Jehovah Rapha – The Lord Will Heal Or Restore

by Chris Simmons

Beginning in Exodus 15:22-27, we read that after God had displayed His mighty hand and loving care by delivering the Israelites across the Red Sea, they had journeyed three days into the wilderness without finding any water. Finally they came to Marah where water was present but they could not drink it because of its bitterness. They began to grumble at Moses – a pattern they were doomed to repeat over and over again (Exodus 14:10-12; 16:2; 17:3; Numbers 14:2; 16:11, 41). Such complaining is truly an amazing and troubling response by a people who had just recently witnessed such a miraculous and mighty deliverance by the hand of God (Exodus 14:21-31), and had sung a song of praise (Exodus 15:1-18) to commemorate it. Moses then petitioned the Lord and was shown by God that if he would throw wood from a particular tree into the water, that the water would become “sweet” and drinkable. Not only did God give them the water that would sustain their physical lives, He gave them a promise that would ensure their spiritual lives. That is, if they would learn to “give earnest heed” to what God told them and “do what is right in His sight,” then God would not bring about the same plagues that He brought upon the Egyptians “for I, the Lord, am your healer” – or Jehovah Rapha.

The word literally means, to restore to normal. “The word ?rophe ?(or rapha) appears some sixty or seventy times in the Old Testament, always meaning to restore, to heal, to cure, or a physician, not only in the physical sense but in the moral and spiritual sense also…?And Jehovah here pledged Himself on condition of their obedience to be always their Healer” (from Names of God, Copyright 1944). It’s interesting that at this point in time, the foremost concern of the nation of Israel is not about their pursuit of the promised land or their obedience to God but rather what they want to drink. These questions do not reveal a trusting heart but rather an anxious heart which cannot be pleasing to God (Matthew 6:21-33). God knew they desperately needed water but He was testing them, not because He lacked knowledge of what was in their hearts but because they needed to know their own hearts and learn how much they needed to rely on God when times became difficult. It’s through our reliance upon God in difficult times that our faith grows and we draw closer to Him. It’s almost baffling how that when things were difficult and challenging, and they began to complain and murmur, that they were quick to remember the fleshly food they ate while in Egypt (Exodus 16:3) but they were so quick to forget the amazing wonders God had performed to bring them to this point (Psalms 106:7). They had sinned and they needed to be restored. They needed God’s healing.

But just as we often don’t get well because we won’t admit we’re sick and need the help of a physician, so also, spiritually man often is not healed because he won’t recognize that his heart is sick and won’t seek the healing that only comes from God. We allow our hearts to deceive us into thinking we’re just fine and we take no action to be healed. Jeremiah spoke of this in Jeremiah 17:9-10, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it? I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds.” Salvation is dependent on our recognition and admission that spiritually we are dying and that we desperately need the healing only offered by the great physician (Matthew 9:12). Sometimes physically, we’ll wait until things get “bad” before we take action and seek medical assistance. Is that smart? No, but man often does not do that which is smart and spiritually it’s much the same. Isaiah the prophet wrote in Isaiah 1:5-6, “Where will you be stricken again, as you continue in your rebellion? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head there is nothing sound in it, only bruises, welts, and raw wounds, not pressed out or bandaged, nor softened with oil.” Routinely, Israel would only seek to be healed when the consequences of their sin became so severe that they paused to realize their need for divine help. Why would we – why do we follow that same path? We can’t be saved until we admit we’re lost. We can’t be healed until we admit we’re sick. We won’t achieve a solution until we admit we have a problem.

How bad will we let our spiritual problems get before we seek help? Spiritually, why don’t we get better? Jeremiah wanted to know! Jeremiah 8:21-22, “For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am broken; I mourn, dismay has taken hold of me. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has not the health of the daughter of my people been restored?” Spiritual health is never restored without humble repentance and complete submission. David understood this and expressed this in Psalms 38:1-8, “O LORD, rebuke me not in Thy wrath; And chasten me not in Thy burning anger. For Thine arrows have sunk deep into me, and Thy hand has pressed down on me. There is no soundness in my flesh because of Thine indignation; there is no health in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities are gone over my head; as a heavy burden they weigh too much for me. My wounds grow foul and fester. Because of my folly, I am bent over and greatly bowed down; I go mourning all day long. For my loins are filled with burning; and there is no soundness in my flesh. I am benumbed and badly crushed; I groan because of the agitation of my heart.”

It is to be expected that we be concerned about the ability to get to see the best doctors to deal with our medical needs. We’re not satisfied with just anyone who might have the letters M.D. after their name. We should want someone who will tell us the truth. We should want honesty. Spiritually though, many are willing to get their answers almost anywhere and from anyone. Really there is only one source for our spiritual health needs and it’s our responsibility to check out the spiritual advice against the one true source of truth. We need to examine what we are told to see if it’s so (Acts 17:11). We need to be grounded in the truth so that we’re not bounced around by every whim of new doctrine promoted in the world (Ephesians 4:13-15). Jesus came to provide the healing that we need. The problem is again, who will admit they’re sick?

Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 61:1-3, “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives, and freedom to prisoners; to proclaim the favorable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn.” Similarly Jeremiah wrote in Jeremiah 30:15-17, “‘Why do you cry out over your injury? Your pain is incurable. Because your iniquity is great and your sins are numerous, I have done these things to you. Therefore all who devour you shall be devoured; and all your adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; and those who plunder you shall be for plunder, and all who prey upon you I will give for prey. For I will restore you to health and I will heal you of your wounds,’ declares the Lord, ‘because they have called you an outcast, saying: “It is Zion; no one cares for her.”’” Can we possibly describe how much we need God’s healing that is afforded to us in Jesus Christ? Our sin creates the same bitterness and death that the waters of Marah did in Exodus chapter 15. We need healing from the eternal consequences of the sin in our life. David wrote in Psalms 103:2-3, “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits; who pardons all your iniquities; who heals all your diseases.”

We are also destined for failure if the healing that we seek for is only a superficial one. Doctors have no business doing the work they do if they are only concerned about treating symptoms and not addressing the cause. Band-aids have their place but not in solving every medical problem. There’s no magic pill that will cure all our woes. Likewise there is no such thing as a superficial healing of our soul’s diseases – though it has been, is, and will be forever tried. God said in Jeremiah 6:14, “And they have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ but there is no peace.” Paul told Timothy that many will not want the truth but will seek a superficial spiritual healing by finding someone to tell them what they want to hear (II Timothy 4:1-3). Gospel preachers in the Lord’s church today will seek to superficially address man’s need for repentance by telling them that the unscriptural marriage they are in is alright because the waters of baptism make any marriage okay in God’s sight. Such false teaching (clearly established by passages such as I Corinthians chapter 7; Mark 6:17-18; Romans 7:1-3; I Corinthians 6:9-11; and others) is man’s attempt today to heal spiritual problems superficially. Sometimes, in order for doctors to solve some medical diseases, they have to do what we call surgery which requires much more than a superficial treatment. It involves the cutting of the flesh. Sometimes it has to hurt before we can get better. Spiritually, man cannot be healed unless his heart has been convicted and pricked by the truth of God’s word (Acts 2:37; cf. John 16:8). Sometimes the truth will hurt but it’s what we must have before we get better.

Ultimately, will our concern for our spiritual health and prosperity ever equal our concern for our physical health and prosperity? We read in III John 2, “Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers.” What if our physical health and prosperity were only as good as our spiritual health and prosperity? What kind of report card would we get from our medical doctor if that were the case? God one day will answer that question.