What does it mean that God is Jehovah-Rapha?

In verse 26 Jehovah speaks of Himself as "Jehovah Ropheka," the Lord thy Healer. The bitter waters showed them that they needed Jehovah in the wilderness as much as they needed Him in their deliverance from Egypt and Pharaoh's power. And now He offers Himself as their healer. He takes gracious care of His people while they follow Him in the path of obedience. Some have pressed this promise to such an extent that they say sickness in a Christian is the result of direct disobedience; a Christian has no need of being sick, etc. This is wrong, and has led into theories which are far from sane and scriptural.

Marah is followed by Elim with its twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees. A beautiful oasis in the desert, giving them a foretaste of Canaan . What a place of refreshing and peace it must have been. So in our experience many a Marah is followed by an Elim, as the cross is followed by the crown. Elim means "trees," and they must have been of luxuriant growth, planted by the wells of waters. So Israel after their Marah experience, when Jehovah has forgiven their sins and healed all their diseases, in the day of their future blessing and glory, will be like trees planted at the water brooks and will draw water out of the wells of salvation (Isaiah 12:3).

168 And now Israel is going on with God, and He is dealing with them. He gave them statutes, etc. He did not do so before He had redeemed them. They had been troubled before by Pharaoh, but now it was from God. This was the effect of having to do with God, and now they learn God in a new character - "the Lord that healeth." A different thing from His promise, that if obedient He would bring none of the diseases of Egypt upon them. They are exercised by God, but it is that they may know Him as the Healer: it is for this that the whole heart has to be brought out before God. We cannot escape it. He will so order circumstances as to bring it about. Sometimes we are humbled before men: this is very trying and bitter water; but then what a wretched thing it was to be seeking to magnify oneself! As soon as the tree (the cross) is in the waters, they refresh the soul. This is joy in tribulation - joy in redemption first, but now in the healing. First, God makes us to sing in the knowledge of redemption; and then, if we are to have the practical effect of redemption, which is the enjoyment of God Himself in our souls, the flesh, which would always hinder this, must be broken down in whatever form it works. It was to prove them. God knew what was in their hearts; but they did not, and they must learn it.

At Marah, the Lord reveals Himself by a new name: “the Lord who heals you.” The waters become sweet. The healing of the Lord restores. Their next stopping point, Elim, illustrates refreshment and necessary food. And after that comes the manna, provided each morning for the needs of the people. What a marvelous experience!

And here is God's standing ordinance for us, and by which He proves us. God. is our Healer; He maketh whole and from the diseases of Egypt He will exempt us, if only we endure the test. If we will accept of the path of sorrow and trial which the Lord gives us here, we shall escape the afflictions which are His judgments on the world, and which come on those also who take their place with the world. Those who do not suffer for Christ, or with Christ, do not by their unfaithfulness escape suffering. They only suffer with the Egyptians.

In showing such grace, however, He rightly put them under responsibility, making a statute to the effect that they they should listen to His voice and do what was right in God's estimation. This was accompanied by a definite condition: if they were obedient to His commandments, He would preserve them from the diseases that He inflicted upon Egypt. For the government of God must always be observed, and certainly specially so by those whom He has blessed with the knowledge of redemption. Israel would have been preserved from suffering such physical diseases if they were simply obedient to the Lord, for He is the Lord who heals. In our present dispensation of grace we are not promised exemption from physical diseases on the ground of obedience, but obedience will certainly preserve us from spiritual diseases, and give us spiritual health and strength.

Had not Jehovah said before the law, "If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of Jehovah thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his eyes, wilt give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put upon the Egyptians; for I am Jehovah that healeth thee" (Ex. 15:26). Yet what was the witness of the dropsical man before the Lord and before them? And what meant all manner of disease and of sickness in the land of Israel, as it were crowding round Him to be healed? And why from all Syria brought they all that were sick, suffering under various distempers and torments, and those possessed by demons, with lunatics and paralytics? It was not Jehovah-Rophi who had failed, but man generally and Israel in particular. If the sabbath was a sign between Him and them, how came it, in shining, to disclose such misery and suffering? Why with an object before all eyes to draw out pity and humiliation, were these chiefs, Pharisees, doctors of the law, blind to His glory Who was the Son of God, blind to His grace Who went about doing good and healing all that were overpowered by the devil, for God was with Him? Yea, God was in Him, reconciling the world to Himself, not reckoning to them their offences; and they were watching Him with eyes fuller of hatred to Him than to the Gentiles they most despised! Was this then their sabbath honour?

Jehovah is celebrated, first of all, in the salvation which He has effected for them. He is Saviour altogether: of the whole man, body and soul alike. Israel's experience in the day contemplated will include in the fullest way that of bodily healing, such as accompanied the Lord's ministry in her midst, miracles which are called therefore in the epistle to the Hebrews "powers of the world to come" (Heb. 6:5), — more strictly, "of the coming age." The bodily condition will then be the fitting sign of the spiritual, in a world from which the curse upon the ground even will be removed.

Our first most vital need was that of a Savior to save us from the guilt of our sins. But sins here are called iniquities, that is, greatly aggravated guilt, and no matter how great, they are forgiven to those who receive the Lord Jesus as Savior. But at this time also, the Lord will heal all their diseases, so that in all those thousand years bodily disease will be banished (v. 3). We read in Hebrews 6:5 of those who tasted "the powers of the age to come," which shows us that the limited measure of bodily healing at the beginning of Christianity was but a small foretaste of what will be true in the coming age, the millennium. All believers now do not (and are not expected to) enjoy this freedom from disease, as they will in heaven, and as believers will in the millennium. There are some who teach that bodily healing is in the atonement, and that therefore every believer should be free from disease of any kind, but Matthew 8:16-17 shows that the Lord Jesus fulfilled the scripture, "He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses" when He was healing on earth, not in His sacrifice.

Psalm 103 brings before us the effect of the Lord's presence on the earth, "Who heals all thy diseases" as well as "forgives all thine iniquities." This is not so now, as it will be in the coming day, when healing and forgiveness will go together. True He does heal now at times, but still He allows sickness to affect His people. Then the healing will not only be wholly, but connected also with forgiveness. Some people think the grand thing is to have faith in God's power. He has only to speak, and the worst disease can be healed easily; but He is training us. Sometimes sickness is sent as a preventive, sometimes as a corrective; we ought to have faith in His love as well as in His power, and in His wisdom too. Have faith in God, not simply in His power. Here Job shines. Perhaps we have not thought adequately of his sufferings — "though he slay me yet will I trust in him."

The grand truth in our chapter is that before we get the principles of His kingdom as enunciated in chapters 5–7. His fame has gone over all the land; and it is a precious testimony to His mercy, the plenitude of grace in Him, that He healed them all. These were samples of what will be done in the millennium. What He did here, He can and will do for the whole world. Syria may be used typically here. "He'll give these bodies vile A fashion like His own; He'll bid the whole creation smile, And hush its groan."

And so the voice of the smitten Sufferer comes to us, “I am the Lord that heals thee” (Ex. 15:26). He Who was wounded for our transgressions “binds up the breach of His people, and heals the stroke of their wound” (Isa. 30:26; Isa. 57:17-18).