Has it ever occurred to you that a faithful life according to God’s commandments can do you a world of good physically? The ingenious Solomon assures us of this in several instances in the book of Proverbs: “Fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones” (Prov. 3:7, 8; other translations use “medicine”).

For what does someone do who fears God? Well — he has a deep respect for God’s statutes, both for those we read about in the Scriptures as well as for those we find in nature. In this way you discover that God’s commandments are all equally wholesome for us.

But that is no wonder, because as a fish thrives only in water, a human being is only “truly in his element” when he keeps close to God’s laws. For all those wholesome statutes originate from our loving Father in heaven. And who would know better what is good for our heart and nervous system, our stomach and our other organs, our energy and sleep than he does? He created us as physical beings and grants us nothing but the best in life. Therefore all commandments are directed toward a flourishing life: “You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them” (Lev. 18:5).

By keeping them you can even prolong the years of your life, as Solomon teaches in Proverbs 3:2. In this way you can in many cases “escape” death, as he states in multiple places (Prov. 13:14; 14:27; 15:14; 21:16). With such proverbs you can think of an early death as the result of revolutionary activities, of the fatal shot of a jealous third party in a triangle relationship, of excessive consumption of alcohol and the resulting arguments and traffic accidents with deadly results. Also with a view to such godlessness the wise Preacher asked, “Why should you die before your time” (Eccl. 7:17)?

In short, God’s commandments also serve as medicine. In order to clarify this further I want to open up the book of Proverbs. For in it Solomon teaches us the applied fear of the

Lord, and distributes the gold of God’s commandments as if it were ready change we can use, also in connection with health and obedience.

Do not Force Solomon’s Proverbs⤒🔗

Before I continue I first want to avoid a situation where a person who is ill and who loves God dearly, will start to lament, “I am sick and therefore I have been disobedient to God”. In order to prevent this misunderstanding we must not lose sight of two things.

In the first place we need to realize that in his proverbs Solomon does not provide some ironclad rules that are valid always and in every situation, but that these are precepts, marshals, concise statements of wisdom. There will indeed be exceptions, also in regard to his proverbs about the connection between obedience and health. However, for now he ignores these exceptions for pedagogical reasons.

And in the second place we should not forget that in his proverbs he fleshes out conditional covenantal promises. For God had already promised Israel during their time in the wilderness, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and...keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer” (Ex. 15:26). But besides this he had threatened his people with all sorts of evil and lengthy diseases if Israel would not keep all of God’s laws and statutes (see Lev. 26:25; Deut. 28:20f, 27, 35, 59ff).

In addition, these were promises and threats that he revealed to Israel as a nation. He would bless their obedience as a people with perfect health. But if the people would fall away from him, he would visit the nation with desolate circumstances. In that connection he spoke about the pestilence (a word indicating all sorts of epidemics), tuberculosis, fever, fires, incurable Egyptian sores, ulcers, rash, panic, blinding and insanity.

My intention in mentioning all of this is that for these reasons we should not understand Solomon’s proverbs about our health as if they are ironclad rules, applicable to any and all situations. He aims to urge especially the youth to fear the Lord (Prov. 1:4-7), i.e., to be filled with a loving respect for him. And in this connection he tells them that, generally speaking, this will serve to promote health. This is a profound truth, but it is a truth you may not impose on all circumstances. You certainly may not apply it to people who are critically ill like the pious Job and the numerous believers who also cannot blame their illness on any serious sin.

I want to take the opportunity now to explore further how Solomon shows us that our health is strengthened by the beautiful fruits of the Spirit such as charity, gentleness, friendliness and moderation.

Health Through Charity←⤒🔗

The famous billionaire John D. Rockefeller Sr. was the richest person on earth at age fifty. In order to achieve this, he had mercilessly tormented both himself and many others. On the oil fields of Pennsylvania people were ready for his blood, and he needed a bodyguard day and night.

Through his lack of mercy Rockefeller had also undermined his health. At age fifty-one he looked old and haggard, and people did not think he would live much longer. He was skin and bones and looked like a live mummy. He slept badly and had such a poor digestion that he could only have some milk and crackers.

All of this lasted until once during a restless night he came to the realization that he should not hoard all his money for himself, but that he should devote it toward his weaker fellow men. The next morning he started right away. He founded the Rockefeller Foundation and began to hand out his millions to causes such as mission, universities, hospitals and other institutions of mercy.

When the egoist changed into an altruist, his own health improved greatly. Sure enough, he could sleep again, eat normally, and enjoy life. Just like his selfishness and vindictiveness had almost destroyed him, so his love and charity had given him back his health. And this living while giving, apparently did him so well that he became 98 years old.

However, he could have known this much earlier by listening to Solomon: “A man who is kind benefits himself, but a cruel man hurts himself” (Prov. 11:17). Charity promotes our health. Besides, also the Lord Jesus had said so: “Give, and it will be given to you... For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you” (Luke 6:38). The great commandment is a healthy commandment. When you seek the good of your neighbour, you do good to yourself as well, both spiritually as well as physically.

Health Through Gentleness←⤒🔗

Our health will also fare well when our attitude in life is not filled with hatred, but with gentleness. Solomon taught this in the proverb: “A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot” (Prov. 14:30).

For envy or jealousy we can also substitute: anger, resentment, displeasure, in short all sorts of feelings of hate. Each of these is like true symptoms of a “flesh-eating disease”, that consumes us not only internally by all sorts of tensions and stress, but which also seriously undermines our physical health. In some cases they can even shorten someone’s lifespan. “Just wait, I’ll get him yet!” But in this way you will get an ulcer yourself. “I could kill him!” but instead you are killing your own health and nervous system.

For a long time, in the matter of interrelatedness of these phenomena, medical science had as it were a blind spot on its retina. It did not realize that hatred, envy, dissatisfaction, lack of love, etc., could not only bring you to the psychiatrist’s consultation room, but also to the surgeon’s operating table. Now medics assure us that all forms of hatred have an adverse and critical effect on our thyroid, heart, stomach, gall bladder and large intestine. But Solomon taught this already 2500 years ago: hatred consumes the one who hates, but a gentle heart is life for the body. Literally he speaks of a “heart-of-resignation”.

No, it is not a character trait with which you were born. It is the fruit of living by God’s Spirit. Only then does he make our hearts gentle, and only in this way will we react spiritually to expressions of hatred and anger that are being hurled our way. For our health is not in danger in the first place by the angry actions of others, but on account of our own evil reactions. In such situations the fear of the Lord is very realistically “healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones” (Prov. 3:8). With a gentle heart we fight the cause of all sorts of psychosomatic ailments by keeping God’s commandment before our eyes: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom. 12:21; Heb. 12:14f).

The Christian who meets his neighbour in the Spirit of love and gentleness saves the thyroid, gall bladder, stomach, etc. of both. Perhaps he needs to process daily disappointments, and be surrounded by hateful people, but on account of his neighbourly love and gentleness he will accept these circumstances as God’s lessons in humility, and so he also saves his heart and blood vessels.

In short, a gentle attitude is the best tranquillizer that you can take. It teaches us as well that our task and responsibility only have a limited scope. And this alone can already save our body and our nervous system from a lot of tension. These daily things are part of the promise, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5).

Health Through Friendliness←⤒🔗

Friendly words belong to the least expensive medicines that we can administer to each other. On this topic too Solomon has issued some proverbs worthy of our consideration. “Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body” (Prov. 16:24). This too is an applied form of the fear of the Lord.

Someone who is filled with this can ignore, yes, can improve the health of his neighbour by delivering the free medicine of a few friendly words. A great example of this can be found in the initial conversation between Boaz and Ruth.

She must have been quite stressed when as a stranger she stepped onto his fields in order to glean some ears of grain. But how surprised she was when the farmer addressed her in such friendly terms! He told her to make sure that she would stay with his field, and was invited to drink from the vessels that were there. He declared also that he had great respect for all that she had done for her mother-in-law, Naomi. He extended a friendly invitation to her to join him and his personnel at the mealtime (Ruth 2:1-17). “There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts,” says Solomon in another proverb, “but the tongue of the wise brings healing” (Prov. 12:28). The latter was achieved by Boaz’s kind words. He must have put Ruth greatly at ease, as he poured balsam into the wounds of her heart. Such words penetrate deeply and can do a world of good to someone’s physical body. Talk about performance-enhancing means!

Besides, Boaz’s friendliness benefited also his own nerves and those of his workers. “A man who is kind benefits himself...” as we read earlier. An environment where people are constantly snarling and growling confirms in all sorts of lesser and greater ailments the truth of what we read as well: “envy makes the bones rot” (Prov. 14:30). But through friendliness one does not only create a pleasant climate for working and living, but also one that is wholesome—a tonic for the entire body.

Health Through Moderation←⤒🔗

Hippocrates, the famous physician from Greek antiquity (±400 BC), already advised, “In order to stay healthy one should take two precautions: eat less than you are able to, and work less.” But Solomon with his profound insight in the vital importance of (self-) discipline, had in fact given similar counsel much earlier in his proverb, “If you have found honey, eat only enough for you (i.e., no more than you can handle), lest you have your fill of it and vomit it” (Prov. 25:16). This too is both directly and indirectly an important rule for your health.

Israel lived in a land “flowing with milk and honey” (Ex. 3:8). Honey was a proverbial delicacy (see Ps. 19:10; 119:103) and to top it off it is also nourishing and healthy, such that another proverb reads, “My son, eat honey, for it is good... (Prov. 24:13). Yet it also gave this warning, “It is not good to eat much honey” (Prov. 25:27a).

In this we are warned not to dig our own graves with our own greediness. How many people have perished because they did not know the difference between appetite and gluttony. This too is a way of sinning, namely against the natural law that God imposed for our physical wellbeing. “Man ist was Man iszt,” says a German proverb (i.e., “A man is what he eats”).

In fact, it holds true of all good things that excess does damage. In that vein you also have intellectual gluttons who sacrifice even their sleep to their obsession with reading. Alcoholics are equally tragic examples of a disastrous lack of boundaries. The physician Dr. Paul Tournier writes, “One of the most important conditions for physical and psychological health is to live disciplined lives in all areas of your life.” This lesson for life is also found in the proverbs that commend (self-) discipline (see Prov. 4:13; 6:23).

The first time you hear something like this it may sound as if it is not really a religious issue as Solomon warns us about eating too much honey. Yet also in this we can distinguish the keynote of all biblical wisdom for life: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Prov. 1:7). It constantly opens the eyes of man for the boundaries that God has established for him, for his own wellbeing in various situations.

God’s Command — Medicine for You!←⤒🔗

From Solomon’s apothecary I have been able to give you a taste of only four kinds of medicine. If desired, you can discover and experiment with more from either Proverbs or Ecclesiastes (see Prov. 5:11, 23; 7:22-27; 12:25; 13:12; 17:22; 18:1; 23:29-35; Eccl. 4:6; 5:17f; 8:15; 9:7f; 11:10). And the more often we take the medicine, the more we will experience it: God’s commandments? They are medicine for young and old!