Sermon Title: "Jehovah Rapha: Our God is Our Healer" Part 2 of 8
Author's Name: Rev. Alex M. Knight
Exo 15:22-26 NRSV) "Then Moses ordered Israel to set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. {23} When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter. That is why it was called Marah. {24} And the people complained against Moses, saying, "What shall we drink?" {25} He cried out to the LORD; and the LORD showed him a piece of wood; he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the LORD made for them a statute and an ordinance and there he put them to the test. {26} He said, "If you will listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in his sight, and give heed to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will not bring upon you any of the diseases that I brought upon the Egyptians; for I am the LORD who heals you.""
We remember in the story of the people of God, of how Joseph ended up in Egypt and became a leader in Pharaoh's court. When famine came into the land, he had the wisdom from God to help the people prepare to deal with that famine. He became a hero. After many years, the Israelites grew in population and their numbers increased and increased. The Egyptians began to forget the hard times that had come into the land and what Joseph had done for them. They felt threatened by the Israelites. Little by little, the Egyptians began to oppress the Israelites until they were in total slavery within the country of Egypt. It was at that time that God raised Moses up as a leader, as the person that God would use to bring His people out of Egypt and into the Promise Land of Canaan. The passage from Exodus begins at the time they had crossed the Red Sea. The Egyptian army that was pursuing them has been drowned and now they are in the beginning of this movement toward Canaan. God is showing Himself to be mighty in His works before the people. He turned the bitter water into sweet water for them to drink. Then God tells them His relationship with Israel is special. God says to them, "Follow me, do as I show you and you will find me to be your healer as I restore you to be my people."
We are in the second of an eight part series of messages where we are looking at the covenant relationship we have with God. The covenant nature, the redemptive nature of God. And it's out of our understanding of this character of God, the nature of God, that gives birth to our desire to sing songs of praises to God. A lot of songs of praises were written and came from the hearts of the Israelites because of their time in the wilderness with God, as God provided for them day by day. They found they could depend upon the love and the character and the nature of God and this caused their hearts, many times, to over flow with hymns of adoration and praises. The song we sang this morning, written by Dennis Jernigan, "Thank You Lord" is a song Dennis wrote to give expression to his personal walk with God and what God is doing in his life, . . . the reality of God in his life. Most often, people who have experienced this kind of reality, experience it in what we call brokenness. Certainly the Israelites had gone through a period of brokenness as they were in bondage and in slavery in Egypt. Then God showed Himself to be mighty and to be strong as He brought them out of Egypt. This gave them a new insight to God and God's love for them and it caused them to sing hymns of praises. To understand what I mean by "brokenness" I do not think you have to look farther than the life of Jesus. He models for us brokenness. Consider when Jesus was in the garden. Do you remember how the scriptures say Jesus struggled with the call of God in His life? So much so that when Jesus was praying, it was as though drops of blood were coming out of Him. That is how intent Jesus was before God and saying to God, " Father if there is any other way to accomplish your will, other than what I see lying ahead, (which was crucifixion), I'd like to find that other way." In the end Jesus said, "Father, your will be done."
Every one of us who seriously desires to walk out this life as a child of God, seeking to know God's will in our life, we come to that kind of confrontation. It is called brokenness. In the midst of such a confrontation, we find the conflict in our will over and against God's will, . . . whose will is going to be done? We know what God is calling us to do: It may be in reconciliation of races; it may be in forgiveness for somebody who has hurt us; it may be a commitment of our life to God. My will or God's will. When you let yourself give your life over to God's will, that's when you are broken. When we quit trying to be god of our own life and let Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides for us, lead us, then our life becomes transformed. In the process of confrontation, we come to know the reality of God's love and His power in our life. From such experiences will come songs of praise and adoration to the one who leads us.
You can also look to Jesus on the cross where He cried out, "My God, my God, why has Thou forsaken me?" There is not a soul who walks with God who has not been in that dark valley and wondered where God is. Everyone who walks with God, who seeks to know God's will in their life, who is seeking to live out their life as a life of grace and as a child of God, will go through a time of testing, a time of trial. There becomes a time in your life where you think God has left you. God seems distant from you. You are left with faith. Faith says although, I cannot see Him, I cannot touch Him, I cannot feel Him, I know He's here. That's a time of strengthening in your life. The Word becomes real to you. It is a real time of testing, it is a time of brokenness where you have to dig deep in your life and realize you walk by faith, not by your five senses and not by your emotions. In that period of time, God becomes real and in that reality, songs of praise and adoration will overflow. When you sing a little song that says, "I thank you Jesus for all that you've promised and all that you've done...that's what's gotten me through" it is an expression of a reality in your life. It is no longer Jernigan's song, . . . it becomes your song. It becomes my song, because I've been tested, I've experienced trials, and the reality of faith.
This message today is about Jehovah Rapha . . . God as our healer. When I think about God as our healer, God making us whole, I often remember a story David Needham tells in his book, Close to His Majesty. about two farm families . It is time for harvest. One family needs a good rain and if they will get a good rain, it will bring into the harvest the fullness of their crop. The other family, the last thing they need is any more rain. They are in a different part of the county, the soil is different, the terrain is different and if they get another rain, it's just going to bog down their crop and they won't be able to harvest it.
These families are very similar. There is mother and dad and two children. Both of the mothers are in a wheelchair. Their condition can be corrected by surgery, but it takes money for surgery and they don't have the money. But, if the crop comes in, they'll have the money. Let us complicate it just a little bit further, . . . both farm families have a balloon payment coming on their mortgage. Both of them are sitting down at the table getting ready to have dinner and they listen to the weather report. There is a 50/50 chance of rain.
Now. We get to play God. What would we do? Well, if we were God, we'd probably have rain come right down the middle of the dividing line between those two farms, so the ones who need the rain get it and those who don't need the rain, don't get it. But life doesn't always work that way. Let us look at what really happens.
The family that needs the rain are all around the table for dinner and they pray "Lord, we love you and we desire to serve you and to walk out life with you and you know how much we need the rain and we just ask you to let it rain tonight on our fields. Amen"
Down the road the other family is all around the table and they join hands and pray, "Lord we love you. You know we are trying to walk out life with you and to serve you and Lord we don't need anymore rain, we're ready to harvest in a day or two, we don't need anymore rain. Lord, please let the rain stay away. Amen"
About midnight you hear thunder, rolling thunder. You know a storm is on the way. It wakes up both households and they listen and they listen and they listen. In the house where they want the rain they begin to hear rain on the tin roof of the barn and excitement grows. There is one drop and then two and then three drops. Maybe more will come. Then it begins to come and to come and to come and there is the steady beating of that tin roof as the rain is falling. The kids get up and they run down to mom and dad's bedroom and they are all excited and say, "Isn't this wonderful, it's raining, it's raining!"
Down at the other farm they too hear one drop and then two drops and then three drops on the tin roof. They are hoping against hope it will stop, but it does not. It pours and it pours. The kids do not get out of bed. Mom and dad just lay there in bed and hold hands and try to hold back the tears.
The next morning, the farm family that wanted the rain, they get up and the kids go out and they do the chores with dad. They come back in for breakfast and everybody is so excited. They get around the table for breakfast and they give thanks to God. "Thank you God. You heard our prayers, you brought the rain, now the farm will be ours and mom will have the surgery and she can walk again and we just thank you God for your goodness."
Down at the other farm they've gotten up and they've done their chores and now they're around the table. There is silence. They just do not know what to say. They are looking to dad to pray. He does not know what to say. Finally he says, "God I don't know what say, I don't understand. We thought we had done what you had asked us to do, but we trust you. You are our God and we just trust you." That was it.
Five years later, we come back and visit these same farm families. We go to the first farm and see the barn's painted and there is a new car. As we look into the window we see mom walking around the kitchen. The kids are coming in from helping with the chores. They get around the table to say their blessing and dad says to the family, "Family, do you know what today is? Today is the fifth anniversary of the most serious crises we ever faced. We were at the brink of losing it all and we prayed and God heard our prayers and He answered our prayers and He's prospered us and everything we've hoped for has come to us. As we give thanks this morning to God, let us rededicate our life and our commitment to serve God for all that He's done for us." They joined hands and they prayed a prayer of thanksgiving and commitment to God for all that He has done for them.
We go down to see the other farm family. The barn needs painting. We also notice there is a new name on the barn. Our family is still there, but now they are share cropping. They have lost the farm. They have come in from doing their chores and we look through the kitchen window and see mom and she is still in her wheelchair. They all sit around the table and as dad takes their hands he says, "Do you know what today is? Today is the fifth anniversary of the most difficult crises we ever faced as a family. God has been so good to us. let's just give Him thanks this morning in a special way. 'Our Heavenly Father, you've been so good to us. Five years ago, it looked like our world was coming to an end, but you have revealed yourself to us in such intimate ways. You have provided for us. And you've shown us the reality of your love and of your acceptance for each of us and oh Father we give you thanks. And we just dedicate our lives to you all over again."
My cousin David Barker has Lou Gehrig's disease, . . . ALS. The last time I saw David was just a month or two ago when I was in Jacksonville. The disease has gone to the point now he cannot use his hands. His wife cares for him in such loving ways, but she has to help him in every thing he does, including feeding. One thing l he can do, is using his toes and his feet, he can manipulate a keyboard so he can operate a computer. He hooks into the Internet and finds out what is going on in the world. It becomes his window to the world. David and I share communications on the computer on a regular basis. A few weeks ago, David sent me something he wanted me to see that he had come across on the Internet. His message prompted me to respond with a collection of thoughts about the grace of God. David wrote me a response right back. He said he was raised to be a Christian, but like most folks he became involved with business and with getting married and enjoying life and he put God and church on the back burner. He said, having this disease has really caused him to focus on the things that are really important in life like faith in God and God's love and acceptance of us. He went on to share with me how God had given him such a peace and the strength to endure what he is going through. And then he asked me to give him suggestions of how he could witness for Christ to his family and friends.
Can you see the similarity between by cousin David and the farm family in the story. Both have come to the brink of loosing everything, yet both have found peace in God. Both were made whole and complete in God. Both met, Jehovah Rapha, the God is heals us and makes us whole. God works everything together for good that we would become like Christ. That we can claim our identity as the sons and daughters of God and live out a life of intimacy and love with God. No matter what the circumstance you are going through, God will use that circumstance to heal you, to make you whole,. . . to increase your awareness of just how special, how beautiful you are in the eyes of God. God will use that circumstance to reveal to you how much God loves you and how much He will do for you in your life to bring you perfect peace.
It's not the circumstances. It's the presence of God in the midst of those circumstances that God uses to make us whole, because God is our healer. For those of us, who have allowed ourselves to be broken by God the hymns we sing, the choruses we sing, become songs of adoration and praise, flowing out of our heart because we know what God has done for us. God is Jehovah Jireh, our provider. God is also Jehovah Rapha, our healer.