“…I am the Lord who heals you.” Exodus 15:26
The name Jehovah Rapha means “The Lord our Healer.” The Hebrew word raphe means, “to restore, to heal, or to make healthful, to cure, to repair.” It can also mean, “to sew together, to mend.” The root of the word has the sense of seizing and plucking, like how sewing gathers together. To heal is like surgery, to sew up a wound to stop the bleeding, something that if not stopped, causes loss of life to a body. Rapha is also the Hebrew word for a doctor, so it could also be said, “I am Yahweh your Physician.”
One of my favorite instances of the use of this word is found in Jeremiah 30:17. Israel had been become an outcast. It was said that, “No one wanted her.” Have you ever made a wrong choice that caused you to be shamed or rejected? A mistake can cause a person to be positioned in a very low and desperate state. In Israel’s brokenness, God said, “’For I will restore health to you and heal (rapha) you of your wounds,’ says the Lord.” No one else wanted her, but God wanted her. God is the Lord who seeks after us in our mess, and restores us to health and wholeness.
Imperfection, whether physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, financial, social, or any other place of lack or failure, is often a reason for rejection by others and a cause for heartache and pain. Jeremiah 3:22 “Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal (rapha) your backslidings.”
Part of the restoration God wants to give us includes physical healing, as seen in Exodus 15:26. Rapha is also used in Psalm 103:3 where David says to bless the Lord, “Who forgives all your iniquities, who heals (raphe) all your diseases.” A disease has taken away the ease that comes from God’s life and health. Disease affects peace in the body, as well as struggles with strength, finances, emotional and mental distress, as well as stress on relationships for the ill. When God restores, He does it completely, making every area affected by disease to be put at ease and made whole.
When someone or something is healthy, that person or thing is lined up with the rightness of God’s presence, receiving a free flow of God’s healing waters of God’s life. He is the source of life, a life source that comes out from Him and is received by those who look to Him to satisfy their need, their thirst (Jeremiah 2:13; Isaiah 12:30; John 4:6-15; John 7:37; Revelation 21:6; Revelation 22:1,17).
Application: To receive healing, seek to encounter God. It is through experiential knowledge of Him that we are made whole.