(Exo 11:1 KJV) And the LORD said unto Moses, Yet will I bring one plague more upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt; afterwards he will let you go hence: when he shall let you go, he shall surely thrust you out hence altogether.
It is peculiar by its absence, but there is no mention of death by disease in the Old Testament until we come to Moses, where we see the term ‘pestilence’ used with reference to a curse from God, even war.
(Exo 5:3 KJV) And they said, The God of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go, we pray thee, three days' journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the LORD our God; lest he fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword.
This is a far cry from our modern day understanding of the origins of disease, today we no longer see God as the root cause of disease, but toxins, virus, bacteria, parasites and other creatures as the cause - because we can see them and war against them.
Yet the questions remain, where do these microscopic agents come from and why do they suddenly rise up from the soil to afflict us from time to time?
It is purported that:
· Smallpox killed more than 300 million people worldwide and most of the native inhabitants of the Americas (from 430 BC to around 1979). Poxviruses infect species that congregate in swarms, herds or groups. It is believed the virus emerged in human populations about 10 thousand years BC. According to some studies the genes suggest that it was once a rodent virus that made its trans-species jump into humans in one of the early agricultural river valleys, maybe.
· Spanish Flu Killed 50 to 100 million people worldwide in less than 2 years. Because pigs are more readily infected with avian influenza viruses than are humans, they were suggested as the original recipients of the virus, passing the virus to humans sometime between 1913 and 1918.
· Black Death Killed 75 million people worldwide (between 1340 and 1771). The plague disease, generally thought to be caused by Yersinia pestis a bacteria commonly present in populations of fleas carried by ground rodents including marmots, in various areas including Central Asia, Kurdistan, Western Asia, Northern India and Uganda.There are 3 varieties of plague: bubonic, pneumonic and septicaemic. Bubonic is by far the most common. About six days after suffering the infected flea bite, the victim develops a blackish pustule at the point of the bite.
· Malaria causes about 400-900 million cases of fever and approximately one to three million deaths a year (from 1600 to today). The Ancient Romans thought that this disease came from the horrible fumes from the swamps. The idea that the disease came from the foul gasses released from soil, water and air persisted throughout the nineteenth century. In 1717, Giovani Maria Lancisi in his malaria text book who related the prevalence of malaria in swampy areas to the presence of flies and recommended swamp drainage to prevent it. It was Britain's Sir Ronald Ross, an army surgeon working in Secunderbad India, who proved in 1897 that malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes.
· There are many others we have named… including: AIDS, Cholera, Typhus, etc…
These diseases occur because conditions arise that enable their outbreak and spread through human contact… the faeces of wild animals is rarely smelt, the faeces of caged or fenced animals is obnoxious.
Disease reigns where life (including humanity), is not free to live, grow and evolve, naturally, abundantly and healthy.
(John 8:32 KJV) And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
DISEASE