Yahweh-Rophe (The Lord Who Heals)

Introduction

We have a list of people in our bulletin of people who, mostly, are in need of physical healing.

But there are areas of healing that are needed that go beyond what is in in our bulletin

Several years ago I attended a 2 day seminar in Garden City presented by The Center for Combating Human Trafficking. I learned:

-This is bigger than I realized

-It’s closer than I realized

-There is evil in this world (Nefarious)

-The wounds that that victims and survivors experience are “wide & deep”

-The main speaker, Karen Countryman-Roswurm is a trauma survivor.

-I could tell she was offering more than just physical healing, she was interested in the Spiritual realm as well.

-The only hope is that there is a God who heals. That’s the name of God we will discuss today—JEHOVAH ROPHE (RAPHA)

Our text today is at the end of Exodus 15.

[Set up Exodus 15]

-This is immediately after the crossing of the Red Sea

-Moses and Miriam sing this wonderful song

Exodus 15:1–2 NIV

Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord: “I will sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted. Both horse and driver he has hurled into the sea. “The Lord is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

-I can imagine this magnificent spiritual high

Our Text today is Exodus 15:22-27.

KEY POINTS

1. Since mankind’s exile from the Garden of Eden there has been a need for healing.

-Do not forget how far reaching the curse is.

-The very ground we walk on is cursed because of the fall

Romans 8:20–23 (NIV)

For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.

-and so the with the curse on creation comes sickness, disease and death.

-There will also always be the question, “Why does God allow us to suffer?”

From our text Moses and the Israelites are in the desert for 3 days and there was no sight of water.

Why the suffering? Why would God free them from Egypt and lead them to this.

“I don’t know” is an answer.

Is it possible God is testing us to reveal to us the content of our character? [last week—Yahweh Jirah]

How do you feel about the fact that the Israelite found water but could not drink it because it was bitter?

[Before we go much further allow me to point out something]

-There are three basic types of suffering for which we need healing.

· Physical [the need for water]

-Sickness and disease

· Emotional [is Moses playing mind games but leading us out of Egypt only to let us die in the desert]

-Loss, mourning, abuse, neglect, natural disasters

· Spiritual [is Yahweh trustworthy]

-Man is lost, spiritually disconnected from God

-Each one of us here will know the the 3 of theses more than once in their lifetime.

2. There is a path to experiencing God’s healing.

-Cry out to God.

-This was Moses first step

-Believe that God has the power to heal.

-For the second time in a matter of days the Israelites saw God’s control over water.

-Why did God chose a hunk of wood? Similar imagery of Moses staff.

-But God seems to operate based on belief of the individual and throwing the the wood was attached to Moses’ belief, his faith.

-Naaman in 2 Kings 5.

-Elisha asked him to dip 7 times int the Jordan River to be healed

2 Kings 5:13 NIV

Naaman’s servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!”

-Have a mindset that is ready to learn and grow.

-I believe it’s implied that Moses’ had set his mind on doing what called him to do. It was a process but he got there. The nation…they struggled didn’t they.

-The path to healing includes,

“what about me needs to change”.

avoiding the “poor me”

getting rid of a defeatist attitude

-It takes maturity to look at a situation and say “I don’t care for this but Lord what do I need to learn? How can I grow? Lord, increase my faith.

God then lays it out as clear as day...

-Listen for the voice of God. (vs. 26)

-Obey the voice of God.

And by the way you can’t listen and obey if you are not paying attention.

-Trust in the God who heals.

“I am the Lord who heals you”

So when we get to the end of this scene God says, if you listen, if you do, if you pay attention to my commands I am the Lord how heals you, Yahweh Rophe.

It is a good idea for us to discuss what might be the most frustrating thing for us to wrestle with.

3. What if the healing does not come?

In my own life I’ve seen examples of people healed of their diseases and other die because of them.

-Mental illness, poverty etc...

-“My grace is sufficient for you.”

-Paul cried out 3 times for healing form his thorn in the flesh.

-In The Resurrection there will be no need or healing for everything will be made new and perfect.