Jehovah Rapha – The Lord who heals You
“If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you.” Exodus 15:26
Father, we want to give thank you today for your mercies. We thank you today that you do not leave us nor forsake us. We thank you that you are being with us. Dear Lord, thank you for your promise of I am the Lord who heals you, now we pray that you might help us to know how to encourage your people. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.
The church of Jesus Christ has been here before for us. Covid-19 has changed everything and for us. The Lord is promising us to heal us. No matter what kind of situation that you are facing now. The pandemic we have today is a great opportunity for us to show our faith and hope of Christian life. Let us meditate from the passage of Exodus 15:18-27.
Moses led Israel through the Red Sea. We all know about the Red Sea. The Red Sea was when the people of Israel found themselves between a rock and a hard place. Pharaoh was coming from one side, and the sea was in front of them. They can't go back, and they can’t go forward. They were stuck right where they were. God suddenly performed a miracle. That's when you really know it's God because there's no human explanation for us to get out of a mess without a miraculous intervention of the divine. God opened up the Red Sea.
They had a praying service in the beginning of this chapter. Moses opened up with a song, and they sang about the greatness of God. Exodus 15:19 It says, “for the horses of Israel and their chariots and his horsemen went into the sea, and the Lord brought back the waters of the sea upon them. But the sons of Israel walked on dry land through the midst of the sea.”
The Women's Fellowship of Israel got together in verses 20 & 21 “Then Miriam the prophetess Aaron's sister, took the timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrel and with dances.” God had done a marvelous thing on their behalf. But right after crossing the Red Sea, verse 22 says they went out into the wilderness. They just came through water; now they hit dry land.
The wilderness is not an exciting place to be, but it was the only way they could get to where God was taking them. Now nobody wants to go through the wilderness, but there was no other way to get to Canaan. So, they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. They were looking for water because you can't sustain yourself for long without water. They were desperate for a refreshment coming out of a miracle.
When they came to Marah in verse 23. We can see, how excited they were as to see water after three days. However, they could not drink the waters of Marah for the water was bitter and therefore they named it Myra. Imagine you have no water for three days, and you finally come up to some water only to find it undrinkable and bitter. You may question “but isn't God good?” The Israelites were looking and praying for water. They finally came upon water only to discover the water was undrinkable. The water was bitter.
They came from the miracle of the Red Sea. And seeing water, it had seemed like God had supplied once again. But the supply was bitter and unusable. So, they did what we all do when things don't work out the way we want. In verse 24, they were grumbled. Please notice that the miracle and the problem we're both dealing with has the same thing: WATER. They had just come through water but they're running up on a water problem. They had just seen what God could do with water and that same God could take water and work it out.
They went three days without water and then ran into a water problem. Why were they grumbling? They were grumbling because they had a water problem with no visual solution near them. But wait a minute. Three days earlier, they also had a water problem with no visible solution before God opened up the Red Sea. It doesn't take long to forget what God can do, because it doesn't take long to forget what God has done. They were on the route to their future having just praised God, and they ran into a dilemma when things had just gotten better. Perhaps there may be a few of you who are bitter here today, because right now life doesn't taste as good or life is not working the way you want it to. Why were the Israelites allowed to go through this problem?
In verse 20 and verse 25, he made for them a statute and regulation and there he tested them.
Water was simply used in means of testing the Israelites. Three days earlier, God had delivered them a message. The message goes: “When you face a water problem, I'm able to intervene through means that you would never have predicted or anticipated. I can address the water issues in your life.” However, three days later, he lets them face another water problem with undrinkable and bitter water.
Please notice that they were in the wilderness by the will of God. They were not in the wilderness out of the will of God. Moses through God's leading had led the Israelites into the wilderness. You can be in God's will and also be in a wilderness. Because God said it was a test. A test designed to do two things. It was designed to see whether you were paying attention or whether you were just saying Amen. To see whether you were paying attention or just nodding your head. Secondly the tests were designed to give you the opportunity for God to teach you what you had not previously known, understood, recognized, or appreciated.
However, the Israelites first response was to grumble. In verse 25, Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree. He threw it into the waters and the waters became sweet. An unorthodox way to unpolluted water, but when God puts you in a situation where you see no way out, it is because he doesn't want you to see it.
At the Red Sea, there was no way out. They couldn't see the solution, and they told Moses, “you brought us out here to die.” God didn't let the Israelites to see the solution because he didn't want it to be seen. The reason he didn't want it to be seen is because he wanted to show out and show off and show up in a way that he could only be the one who got the credit for resolving this bad situation. And so now, he lets the Israelites go for three days without water and leads them to a place without a no visible solution to the problem. But when Moses cries out to the Lord, He shows him a stick from a tree, and He says to throw it into the water. That's not the normal purification process nor the normal way to clean up water, but when Moses threw the stick into the water, it became sweet.
In verse 26, the Lord said “if you will give earnest heed to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his sight and give ear to His commandments and keep all of his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians for I the LORD am your healer Jehovah Rapha.” He used this water to teach them a lesson, and the lesson was about his name Jehovah Rapha. Jehovah Rapha means “I am the Lord, your healer”.
God didn't send the Israelites through that test just so they could get water. God sent them through the test to learn something new about Him. To teach them a name which God had never told them before. God wanted to explain something about Himself. “I am Jehovah Rapha the Lord who heals you” that's what His name is.
He says in verse 25, “I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians. I am the Lord your healer.” The ten plagues which God had put on the Egyptians; He did not want all of that pollution to come to His people. He did not want His people to have to go through what the unrighteous went through. God did not want His people to go through what the sinners went through. The diseases the Egyptians had; God does not want it to be your disease. Because God said, “I am the Lord your healer.” So, the question is: Why did God put all of those diseases on Egypt? Why was Egypt full of diseases? It is because Egypt was full of idolatry. Because they hadn’t left their gods for the one true God. They got the repercussions of having false gods, but what they went through you shouldn't be going through. Because we serve the true God and the Lord our healer.
However, it is possible for God's people to go through the same hardships of the unrighteous when we adopt the worldview of idolatry and the mindset and lifestyle of the unrighteous. Just because you are saved does not keep you from disease when you adopt their perspective, their worldview, their God orientation.
When the Bible talks about God's healing, it is talking about it in relationship to the sin that caused the problem. When the Bible talks about the death of Jesus Christ, it talks about the death of Jesus Christ addressing our sin therefore healing our sickness. The psalmist says in Psalm 103:3 “the Lord who forgives our iniquity and heals our disease”. Isaiah 1:5-6 says, “your sickness is due to your rebellion.” The Bible says, “if you are sick, call the elders of the church.” James chapter 5 states, “and if he has committed a sin it shall be revealed unto him”.
Sometimes you get sick because you're getting old, and sometimes you get sick because there are things in the air, which you have absolutely no control over that infect your body. But the sickness God is talking about are the diseases He put on the Egyptians. God says in verse 26, “none of these diseases that I authorize shall I put on you. I am the Lord your healer.” God says the lesson I want to teach you at Marah is that if you follow my instructions and my way according to my guidelines, you will get my healing. But don't get upset when you have not getting healed physically, emotionally, or circumstantially, when you are not taking in God’s medicine and word.
God also gave the Israelites an object lesson. He said to Moses, “take the branch and throw it in the water.” Now, you may not understand the medicine of God because they won't teach you that at any Medical College. And they also would never tell you at any water purification plant to throw in a branch because this does not go along the lines of what is acceptable in the purification water systems.
But God says, “I am Jehovah and I am your healer.” Even though this may seem like an unorthodox approach, God wants you to take His approach and watch what He can do with you bitter situation. Not only will the bitter waters in your life become better, but your waters will become sweet. God’s lesson of Myra is “I am your healer.”
In conclusion, if life turns bitter for you whether physically, emotionally, or circumstantially, you must make sure you are operating under God’s statutes, His ordinances, and His Commandments. In verse 13 and 17, God says “I will restore you and I will heal your wounds.”
Jeremiah asks a question in chapter 8 verse 22, “is there a balm in Gilead? Is there something to heal me? Something to make me better?”
Egypt was full of diseases because they were full of idolatry. But the key to your healing is your submission to divine Authority based on His words addressing anything in our lives. The key to your hopeless situations, the key to your lost circumstances, and the key to your healing has already been deposited in His statues, His commandments, and His ordinances
God can turn what was bitter into sweet. In verse 27 he concludes, “they came to Elam where there were twelve Springs of water and seventy date-palms and they camped there beside the waters.” The Israelites started with water at the Red Sea when there was no way out. The they faced a water problem in order for God to test them and teach them a lesson. God gave them the principle of faith and then gave them His name, “the Lord your healer.” The next place they ran into was Elam with 12 Springs of water and seventy date trees.
Understand that God did not let the Israelites reach Elam by skipping Myra. He did not let them know about the twelve springs of water in the distance. God made it that they would never have gotten to Elam until they learned the lesson from Myra.
And when the Israelites came to Elam, there were twelve Springs the water and there were twelve tribes of Israel. Which meant that each tribe had their own spring. Now a spring is not just any water. A spring is water continually flowing, allowing the water to always stay fresh. You see, God delivered them at the Red Sea. He taught them at Myra. But then He showed He can do exceedingly and abundantly above what you can ask or think about at Elam. God led the Israelites with deliverance to show them that He has come to give us life and to give it to us more abundantly than we can imagine.
Some of you may say, “Lord I can't get to Elam.” But God is saying, “because you haven't learned from Myra.” God want to teach us at Myra, first. He would love to take us all to Elam, where we can get our own spring. John 7:38 says, the Holy Spirit is a well within you that is bubbling over, so that there is a river flowing out of your life. God has already given you your own spring.
But not only did they have their own spring, it says that there were seventy date trees. Which means the Israelites had great shade. They were met with covering while they chewed on the goodness of God. We can feel good because we know that the God who delivered us, who's going to teach us at Myra, and tell us He is our healer… has something better for us if we hold faith and keep on going. Amen
So we must hurry and learn through Myra (our troubled situations), so we can make our way to eat upon God’s goodness, sit under His shade, draw from our springs of life, and talk and rejoice about the goodness of the Lord. The living God is good in the midst of our struggles, our hurts, our pain, and our troubled circumstances. I hope your current challenges are impacted, inspired, or encouraged by what you heard today. Amen.
