We see God healed Old Testament kings through prophets. What were the circumstances of such healings? What can we learn from them and how does God minister through prophets today?

In my last post, I discussed God’s punishment of sickness for Israel’s disobedience. In this post, we will address God’s healing ministry to kings through prophets of Israel.

With the amount of wickedness running through the Old Testament kings of Israel and Judah, it’s a wonder only a couple of them suffered from illnesses. Some died in violent ways because of their wickedness.

But some experienced God’s powerful healing usually through the ministry of the prophets. Prophets were usually the ones to put the kings in their place when they did not listen to the law. Yet God used him to minister to kings in more than one way.

God Healed Old Testament Kings through Prophets

The prophets had many facets of ministry. We think of them only as people who spoke God’s power to power but they did a lot more than that. For some, we only have record of what they prophesied. We call these the literary prophets, also known as the Major Prophets and Minor Prophets.

We don’t really know a whole lot about their lives or the other parts of their ministry. We only have what is preserved in God’s Word about Old Testament prophets through their own writings and sometimes through mention of them in other writings.

The Bible gives us insight into the character, actions, and sayings of some of the earliest prophets, especially Elijah and Elisha. They did much more than stand in the street and call Israel and its leaders to task. God ministered through them in powerful ways.

It’s no surprise, then, that Jesus’s ministry was full of healing. He is the ultimate Prophet, Priest, and King. We will see him a later post that Jesus fulfilled messianic prophecies by healing the people in first century Palestine.

God Healed Jeroboam

In 1 Kings 13:1-6, a man of God prophesies against the temple altar while King Jeroboam is there. We know this man of God was a prophet because he prophesied and then gave a sign to prove the prophecy.

The prophecy concerned King Josiah who would come later. It was so much later that the prophecy had to have a sign that fit within the time of Jeroboam so he would know it was from the Lord.

Because Moses laid down guidelines for prophetic ministry in Israel, prophecies that would not be fulfilled in the time of the person prophesied to had to have an accompanying sign which can also be a prophecy that would confirm the truthfulness of the prophecy for later.

When the man of God (Scripture does not give his name) prophesies that the altar will have human sacrifices offered on it during King Josiah’s time later on, he gives a prophetic sign that the altar would be torn down, Jeroboam stretched out his hand and told his men to seize the man of God.

That’s when we read in 1 Kings 13:4 that when he stretched out his hand, it dried up and he could not bring it back to himself. This is another example of Israelites in the land that experienced an affliction due to disobedience and rebellion.

When King Jeroboam saw what had happened to his hand, he asked the man of God to pray to the Lord and ask to restore his hand (1 Kings 13:6). When the man of God did so, his hand was restored. God heals through the power of prayer. This is just one example of how God healed Old Testament kings through prophets

God Healed Hezekiah

Another example of how God healed Old Testament kings through prophets happened to King Hezekiah. This happened through Isaiah’s ministry (Isaiah 38:1-8). King Hezekiah had become very sick and God prophesied through Isaiah that Hezekiah would die.

Hezekiah turned toward the wall and prayed earnestly to the Lord. He prayed to the only One who is able to heal. He pointed out that he served the Lord in righteousness. The Lord heard Hezekiah’s prayer and prophesied again through Isaiah to him.

Isaiah came and prophesied to Hezekiah that God would add fifteen years to his life. He gave a supernatural sign that the sun would go back ten steps to confirm the word of Isaiah and the Lord. And so it did!

Hezekiah enjoyed fifteen more years of service to the Lord as a king. Although God did not directly heal through Isaiah’s touch, He used prophecy to do His work of healing and Hezekiah.

Healing Ministry through Elijah and Elisha

God healed Old Testament kings through prophets like Elijah and Elisha. Elijah was a powerful prophet for the Lord who dealt with the rebellion of Ahab and Jezebel. God did many miraculous signs through him.

The Bible tells us that Elisha asked the Lord for a double portion of Elijah’s spirit. The numbers bear it out. Elisha saw exactly twice the amount of miraculous signs Elijah did. I have described the miraculous signs of healing in Elijah’s and Elisha’s ministry before.

There, I said that Elijah experienced raising a widow’s son (1 Kings 17:22). Elisha healed the waters (2 Kings 2:21). He also prophesied that the Shunammite woman would have a son (2 Kings 4:16) and then took part in his resurrection ( (2 Kings 4:34).

Elijah also took part in the healing of the gourds (2 Kings 4:41). He was involved in the healing of Naaman (2 Kings 5:14). He cursed his servant Gehazi with leprosy for his deception and disobedience (2 Kings 5:27).

He smote the Syrian army with blindness and then restored their sight (2 Kings 6:18-20). Even his bones raised a dead man to life (2 Kings 13:21)! Both of these prophets had a powerful ministry of healing even while most of their ministry they took Israel’s leaders to task for idolatry and wickedness.

Jeremiah’s Words about Healing

I love Jeremiah’s words about healing that seems so simple, and yet profess a heart filled with faith in God’s ability. He simply says, “Heal me, and I will be healed” (Jeremiah 17:14). He further says, “Save me, and I will be saved, for You are my praise.”

Whether we are sick or well, the Lord should be the object of our praise. We need to praise the Lord whether we are doing well or not, for He deserves it. Jesus is proof that God both saves and heals us. His is a complete work in us.

We don’t know much about Jeremiah’s healing ministry. We don’t even know if he had one. But these simple words of faith challenge each of us to have that childlike trust in God. We find it so easy to trust that He saves our souls with on prayer. Why do we have such a hard time with believing His healing power for our bodies?

Praying for Your Healing

Please let me have the honor of praying for you as you have read this post on healing.

Our precious Lord Jesus, we come to you today and ask that You do what only You can do and heal our bodies. Whether you heal us today or tomorrow, we will be ever so grateful and let You know it through our praise. With Jeremiah, we speak in faith and declare that when You he was we are healed. Don’t let the enemy challenge our faith so that we would despair. You are working great things in our lives in the meantime, so we thank You for what You will do in each of us. In the powerful name of Jesus, Amen.

Up Next

We have now described how God healed Old Testament kings through prophets and how it affected the Kings of Israel and Judah that were sick. Next, we will look at the Old Testament messianic prophecies about healing.

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