ICS Daily Devotions
Healing Belongs to Us
Exodus 15: 22-26 (NKJV) So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea; then they went out into the Wilderness of Shur. And they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people complained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” So he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree. When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet. There He made a statute and an ordinance for them, and there He tested them, and said, “If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you.”
God gave the Israelites a glimpse of who He is and what He is able to do through His names. One of them is Jehovah Rapha, which means God the Healer. If we study the Old Testament, the plaques and diseases that came upon the Egyptians were a result of their idol worship. It was a way for the Lord to reveal that He is the only God and there is not any other god to be worshipped. God is opposed to any kind of idol worship. No magicians or idols in the land of Egypt were able to come against the work of God when He delivered the Israelites through Moses.
We need to remember that this generation of Israelites had completely forgotten about the God of their fathers namely Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They didn’t know that God is a holy God, therefore God had to educate them through the law. They weren’t aware that judgment of sin has to come upon the people if they violate the commandments and statutes of God. These Israelites have just witnessed the powerful deliverance of the Lord when the Red Sea was parted for them and their enemies died in the sea. They took some time to praise God and celebrated the victory.
But then they came to a very dry place and there was no water. They were exhausted and went without water for three days. When they finally found it, the water was bitter and undrinkable. The water was probably polluted, diseased or infested with bacteria. They started to complain and murmur against God and Moses instead of calling out to God who just delivered them from the Red Sea. It was a test for them.
It does not mean that there will be no challenges even when we are in the midst of God’s will. Eventually, Moses cast a piece of wood into the waters and the waters were made sweet. It really doesn’t make sense to throw a tree into the water to turn it into drinkable water. Some scholars believe that the tree represented the cross and Jesus is the living water that caused us never to thirst again. This was the second miracle that happened within three days.
God had to remind this generation of Israelites not to practice what they have learned from the Egyptians in the area of idol worship. None of the sicknesses, diseases and illnesses that came upon the Egyptians would be upon the Israelites if they followed God’s ways. They should never walk in unrighteousness and adopt the Egyptian life style. Likewise, for us we should not walk in the ways of the world and adopt their values once we are saved. God was revealing to them what He can do through the name Jehovah Rapha which means ‘I am the Lord who heals you’. This is the first occasion when God revealed to them that He is Jehovah Rapha their healer.
Rapha conveys the idea of restoring something to its “normal” or useful state. Since God is Jehovah Rapha, then we can safely say that healing belongs to us as His children and chosen people. God is able to heal us because He is the great physician. What we need to do is to walk in His righteousness and know that healing belongs to us. We are to get back to fellowship with God if we were holding sin and bitterness in our hearts. Healing will be restored to us!
Sermon series: Meditating on the Names of God
