The God Who Heals, Pt. 4

Whenever we gather for prayer and ask God to heal, He always responds, whether or not He answers in the way we want.

The God Who Heals, Pt. 4

"For I am the LORD who heals you."

(Exodus 15:26)

Whenever we gather for prayer and ask God to heal, He always responds. At times, He will heal our sicknesses, but if He chooses not to answer us in this way, rest assured, He will do something. He always responds to His children when they call out to Him in prayer to do the miraculous. Prayer is the key component. We see the pivotal and crucial role prayer plays in James 5:13: "Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord."

In Exodus 15, where God reveals to us His name, Jehovah Rophe, the LORD who heals, just prior to this, notice what Moses does: he cries out to God in prayer. He does not launch a diatribe against the people. He did not say, "You bunch of whining ignoramuses! God took care of the Red Sea, so I am sure He can take care of our thirst. Water is not a problem for God!" Rather, he simply took his need to the LORD in prayer and left it there. There are five instances in Exodus and Numbers where the Israelites murmured against Moses, and on each occasion, he responded the same way: by praying to God.

In Exodus 15:25, the LORD responds to Moses' prayer by telling him what to do specifically. I know it is strange, but it is what happened. The Bible is replete with the supernatural, and it is best not to try and debate it but accept it by faith. He threw a tree in the bitter waters of Marah. God's miraculous intervention was then followed with powerful declarations in verse 26. First, God promised them that He would bless them if they obeyed. Specifically, He told them that He would not punish them with the plagues that He placed on the unbelieving Egyptians.

The next powerful declaration the LORD gives them is in the last part of verse 26: "For I am the LORD who heals you." Let us ruminate on those sublime words from God to Moses, and yes, to us today as well: He is Jehovah Rophe. One writer translates this verse as "the LORD the Physician". The Hebrew word translated heal is rapha or rophe, which means to heal the "hurts of nations" and "of individual's distresses" (BlueletterBible.org). The word means to mend as you would a torn garment, to repair a dilapidated building, and to cure as a sick or diseased person is cured or made well. (Herbert Lockyer, All the Divine Names and Titles in the Bible, p. 24)

The LORD who heals; I love the sound of that. What kind of healing? God heals all sicknesses, be they physical, emotional, mental, moral, or spiritual. Here are two biblical examples of God's power to heal physically:

2 Kings 20:5: "Return and tell Hezekiah the leader of My people, 'Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: "I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD."'" The Hebrew word is rapha.

Matthew 9:35 states, "Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people." The Greek word is therapeuo, which is where we get the English words "therapy" and "therapeutic".

Tomorrow we will wrap up our teaching on divine healing and note the many other ways God heals today.