We have another instance where the righteous suffer without guilt, as in Job and Tobias. In these cases the answer is provided by Scripture itself: the aim is to manifest the loyalty of the believer and to glorify God’s name: ‘May the name of the Lord be blessed’. There is also the prophetic/eschatological perspective of sickness, as we might call it. The Servant of Yahweh in Isaiah bears the sicknesses of the people of God and suffers with the aim of atoning for the sins of his people (Is. 53, 4). We should mention that, in the Old Testament, it is nowhere forbidden to have recourse to medical science for the healing of sickness. On the contrary, in the Wisdom of Sirach, ...
