13 October 2024

JEHOVAH- ROPHE: THE LORD OUR HEALER (Part 2)

(The Names Of God: TNOG 11)

The Name Jehovah-Rophe means Jehovah heals. The Hebrew word “Rophe” means “heal,” “cure,” “restore,” or “make whole.” This Name of God, is found in Ex 15:22-26: “I Am the Lord Who heals you” [Jehovah-Ropheka]. Ropheka is a form of the word Rapha, which is a Hebrew word meaning “to heal.” God is our Healer and the Sole Source of all true healing. Healing is God’s Loving Nature in manifestation because He is Love.

Jehovah is the great Healer of men. He alone is the Remedy for the healing of man and the spirits of men. The Old Testament clearly reveals God's anxious desire and purpose to heal the hurt of His people, and the wounds and sorrows of all mankind. “He heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds” (Psalm 147:3)

The many references to sickness and wounds are simply figurative expressions of moral and spiritual ills, so that it is rather in this sense that God is known as Jehovah-Rophe—Jehovah who heals. This is what Jeremiah means when he says: "For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith Jehovah" (30:17). So Isaiah speaks of the day “when "Jehovah binds up the bruises of his people, and heals the wounds He inflicted" (30:26).

The Jehovah who heals in the Old Testament is the Jesus who heals in the New. Isaiah predicts the coming of Christ upon whom the Spirit of Jehovah God will rest in order, among other things, to bind up the brokenhearted (61:1). Jesus quoted this prophecy concerning Himself in the Synagogue: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised…Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing" (Luke 4:18,21).

In the same chapter various acts of healing are recorded—the healing of fevers, the cleansing of leprosy, the casting out of demons. So Jesus continued all through His ministry. They brought to Him all that were diseased. And He went about "teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people" (Matt 4:23).

These miracles of healing constantly amazed the people and He cited them as proofs of His identity and mission. When John in prison doubts His identity, He sends back word: "Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them" (Matt 11:4,5). "The same works that I do bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me," He said (John 5:36).

Our Lord Jesus still heals today: “He is the same yesterday, today and forever” (Heb.13:8). Come to Him and trust Him for your healing; for He is Jehovah-Rophe Who heals. Amen.

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