Knowing God by His Names: Jehovah-Rapha (The Lord Our Healer)

Text: Exodus 15:26; John 5:1-9

Theme: God, in Christ, can see through the mass of humanity into the individual human life and heal that life and make the person whole in body, mind, spirit, and soul.

Date: 05/22/2022 File: KnowingGodByHisNames_05.wpd File #: OT02-26

Some years ago, Bruce Larson, pastor of University Presbyterian Church in Seattle, Washington, wrote a book entitled, There's a Lot More to Health than not Being Sick. I bought the book because the title intrigued me. His basic premise is that wellness or wholeness has very little to do with not being ill. If a doctor could cure every disease in your body, there would still be those individuals who would display symptoms of a physical illness. In a recent survey the American Medical Association asked several thousand general practitioners across the country this question, "What percentage of people that you see in a week have needs that you are qualified to treat with your medical skills?" The average was 10%! In other words, doctors admit that 90% of the people who come to see them have no medically treatable problem! Yes, their patients have real symptoms and real pain, but it is not caused by and physical ailment. Doctors are discovering afresh that men and women are spiritual being and not just physical bodies. They are also finding out that the most important medicines available to the sick are hope, faith and love.

We have a God who is vitally concerned about our health. Hebrews 4:15 tells us, "For we have not an high priest who cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities . . ." God is touched by our infirmities our tears, our hurts and our broken hearts.

I. OUR GOD IS JEHOVAH-RAPHA — The Lord our Healer

1. we first encounter this name for God in the Book of Exodus

“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, 26 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 15:25–26, ESV)

2. God has worked powerfully in the lives of His people

a. He heard their cries while slaves in Egypt and raised up Moses and Aaron to lead them out

1) He sent plagues upon the Egyptians which ultimately led to freedom for the Hebrew people, and their exodus from the country

b. but once the Hebrews were gone, Pharaoh regrets letting them go and has his army pursue them

“And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out defiantly. 9 The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them encamped at the sea, by Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon. 10 When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the LORD.” (Exodus 14:8–10, ESV)

1) with their backs literally to the sea, God performs perhaps the greatest miracle in Israel’s history and the people pass safely to the other side, but when the Egyptians charioteers attempt to follow, the sea closes in and the Egyptian army drowns

3. the miracle brings great rejoicing

a. Moses sings a song to the glory of God — Exodus 15:1-18

1) the entire song is summed up in vs. 11

““Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?” (Exodus 15:11, ESV)

b. Miriam, Moses’ sister, leads the Hebrew women in a victory dance, and echos her brother’s song with a worship chorus

“And Miriam sang to them: “Sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.”” (Exodus 15:21, ESV)

4. everything is looking good for the Hebrews, but things can change quickly in life

a. after three days journey in the Desert of Shur, the Israelites were in desperate need of water

1) Shur is a part of the Arabian desert, and one of the driest places on earth

b. they finally discover a large spring, but the water was unfit to drink

1) they named it Mahra — meaning bitterness

2) the name not only describes the quality of the water, but the state of their emotional disposition — bitter

5. God miraculously cleansed the water by instructing Moses to throw a tree branch into the water

a. it is at this point that God reveals a part of His character to His people when He reveals His identity in a name — for I am Jehovah-Rapha

6. the text teaches three things

A. THE UNFAILING PROVIDENCE OF GOD

1. it was God who led them to this place of bitterness — they are not there by mistake or by happenstance, or because Moses got lost

a. three days earlier these people are celebrating Jehovah as our true God ... our glorious God ... our wonderful, majestic God ... who is God forever

b. three days later they are griping, grousing, complaining, murmuring, criticizing, carping and finding fault

c. up until that point they had not sinned ... up until their murmuring they had been in the center of God’s will ... and shortly God is going to perform a miracle that will reveal something new about his character

2. the people of Israel were right where God wanted them to be

a. in God’s unfailing providence He often leads His people to a place of bitterness

1) don’t get the idea that because you’re a Christian you’ll never experience difficulty in the way and disappointment in the destination

b. but also know that God may providentially lead you to a place of bitterness so that you may discover His goodness, and something new about His character

B. THE UNKNOWN PURPOSE OF GOD

1. why did God bring them to this place?

a. the answer is found in the second half of Exodus 15:25 — “There he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved [tested] them.”

2. God providentially brought them to Mahra to test them — the wilderness would be God’s proving ground for the Hebrews

ILLUS. When the Ford people, the General Motors people, and the Chrysler people build an automobile, what do they do? They put that automobile out on the proving ground. They drive it over those rough roads and potholes. They drive it through water; and they drive it in heat; and they drive it through all of these things — hundreds of miles — screeching, turning, twisting, jamming on the breaks, and spinning it around. They want to see, can this vehicle stand the test? Is it safe for the road? They’re proving the automobile. They’re testing the automobile.

3. God, unknown to them, was testing them

a. our God is a strange teacher

1) He often gives the test first and the lesson afterwards

b. and that’s what He is doing with these people

1) He gave them a test

2) unfortunately they failed it miserably

c. they failed the test by murmuring when trouble came

1) could it be, might it be possible, that God providentially use COVID to test a lot of believers throughout the entire world?

4. God is not going to test us in the good times

ILLUS. Adrian Rogers writes, “Anybody can serve God in the sunshine.”

a. that’s what we see happening immediately after their deliverance at the Red Sea — they’re shouting, dancing and singing

b. but when life becomes difficult is often the time when God tests our faith and our faithfulness

1) the test is not how we behave when victory and blessings are filling our lives

2) the text comes when God leads us to a Marah

c. the question is will we murmur against the Lord, or will we magnify the Lord?

C. THE UNSEEN PROVISIONS OF GOD

1. God shows Moses a tree — how appropriate

a. if you don’t know it, this is a picture of the healing cross of Christ

“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—” (Galatians 3:13, ESV)

“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24, ESV)

b. many Bibles translate the word in vs. 25 as log or piece of wood, but the NASB and KJV translate it more correctly as a tree

1) God brings Moses to a tree that he then has to cut down and throw it into the spring branch

2) when he is obedient God turns the bitter water into sweet water and everyone is blessed

2. ultimately, the cross is where our bitterness is made sweet

ILLUS. When I came to Christ, God had to first bring me to a place of bitterness. I had to accept that much of what I had been taught about the Christian faith wasn’t true. I had to come to a place where I had to reject the “family faith” — the faith of my parents, the faith of my childhood, the faith of my closest friends — and come to understanding of my lostness, and that only the tree of Calvary could turn the bitterness of leaving behind much for a faith I wasn’t sure where it would lead.

II. THE LORD OUR HEALER CAME INTO THE WORLD AS CHRIST

“And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 17 And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”” (Mark 2:16–17, ESV)

1. when Jesus hears the criticism of the Jewish religious leaders he just gets blunt with them ... "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick ... “

a. Jesus, like Bruce Larson, knew that There's a Lot More to Health than not Being Sick

2. the word rapha in the Old Testament is often translated as heal, but it can also be translated as to make whole or even to repair

a. even when it is translated as heal the word implies a deeper dimension involving the whole person in the healing event

3. we see an example of this in the New Testament at a place called Bethesda

“Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. 3 In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed.” (John 5:2–3, ESV)

a. in what surely must have been a pathetic scene, he finds a huddled mass of humanity

1) John's picture represents a photo of this present world

2) it is full of a "great multitude of impotent folk"

a) people are blind, they are lame and they are paralyzed

3) but these symptoms do not represent mere physical ailments

a) there are those who are blinded by hate

b) there are those who are lamed and crippled of spirit because of abuse and neglect

c) there are those who are paralyzed by fear and uncertainty

4. the suffering represented in the scene which greats our Lord's eyes is multiplied 0,000 by 10,000 by 10,000 in our world

A. WE LIVE IN A WORLD OF HURTING PEOPLE WHO NEED HEALING

1. the physically sick, the disabled, the blind and the lame of our text are the obvious ones

2. but there are so many more

a. the wife who is abused by her husband

b. the handicapped who are shunned by society

c. the elderly who are abandoned by their families

d. the child who is sexually molested

e. the spouse of the alcoholic

f. the loneliness and pain of the divorcee

g. the sinner without Christ

B. HURTING PEOPLE SEEK HEALING IN THE MYTHS, LEGENDS AND UNREALITIES OF THEIR DAY

ILLUS. A legend had grown up about the Pool of Bethesda. Bethesda was the Jewish Lourdes of its day. It was said that at certain times an angel would come down and stir or "trouble the waters" of the pool. When that happened, the first person who was able to step into the waters would be healed of whatever problem or ailment he or she had.

1. it was a Pool of Hope, but also a Pool of Disappointment because many never made it in in time

2. we still have our "Pools of Hope" in which the troubled of our society seek miraculous cures

a. the alternatives seem endless: Bio Feedback, Autogenics Training, Kenesiology, Acupuncture, Guided Imagery, Bio Energetics, Reflexology, Stress Management, Gestalt Therapy, Therepeutic Touch, Homeopathy, Naturopathy, and Macrobiotics (and that's just a partial list.).

3. the pools of hope of our day seem to offer hope for the masses of hurting humanity and yet the vast majority never seem to find an real relief in these cures

4. like the central character of our story, most men lie in an agony of fear, devoid of any inward hope that life will ever be better

a. life had beat up on this man all of his days

b. he had become resigned to his fate and had accepted the inevitable

5. but into the picture steps Jehovah-Rophe: The LORD our Healer

III. THE LORD OUR HEALER SEES THROUGH THE MASSES TO LOOK UPON THE INDIVIDUAL

“One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”” (John 5:5–6, NIV)

1. this is the marvelous thing about our God . . .

a. He loves everyone in the whole world--but He does it one person at a time

2. God is big enough to give you personalized treatment whenever you need it

A. MAN'S BASIC PROBLEM IS LACK OF SPIRITUAL WHOLENESS

1. the reason we do not have spiritual wholeness is due to a three-letter-word

a. that word is S-I-N

2. the word S-I-N is theological shorthand for man's basic problem

a. his separation and alienation from God, himself and his neighbors

b. Jesus knew this

ILLUS. We have an illustration of this truth in the story of the paralytic in the second chapter of Mark. Jesus had come to Capernaum. Word got out that this miracle healer was in town and in a very short time the house Jesus was staying in was inundated by those seeking cures. The crowd was so pressing that four men who had brought their quadriplegic friend could not squeeze in with their friend. So they clambered up to the room, hacked a hole in it, tied a rope to the four corners of the man's stretcher and let him down right in front of Jesus. We pick up the story in Mark’s gospel

"When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee." (Mark 2:5, NIV)

3. Jesus knows our real needs better than we know them ourselves

IV. THE LORD OUR HEALER SEEKS TO TOUCH THE LIFE OF MEN AND MAKE THEM WHOLE

1. Jesus realized that if you make a man spiritually whole chances are good that he will be whole in every other way

2. to that end, Jesus asks this man at Bethesda's side a seemingly silly question, "Wilt thou be made whole?" v. 6

a. the man's reply goes something like this: "Do I want to be made whole? Are you crazy? Would I be lying for thirty-eight years in this place of healing if I didn't? You must be new here. You don't understand the problem. You see, for thirty-eight years, I have been relying on some people to get me to the pool when the waters are troubled and they never get here on time. For thirty-eight years I have been a victim of selfishness, insensitive, and tardiness. Have you ever heard a sadder story? Ain't it awful!"

ILLUS. This guy reminds me of the hypochondriac who had chiseled on his tombstone, "See, I told you I was sick!"

3. our Lord's approach to wellness and wholeness at first appears foolish

a. no sick person would choose to remain sick--would he?

b. a closer examination of Jesus' address to the victim shows that he is probing the inner heart

4. does the man have the will to be cured?

a. is he willing to pay the price for wellness?

b. there is a price for being well?

1) he'll have to work for a living

2) you won't be able to exchange gossip all day with the other sickies

3) he won't be able to use his illness to get his way at home

4) he'll stop getting special attention--especially sympathy!

5) he won't have others to blame any longer for his misfortunes

A. WHOLENESS IS A MATTER OF THE WILL

1. the question this morning is: "Do you want to be made whole?"

a. whole of body, whole of mind, whole of spirit and whole in your emotions

b. in others words, are you tired of your life the way it has been?

2. then you need to deal seriously with sin in your life

a. some of you here this morning are sick of body because you have not taken care of it or you are abusing it

b. some of you are sick of mind because you fill it with the garbage of the world rather than seeking the mind of Christ

c. some of you are sick of spirit because you have been disobedient to the will of God and rejected the Lordship of Christ in your life

3. for most of you, obtaining wellness is not a matter of your desire to be well, but of your will to do something about your situation

“But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”” (Matthew 9:12–13, ESV)

4. Jesus will make you whole this morning--if you're willing to pay the price

“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, 26 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 15:25–26, ESV)

a. the price of physical and emotional and mental and spiritual wellness is faith in and obedience toward God

Does Jesus heal? Yes! He is the Almighty Lord, our healer. He can heal instantaneously by a miracle. He can heal over time through medicine. But let me add, that not every saint will be healed in this lifetime either by miracle or by medicine, or instantaneously or in time. Right now, God is more interested in having you holy rather than healthy. Our bodies are not yet redeemed. The redemption of the body is going to come at the rapture of the church and the resurrection of the Christian dead. It is at that time that we will be made like unto Him. There is no sickness in the Lord's body and there will be no sickness in our resurrection body. If you are not healed in this life, child of God, you will be healed in eternity.