2002-01-01
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Sin is nothing new. We all know it got started with the original sin of Adam and Eve in GN 3: 6. What many don’t realize is just how early in the Scriptures Jesus Christ, the Cure sent by the “Great Physician”, Jehovah Rapha, appears. Take a minute to think if you can guess where in the Bible He first appears before going on with reading this devotion. See what your answer might be. ……okay, now I will give you the answer: It’s GN 3: 15, also known as the Protevangelium, [God speaking to the serpent], “I will make you and the woman hate each other; her offspring and yours will always be enemies. Her offspring will crush your head, and you will bite their heel.” Have I confused you, because you didn’t see the name, Jesus Christ, here? If we stop and think about what this citation announces and who is involved, any confusion is cleared away. This is the first place in the Bible where the conflict that exists between the devil and mankind is announced. If we look more carefully at it, we see that God is telling mankind that evil will “bite them in the heel.” That action will cause pain and suffering, but it is not fatal. On the other hand, God is telling the serpent that it’s head will be crushed. Crushing one’s head is most surely fatal! Those of you who have studied the book of Revelation (something I hope each of you will do) know that it is through Jesus Christ that God will wrest dominion over the earth back from the adversary. REV 20: 10 proves this. “Then the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had already been thrown; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”
The struggle between mankind and evil is what makes our need for Jehovah Rapha, our “God Who heals,” so great. Let’s look at JER 8 for one salient example of this need. Jeremiah ministered at a time when Jewish disobedience to God was so great that God was about to let Judah’s enemies, the Babylonians, take her captive as a punishment for it. God’s message for Judah to repent given through Jeremiah was very unpopular. This meant that Jeremiah had to demonstrate considerable faith and trust in God to deliver this message that Judah was in no mood to hear. Jeremiah speaks the Lord’s words in JER8: 5-6, “Why then, my people, do you turn away from Me without ever turning back? You cling to your idols and refuse to return to Me. I listened carefully, but you did not speak the truth. Not one of you has been sorry for his wickedness; not one of you has asked, ‘What have I done wrong?’ Everyone keeps on going his own way, like a horse rushing into battle.” In (8), Jeremiah reminds them that dishonest scribes alter the laws and in (9) that they reject God’s words. In (10-12), we learn that prophets and priests cheat the people and deny the wounds of sin are serious for them. In (17) Jeremiah tells the people that God warns He will send some poisonous snakes that cannot be charmed to bite the people. Because Jeremiah is a righteous person, he feels grief over the disobedience of the Jewish people and in JER 8: 18- 22, he reveals his angst. “My sorrow cannot be healed; I am sick at heart. Listen! Throughout the land I hear my people crying out, ‘Is the Lord no longer in Zion? Is Zion’s King no longer there?’ The Lord, their King, replies, ‘Why have you made me angry by worshipping your idols and by blowing down to your useless foreign gods?’ The people cry out, ‘The summer is gone, the harvest is over, but we have not been saved.’ My heart has been crushed because my people are crushed; I mourn; I am completely dismayed. Is there no medicine in Gilead? Are there no doctors there? Why, then, have my people not been healed?”
It helps in the understanding of JER 8: 22 to know that Gilead was known for its soothing balm, a medicine from this region east of the Dead Sea, north of Jazer, a former Ammorite territory under King Sihon and south of Bashon, the kingdom once ruled by King Og. Gilead is mentioned in NU 32: 1 and again in JER 46: 11. The latter citation is also in the context of sin, this time Egypt’s. “People of Egypt, go to Gilead and look for medicine! All your medicine has proved useless; nothing can heal you.” Now, you may wonder why Jehovah Rapha offers healing for Israel’s sins but not for Egypt’s. The answer for that has to be in willingness to learn from former mistakes and to come to repentance. Without the latter, there can be no forgiveness and healing. In a previous message, I mentioned that while not all illness is due to sin, all sin brings a need for healing (often physical and always spiritual). The citations that follow show where the ultimate Source for that healing is.
Our Jehovah Rapha reveals His healing and compassion for His children in EX 3: 7-8, “Then the Lord said, ‘I have seen how cruelly My people are being treated in Egypt; I have heard them cry out to be rescued from their slave drivers. I know all about their sufferings, and so I have come down to rescue them from the Egyptians and to bring them out of Egypt to a fertile and spacious land, one which is rich and fertile and in which the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites now live.” It was Jehovah Rapha who fed the Israelite wanderers manna (EX 16: 2-4) and made bitter water sweet at Marah (EX 15: 22-26) for them. It was also Jehovah Rapha Who made the Abrahamic Covenant with His people. EX 13: 21-22 demonstrated that it was no accident that Jehovah Rapha took the Jews to Marah so they would learn that only prayer and obedience would make the bitter water sweet. “During the day the Lord went in front of them in a pillar of cloud to show them the way, and during the night He went in front of them in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel night and day. The pillar of cloud was always in front of the people during the day, and the pillar of fire at night.” If one was to ask why did God lead the people for 40 years through the desert, since the trip from the Goshen region of Egypt to the southern border of Israel (then, Canaan) was only 11 days by foot, the answer would have to be because of their need of healing from sin. They were disobedient. Had they not been, God would have taken them directly to the Promised Land. Even, Moses, a man who enjoyed a much closer relationship with God than any of his contemporaries, needed healing from the sin of striking a rock rather than speaking to it as God had ordered him to do at Meribah [NU 20: 7-12 & NU 27: 12-14]. That is why Moses was allowed to see the Promised Land, but not to enter it. Jehovah Rapha is a just God. Since Moses is seen with Elijah at our Lord’s transfiguration [MT 17: 3], we have reason to believe that Moses is given the reward that awaits all believers in Christ in spite of his not being allowed to enter the Promised Land.
Jehovah Rapha’s omnipotence is seen in DT 32: 39, which gives us cause to see what a blessing in our lives He is. “I, and I alone, am God; no other god is real. I kill and I give life, I wound and I heal, and no one can oppose what I do.” I say His presence is a blessing, because every decision He makes and action He takes is always righteous and just. When we choose to say, “yes,” to Jesus, we can rest assured that we have Jehovah Rapha to heal our illnesses and our sins.
PRAYER: O Lord, from the very beginning even before the world was created, You knew that we would need healing from sin and illness. To that end, it was Your decision to send Your only begotten Son to die on the cross for us. You told us this in the announcement of the conflict between evil and mankind early in Genesis. The promise of healing forgiveness was even suggested by the way You clothed Adam and Eve in animal skins (requiring the necessary pouring of blood which brings forgiveness) before casting them out of the Garden of Eden [GN 3: 21, LV 17: 11, and HE 9:22]. Your compassion and patience has been revealed throughout mankind’s whole history in Your sending prophets like Moses and Jeremiah to bring Your message of their need to repent to Your people. Repeatedly You have shown how faithfulness and obedience brings healing, as it did when You directed Your Son to heal so many people during His 3 year public ministry. You have brought us so many stories in the Scriptures to remind us that You are the One to Whom we can turn when we are in need of healing. For that and so much more, we humbly offer You our worship, adoration, loyalty, trust, obedience, honor, glory, praise, and thanksgiving. In Christ’s name, amen.
Tomorrow, we will continue looking at amazing citations that reveal other aspects of Jehovah Rapha’s unparalleled capacity to heal our illnesses and our sins when we are willing to repent of them. In the meanwhile, know that human suffering is never in vain when we turn to our Lord. He sometimes brings it to us to make us realize His remarkable power to do good in our lives and those of others. We never go a day unloved and abandoned by the always righteous Lord of our lives, Jehovah Rapha. We can always turn to Him when in need, knowing He is the “Great Physician.” Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn