Why not amputees, what does god have against healing them?
That's an interesting question. I don't think that there were many in the days of the prophets and disciples of Christ.
Why not heal them now? Because healing was only a temporary thing for the purpose of demonstrating God's approval, in the case of the Christian disciples, or a benefit of God's Holy Spirit granted in the case of the prophets prior to Christ.
What about the future? Sure, all amputees who enjoy the benefits of resurrection, and those living in a new paradise on earth will be given new bodies. Amputation will be a thing of the past. That's the short answer. For more information on amputation I offer the following. . .
On the subject of what the Bible says about amputation, the Skeptic's Annotated Bible (SAB) uses Deuteronomy 25:11-12 (KJV). The SAB says that a woman's hand must be amputated if she touches a man's genitals, but touching isn't what the scripture is suggesting. The KJV suggests she takes the genitals in her hand. In the struggle to defend her own husband she grabs the genitals of the other man in order to crush them.
It is important to realize that this was a law for the nation of Israel only, and they agreed to the law. (Exodus 24:3 KJV) Breaking the law was an offense against their King and God, a religious offense and lèse-majesté. The Law of Moses was also temporary, until the more perfect law of Jesus, (Galatians 3:19-24 KJV). What this means is that the Law of Moses was applicable to the nation of Israel until Jesus came and from there on, the Law of Moses was a guide. (Romans 7:6 KJV) It was a standard of perfection marking the one who could keep it as perfect, but none could keep it except
Jesus.
To commit adultery brought the penalty of death to the ancient Israelite. To a Christian it would bring only a removal from the congregation until they repented. Adultery was still a sin of God, but not applicable to the laws of a nation unless the nation where the adultery was committed had its own laws regarding the matter.
The skeptic as well as the believer often overlooks this very important fact.
The nation of Israel was brought about by God for the purpose of demonstrating the law and bringing about the Messiah, who would remove sin and bring about life everlasting for those who would have it. Therefore man's right and ability to procreation was extremely important.
At Judges 1:4-6 Judah and Simeon clashed with 10,000 troops of the Canaanites Perizzites at Bezek. Adonibezek was a powerful ruler who had previously amputated the big toes and thumbs of 70 pagan kings. It was a practice used by the ancient Athenians so that their foes could row but not handle a sword or spear. The Israelites did to him what he did to others. Toe for toe, thumb for thumb. That is why Adonibezek said; "Just the way I have done God has repaid me."
At Ezekiel 23:25, Ezekiel 23:34 (KJV) there is a symbolic reference to the amputation of ear, nose and breast which the SAB has taken as being literal. Chapter 23 of Ezekiel deals with the figurative prostitute sisters Oholibah (Jerusalem; the two tribe kingdom of Judah with Jerusalem as capital) and Oholah (Samaria; the ten tribe kingdom of Israel of which Samaria was the capital.) Oholibah means "my tent is in her," since God's temple was in Jerusalem, and Oholah means "her tent."
Oholah (Israel) had been unfaithful by seeking security in political alliances, leading her to adopt the false worship of her allies. This caused her to defile herself with their dungy idols. She ceased to exist when she was overthrown by the Assyrians in 740 B.C.E.
Oholibah (Judah) had been even more sinful and suffered devastation at the hands of the Babylonians in 607 B.C.E.
The ear is sometimes used in the Bible to signify spiritual deafness. (Isaiah 6:10) The nose is often related to anger, in fact the most common Hebrew word for anger is aph which means "nose / nostril" due to the snorting of an angry person. (Proverbs 30:32-33)
Beating of or tearing out of the breast was a figurative term to denote extreme humiliation, stress and grief. (Isaiah 32:12 / Ezekiel 23:34)
Matthew 5:29-30; Matthew 18:8-9 and Mark 9:43-47 are of course, figurative. If it were not figurative we would see a great number of people running around without hands and eyes. Jesus indicates the spiritual importance of deadening the hand and eyes in reference to sin. It would be better for a person to remove the offending parts but that isn't literally necessary; all that is needed is to repress the sin those parts would be used for.
