Why Does Exodus 15:25-26 Talk About God Putting Diseases on People?

You could argue that God sent the ten plagues on Egypt and that perhaps this was a reference to them, but that doesn’t seem to hold up under scrutiny.  There was only one killer plague on one night and it was not caused by a variety of diseases (in the plural).  In the case of the killer plague, “the destroyer” actually did it, not God in person (Hebrews 11:28), even if God sent that death angel.

Also, Deuteronomy 28:15-68 also refers to the “diseases of Egypt which thou wast afraid of,” which could not refer to the killer plague on the firstborn, which the Israelites were not afraid of because they were protected from it.  This was talking about a variety of fearsome diseases that were common in Egypt.

The only answer that seems consistent with the rest of Scripture is that the diseases of Egypt were judgments against those who were mistreating His people.  This is spelled out more clearly in Deuteronomy 7:15: “And the LORD will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay them on all that hate thee.”  There were many other cases of God laying sickness on people as judgment in the Old Testament.  See Sickness as Chastening and Judgement in the Old Testament for details.

There is also New Testament Scripture for God putting diseases on the disobedient, as proved in the discussion Sickness as Chastening and Judgment in the New Testament.  There is NO New Testament Scripture for God putting sickness on an obedient believer, so drawing the conclusion that God puts sickness on believers based on this verse in Exodus is totally out of harmony with the Bible.

We like to simplify things for people as much as possible, so we like to say things such as, “Jesus would never make anyone sick or kill anyone!”  However, that statement is not true, as Revelation 2:20-23 proves!  As long as you’re not destroying His Church, you have nothing to worry about, but if you try to destroy His Church (which is His temple), God promises that He will destroy you (1 Corinthians 3:16-17)!

For a more general discussion of this entire issue, see Did God PUT Sickness on Old Testament People or ALLOW the Devil to Do It?.