Healing in the Atonement II
Old Testament Types of the Atonement
by Tom Brown
We are given many examples of healing being related to the
atonement. First let us look at the Old Testament.
The first major type of the atonement in the Old Testament is
the original Passover. God instructed Israel to take the blood of
the lambs and paint it on the doorframes of the houses. God said
as a result of seeing the blood, "No destructive plague will
touch you" (Ex 12:13). No plague was permitted to touch them
because of the blood of the Passover lamb. They were preserved in
health because of the Passover. The Passover, of course, is a
type of the atonement of Christ. "Christ our Passover has
been sacrificed" (1 Cor 5:7).
Notice that the children of Israel were kept from a plague as
a result of the atonement. The atonement kept them healthy.
Concerning the exodus it is written, "He brought them forth
also with silver and gold: and there was not one feeble person
among their tribes" (Ps 105:37, KJV). The word feeble means
weakly. No one was weak physically when they came out of Egypt.
Forget what you saw on the movie The Ten Commandments. No
one was on crutches; no one was blind; no one died on the way.
Everyone was healed. The blood of the lamb healed everyone!
If the blood of lambs could heal an entire nation, don’t
you think that the blood of the Lamb of God could heal everyone
in the body of Christ? Of course it could!
Atonement Stops the Plague
There is another great example of the atonement bringing
healing. It is found is Numbers chapter 16. The Israelites had
grumbled against Moses and Aaron. As a result, a plague hit
Israel. What was God’s answer for this plague? Not simply
prayer for mercy, but an atonement.
Then Moses said to Aaron, "Take your censer and
put incense in it, along with fire from the altar, and hurry
to the assembly to make atonement for them. Wrath has come
out from the LORD; the plague has started." So Aaron did
as Moses said, and ran into the midst of the assembly. The
plague had already started among the people, but Aaron
offered the incense and made atonement for them. He stood
between the living and the dead, and the plague stopped. (Num
16:46-48)
The plague stopped when the atonement was made. If healing is
not connected to the atonement then why did the atonement heal
the people? It is clear the atonement was the cure for the
healing of the plague.
Bronze Snake
Another wonderful example of the atonement as it relates to
healing is in Numbers chapter 21. Again the Israelites brought
judgement on themselves and were bitten by poisonous snakes.
Snakes speak of Satan. Satan has bitten them and caused them
to suffer extreme nausea and pain. He does that today. The
solution God has for the people is simple. Take a bronze snake
and put it on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and
looked at the bronze snake, he lived. (see Numbers 21:8-9)
Jesus said about His own crucifixion: "Just as Moses
lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be
lifted up" (John 3:14). The bronze snake speaks of the
atonement of Christ. If the shadow of the atonement could heal
the people from the venom of the snakes, then surely the reality
of the atonement can heal us from any diseases Satan tries to put
on us.
Leper’s Healing
There is an interesting regulation under the Law that relates
to this lesson. If a leper was healed of his disease then the
priest was to make atonement for him. Look at the following
scripture:
The LORD said to Moses, "These are the regulations
for the diseased person at the time of his ceremonial
cleansing, when he is brought to the priest: The priest is to
go outside the camp and examine him. If the person has been
healed of his infectious skin disease, the priest shall order
that two live clean birds and some cedar wood, scarlet yarn
and hyssop be brought for the one to be cleansed…
"Then the priest is to sacrifice the sin offering and
make atonement for the one to be cleansed from his
uncleanness. After that, the priest shall slaughter the burnt
offering and offer it on the altar, together with the grain
offering, and make atonement for him, and he will be clean.
(Lev 14:1-4, 19-20)
Here is my question: Why was an atonement made for the
leper’s healing if healing is not in the atonement of
Christ? Healing is clearly in the atonement.
Fundamentalist will criticize Christian Scientists for
believing that salvation can be attained without the atonement,
yet fundamentalist make the same blunder concerning healing. They
treat healing under a different basis than forgiveness. They view
sickness as utterly separate from sin. This is wrong. Healing is
attained through the atonement.
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