For I am the Lord who heals you" Exodus 15:26 [NIV]
It’s been said that the church isn’t a showcase for saints, but rather a hospital for sinners and for me that’s one of the greatest definitions of the church I’ve heard. When a person comes to Christ, it doesn’t mean they’ve got it all together, it simply means they’ve come to the end of themselves. As we place our faith in Christ, He becomes our great physician. When we begin to attend church, it’s like checking ourselves into God’s hospital and in my experience we constantly require spiritual surgery.
The children of Israel first came to know God as Jehovah-Rapha/Rophe immediately after they had been delivered from their bondage to the Egyptians. They had been slaves for 400 years, but, in God’s time and by His power, they were set free from their slavery, just as we who have experienced Jehovah Rapha’s redeeming grace have been set free. After crossing the Red Sea, they came to a place where they should have been able to be refreshed with water, however, the waters there were bitter and many continued to behave as ‘stiff necked’ people, I think I would probably have been one of these!
Thankfully, God showed them where to find sweet waters, and then He said to them, “If you will diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD your God, and do that which is right in His eyes, and give heed to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases upon you which I put upon the Egyptians; for I am the LORD, your healer” Exodus 15:26 [RSV].
There were 3 conditions placed upon Israel so they’d experience health: Listen to God. Do what is right. Obey His word. Those 3 conditions would place them in a position to experience God as their Healer, the source of their health.
Jehovah Rapha still wants to manifest Himself to His children as the Healer of their hurts – the One who mends the broken heart and places His divine ointment on the soreness in our lives.
Dawn Milward
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