HEALING
G Bruce Grant
Revelation 22: 1, 2
This is a millennial setting; it is very attractive what will pertain then. What I am thinking about is the last phrase, “and the leaves of the tree for healing of the nations”. These are the leaves of the tree of life, and that speaks of the Lord Jesus. What trouble there is amongst nations, the awfulness of politics! We see it so much at the present time, distrust amongst nations, one nation seeking to be more powerful than the other, building up armaments for the destruction of others. That is what pertains amongst nations, and if we did not know that the Father was over all, we would be very fearful. The Father is over all. We are very thankful to have that light; He is in control.
But there will come a time when the Lord Jesus is given His rightful place, when there will be “healing of the nations”. What a blessed administration it will be! It will be for the good of all. There will be peace. The river is “going out of the throne of God and of the Lamb”. Then there is the tree of life on each side. It seems as though God and the Lamb are on the throne. Think of a Sufferer being a ruler! What a Ruler! How worthy He is to rule! He suffered to uphold everything that was right in God’s sight. The throne would speak of that. Whatever it cost Him, He never relinquished what was right, and He did that sufferingly, and it is right that He is on the throne, ruling.
But there are these leaves with virtue in them, and they are for healing. What pertains then ought to pertain now. The leaves, we often say, are for the nations; the leaves are for us also. There is healing power in the leaves, and they come from Christ. You need to be near the tree of life to appropriate these leaves, and they are available to us. I think it is a good thing to have the desire that there might be healing amongst us. Things go on in the history of the testimony and issues seem to be solved, but afterwards there is a rumbling on, and things are not really healed. That is just one example, not that I was specially thinking of that. I think it is good to desire to have the ability to bring in some healing. The Lord Jesus was a great Healer here; He healed and healed and healed. It was not only physical; He did do what was physical, but He also healed in a moral and spiritual way. It says, “and the Lord’s power was there to heal them”, Luke 5: 17. That was not physical; that referred to the moral condition of the Pharisees, “and the Lord’s power was there to heal them”; that was to bring about a change in them, morally; there was power there to heal in the Lord.
What an attractive Person the Lord was as a healer. He did not come to cause disruption and wounds and sorrow and bitterness. He did not come for that. He came to heal. He came to heal “the broken-hearted”, Isa 61: 1. What a thing it is to be broken-hearted, but the Lord can heal that, and we can operate in the way of healing as being near the Lord; take a leaf from that tree and apply it in healing. Think of the leaf of grace, the leaf of forgiveness! These things all marked the Lord, the leaf of “esteeming the other as more excellent than” yourself (Phil 2: 3), the leaf of “a meek and quiet spirit”, 1 Pet 3: 4. All these things tend towards healing, but as I said, we get it from the Lord. We have to be near Him, learn from Him how we are to bring in healing. It is a very attractive thought. If you hurt yourself, it is amazing how the body heals, and it is very comforting, and you feel so much better once you have healed from a disease, or an injury. The leaf of compassion and comfort! These things are all needed for healing.
When the children of Israel came out of Egypt, what marked them was murmuring and complaining. I think the first time they did that Jehovah says, “I am Jehovah who healeth you”, Exod 15: 26. If there is hurt or sorrow, and there are these things, healing is intended to be operating in the body. It is interesting that Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12, “have all gifts of healings?”, v 30. Now we know that was inaugural; that was physical; but healing is intended to be operating in the body in a spiritual way.
I find the thought of healing very attractive; it results in conditions improving. It is sad to see sometimes that things do not seem to improve; healing is what is needed. It will certainly happen amongst the nations. This is a greater dispensation than that time; we have the blessed Holy Spirit to keep us in freshness. The water of life would speak of that, the “river of water of life”. When I come in amongst the saints, do I have that effect of improving, healing? It is a test for me. The resources are there in the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit. There is always room for improvement in our state, individually and as together, and I think healing helps towards that.
May the Lord bless the word!
Word in a ministry meeting in Dundee
8th November 2016