Jehovah Rapha the God who Heals
Focus Scripture Exodus 15: 22-27
There are moments in our lives when God brings us through something so significant that all we can do is praise Him.
Exodus 15 begins with one of those moments. The Israelites are delivered out of Egypt and then delivered when Pharoh pursued them; they walked through on dry land and saw the walls of ocean come down and drown their enemies. A song of triumph was lifted unto the Lord!
Yet, sometimes in life after our greatest victories we can find our selves face to face with challenge. Still, we must keep moving forward. As Exodus 15 illustrates, they went on walking through the wilderness of Shur. Three days they travelled without water. Can you imagine the exhaustion, the thirst, the desperateness. How does this relate to the circumstances of today? Sometimes we can experience an incredible victory with God and then find ourselves walking through a completely different kind of season.
We can praise God on Sunday and still face difficulty on Monday.
We can testify about what God has done and still encounter something we don't understand.
We can know that God is faithful and still find ourselves asking:“Father God, where is the water?”
We are perched but we see the glistening of an oasis in the distance ahead, and with excitement and great expectation we run towards it, Water! Just the thing we are desiring, just the thing we are looking for! Only to discover it is Marah; bitter and undrinkable. What looked like provision, what looked like the answer only brought disappointment. Sometimes what we need is in reach, but it is bitter. You prayed for the relationship, for the opportunity, for family but there where still struggles and disappointments. You prayed for healing and received breakthrough then setbacks. You prayed for peace and restoration but still experience feelings trouble and limitation.
Marah means bitterness, and circumstances such as disappointment, rejection, grief, unanswered prayer, and waiting can become times of bitterness. Still, we must remember that God did not abandon Isreal and He will not abandon us. For He is the same yesterday today and forevermore. Moses cried out to the Lord just as we should cry out to the Lord and the Lord will give us a sign, He will give us and instruction, and He will turn out bitter waters sweet. God wants to show Himself great. He declared that ‘He is the God who heals you’ But we must act, we must be diligent, we must do what is right, we must keep His commandments and statues. And He will be our Jehovah Rapha.
Difficult seasons allow us to discover and encounter God in ways and dimensions we may not be open to in times of comfort. Saints, we serve the God of the mountain and the God of the valley. He is God of the miracle and the God of the wounded bitter place. We serve the only God that can truly turn bitter water sweet. And not only that, but He will also take us to a place of refreshing, restoration and abundance. So, be encouraged. If you are standing at the shore of bitter water know it not the destination. A song writer once wrote ‘New horizon’, it is not over until is it is good.
The bitter-low point of the journey is not the end of the road; it is simply a place from which you can still see the horizon. You cannot see what is beyond the horizon, You cannot see Elim, but God can. For He is Jehovah Rapha: “The God who heals you and the God who knows what lies beyond your horizon.” So praise Him, praise Him, praise Him with thanksgiving because it is not over until it is good!
In the might name of Jesus
