Exodus 15 · a question people ask
Does 15:26 promise that God's people will never be sick?
The promise comes with a condition and a setting. At Marah the LORD "made a statute and an ordinance for them, and there he tested them" (15:25). Then he says, "If you will diligently listen to the LORD your God’s voice, and will do that which is right in his eyes, and will pay attention to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I am the LORD who heals you" (15:26). The promise comes again later: "I will take sickness away from among you" (23:25), and Moses tells Israel, "The LORD will take away from you all sickness" (Deuteronomy 7:15). Christians agree that the LORD is the one who heals (15:26; Psalm 103:3). They read how this applies to Christians today in two main ways.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
A promise Christians can still pray on
Those who hold this view point to James: "Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the assembly", and "the prayer of faith will heal him who is sick" (James 5:14-15). They also point to Jesus, who "healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying, ‘He took our infirmities and bore our diseases’" (Matthew 8:16-17). They read 15:26 as showing who the LORD is, and pray for healing expecting him to answer.
James 5:14-15 · Matthew 8:16-17
A promise made to Israel; God heals as he wills
Those who hold this view read 15:26 as part of the statute the LORD made with Israel at Marah (15:25). They point out that Paul "begged the Lord three times" for his thorn to depart and was told, "My grace is sufficient for you" (2 Corinthians 12:8-9); that Paul "left Trophimus at Miletus sick" (2 Timothy 4:20); and that Epaphroditus "was sick nearly to death, but God had mercy on him" (Philippians 2:27). They pray for healing and trust God with the answer.
Exodus 15:25 · 2 Corinthians 12:7-9 · 2 Timothy 4:20 · Philippians 2:25-27
The verses
“Then he cried to the LORD. The LORD showed him a tree, and he threw it into the waters, and the waters were made sweet. There he made a statute and an ordinance for them, and there he tested them. He said, “If you will diligently listen to the LORD your God’s voice, and will do that which is right in his eyes, and will pay attention to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I am the LORD who heals you.””
“You shall serve the LORD your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from among you.”
“The LORD will take away from you all sickness; and he will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you know, on you, but will lay them on all those who hate you.”
“who forgives all your sins, who heals all your diseases,”