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9/25/2015

Jehovah Rapha

Jeohvah Rapha
By John Mitchell

I hope you have been blessed with the revelation of God in the New Testament and the Old Testament through the names of God. 
Today we go to Exodus 15 for the name Jehovah Rapha, the Lord healeth.
Exodus 15:22-26 So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the Wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah that is, Bitterness. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” And he cried unto the Lord; and the Lord showed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet. There He made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there He put them to the proof, and said, “If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in His sight, and wilt give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee which I have brought upon the Egyptians; for I am the Lord that healeth thee.” 

Israel has been delivered from Egypt. They had just come from the Passover. They came to the Red Sea, and God made a way through the Red Sea. In chp 12 they had victory over death. In chp 14 they had victory over the Egyptians. In chp 15 you have their first song, a song of triumph and filled with praises to the Lord. And after three days in the wilderness, they had changed from singing into murmuring. Twelve times did they murmured. Murmuring is always against God from being unsatisfied with what He provides. Isn't that common in men? They praise the Lord for His faithfulness and three minutes later are back in the dumps murmuring. 

Every test and trial we go is an open door for God to display His power. How else can the Apostle Paul say:
2 Corinthians 12:9 And He said unto me, “My grace is sufficent for thee, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Most gladly therefore will I glory rather in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 
It is in the tests and trials of life we get to know Christ. To praise Him in tests and trials is victory. 

As you read the history of Israel, you have to come to the conclusion that they preferred to be in slavery with the flesh parts of Egypt than in the wilderness with God. It is obvious today with many Christians that we prefer the flesh parts of the world to being alone in separation with God. They even wanted to go back to Egypt with their tummies full than with God's provision in the wilderness. 
They had been separated from Egypt (the world) for three days and wer tested. The moment you start walking with the Lord, you start to walk in separation. Sometimes when we walk in separation, it leads us to suffering. This is very hard to the flesh, and God's people become bitter. 
When you become bitter, you are the one who suffers. You become bitter and hateful.

Galatians 6:14 But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. 

The death and resurrection of fdChrist is between the world and the believer. God is still displaying His love and mercy because he is pleading with men, longing for him to come to Him. But there is a day coming when that is going to end. 
Walking in separation from the world is going to cost us something. 

God said in Exodus, if you obey and do what is pleasing to me, I will not put the diseases that I put on the Egyptians. 
Exodus 23:25-26 And ye shall serve the Lord your God, and He shall bless thy bread and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee. None shall cast their young nor be barren in thy land; the number of thy days I will fulfill. 

But this is dependant on obedience.

Deuteronomy 7:9, 12, 15 Know therefore that the Lord thy God, He is God, the faithful God, who keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love Him and keep His commandments to a thousand generations, “Therefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments and keep and do them, that the Lord thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which He swore unto thy fathers. And the Lord will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee, but will lay them upon all those who hate thee. 
Deuteronomy 28:22, 27-28 The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blight, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish. The Lord will smite thee with the boils of Egypt, and with the hemorrhoids, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed. The Lord shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart; 

It was dependant on obedience. He would have healed them for the 40 years in the wilderness and even past that. 
Luke 4:25-27 But I tell you in truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land. But unto none of them was Elijah sent, save unto Zarephath, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed, except Naaman the Syrian.” 
He didn't heal any Israelite. None wanted anything to do with Him as they didn't in Jesus' times. 

1 Corinthians 10:13 There hath no temptation taken hold of you but such as is common to man. But God is faithful; He will not suffer you to be tempted beyond that which ye are able to bear, but with the temptation will also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. 

Romans 5:3-6 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope; and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given unto us. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 

When your eyes are in God, we know that God has brought me to that tribulation to experience His power, not to make me sour. 

1 Peter 1:7-8 that the trial of your faith being much more precious than gold that perisheth, though it be tested with fire might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen, ye love. In Him, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, 

Gold is put in the fire not to destroy it, but to purify it. 
Your faith is indestructible, but it must be tested and tried. There are things in our lives we must be rid off, so He passes us through the fire. 
Israel could have been freed from illness through obedience, but they allowed their unbelief to rob them.
Do not let your unbelief in the person and power of God to rob you of a walk wih God, of an obedience to His Word, of being filled with a peace that passes understanding, of joy He wants to fill you with bound in hope. 

Jesus is Jehovah Rapha
Psalm 103:2-5 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits— who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies, who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s. 

Mark 2:3-12 And they came unto Him, bringing one sick with the palsy, who was borne by four. And when they could not come nigh unto Him because of the throng, they uncovered the roof where He was. And when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the one sick with the palsy lay. When Jesus saw their faith, He said unto the one sick with the palsy, “Son, thy sins are forgiven thee.” But there were certain of the scribes sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, “Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God only?” And immediately, when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, He said unto them, “Why reason ye these things in your hearts: whether it is easier to say to the sick with the palsy, ‘Thy sins are forgiven thee,’ or to say, ‘Arise, and take up thy bed and walk’? But that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins—” He said to the one sick with the palsy, “I say unto thee, arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house.” And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all, insomuch that they all were amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw it in this fashion!” 

John 5:2-9 Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of invalid folk — blind, halt, withered — waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool and troubled the water. Whosoever then first stepped in, after the troubling of the water, was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. And a certain man was there who had an infirmity for thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had been in that state a long time, He said unto him, “Wilt thou be made whole?” The infirm man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool; but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.” Jesus said unto him, “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.” And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed and walked. Now it was the Sabbath on that day. 

In Exodus, the first revelation of Jehovah Rapha was in a pool. In John chp 5 the last revelation of God as healer in Israel was at a pool. 
Here was a man waiting 38 years, hopeless, helpless, forgotten. He had given up. He didn't asked Jesus to heal him; he just testified his hopelessnes: "I have no man to throw me in." 
If you have the power to heal and are down at that pool filled with infirm, how many would you have healed? Probably all of them. 
Do we have more compassion or tenderness than Jesus? 
Why did Jesus just healed one? 
He was the only one who had given up hope of getting into the pool. 
Why isn't everybody saved? Can't God save everybody? 
Because they trust something else, instead of Jesus. 

Do you know who Jesus saves? Sinners. 
Some people think their good works will get them to Heaven. 
They say: "If God puts my good works and bad works on a scale, the good works are more and He will let me in."
Where do they get that reasoning from? 

Proverbs 14:12 There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. 

It is when you come to the end of your self, as a hopeless, helpless sinner. That is the man God saves. 

Romans 4:5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth in Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness, 

Titus 3:5 He saved us not by works of righteousness which we had done, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration, and by the renewing of the Holy Ghost, 

Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God— not by works, lest any man should boast. 

Our Lord Jesuschrist is Jehovah Rapha, the One Who heals. 

Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor. He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 
Luke 4:19 to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” 

Our Lord is here to heal sin-sicked souls. The moral is far more important than the physical. He told the man He healed from palsy to go and sin no more. That is moral responsibility. 

Matthew 11:28-30 “Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” 

John 6:37 All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me, and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out. 

John 1:12-13 But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 

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