Wednesday, February 26, 2025
Tonight’s Study – Session 6: Jehovah Rophe – The Lord Who Heals
Introduction: The fifth name for God that we will look at in the Names of God series is Jehovah Rophe – The Lord Who Heals. Exodus 15:25-26 introduces the name of the Lord Who Heals. It was at this point that the Jews discovered that Yahweh is also Jehovah Rophe, the Lord Who Heals.
Key Scripture Passage Where Jehovah Rophe is Found
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.”
(Exodus 15:22–26)
Moses led the Israelites to Marah, though the waters of Marah were bitter, and the people could not drink it, God would do the miraculous. In the miracle of turning the water in Marah from bitter to sweet, God showed Himself as the Lord Who Heals.
The word “rophe” occurs about 60 times in the Old Testament and always means to restore, to heal, to cure. It is frequently used in relation to physical healing. It can be used to relate to moral and spiritual healing also.
Jehovah reveals Himself to be the only source of wholeness. He alone has the power to change the bitter experiences of life into sweet. God, in conformity with His own character, turns the bitter circumstances of our life into sweet. Imagine if God’s healing was only limited to the physical, which seems to be what so many Christians today focus on. We as believers in Jesus would miss out on so much that God has for us.
What do we do when we get to Marah (bitter experience or circumstance)?
- First, listen earnestly to the voice of God.
-mountaintop experiences – respondent
-valley experiences – despondent
When we get to Marah, we must tune our ears attentively to the voice of the Lord.
-Ask yourself what God is saying through your circumstances. What does God want to do in your life? What have you learned about God from these events.
- Secondly, do what is right. In other words, behave righteously.
-Instead of responding by grumbling and complaining when you find yourself at Marah, do what is right. (Philippians 2:14 – Do all things without complaining and disputing).
Our Need of Healing
The astounding growth of hospitals, clinics, the pharmaceutical industry, and counseling centers gives stark testimony to the prevalence of sickness and brokenness in our world.
The prophet Isaiah diagnosed the problem.
Why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, And the whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot even to the head, There is no soundness in it, But wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; They have not been closed or bound up, Or soothed with ointment. (Isaiah 1:5-6)
-Isaiah compares Israel to a physical body. There is no part of it which is healthy.
-It is covered from head to foot with wounds, bruises, and sores. Yet in the same chapter, Isaiah holds out the possibility for healing.
God is the Cure!
-Jehovah Rophe – The Lord Who Heals says this, “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool. (Isaiah 1:18)
But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)
The world needs to know that God is a God who heals. He can cure the deep wounds which sin has wrought. He is Jehovah Rophe.
The Great Physician of the Old and the New Testament
Old Testament examples:
-In Numbers 12:13, Moses cried out on behalf of Miriam who had been stricken with leprosy: “So Moses cried out to the Lord, saying, “Please heal her, O God, I pray!”
-The healing of Naaman’s leprosy by Elisha:
So it was, when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, “Why have you torn your clothes? Please let him come to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.” Then Naaman went with his horses and chariot, and he stood at the door of Elisha’s house. And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean.” But Naaman became furious, and went away and said, “Indeed, I said to myself, ‘He will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leprosy.’ Are not the Abanah and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage. And his servants came near and spoke to him, and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” So he went down and dipped seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. (2 Kings 5:8-14)
The prophet Jeremiah spoke of healing:
For I will restore health to you And heal you of your wounds,’ says the Lord, ‘Because they called you an outcast saying: “This is Zion; No one seeks her.”’ (Jeremiah 30:17)
New Testament examples:
When Jesus began His earthly ministry, He read from the prophet Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”
(Luke 4:18–19)
-The healing miracles of Jesus abound in the gospels, a couple of examples:
- The healing of the centurion’s servant who was healed by a word of command by Jesus from a distance (Luke 7).
- The woman with the issue of blood who was healed while Jesus was on the way to heal Jarius’ daughter (Luke 8).
-Jesus turned the bitter waters to sweet in the lives of those to whom He ministered.
A Balanced View for the Church Today
-The spiritual vs. the physical
-Jesus’ primary mission was spiritual healing though He healed many physically.
Correctly Interpreting Isaiah 53:5
The entire 53rd chapter of Isaiah is about the coming suffering Messiah, Jesus Christ, whose main mission was to deal with the sin issue of mankind. Mankind was plagued with the disease of sin and Jesus was going to die to make atonement for sin once and for all. To pull verse 5 of Isaiah 53 (But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.) out of context to make it apply to physical healing is not just poor hermeneutics, but contextually, a blatant “hijacking” of Scripture.
-The apostle Peter even quotes Isaiah 53:5 in the context of spiritual healing in 1 Peter 2:24:
who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.
-Many churches exalt the ministry of physical healing over the need for spiritual healing. They neglect the task of offering ultimate healing from the wages of sin. God, not faith healers, still heals today physically according to his will in the life of an individual suffering from an infirmity, major or minor.
Our God, Jehovah Rophe is the Lord Who Heals, nothing is impossible or too difficult for Him to do, including healing a physical ailment, if He so chooses. But, the spiritual healing is the most important because it leads to eternal life in heaven, where divine healing takes place once and for all.
Conclusion: There is healing for our deepest pains and disappointments. There is healing for your past. There is victory over addictions. There is both physical and spiritual healing available in Christ. If you have become sidetracked at Marah, bitter in your soul and spirit, feeling your life has been unfair to you, the only way you can go from Marah to Elim and find sweet water is to turn to Jehovah Rophe – the Lord Who Heals.
Next Week, Session 7: Jehovah Nissi – The Lord My Banner