Rabbi Schneider — Yahweh Ropheka
We are in the midst of a very important series on The Covenant Names of God. We're looking in the Hebrew Bible. We're looking in the Old Testament, or what Jewish people call the Tanakh. And we're looking to when God attached his personal covenant name, Yahweh, with a saving function that he does in the lives of his chosen ones.
The reason this is so important is when we know how Yahweh has connected his name to certain activities that he does in the lives of the remnant that are his, we can trust him to do these things in our life.
Now last week we looked at the term Yahweh Yireh. It's not actually a term. It's actually a covenant name. It's when Yahweh takes his personal name, his memorial name, Yahweh, and connected it to a saving function Yireh, he there reveals himself as the Lord who Provides. We looked into that. And I left off last week by introducing to you the next covenant name of our Savior, Yahweh Rophe, or Yahweh Ropheka, in Exodus, 15:26.
Now let me say here at the onset, I really want to encourage you to get this entire series, The Covenant Names of God, because this is really rich material. And you missed a lot if you're just joining us today for the first time as we began to trace how the Lord first revealed himself simply as Elohim, our Creator, and how over time he revealed himself by his personal name in Exodus, 3, and Exodus, 6, Yahweh.
And now today we're showing as we continue in this journey how Yahweh connected his name with certain activities once again that he does in the lives of all those that are his. As I've been challenging us, I want you to take ahold of every time Yahweh connects his name to a saving activity, he wants you to trust him to perform this saving activity in your life.
So with that said, we're reading Exodus, 15:26, where Yahweh reveals himself in the lives of his people, get it now, church, as their healer. We're talking about the healer of our bodies, the healing of our souls, the healing of our minds. I want you to know there is balm in Gilead for you.
I don't care what you're struggling with right now, God's grace is sufficient. He revealed himself, listen now, as Yahweh Ropheka, or Yahweh Rophe, the Lord, listen now, your healer. Hear me as I read Exodus, 15, verse 26. It's the only place in the entire Word of God where the Lord actually says I am Yahweh Ropheka. I am the Lord that healeth thee. Listen to this.
Now there's many places in Scripture where we see that the Lord is our healer. But this is the only place that he actually reveals himself as our healer by name. I am the Lord, your healer. I am Yahweh Rophe. Hear the Word of God: And He said, If you will give earnest heed to the voice of Yahweh your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians, for I, Yahweh, am your healer, Yahweh Ropheka, or Yahweh Rophe.
I am the Lord, your healer. I want you to understand, there are questions revolving around supernatural healing. Why does it appear that some are healed and some are not healed? And I could go on. I'm gonna talk about some of this right now. But here's what I want you to get. The revelation of both the Old and the New Testament is clear; that our God is the God that healeth thee.
Right now in Exodus, 15:26, we actually see God revealing this to us through a covenant name. I am the Lord your healer. As we look into the New Testament we see Jesus. He comes down from the Sermon on the Mount. He gets down from the mountain, the end of, the end of Matthew, chapter 7, the beginning of Matthew, chapter 8. And as soon as he gets done preaching his longest sermon in the entire New Testament what does he do?
He heals this person. He heals this person. Next he heals this person. And finally he heals all those that came to him. And then Matthew says that the reason that he healed all these people right after he preached his longest sermon, Matthew said the reason that he healed all these people was to fulfill, Matthew said, what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah.
And then Matthew quotes Isaiah, 53, where we read there that when Jesus died on the cross, he was pierced through our, for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, we read there, beloved ones, that in addition to being pierced through for our sin, he also on the cross, listen, was, was, was, was wounded and, and pierced and lashed so that we could be made well.
In other words, Matthew says there that he healed all these people, and it was in connection, get it now, with his death on the cross for us; that when Jesus died on the cross for you and for me, it, yes absolutely, it was first to forgive our sin, but included in his atonement for us, included in his atonement was the fact that there was provision made for the healing of our bodies.
And it's because of this, Matthew said, that Jesus healed all those that were ill that came to him in the Book of Matthew, chapter 8. And so God is our healer. And even though we don't understand why some people seem to get healed and other people don't seem to get healed, let's not let what we don't understand keep us from taking ahold of and from believing what we do understand. And what we can clearly understand from the Word of God is that our God that heals. Our God is a God that heals.
In fact, every place that Jesus went, he did three things. He preached the Gospel. He healed the sick. And he delivered those that were oppressed by demons. When he sent out the disciples two by two, he sent them out with the instructions to do those three things; preach the Gospel, heal the sick, right on, the Lord that healeth thee. That's his nature. And drive out the demons.
When he sent out the 70 in the New Testament, what did he instruct them to do? Preach the Gospel, get is now, church, heal the sick, and drive out the demons. You see, our God by nature is a God that heals. The Bible says if he that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then he would give life to your mortal bodies. In other words, that the Spirit of God himself within us is giving life to our flesh.
The Bible says, though the out man is decaying... In other words, our bodies, they get old. Though the outer man is decaying, the inner man is being renewed day by day, and through the Spirit of God within us, there's life that's being ministered even to our flesh to keep us healthy. And so in Exodus, 15:26, the Lord actually says, I am the Lord that healeth thee. And he was speaking here, beloved ones, about physical healing.
I want to encourage you to trust in God to sustain you physically, to be life to your flesh; that you can be healthy even when you're old. Yes, we're still gonna age. Yes, the natural body is still gonna degenerate. But we can be healthy and have health even when we're old because the Healer is in us, and living through us, and sustaining us, and carrying us.