The Book of James, chapter 5 verse 14 (CEV) states: “If you are ill, ask the church leaders to come and pray for you. Ask them to anoint you with olive oil in the name of the Lord.”
In Biblical times olive oil was used for everything from worship to cooking and this included medicinal purposes. It was fresh and unprocessed and was used until it went rancid, then it was thrown away.
The only other reference to the use of oil for healing was in the story of the Good Samaritan: Luke 10:33–35 CEV. “A man from Samaria came traveling that way. When he saw the man, he took pity on him and went to him. He treated his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put him on his donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next morning he gave two silver coins to the innkeeper and said, “Please take care of the man. If you spend more on it, I will pay you when I return.”
The Samaritan cleaned the wounds with wine, poured olive oil on them, and bandaged them. The wine the Bible talked about was not the high alcohol content wine we have today, but grape juice that would naturally ferment over time as the heat would react with the natural sugar in the juice. It is much safer to carry alcohol when you travel than to get sick from contaminated water. It would have been perfect for cleaning wounds and as an astringent solution.
The victim spoken of in this passage was likely beaten, robbed, and left in the mud for dead, so his wounds were probably dirty and prone to infection. It doesn’t say what his outcome was, but he was taken to an inn and taken care of by the innkeeper, so I assume he recovered. Regardless, we have a snapshot of what was the standard treatment for wounds back in the day.
With modern medical science and antibiotics, it would be easy to dismiss such antiquated treatments as having no value. But, I recently had the opportunity to test out this ancient form of wound care. About six days ago my wife was seriously injured by a bite from one of the squirrels we are rehabilitating. The squirrel bit his left ring finger to the bone. We didn’t clean the wound with alcohol, because we didn’t have anything that mimicked what the Bible says, so we washed the wound with soap and water. There was a lot of bleeding so we kept direct pressure on the wound till it stopped. We applied a piece of gauze soaked in Virgin Raw Coconut Oil and a pressure dressing. We changed the dressing twice a day and reapplied with raw coconut oil. On the third day we started soaking the wound in warm raw coconut oil.
A deep wound, especially one resulting from a bite, is more likely to become infected than any other wound. The wound has never shown the slightest evidence of infection. There was initially some swelling, as is usual with a fresh wound, but no pus or redness ever developed. By the third day there was a slight sign of bruising but the finger was almost completely pain free. Today is day seven, and there’s a small piece of skin missing where the upper teeth tore the skin, you can hardly tell he was hurt!
Having worked in the emergency room for over 20 years, I know that if I had taken her to the hospital she would have had an IV like rocephin and an IV antibiotic. The wound will have been sutured and irrigated and possibly a drain placed to keep it open so bacteria can escape. She would have gone home with a ten-day prescription for Keflex and Bactrim, as well as a prescription for Vicodin for the pain. I was ready to take her to the doctor at the first sign of infection, but that never happened. I probably saved $1000.00 to $1300.00 in medical expenses, plus the additional cost of follow-up costs for suture and drain removal.
We used raw coconut oil because most olive oil today is processed in various ways and no longer resembles the olive oil of Biblical times. Virgin Raw Coconut Oil is rich in natural substances called lauric acid and capric acid, studies have shown to be a natural anti bacterial, anti fungal and anti yeast agent. Virgin Raw Coconut Oil also has a long shelf life in its natural state, lasting more than two years without the need for any special storage.
Raw coconut oil is a wonderful treatment for wounds. Research has shown that this oil has many other uses as well ranging from sun blocker to treating HIV and AIDS. Unfortunately, there is little or no prospect of natural substances being incorporated into mainstream medicine in the United States because if it cannot be patented, it will not be recognized as a viable treatment!
Source by William Sells
