Jehovah Rapha

“Rapha” is derived from the Hebrew word “rapa” which means “restore” or “heal”. Since “Jehovah” means “to be”, God desires His people “to be” restored emotionally, physically, and spiritually. This word reveals that God has the power to restore a life that is broken or diseased to the original state He created it to be―one that is clean, healed, and in one accord with His Spirit. “Jehovah Rapha” is the Lord “who forgives [every one of] all your iniquities, who heals [each one of] all your diseases” (Psalm 103:3, AMP). 

The first example of “Jehovah Rapha” is in Exodus 15. The Israelites had been rescued from captivity in Egypt. After crossing the Red Sea on dry ground, and praising God for their salvation, they wandered in the deserts for three days thirsty and seeking fresh water. They came to Marah and they couldn't drink its bitter water. “The people murmured against Moses, saying, 'What shall we drink?'” (Exodus 15:24, AMP). The Lord showed Moses a tree which he threw into the water, and the waters were made sweet and fresh. “If you will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord your God, and will do what is right in His sight, and will listen to and obey His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases upon you which I brought upon the Egyptians, for I am the Lord (Jehovah Rapha) who heals you” (Exodus 15:26, AMP). How many times do we complain about our circumstance, and God allows it to teach us to lean on Him? Just as He restored the water at Marah, He has the power to restore our lives. If we will obey and faithfully live for Him, we shall know Him as the Lord who restores and heals. 

The Lord heals emotional pain and hearts that are broken. “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds [curing their pains and their sorrows]” (Psalm 137:3, AMP). The word “broken” means “to reduce to pieces or fragments”. The Lord comes against our pain with his great power and smashes it to fragments. “Bind” means “to bandage”. He “bandages” and cures the emotional fragments of our lives that we lay on His altar, and imparts healing from our brokenness.

Physical healing is also His promise. When trying to reason the emotional and physical pain that comes with physical sickness, many times we end up in complete despair. It might be our own pain or perhaps it is for someone else. When there is pain and suffering, we are forced to face the truth that we are not in control. We face our own limitations. Some freeze up in fear and can't function. Others are driven deep into the Lord's presence. Seeking Him with all their heart, they cry “heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for You are my praise”(Jeremiah 17:14, AMP)! This cry is one of faith that He is who He says He is. Jesus “our Jehovah Rapha” answers our cry. We experience the amazing truth that “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities; the chastisement [needful to obtain] peace and well-being for us was upon Him, and with the stripes [that wounded] Him we are healed and made whole” (Isaiah 53:5, AMP).

For His promises of emotional and spiritual healing to be true, our first need is to be spiritually healed. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly perverse and corrupt and severely, mortally sick! Who can know it [perceive, understand, be acquainted with his own heart and mind]?” (Jeremiah 17:9, AMP). “Jehovah Rapha” knows the sin that lives in the human heart, and the destruction it brings. We all fall short of God's standard, and are spiritually in desperate need of the healing that the precious blood of Jesus Christ imparts (Isaiah 53:5). God has sent His Son, Jesus Christ, “to bind up and heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the [physical and spiritual] captives and the opening of the prison and of the eyes to those who are bound” (Jeremiah 61:1b, AMP). When we give Him our sinful heart, God promises “a new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you” (Ezekiel 36:26a, AMP). We are restored completely by His sacrificial love offered freely at Calvary. 

The wounds of an Almighty God, who loved me enough to die for me, have healed my life.