Jehovah-Ropheka

Jehovah-Ropheka:  The Lord Your Healer

          Exodus 15:26 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 upon the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you.”

          (1)  When God delivered the children of Israel from Egypt, went through the Red Sea and they entered the wilderness for three days and they found no water to drink. On the fourth day they reached the waters of Marah, but the water was bitter and they could not drink it.

          (2) They complained to Moses, and the Lord showed him a tree, when cast into the water, it became sweet and the Israel were able to drink water (Ex. 15:25). At this wonderful event, a miracle of instant chemical purification of bitter water, the Lord revealed His name as Jehovah-Ropheka, “The Lord Who Heals You.”

          (3)  God is the great healer.  He “healed” the bitter waters so that Israel could drink and live.  It is important to notice that as God turned bitter water into the sweet water of life for God’s people by means of a tree, so also Christ turned the bitter wages of sin into sweet life by His death for us on “a tree” (Acts 5:30).

          (4) God cast this “tree” (the cross) into the midst of a bitter world, and gave life and joy to all who by faith will receive Christ as personal Savior. John 1:12 tells us that “as many as received Him, to them gave he (you) power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe in His name” (KJV).

          Key:  This outline should teach us not to complain so quickly, as did the children of Israel.  We are to trust God, who will turn our bitter trials to sweetness by means of a tree, the Cross. He is Jehovah-Ropheka: “The Lord Who Heals You.”