thoroughly, make whole. See H7503.

Here is what Proverbs has to say about medicines:

Pro 17:22 A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
Eze 47:12 And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary: and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine.

Now here is what the New Testament tells us:

Col 4:14 Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you.

Luke traveled with Paul, and it is he who has given us his first- hand account of many of the events in the book of Acts.

2Ti 4:11 Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry.

In the book of Acts, Luke uses the pronoun ‘we’ many times; for example:

Act 16:10 And after he had seen the vision, immediately we [ Paul, Silas and Luke] endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them.

So Paul had a resident physician traveling with him on this journey. And he calls him “Luke, the beloved physician.” Even so Paul himself was often sick and afflicted and was not healed of his affliction:

Gal 4:13 Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first.
Gal 4:14 And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.
Gal 4:15 Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me.

Now look at what Paul tells Timothy about Timothy’s sickness:

1Ti 5:23 Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.

Not all of Paul’s prayers were answered in the manner for which he prayed:

Php 2:25 Yet I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, and companion in labour, and fellowsoldier, but your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants.
Php 2:26 For he longed after you all, and was full of heaviness, because that ye had heard that he had been sick.
Php 2:27 For indeed he was sick nigh unto death: but God had mercy on him; and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.

And again:

2Ti 4:20 Erastus abode at Corinth: but Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick.

Do you not suppose that Paul prayed fervently for his own healing and for the healing of these his close associates? Of course, he did. And you can rest assured that “Luke the beloved physician” did all that he could to help.
What is of the greatest importance is that we come to realize that all any disease or contrasting health is for is to teach us that God is sovereign in all things. Here are His own words regarding this subject:

Isa 19:22 And the LORD shall smite Egypt: he shall smite and heal it: and they shall return even to the LORD, and he shall be intreated of them, and shall heal them.

This is the lesson that Job had to learn at so great a price. Job had made this fatal statement:

Job 27:5 … Till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.

And what does God tell Job as a result of this lack of understanding of His sovereignty?

Job 40:8 Wilt thou [ Job] also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me [ For the lesson I am teaching you and millions of others], that thou mayest be righteous?

“ All things are of God”:

Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
Rom 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Rom 11:36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things [“even the wicked”]: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.
1Co 8:6 But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.
1Co 11:12 For as the woman [ is] of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God.

As hard as it is for us to comprehend, here is the purpose for all evil that ever has been or ever will be:

Gen 50:20 But as for you [ Joseph’s brothers who sold him into slavery], ye thought evil against me; but God meant it [ The selling of Joseph into slavery] unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.

Right there is the purpose for all the evil and all the contrasting good that has ever been done.
If you haven’t already, I suggest that you read After The Counsel of His Own Will. It has twelve of the hundreds of Biblical examples found throughout the scriptures that demonstrate that “all things [ are done] after the counsel of His own will.

Joh 9:1 And as [ Jesus] passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
Joh 9:2 And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
Joh 9:3 Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

There are a thousand and one reasons why God strikes people with diseases. It is never accomplished without Him sending “an unclean spirit from the Lord.” Let us never be guilty, as were Job’s ‘comforters’ and as were the apostles, of assuming that the reason so- and- so is having a trial is because of a lack of faith or because of sin in their lives. Let us rather “judge ourselves that we be not judged” (1Co 11: 31-32).
I hope this is all of some help to you. If you need a physician, by all means see one. Do not offer up your health or the well being of your family on the altar of some man’s ego. I will close with the words of our Lord Himself:

Luk 5:31 And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick [ need a physician].