Mensa Otabil - Jehovah Rapha
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We’re still looking at the names of God, and we’re examining how God reveals Himself to us at various times and how we discover Him in different situations. We look at Exodus chapter 15, verse 26: «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.» I am the Lord who heals you. The Lord is our healer, Jehovah Rapha, and that was revealed to Israel by God. God called Himself the healer when He was speaking to Israel.
The background of this was that God delivered Israel from Egypt with a mighty hand. In the process of deliverance, God sent elements against Egypt, and so things went wrong all around them. The first thing that went wrong for Egypt was that their water, beginning with the Nile and right through the rivers, became blood, and they couldn’t drink the water. You could say that the water became sick; all the water was destroyed by God. Eventually, He restored the water, but that was the first sign God showed to Israel when He was delivering them.
After Israel had left Egypt, they came through the Red Sea, went a bit through the wilderness, and came upon a body of water that was bad-it was bitter. They called the place Mara, meaning bitter; so it was bitter waters. They started complaining to God through Moses, constantly griping, which they did most of the time. They complained about the water. Why did it bother them that the water was bad? Because they remembered the waters in Egypt-the first sign had been that the waters turned bad.
Now they had come out from Egypt, and the first thing they saw was bad waters. They wondered if they were coming to the wilderness to suffer the same plagues they experienced in Egypt, as the same plagues had come upon the Egyptians. That was why they were complaining. They spoke to Moses, and Moses spoke to God, and God showed Moses how to solve the problem. The problem was solved, and the waters became sweet-from bitterness to sweetness.
When God had done that, He said, «If you obey Me, I will not put on you what I put on Egypt, because I am your healer. I am the Lord your healer.» God showed this not only in the bitter waters but also earlier to Moses when his hand became leprous, and God healed it. God told Israel, «I am your healer,» and that is a very significant promise that God speaks to each one of us today: «I am your healer.»
There are two things I want you to note. First, He heals our bodies. He heals us when we pray to Him. But remember that God owns everything-He owns all the plants in the world, all the herbs, all the chemicals, and all the elements. So when we use the things He has created to make our bodies well through scientific knowledge, it is still God who has healed us because He created those elements in the first place. He is our healer. He heals us when we pray, and He heals us when we use His creation to improve our bodies.
Whenever God makes us well, we remember that He is the healer. He also heals our situations. When He healed the waters of Mara, the water was not a human being or a body; it was a sick situation that God changed and made well. This means that God is able to take messed-up situations in our lives and make them well. He is the Lord our healer. He will heal our bodies, our circumstances, our marriages, our finances, our relationships with our children, and everything that has gone bad. He is Jehovah Rapha, the Lord who heals us.
Let’s pray. Say with me: «Heavenly Father, You are my healer. Remove every plague from my life. Touch my body and make it whole. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.» He is your healer; trust Him. I am Pastor Mensa Otabil. Shalom, peace, and life to you.