Exodus 15:25-26 NJKV
There He made a statute and an [b]ordinance for them, and there He tested them, 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 on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you.”
Finally the children of Israel are free after being slaves in Egypt for 430 years. They had seen the last nail driven into the coffin of their oppressors when they were drowned in the red sea after the children of Israel had crossed on dry ground. Now they were on their way to the land of promise, the land flowing with milk and honey but things did not turn out the way they had imagined because Gods ways are higher than our ways.
Three days into their journey into the wilderness, they have no water and when they get to Marah the water available there is bitter and as expected, they start complaining. Now I have had the privilege of being in that wilderness and the heat there is harsh. God shows Moses a stick that he throws into the water and it becomes sweet and drinkable.
It is at this point that God totally turns the conversation and tells the Israelite’s that if they walk in obedience to his voice, then he will put none of the diseases he brought to the Egyptians on the Israelite’s for he is the Lord that heals them.
Healing is connected to obedience and the condition of our hearts. I believe that the experience with the bitter waters at Marah was to show the Israelite’s that they must let go of the bitterness and un-forgiveness towards those who had oppressed them for such a long time. They needed to allow God to heal their wounded hearts so that that which was bitter could in turn be sweet and thus experience Jehovah Rapha.
It is interesting that Moses was directed to throw a piece of a tree into the bitter waters to make it sweet. Many years later our savior would also die on a tree as well to make our bitter hearts sweet.
He is the Lord our healer but we cannot receive that healing if we have bitterness and un-forgiveness in our hearts
Reflective Thoughts
In what area of your life do you need to experience Jehovah Rapha?
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Like the bitter waters of Marah is your heart filled with bitterness and un-forgiveness? Why are you till holding on to that which attracts sickness and oppression by the enemy?
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Just like the tree that was thrown into the bitter waters to make them sweet, the cross of Calvary and what happened there makes our life sweet, have you embraced Jesus in your life?
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