JEHOVAH – ROPHE!

JEHOVAH – ROPHE!

Ex 15:22-26

22 So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water.

23 And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah.

24 And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?

25 And he cried unto the Lord ; and the Lord  shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them,

26 And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord  thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord  that healeth thee.

          Jehovah – Rophe means Jehovah heals and it is the second compound name of the Lord. In these various names we see God as the one who meets every need – saving, sustaining, strengthening and satisfying. Here in the wilderness Jehovah pledged, on condition of their obedience, to always be their healer. According to the Old Testament, God, Himself the one who heals, has used sickness and disease present in the earth as an instrument of judgment upon sin. For David's sin against Him, God offers him the choice of one of three punishments.

1 Chron 21:12-14

12 Either three years' famine; or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee; or else three days the sword of the Lord , even the pestilence, in the land, and the angel of the Lord  destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel. Now therefore advise thyself what word I shall bring again to him that sent me.

13 And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall now into the hand of the Lord ; for very great are his mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man.

14 So the Lord  sent pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.

Man's need of healing is even greater in the moral and spiritual realm. For here the ravages of sin are even more grim and obvious. The tragedy and sorrow and pain and woe are even greater. In a figure of the physical the prophet Isaiah describes the moral and spiritual condition of his own people: "The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment" (Isa 1:5,6).

Isaiah speaks of the day in which "Jehovah bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound" (30:26). He predicts the coming of One upon whom the Spirit of Jehovah God will rest in order, among other things, to bind up the brokenhearted (61:1). But there is coming a day when believers will live eternally in a land of ultimate healing.

Rev 22:1-2

22 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.

2 In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

Dear Lord, our sins have made us sick and we need a healer today. Begin by binding up our broken heart and broken fellowship. Restore us to spiritual health. AMEN