The God Who Heals, Pt. 2

God still suspends the natural order & interjects the supernatural. All that He has done in the past He can do today, including divine healing.

The God Who Heals, Pt. 2

"For I am the LORD who heals you."

(Exodus 15:26)

When I was teaching at Southeastern Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina, one of my students with whom I met weekly in a discipleship/accountability small group was Brian Tillman. Brian called me on April 27, 1999 and told me that his wife Paige was in a head on car crash, and she was at Duke University Medical Hospital. I immediately went to the hospital. Brian met me and took me to the ICU where Paige was in a terrible condition. She had head trauma, part of her aorta was torn, and she was hooked up to so many machines and tubes. Just Brian and I went into the room, and he wept over her listless body. I prayed, and many others began praying for Paige... and God healed her. She is alive and well today. She still has some physical problems from the wreck, but she and Brian have three children, and he is a pastor in Mississippi. I remember one day calling to check on them, and when she answered the phone, I started crying, knowing that it was a miracle of God that she was alive.

This week in our devotions, we are examining the biblical teaching of healing. The God of Scripture has many names, and one of my favorites is Jehovah Rophe: the LORD who heals. God continues to suspend the natural order of things and interject the supernatural. All that He has done in the past He can do today, including divine healing. My favorite scene in the series The Chosen is the conversation Jesus has with James the Less. James is hurt and disappointed that he had been sent out to heal others, but God had chosen not to heal him. In this scene, Jesus explains to James that the Father could heal him. But think of the witness James would have if he continued to serve God and be used by Jesus yet not be healed. It is a revealing and touching scene in this mini-series.

The context in which God reveals His name Jehovah Rophe in Exodus 15:22-27 is a fascinating one. The greatest act of God in the Old Testament was the Exodus, where God miraculously led the people of Israel out of Egyptian bondage. Exodus 14 describes the event, and chapter 15 records the celebration of the people of God once they crossed the Red Sea to the other side.

But after their mountaintop experience of deliverance, God led them to the valley of testing. Verse 22 says they went three days with no water. Verse 25 says plainly that God tested them. The Hebrew word is nacah, which means to test, try, and prove. It is the same word used in Genesis 22:1 where God tested Abraham.

In verse 23, it appeared that the time of testing was over, but it was only intensifying! After three days of traveling 40 miles, these Israelites were thirsty! Edward Robinson describes the well of Marah and its waters: "The basin is six or eight feet in diameter, and the water about two feet deep. Its taste is unpleasant, saltish, and somewhat bitter. . . . The Arabs . . . consider it as the worst water in all these regions." (Walter Kaiser, Expositor's Commentary, Exodus, p. 22-23)

Just as God tested His people after the Exodus, He continues to test His people today. We enjoy days of blessing and days of testing at our own bitter, brackish, basins at Marah. In just a short time, we can go from the mountaintop of celebration to the valley of testing. God tests us so we keep on becoming dependent on Him and not self-sufficient. Proverbs 17:3 says, "Fire tests the purity of silver and gold, but the LORD tests the heart." (NLT)

You may be crying out to God for healing. God hears you. He may test you before He delivers you. Do not become bitter; wait on God, trust Him, even though, like James, you may not understand what God is doing. More tomorrow on this wonderful story from Exodus 15.