My Name Is .... Jehovah Rapha Series

Scripture: Exodus 15:22-27; 2 Chronicles 7:14 and Psalm 103:3

Theme: My Name is …. Jehovah Rapha

INTRO:

Grace and peace this morning in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!

“Go wash your face and hands and supper will be ready in just a few minutes.”

I cannot tell you how many times I heard my mom say those words. She was very serious about us washing our faces and hands before we had a meal and before we would get ready to go to sleep.

I am sure that there are many here this morning that can testify to something similar that was said by their mom, grandmother or caretaker.

“Go wash your face and hands and come on and let’s have – breakfast, lunch, dinner or supper.”

But did you know that before 1843 such an idea as washing your hands was strange to many medical doctors around the world.

In 1843 Oliver Wendell Holmes in the US and in 1846 Ignaz Semmelweis in Europe strongly promoted the idea that all doctors should wash their hands before they operated on a patient. They even suggested that one of the greatest things any doctor could do for their patient was to wash their hands.

Most of the medical community listened but concluded that mandatory hand washing was unnecessary. It would take a few more years and the medical findings by John Lister in 1867 and other doctors to final convince the majority of the medical community that one of the best things that they could do for their patients was to wash their hands before they examined people and especially before they would perform an operation. By 1875 dedicated handwashing was a common practice.

The nursing community under the leadership of Florence Nightengale was a little ahead of the doctors. Not necessarily because they saw it as a medical necessity – washing one’s hand and face – but because they discovered that the more presentable they were (washed faces, hands, tidy clothes) the more their patients would trust them and obey them.

So, let’s see – it’s only been around a 150 years that nurses and doctors realized that it was essential that they should wash their hands before seeing their patients and especially before they would do surgery.

I don’t know about you, but I am glad that I didn’t live back in those days. I am very glad that we live in a time when we understand the value of washing our hands, our faces and the rest of us.

When we read the stories of ancient Israel, it might surprise us that washing one’s hands, face and body along with doing everything possible to be clean was seen as a way of worshipping and serving God. All you have to do is to read the book of Leviticus and you see how many times the LORD instructed his people to be careful of diseases and infections. Numerous passages deal with the idea of practicing a measure of quarantine and isolation along with the proper use of water and cleaning material.

Now, many people believe that there is a scripture verse that says – “Cleanliness is next to godliness” and while those words don’t appear in scripture the overall thought of cleanliness is a part of God’s plan for humans and for all of creation.

I want to talk to you today about another name of God – this time it was not given to God by a human, but it was God Himself revealing this part of His nature –

Verse 27 – “for I am the LORD who heals you”

Moses had just led the people through the Red Sea into the wilderness of Shur. After three days the people were beginning to panic. While they had taken a certain amount of water with them from Egypt, they were getting concerned that soon they would be without water. All around them all they could see was wilderness with no visible rivers, creeks or even water wells in sight.

These were people who had grown up around the Nile River. They had been raised near lots of water. They were not used to all this sparse land with no visible sight of water. It was rather unsettling and frightening.

The Bible tells us that they did spot a body of water but discovered that it was bitter water. It couldn’t be used for drinking.

They started to panic.

+Had the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY rescued them from slavery only to murder all of them in the wilderness?

+Was the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY no better than Anubis or Mot whose main jobs were to lead people from death to the underworld?

+Was Moses just a prophet of disaster and doom – 10 plagues and now water that couldn’t be used for drinking?