“If you will diligently listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, your healer.”
(Exodus 15:26)
Yahweh Rophe. Our God is Healer.
The Hebrew word ROPHE means “heal”, “restore”, or “make whole”. In Exodus 15, shortly after His own people left Egypt for the Promised Land, God revealed Himself to them as Yahweh Rophe—“the God who heals” or “God is your healing.” The Hebrew Scriptures tell us that God is the source of all healing. The New Testament tells us that Christ Jesus is the Great Physician. We come to God, through Christ, as the healer of both body and soul.
Healing the body
God knows the human body better than any biologist or anatomist. He knit you together in your mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13) and He knows when you will take your last breath (Job 14:15). God is also a God of prayer. We bring our requests to Him, and He is faithful to answer. Jesus exercised His power to heal many times during His ministry (Matthew 4:23-24, 9:35). The Twelve Apostles also had this gift of healing (Matthew 10:1). The Seventy did too (Luke 10:8-9). Also, church elders are commanded to pray for their sick so that God could answer and heal them (James 5:13-16). So we pray to God, our Great Healer, when we are sick or know someone who is dying. God may choose to heal us from our ailments—all to His glory.
Healing the soul
While God indeed heals our physical bodies, physical healing is a temporary remedy for the human body. Jesus heals both mind and body. The greatest sickness is the ailment of sin and death. No man can escape this, unless he is in Christ.
Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
(Isaiah 53:4-5)