“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 desert 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 physical 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 loves me enough to die for me, have
the power to heal my life.
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