Jehovah Rophe: The LORD Heals

When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah.  And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” And he cried to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a log and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.

There the LORD made for them a statute and a rule, and there He tested them, saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and do that which is right in His eyes, and give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, your healer.”

Exodus 15:23-26

Bitter water.  Doesn’t sound appealing at all, does it?

The Israelites had been freed from the bondage of slavery and now they were faced with bitter water.   Does your life ever feel that way?  One huge situation is finally resolved and then comes another … it can leave us overwhelmed and broken.

Elizabeth George writes:

What an object lesson this encounter with Jehovah-Rophe, the Lord who heals, must have been for the Israelites (and for us)!  God’s people were dying of thirst with only bitter, poisonous water on hand.  And God took their physical need and turned it into a spiritual issue.  Out of a bitter experience God revealed Himself in yet another sweet, comforting way, as “Jehovah heals.”

Jehovah Rophe, the LORD heals.   What a precious truth … and promise.

God’s healing is not just physical.   He also reaches down offers total healing … in all areas of our lives.

Consider these three ways God heals and examples of women in Scripture who were the recipients of His total healing.

1.  Physical Healing.    Remember the woman with the issue of blood?  Her story is told in Matthew 9.   She had been sick for years and used every bit of money she had to seek healing.   When Jesus passed by, she reached out and touched the hem of His garment.   I love this story!   She was healed immediately and completely!   Why?   Jesus said, “Take heart, daughter, your faith has made you well.”  (Matthew 9:22)     I am so thankful for a God who heals us physically.

2.  Emotional Healing.   Hannah.  The broken woman longing for a child, praying so fervently that the priest thought she was drunk.   Can you imagine her brokenness?    God heard the heart-felt prayers of a wounded woman.    And He answered them.  I think though the most beautiful part of this story is the change we see in Hannah … from a woman desperate to have a child to a woman willing to give her son back to the God who gave him to her.   That, my friends, is the power of God to heal us emotionally.   {You can read Hannah’s story in 1 Samuel 1 – 2.}

3.  Spiritual Healing.   The most profound healing God ever does in any of our lives is spiritual.  That moment when He moves us from death into life, when we become new creations, the old gone and the new in its place (2 Corinthians 5:17).   Mary Magdalene’s story is such a beautiful example of that total renewal, total healing.   From a woman possessed by seven demons (Luke 8:2) to the woman who first saw Christ after His resurrection (John 20:15) … Mary Magdalene offers us a poignant and powerful image of the full spiritual healing offered to each of us by Jehovah Rophe.

Are you in need of healing?   Are there some bitter waters in your life?  Will you call upon the God who heals and trust Him to mend the brokenness?

Praise the Lord!  For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting.  He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.   Psalm 147:1,3

Today, right now, Jehovah Rophe is offering you the gift of healing.   Will you embrace it?  And praise Him for this amazing gift?

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The quote above is from this book by Elizabeth George. I highly recommend it for either personal study or for a group.