If I told you I’m a nurse, you know you could come to me for health advice. If I told you I’m a dentist, you know you could come to me for your teeth. If I told you I’m an accountant, you know you could come to me for your taxes. If I told you I’m a banker, you know you could come to me for a loan. If I told you I’m a travel agent, you know you could come to me for your vacation plans. Who I tell you that I am directly tells you what could expect of me.

So, when God tells us he is something specific, we know specifically what we can come to him for. This is what we’re learning in the names of God.

How sweet for God to tell us he is our HEALER. What do you come to a healer for? HEALING, my friend. Yes, healing of your body – but more – healing of your entire being.

Restoration of what has been broken.

A healed mind that is damaged.

Renewed peace where anxiety has taken root.

Mending of strained relationships.

Softening of a hardened heart.

Comfort for a hurting heart.

This is what God can heal – Your body, your heart, your mind, your family, your relationships, your circumstances. God is the great healer, you can call him Yahweh Rapha.

Exodus 15:26, God announces to his people, “For I am the LORD who heals you.” LORD is in all caps so we know the original spoken word of God was his name YHWH, and heals is Rapha. In Hebrew, I am Yahweh Rapha.

Rapha means to heal, restore, make whole and repair. If our God is Yahweh Rapha, we know we can come to him for healing, restoration, wholeness and repair in every way.

Notice precisely where God speaks these words, because it’s only spoken one time in scripture, then displayed hundreds of times in action.

Exodus 15 comes at a critical time for God’s people, the Israelites. They have been rescued from captivity in Egypt and set free. They have been supernaturally protected and guided right through the parting of the Red Sea, then turned around and watched their enemies be swallowed by the sea. And now they’re walking through an unknown wilderness and dying of thirst. They have gone 3 days without water. This is the limit of a human body in these harsh, hot conditions.

They finally find a small body of water, in this desert, but can you believe the water is bitter and undrinkable. Moses seeks God for help and God gives Moses a solution that turns the bitter water sweet, and the people are saved by having water to drink in their wilderness. And THIS is exactly where God introduces himself as Yahweh Rapha, the Lord who heals you. Here where God turned what was unbearably bitter into sweetness to not only satisfy but to save. God restored what had been corrupted. The water was corrupted with bitterness, but he restored it to sweetness with his healing touch.

This is where Yahweh Rapha meets us – in the bitterness we find unbearable, and he turns it sweet.

Oh what a threat bitterness was to God’s people there in the wilderness – and what a threat bitterness continues to be for us, his girls on our own journeys. Life has a way of being bitter sometimes. It stings. It stinks. It disappoints. And through it all, our hearts grow hardened, we become guarded, and bitterness creeps in. Yahweh Rapha wants to heal that!

Now, God reveals specifically how this healing is going to take place. Back up and read the beginning of Exodus 15:26, “IF YOU will listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his sight, obeying his commands and keeping all his decrees, THEN I WILL not make you suffer any of the diseases I sent on the Egyptians; for I am the LORD who heals you.” God is saying your healing will not come through a transaction, but through a relationship with me. A relationship where we have a role and he has a role. Our role is trust and obey him – his role is to bring healing.

Walk with God and you will live different. Live different and you will be healed. Healed of what? The very things that threaten your being with bitterness. We’re talking your entire body, but also those emotional wounds, your past trauma, your anxiety, your broken identity, your shame, your regret …. Anything that has become bitter in you, Yahweh Rapha restores.

God could have given his people new water there in the wilderness. He could have rained down water from heaven at that very moment. He could have supernaturally quenched their thirst in some other unfathomable manner. But that’s not what God did. God addressed what was bitter and he healed it. He changed the nature of the water and transformed it from bitter to sweet. And if God can do that with a pond of nasty water in a wilderness, don’t you know he can do that with your heart, with your mind, with your family and with every other threat of bitterness in your life?

Yes, God could bring something totally new, but Yahweh Rapha heals what already is and transforms the existing to health again.

My friend, where has life turned bitter for you? Where have you swallowed a hard pill and don’t understand why it has to be this way? Where have you settled into dysfunction or disappointment, all while a little piece of you is dying? Yahweh Rapha wants to heal that bitterness for you. He wants to bring a sweetness back to your life. That’s what he does, so now you know that’s what you can call on him for.

God, heal your girls. Heal our wounds. Heal our brokenness. Heal our bodies. Heal our minds. Heal our families. Bring a sweetness back to what has grown bitter.

Let me show you 3 specific places the word rapha is used in scripture so we can see the work of our Yahweh Rapha.

• Psalm 147:3, “He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds.” The Hebrew word for heal here is rapha. This is literally the work of Yahweh Rapha, healing those broken hearts and bandaging up the wounds of life hitting hard. He wants to do that for you.

• Hosea 14:4, The LORD says, “Then I will heal you of your faithlessness; my love will know no bounds, for my anger will be gone forever.” Again, this word translated heal here is rapha. The work of Yahweh Rapha is to heal us of every way we have struggled to be faithful. Of every wayward wandering, God heals us. His love meets us right where we are and changes that bitter root within us to be sweet. And guess what, God isn’t angry about the work he does in you either. Yahweh Rapha loves to heal you and restore you and make you right again.

• In 2 Kings 20, we read about King Hezekiah becoming deathly ill. God has told him to get ready because he is for sure dying and will not recover. But Hezekiah prays and says, “Remember, O LORD, how I have always been faithful to you and have served you single-mindedly, always doing what pleases you.” Hezekiah breaks down and cries, begging God. And this is wild, but check it out – Verse 5, God then says, “I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I will heal (rapha) you, and 3 days from now you will get out of bed and go to the Temple of the Lord. I will add 15 years to your life!” Verse 7, “Hezekiah recovered!” This is the miraculous healing work of Yahweh Rapha, the Lord who heals you.

Let’s be clear, if Yahweh Rapha can do that for King Hezekiah, a man most definitely dying, then Yahweh Rapha can do that for you too. If you are sick, what should you do? ASK HIM! Just as Hezekiah did. Bring your real emotion, your honest plea and ask for the healing touch of Yahweh Rapha.

He is the LORD who restores every part of you – spirit, soul, body, family, and everything surrounding you. Nothing stays broken in his hands. He uses it for good. He restores bitterness to sweetness. He adds life.

While we only see God speak of being Yahweh Rapha one time in scripture, we see proof of his healing power throughout the Bible, in the testimonies of real lives all around us, and I bet even in your own life. Has Yahweh Rapha done his healing work in your body – in your mind – in your family – in your circumstances? Has he turned something bitter to absolute sweetness for you? Look closely, you will see the fingerprints of Yahweh Rapha – he is still working.

And no doubt, he’s not done working. He still brings healing.

If you need healing in your life in any way, call on him by name. Yahweh Rapha, I now know what you do, so I know what call on you for and what to trust you with. Here’s my brokenness, here’s my sickness, here’s my disappointment, here’s every bitter thing in my life – will you touch me with your sweet healing?

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