As a bit of review lets look at the previous 6 names through the eyes of Moses. Moses met Elohim at the burning bush. Elohim is the triune all-powerful creator of the universe who is so holy, to be in His presence is to die. The mystery wasn't that the bush didn't burn up but rather that Moses didn't. He told Moses to take off his shoes because he was standing on holy ground. Elohim then went on to become the eternal God who communicates with man and promised to be with Moses and that name is YHWH or Jehovah the great I Am. Jehovah said "I have seen the hardships of my people" revealing Himself as El Roi, the God who sees. Moses was about to learn a hard lesson because even though he knew Elohim and had entered into a relationship with Him through Yahweh, He needed to reveal Himself as Adonai or Lord to Moses. God wouldn't take excuses from Moses on why Moses was the wrong man for the job. Finally Moses said "No, Lord" which is an oxymoron and Moses went anyway because you can't be in a relationship with God without Him being master. Jehovah Jireh had already provided a helper for him - Aaron was long on his way well before the meeting at the bush. Jehovah Jireh, our provider, provided His name, three neat convincing miracles, and 10 plagues with a Passover Lamb which eventually provide for all of us. Not only that but all the Egyptians and Pharoah regarded Moses as a god, God provided a great cover for him! When they were released God led them like a shepherd, Jehovah Rohi, protecting, feeding, restoring them, leading them in paths of righteousness, even though they were prone to wander, helpless, stupid, yet somehow valuable to Him. And where did He lead them? We see in Exodus 15
Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. 23 When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.) 24 So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”
25 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became fit to drink.
There the Lord issued a ruling and instruction for them and put them to the test. 26 He said, “If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.” (Jehovah Rapha)
27 Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water.
He reveals Himself as the God who restores back to normal. Don't you think when God led them through the desert for 3 days that He knew He was leading them to undrinkable water? Of course He did. And Jehovah Jireh was going to provide some wood to throw in it to make it potable. What was His purpose for this? We can only guess but I think it was to reveal more of Himself to them - a new name. The God who can take the bitterness of your old life and restore you back to the way you should have been. Jehovah rapha - the God who heals.
Lets look at some aspects of our healer. In the context of this Exodus passage we see a preventative medicine aspect of our healer; to prevent the disease from ever happening. It's like Zantac or Pepcid; I tell my patients that this isn't to treat heartburn, it is to prevent it from ever happening. If you have heartburn, it is too late for this. Before sin, mankind had only one rule - don't eat from the tree. Now the world had become a very dangerous place and God had to give them a bunch more rules to prevent things like the diseases that they saw in Egypt. They are still valid principles today as seen by studies that show that people who attend church every week live an average of 7 years longer. They are 50% less likely to die from heart attacks, 56% less likely to die from Emphysema, 74% less likely to die from cirrhosis, and 53% less likely to commit suicide. They are also seen to recover faster from surgery. This confirms Prov. 10:27 "The fear of the Lord adds length to life," Why would this be?
1. Prevention of spread of disease- the Bible, long before anyone knew about germs, gave the Israelites principles to keep epidemics away
- Leprosy; Lev. 13:46 tells them that they needed to live outside camp and yell "unclean" when anyone came close. Obviously they shouldn't be in an airplane or cruise ship (recent Ebola scare)
- Dead bodies; Num.5:23, Num. 19:11 whoever touches a dead body would be off limits for 7 days. They were to leave their job and spend an entire week in the surrounding desert
- Hand washing. Semmelweis, a doctor in Austria in the 1840s saw a number of maternity patients dying postpartum. He proposed that doctors, after performing autopsies would wash their hands consistent with the principles found in Numbers 19 - running water, long time, with soap, and vigorous scrubbing. He found that this cured the problem but the medical field scorned and mocked him until years after his death he was declared to be a prophet before his time
- Sanitation - Duet. 23:12,13 says take an instrument, go outside of camp, bury your excrement in a hole and cover it. How many plagues could have been averted with these simple instructions.
2. Lifestyles
- alcoholism and drug addiction- The Bible forbids drunkenness and being controlled or mastered by anything. How many violent deaths, MVA's, liver diseases, domestic violence and divorces could be stopped if we just listen to what the Bible says
- obesity - Prov.23:21 and many other verses discuss gluttony as being a sin. Obesity leads to hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, endometrial cancer, premature death
- promiscuity - cervical cancer, 44 different STDs, blindness, Hepatitis C, HIV, abortion all related to disobeying God's command for monogamy.
- smoking - violates the principles of treating our body as the temple of the Holy Ghost not to mention wasting God's money. You only need to try to get health insurance if you smoke to know how detrimental to your health smoking is
- dietary - Lev. 7:22 warns about eating fat. The list of clean and unclean animals warned them which were hazardous to their health. The recent pandemics of AIDS and Ebola have unclean animal carriers of chimpanzees/monkeys, and fruit bats respectively.
3. Emotions - stress and anxiety
The Bible says in Phil. 4:6 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. " What does stress cause? Psychosomatic illnesses. Illnesses that are real and physical but caused by the psyche. Here is a non-comprehensive list of some of the illnesses.
stomach and intestine disorders
ulcerative colitis
irritable bowel syndrome
problems swallowing
high blood pressure
abnormal heartbeat
angina, heart attacks
strokes
irregular periods, infertility
headaches, migraines
seizures
panic attacks
tremors
suicide
chronic fatigue syndrome
hives
asthma
common cold
dermatitis
anorexia
cancer
- anger; increases blood pressure, strokes, heart attacks. If anger is unresolved and buried beneath the surface it leads to depression. Jehovah Rapha can heal you of your anxiety and anger and replace it with the fruit of the spirit - Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Self-control
Not only is He a healer in the fact that He prevents our illnesses, but if we do get sick He can heal those too? Will He? That is totally up to Him. If your sickness is for His glory and plan, then you won't be healed. If it would glorify Him you will be healed. John 9:1-3 says
"As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him."
In Jeremiah 26, Jeremiah gets spared while Uriah gets executed. Peter gets rescued from prison by an angel and John the Baptist doesn't. How many Christians were eaten by lions and we just read of Daniel being spared. Paul heals people on Malta but can't heal himself, Epaphroditus or Trophimus. So we are commanded to pray in James 5 and call the elders to pray and anoint you with oil and then God will do what he intends.
The ultimate healing is the healing that lasts forever, the salvation of your soul. This enables you to say, like Paul in Phil. 1
" 21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 22 If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! 23 I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; 24 but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body"
When I go on these medical mission trips, we give people 50 blood pressure pills which will be gone in a couple months. However, if you can lead them to the Lord they will live forever.
Here are a few songs that come to mind
No comments:
Post a Comment