Yahweh Rapha - God the healer

We have seen God HIMSELF come down to deliver them. Remember that it wasn’t Moses who was doing the delivering, it was God delivering - Moses just came along for the ride.

Then we saw God manifest himself - he showed up, for the big showdown between himself and the Egyptian gods, and each one was defeated by the plagues in Egypt.

Then we saw the significance of the passover which pointed to Jesus all along.

And last week, Paul took us on a journey through the red sea and out the other end, which was the start of a 40 year journey that should only have lasted around a week.

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Today we’re kinda going to press pause on the Exodus story and focus on just one thing which is found in chapter 15 and verse 26...

Exodus 15:26 NIV

26 He said, “If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.”

This came after the Israelites crossed the red sea and came to a place where there was water, but it was bitter and the Israelites complained…something that happens a lot in this story.

Despite seeing God’s hand at work right in front of them, despite being freed from the unbearable slavery at the hands of the Egyptians…despite God manifesting HIMSELF to them…they still grumble.

And if the Israelites did it then, I suppose there’s no surprise that we still see it today in the church.

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But after their grumbling God puts them to the test, and it’s what we see on the screen...

If you obey God, do what is right in his eyes, pay attention to his commands (which are about to be announced) then God will spare the Egyptians from the diseases that he brought on the Egyptians, because God is Yahweh Rapha - God who heals.

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And this is what I want to focus on for a few minutes, as a kind of detour from the narrative on Moses.

What does it mean that God heals? And in the context of this verse, you’d think it would be better understood as ‘God spares’ - because God doesn’t say, I will heal you from your diseases,’ he says, ‘I’m not going to let you have any of those diseases in the first place.’

But what does this mean, since we DO get sick and diseases.

Has God gone back on his promises? Is God breaking his promises?

No - but we’ve got to think bigger than our understanding of diseases…and we’ve got to understand what the word Rapha means too.

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Rapha means to heal - hence the translation, ‘I am the Lord who heals you.’ But Rapha means more than that - the word means to restore....to bring back to what was once perfect.

You sometimes see this in antiques - maybe you’ve inherited an antique table or chair or whatever, and it’s seen better days. And so you bring it to a restorer who sands it down, fills the cracks and brings the piece of furniture back to life.

Or take a look at this car...

[show car]

This car was restored from that on the left to the one on the right.

It has been restored to what it once was…That’s the thought behind Rapha.

So God is Yahweh Rapha - the Lord who heals or the Lord who restores back to what was once perfect.

And you can see how healing is similar, because when we cut ourselves, we have a wound, but over time that wound heals and you are back to what you were like BEFORE the cut.

That’s what our God does…our God restores.

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So how does this relate to us?

Well, I’ve said it before, but it’s good to say it again…we need to to remember that the bible is one large story - a narrative of God’s work. And it starts in Genesis…right at the start of the bible, and it continues through each bible book, right up to Revelation where we have a glimpse of the future.

But right at the start of the bible, in Genesis, God creates, and everything he creates is good.

And one of the reasons why God creates is that he can dwell with his creation.

God wants to dwell with humankind.

So right back in the garden of Eden, man and woman have a perfect relationship with God. God walks with man in the cool of the day.

They converse with each other and they dwell together - their relationship is complete. It’s rightly ordered, it’s God-focused and God-centred, but as soon as they sin, everything changes...it it their sin that ruins that relationship.

Because when they eat the fruit, they become self-centred and their relationships are now sinful and imperfect - that includes their relationships with each other and their relationship with God.

And at that point, God starts working to bring the world BACK to that perfect relationship - to the relationship that he originally intended to have with mankind.

And the book of Genesis introduces us to this theme where God makes a covenant with his people - a promise of deliverance.

And so when Moses leads the children of Israel from Egypt, God reminds them of this covenant (not explicitly), but it’s there in the background of the text today…

God says, “obey my commandments - do what I say, and you will be blessed. I will not let the diseases that the Egyptians had to suffer afflict you - I will heal you before it has a chance to do any damage.”

So this verse is a promise of protection for those who keep God’s law, which Moses is about to receive in a couple of chapters.

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Think of it like sunscreen - if you put on suncream then you will be protected from the harmful rays of the sun.

This command is like God’s sunscreen…obey these commandments and you will be protected from my wrath - which is what the plagues on Egypt were.

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Now, thing is, as we see from the rest of the bible - the children of Israel aren’t terribly great at keeping God’s law - and neither are we.

And so God’s protection is lifted at times. You’ll read passages when the Israelite’s are defeated in battle because they aren’t keeping God’s commandments. And God he even judges them by letting the Assyrians and the Babylonians come in and take over and exile the nation.

But God made a promise and he keeps his promises. And of course, his promises are fulfilled in Jesus.

And in Jesus we have someone who has kept the law perfectly. Someone who is worthy of these blessings that God promises. In Jesus we have someone who DOES have a perfect relationship with the Father. And in Jesus we have someone who is the one who restores that relationship - who heals that relationship between us and God by removing the barrior of sin.

And in Jesus we also have a healer, who, in Isaiah 53:4, took all our infirmities.

So all the sin and the EFFECTS of sin are put on Jesus - Jesus was plagued instead of us - that’s God keeping his promise which we saw earlier.

But rather than spare Jesus of our diseases or our infirmities or, rather than spare Jesus from the wrath of the Father, because Jesus was ABLE to keep God’s commandments…instead, God puts our infirmities, our diseases, in other words, his WRATH onto Jesus.

And he did it so that we could be restored…because it is Jesus’ death that restores our relationship with God. Remember, God is wanting to restore creation to his original intention - to what our relationship SHOULD be like.

And it is our SIN that destroys that relationship with God and gets in the way of a perfect relationship with God.

And so through faith in Jesus, we have our sins forgiven and we are given the righteousness of Jesus so that we can enter into this perfect relationship with God too.

That is Yahweh Rapha - God our healer.

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Now, go back to Eden - In the garden, God dwelled with Adam and Eve - sin broke that.

The rest of the bible is the story of God RESTORING this purpose - to dwell with man.

And we see this theme in the book of Exodus…God seems far away, he COMES down to rescue the Israelites...

Exodus 3:8 NIV

8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.

...and then we have the pillar of cloud and fire when the Israelites cross the red sea and journey in the wilderness…and then, at the end of the book, God himself comes down to earth to dwell with his people in the tabernacle…and then the temple…

And THEN you have Jesus - Emmanuel, God with us - God himself dwelling with us in physical form, then you have the Holy Spirit - God himself not only dwelling WITH us but WITHIN us… and you can see God getting closer and closer - restoring his initial intention to dwell WITH man.

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So God - Yahweh Rapha - the Lord who heals... has been working throughout history to RESTORE our relationship with himself. Jesus’ death and resurrection restored our relationship and there will come a time when Yahweh - the three in one will dwell with us all in all fullness forever.

So we need to look at Rapha in terms of restoration....restoration of our bodies physically, yes…but more importantly, restoration of our relationship with God which was through Jesus Christ.

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So when we think of this verse...

Exodus 15:26 NIV

…and we see that God is the LORD who heals us...think of healing being that we are restored to what was supposed to be. That may be physical, but it’s much more than that too.

If I get a cold, I’m not what I am supposed to be - i’m sick. When I heal from my cold, I am back to normal - back to what I’m supposed to be.

Or if I get a cut, my flesh is not what it is supposed to be. When the cut heals you hardly know there was a cut there because I am RESTORED back to what I was supposed to be.

Now, take that physical analogy and multiply it to our relationship with God. Our relationship with God is sick with sin, but through Jesus, we are restored back to what that relationship was supposed to be.

And just like the log made the water sweet in Marra, Jesus Christ takes the bitter water and makes it sweet. Jesus Christ takes that bitter relationship that we had with God through our sin and he makes it sweet again by taking our ‘bitterness’, our sicknesses, our sin on himself.

[Jesus makes our bitter relationships sweet]

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But go back to the physical for a second...we still get sick... but Jesus healed people on earth, and he left his Spirit with us to do greater things than he did…and Jesus still heals today - through the advancement of medicine - through the normal means, he still heals.

And he also heals miraculously, I believe…now we don’t see that so much here today…but I still believe he CAN, because he’s God and he can do whatever he wants. And if he wants to heal miraculously then he can do it and he WILL do it.

But when we think of the Lord being our healer, don’t think so much about physical healing - think restoration. It gives a fuller picture of what our God is about.

But we also look forward to a day when sickness will be no more. Where there will be no more death or disease or sickness or anything…and at that point, God’s healing will be complete and we will be restored - to perfect bodies, to a perfect relationship with God through Jesus Christ and that is the good news that we preach.

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But more than the physical, while God has restored our relationship with him, our relationship with him isn’t perfect - not yet anyway.

Remember when we looked at the fruit of the Spirit…Paul said the flesh is at war with the Spirit.

So while we have our physical sinful bodies and minds, our sin will get in the way of our relationship with God.

So as we close, I’d like to ask you to be honest with yourselves and take a good hard look at yourself - how is your relationship with God? Is sin getting in the way of that? Do you need to bring it before the Lord in prayer and confession and repentance?

Do it now and let Yahweh Rapha restore your relationship with him - to heal it.

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What about your relationships with those around you? How are they?

Do you need to bring any broken or fractured relationships to God now and ask Yahweh Rapha to heal those relationships too?

Can you humble yourself and let Jesus bring healing to broken relationships - he can, you know…but you need to ask him and let him, and let his Spirit work.

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And of course, for the physical healing and restoration - is there any aspect of your health or someone else’s health that you would like to bring to the Lord and ask Yahweh Rapha to heal?

Do it now, in the silence - bring your relationship with God before him. Bring your relationships with others before him. And bring your physical health or the health of a loved-one before him and ask Yahweh Rapha to heal and restore through his life-giving Spirit.