The Lord Who Heals
Moses looked back at the hordes of people trekking under the desert sun. The mass equated to about 600,000 men. And that number didn’t even include all the women and children.
The Israelites were laden with silver and gold treasures—a parting gift from their Egyptian friends. While the treasures were a sight to behold, Moses’ mind wandered elsewhere.
Not a single person is sick or feeble, he thought. Thanks be to Yahweh. It would be slow going otherwise.
He also brought them out with silver and gold, and there was none feeble among His tribes.
-Psalm 105:37
From the beginning in the Garden of Eden (as it is in Heaven), neither disease nor sickness were part of God’s master plan.
So how did it show up?
The unfortunate side effects of sin and the curse are numerous and include sickness and death (check out Deuteronomy 28). After all, we know the devil loves to distort, pervert, and kill, so what would stop him from trying that on your body?
But God—even before Jesus—provided a way for His people to walk in divine health. We first see the miracle of about one million people exiting Egypt with no health problems. And right after Moses lead the Israelites across the Red Sea, the great I AM declared to Moses another one of His names—Jehovah-Rapha.
“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 [Jehovah-Rapha].
-Exodus 15:26
And that moniker passed right along to God’s only Son. We know Jesus redeemed us from all the effects of the curse—including sickness—being made a curse for us (Galatians 3:13).
You can hardly go a chapter in the gospels without reading about how Jesus healed someone. In fact, there is not a single example in the Bible of Jesus turning someone away for healing. But there is verse after verse declaring Jesus healed “multitudes,” “every sickness,” or “all sick” people.
When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah (Isaiah 53:5) the prophet, saying: He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.” -Matthew 8:16-17
And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people. Then His fame went throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics, and paralytics; and He healed them. -Matthew 4:23-24
And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them all. -Matthew 12:15
Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. -Matthew 9:35
But when the multitudes knew it, they followed Him; and He received them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who had need of healing. -Luke 9:11
Jehovah-Rapha, I am the Lord who heals you.
It’s not a past tense declaration. It’s a present tense reality. It’s a promise available today and forever.
And it’s in the nature of our Father, Jesus, and every believer.
And these signs shall follow them that believe…they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. (Mark 16:17-18)