Episode #220 Part 1: Healing and Comfort in the Wilderness – Names of God

Hey friends, we're taking a few minutes today to get to know our Lord who heals.

And we're in a series looking at the names of God. And this name, transliterated from the original Hebrew, is Jehovah Rapha, the Lord who heals.

If you've been going through this series with me, you know that in these specific episodes, we're first taking a look at the people who were present when this name first showed up in scripture. And we're wondering at what that could have meant for them and how God impacted their lives directly.

But don't for a minute think that this is not going to have practical application for your life today. There's stuff that God wants to talk with you about. And my own experience of engaging with the Bible this way, as I've done for years now, has been transformative. It's helped me see God more clearly in scripture, and it's helped me connect to the Bible in ways that I didn't before.

And so we're slowing down a little bit to notice these real people who engaged with our real God and today we're doing that in light of a hypothetical person. So the name Jehovah Rapha comes from Exodus 15, and this is after God frees the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.

And Exodus 12:37 and 38 tells us that,

“the people of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. A mixed multitude also went up with them…” (Exodus 12:37-38a)

And so I'm going to read for us the passage from Exodus 15. But as I do, I encourage you to consider this experience in light of either one of the Israelite women who was traveling with her family out of slavery in Egypt, or one of the non-Israelite travelers who went with them, one of the mixed multitude.

Contextually, we know that they were there and that this aspect of God's reputation, his role or his relationship to his people had impact on them.

They're traveling out from the Red Sea.

The waters have just closed over the soldiers that were pursuing them.

And it says they go three days in the wilderness, and they find no water.

When they came to Merah, they could not drink the water because it was bitter. And the people are concerned, and they start grumbling. God has Moses throw a log in the water and it becomes sweet.

And as we read, we're going to ask God the question and then, like normal, we're going to continue the conversation with him at the end of the episode, and our question is to ask him:

God, what comfort did you bring to the people here?

And picking it up in verse 25 it says,

“There the Lord made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them, saying, ‘If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.’” (Exodus 15:25-26)

So after this rescue, and after providing for their thirst, God introduces this new name to his people and he says, Hey. If you listen to me, if you walk with me as your Lord, you won't get the diseases that were there in Egypt because I am the Lord, your healer.

The Israelite people lived in Egypt for 430 years and they were now venturing out into an unknown wilderness full of new fears, plus whatever fears they carried with them from Egypt. The reference to diseases here could reference the plagues. There were boils. The very last plague was a death of all the firstborn. But there were also diseases that were just prevalent in Egypt that could have been worrying the people. In Deuteronomy 28:60, it references “the diseases of Egypt of which you were afraid.”

There's so much context to this that we don't know, but that God knew because he met with these real people in their real-life circumstance and he wanted to show them more of who he is. And he did this by introducing a name for himself: Jehovah Rapha the Lord who heals.

So when I think of this passage, and I think of God sharing his name, his reputation, his role, his relational connection with his people, I feel such relief.

If I put myself in the shoes of an Israelite mom who's traveling into a foreign land, and is unsure of what's ahead of them and all the concerns and worries or even just preparation a mom would want to make to take care of her children. The comfort of knowing she won't have to deal with the diseases that were back in the land of her oppression because the Lord is her healer—that feels really tangible to me.

Or if I try to imagine what it would be like as one of the mixed multitude who traveled out of Egypt with the Israelites. To be getting to know this God of the Israelites for the very first time And to hear him describe himself as the Lord who heals. That's such a welcoming invitation.
It evokes trust. It evokes closeness. To get to know a God who is not detached and far away, but who is close and intimate enough to know that you are sick or to know that your body is vulnerable and to heal you from what ails you.

I wonder what that could have meant to them.
I wonder what good reputation the Lord is sharing with them about himself.

And so as I sit in that place, it prompts me with gratitude for how God showed up and shared himself and shared his name with these people. I wonder what comfort God brought them in that revelation. And I wonder what he wants to tell us about it. So let's ask him.

Maybe ask him the question again if you didn't hear anything. or simply continue that conversation with him.

He is our Lord who heals.

God, what comfort did you bring to the people here?

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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