February 15, 2016
Exodus 15:26
(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)
The combination name of God, Jehovah-Rapha, is found only in Exodus 15:26:
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.
Jehovah means Self-Existant or Eternal One. Raphah means…
…“to restore”, “to heal” or “to make healthful” in Hebrew. When the two
words are combined – Jehovah Rapha – it can be translated as “Jehovah
Who Heals.”…Jehovah is the Great Physician who heals the physical and
emotional needs of His people. (www.blueletterbible.org – see also Jere-
miah 3:22; 30:17; Isaiah 30:26; Isa 61:1; Psalm 103:3).
My wife and I have been studying divine healing and its application for today’s Christians. I recommend two books that have challenged my thinking on the subject, and will challenge yours if you read them with an open mind:
• Christ The Healer by F. F. Bosworth. It is an older book still in print – sermons on healing by a great evangelist of the early twentieth century.
• Healing The Sick by T. L. Osborn. Originally written in 1959, the principles therein make this a classic for all time.
What kinds of healing does the Lord offer us?
• Almost all evangelical Christians agree that we are healed spiritually. When we put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, an amazing transformation takes place! In Ephesians 2:1 Paul writes, “And you He made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins.” In our natural sinful state, we are spiritually dead – separated from God! (See Isaiah 59:2). If that condition is not rectified, we will suffer eternal death – separated from God forever in hell!
But Christ paid for our sins on the cross, and offers us His own righteousness to wear as a robe (see Isaiah 61:10; Revelation 19:8) as we stand before the Father. We are covered with the Lord’s own perfection – as if we had never sinned! (See II Corinthians 5:21). Talk about a healing! We are taken from a state of spiritual death to life in Christ! (See John 11:25, 26). If Lazareth was ‘healed’ by being physically raised from the dead four days after he died (see John 11:38-44), how much more are we ‘healed’ when we are spiritually resurrected in Jesus?
• Is there also physical healing in Christ’s sacrifice on the cross? It is written in Isaiah 53:3 through 5 (Jewish Publication Society Bible):
He was despised, and forsaken of men, a man of pains, and acquainted
with disease….Surely our diseases he did bear, and our pains he carried;
whereas we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But
he was wounded because of our transgressions, he was crushed because
of our iniquities: the chastisement of our welfare was upon him, and
with his stripes we were healed.
The King James, New King James, and Modern King James Versions all translate verse 53 nearly the same: “He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” (NJKV). Six other versions I checked translate disease in verse 3 as sicknesses. Thirteen others (including the JPS Bible above) translate disease variously by the words disease, grief, suffering, terrible suffering, infirmity, pain or pains, sickness, and weakness. Pains (above in JPS Bible) is so translated in three other versions. Sixteen more Bible versions use either the words sorrows or suffering.
Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary tells us:
• Pains (JPS Bible) – is the Hebrew word mak-obe’ meaning “anguish or (figuratively) affliction….”
• Diseases (JPS Bible) – is the Hebrew word khol-ee’ meaning “malady, anxiety, calamity”
The debate still rages whether the healing miracles of the Bible are yet for us today. I believe that healing is still a valid gift to be practiced by believers all through the Church Age! But this short blog will not put the argument to rest by any means. I do hope that it may stir your interest in divine healing so you study the issue and come to your own conclusion as you live out of your faith in Jesus.
On Wednesday we will finish our brief look at Jehovah-Raphah.