“…for I am the Lord who heals you.”

Even before all the research and studies were done, people who live where I do already had their water bottles out in full force.  They knew.  In the summer with temperatures running well over 90 and an almost equivalent humidity rating, South Floridians accessorized with water bottles long ago.  So I couldn’t relate to the Israelites, after saying bye-bye to Pharaoh, running out of water — for three days, and in the desert no less!  Three whole days without water?  You’ve got to be kidding.

But this was no joke, not even a bad one.  Water is the stuff of life.  About seventy percent of the planet’s surface is covered with it.  After three days without water I too would have been right in there with the parched Israelites demanding an answer for the bitter waters at Marah.

But God, ever the teacher in the classroom of life, tested them (Exodus 15:25).  This was an opportunity for them to “listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees” (v. 26).  Nothing like a little dehydration to drive home the point for the desperate desert drifters.  Think of the relief, the joy, the shout that went up after Moses threw the piece of wood into the water, turning it “sweet” (v. 25).  Psychologists today might call this kind of training extreme or abusive.  But God knew that the Israelites would need to be made of tougher stuff with future wanderings and battles lurking ahead of them.  If you don’t train for worse than what you’re facing, you won’t be adequately prepared, and inevitably you’ll lose every time.

But it was his changing the quality of the water that gives us our description of God today: “I am the Lord who heals you” (v. 26).  That’s Jehovah rapha in the Hebrew.  And this was not the last time he healed water.  Later in 2 Kings 2 we find Elisha, sweetening the water at Jericho saying, “This is what the Lord says: ‘I have healed this water.  Never again will it cause death or make the land unproductive.’  And the water has remained wholesome to this day, according to the word of Elisha had spoken” (vs. 21-22).  And that’s typical of the way the Lord heals — totally and permanently.

The Scriptures also say that God heals “all of your diseases” (Psalm 103:3) and “the brokenhearted” (Psalm 147:3), as well as all of Israel (Hosea 6:1, 7:1).  In Hosea the context is about being healed from God’s judgment for their sin and wickedness, so it’s clear that relational restoration to God, as well as relief from his punishments, is in view.  Of course, when Jesus walked the earth, he clearly healed hundreds of people.  Consider one verse of many: “When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick” (Matthew 8:16).

When we think of healing, we know that “miraculous healings” accompany many “revival” and preaching events.  Claims and counterclaims cloud our ability to verify what occurred, if anything.  This emphasis looks to Jesus’ words: “And these signs will accompany those who believe…they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well” (Mark 16:18), and “He [a believer] will do even greater things [miracles] than these, because I am going to the Father” (John 14:12).  Stated plainly, God still heals today.  But our focus seems to be on body, soul and spirit — in that order.  God’s order reverses that: spirit, soul and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23).  In this vein, salvation is spiritual healing in three tenses: past, present and future.  First, God healed our spirits in the past, at the cross and when we believed.  This is the intent of 1 Peter 2:24, “By his wounds you have been healed”.  Peter and Isaiah (53:5) both have “wound”, singular not plural.  It was the injury from his Father that brought our spiritual healing and is the basis of all other healing.  Next, he heals our souls currently in a lifelong process of growth called sanctification.  And in the future he will finally and fully heal our bodies at the resurrection, where the ravages of sickness, sin and death are long gone.  In this framework we see that any physical healing is certainly wonderful, but it is limited.  One may be healed from a life-threatening illness only to succumb to something else later.  Remember Lazarus.  We all still live in a fallen world.  Our total physical healing still awaits us.

I have seen a number of people healed as well as some things.  It all comes from the Lord who heals.  That’s his business.  Has his healing touched your spirit, soul and body?