The Promise of Health

At the end of the Word of Wisdom, we have this famous promise from the Lord: “And all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings, walking in obedience to the commandments, shall receive health in their navel and marrow to their bones” (D&C 89:18).  This is actually a quote from Proverbs from the same chapter in which He tells us to “trust in the Lord with all thine heart.”  We read, “Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil.  It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones” (Proverbs 3:7-8).  What exactly does the Lord mean that He will grant us health to the navel and marrow to the bones?  Does it mean that we are promised to be in great health because we live the Word of Wisdom? 

Experience of course teaches us that there are many who live the Word of Wisdom and yet still are sick or even pass away early in life due to cancer or other diseases.  Why is this?  It is of course important to note that the stipulations for the promise in D&C 89:18 are both to live the Word of Wisdom and to walk “in obedience to the commandments,” and so it implies keeping all of the commandments of God is a prerequisite for the promised blessings.  And yet there are those indeed who live up to those requirements and still struggle with their health.  What should we understand by the promises?  The navel itself is very symbolic since that is where a baby’s umbilical cord is and where nourishment was given when in the womb.  So perhaps the Lord is saying that by keeping these commandments, including the Word of Wisdom, He will nourish us in the same way that a baby is nourished; this nourishment of health could perhaps refer to physical or mental or spiritual kinds of health. 

Another way that we may understand the promised blessings is in the comparison to where we would be without following the Word of Wisdom.  C.S. Lewis once spoke about how it would be an error to judge Christianity by simply comparing one unlikeable neighbor who is a Christian to a different friendly non-Christian neighbor.  He said, “If Christianity is true then it ought to follow (a) That any Christian will be nicer than the same person would be if he were not a Christian. (b) That any man who becomes a Christian will be nicer than he was before.” But it doesn’t follow that you won’t have a Christian neighbor you don’t like and a non-Christian you do; the comparison is only valid to one’s self with and without Christianity (Mere Christianity, p. 210).  In that same sense, perhaps we should not think of health as something that we strictly have or don’t have but should remember that even for those who are sick, they indeed would be much worse off if they hadn’t lived the Word of Wisdom.  Even though they find themselves without the complete blessings of health that they desire, they have received health and strength and blessing from the Lord for keeping that commandment. 

Ultimately we may not see perfectly how the promises of the Lord are fulfilled for ourselves or for others, but we can have faith that what the Lord has spoken will come to pass.  It may be that we will recognize in the next life that some of the blessings of health we lack here have awaited us there.  We know that while we are all resurrected in the next life, the faithful are promised “celestial bodies” as Paul said, or “a celestial spirit” and a body that is “quickened by a portion of the celestial glory” as the Doctrine and Covenants states (1 Corinthians 15:40, D&C 88:28-29).  How that body will differ from one who inherits only telestial or terrestrial glory we don’t know, but perhaps part of the Lord’s promises of health in the navel and marrow in the bones will be had only by those celestial bodies.  What we do know is that the Lord’s promises are sure, and we will not regret keeping His commandments.  As Elder Holland promised, “Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don’t come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come.”