HEALER OF MEN, JEHOVAH ROPHEKA

This title is the second of the compound names of Jehovah, the first being Jehovah Jireh that we considered in Genesis 22. The name is derived from a Hebrew word, which is used nearly seventy times in scripture for healing, restoring or preserving. So our title means, ‘The Lord who heals’.

Healing in the Bible is not limited to merely the physical but, more importantly, is often used for spiritual or moral restoration. Sadly, this has been over-shadowed in recent times by the huge emphasis on the so-called spectacular. It is true that God still can and does heal miraculously, but it is also evident from the New Testament that His people still suffer illness and disease, even when being faithful to Him. This can be seen in the examples of Paul, Timothy, Trophimus and Epaphroditus. Indeed, even the healing miracles of the Lord Jesus were often preludes to, or illustrations of, the meeting of spiritual needs.

In Exodus 15, the Israelites’ physical need of water speaks of a greater need. They are in a wilderness where there is no refreshment and even the appearance of water disappoints, as it is bitter. In only three days they have gone from singing to murmuring. How often this typifies our experience. The Christian life can bring many bitter moments, but God has provided something to make the bitter things sweet. In verse 25, we read ‘the Lord shewed him a tree’. This surely speaks to us of the cross, the answer to all man’s need of healing. The One who died on that cross knows all about the bitterness of this world. He knows what it is to cry ‘I thirst’, not only physically, but for the presence and fellowship of the ‘living God’, Ps. 42. 2. The cross met our need in salvation and so when ‘cast in’ it can make sweet the bitter experiences of life; cf. Acts 16. 25. Of course, verse 26 reminds us that obedience is required to fully know ‘the Lord that healeth thee’.

There is a ‘tree’, the same word used of the cross, which provides eternal healing or preservation, Rev. 22.1-2. Well might we sing, ‘Jesus keep me near the cross, there a precious fountain, free to all, a healing stream, flows from Calvary’s mountain’, Fanny Crosby.