God reveals His second covenant and redemptive name to the children of Israel in the wilderness, and it illustrates another awesome characteristic of God’s eternal goodness.

Exodus 15:26 (Revised Standard Version):

Saying, “If you will diligently hearken to the
voice of the Lord your God, and do that which
is right in His eyes, and give heed to his
commandments and keep all his statutes, I
will put none of the diseases upon you which
I put upon the Egyptians; for I am the Lord,
your healer.

Knox Translation:

Here too, he gave them laws and decrees to live
by, and issued this challenge to them: if thou
will listen to the voice of the Lord thy God, his
will doing, his word obeying, and all he bids thee
observe, observing faithfully, never shall they fall
on thee, the many woes brought on Egypt; I am
the Lord, and it is health I bring thee.

God’s second redemptive name is Yahweh-Rapha, which means “the Lord heals.” Healing is an integral part of God’s good nature and His will for every single child of God. The word “heal” in the Hebrew means: to heal, to restore, to cure, to repair, to make healthful, to mend and to make whole. Our loving Heavenly Father has a covenant relationship with us as our healer, restorer, mender, repairer and the one who makes us healthful and whole. Yahweh-Rapha is the only true source of all healing and restoration. Yahweh-Rapha brings health in all of its manifestations in every category of life. Just as God is love, we must also understand that God is healing. Healing is not an occasional thing God does when He feels like it, but healing is what God is. The touch of the Master’s hand in our lives brings healing and wholeness.

Healing is a vital characteristic of God, as it is His name and represents one of the blessings and benefits of His salvation and redemption in Christ Jesus. Yahweh-Rapha’s intense desire is to tenderly mend and repair your life so that you are brought to a total state of health and complete restoration. God is not just the God of physical healing, but is the God of emotional, mental, and spiritual healing. God not only heals the body, but He heals the soul, the mind and the emotions. He gives us the spirit of God as a new nature that absolutely revitalizes our earthly bodies, and gives us the power to overcome all satanic infirmities of mind and body. Yahweh-Rapha’s passionate longing is to liberate and free us from every disease or sickness of the body or mind, and to bind up and mend every wound of our heart and soul. When we obey Him and live according to His Word, He has promised that He will be our personal healer. Yahweh-Rapha is a God of health not sickness; a God of wholeness not disease; a God of restoration not destruction; a God who mends and repairs not tears apart, and a God of life not death. Yahweh-Rapha is the God of all healing and the God of all health.

Let’s explore the context of this verse in Exodus in more detail, as it will give us a deeper understanding of the meaning of God’s second redemptive name, Yahweh-Rapha. God had just instituted the Passover, which brought great protection and healing to the Israelites. The Psalmist declares (Psalm 105:37) that when God led the Israelites out of Egypt, there was not one feeble soul among them, as all of the men, women and children were full of strength and health. God performed miracle after miracle in Egypt so His people could be free, and when the Egyptians chased after the Israelites and had them backed up against the Red Sea, God performed one of the most awesome works that has ever been recorded in the history of the world-He parted the Red Sea so all of His children could safely pass through on dry ground right in the midst of this raging sea. Not one Israelite was lost; not one Israelite was hurt; not one Israelite was killed or wounded by the enemy. Moses commanded the Israelites to quit complaining and simply stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, for He would fight their battles for them. God Almighty is bigger and more powerful than all the chariots, horsemen, and might of the Egyptian empire. Not one of the enemy soldiers remained, as the Red Sea came raging together again and crushed the arrogant enemy of God’s people. God’s people stood on dry land again-healthy, safe, and fully protected by the magnificent power and strength of their covenant God. Exodus 15 begins with a wonderful song of praise and triumphant sung to the Lord by Moses and the Israelites.

Exodus 15:2,11,13 (NIV):

The Lord is my strength and my song; he has
become my salvation. He is my God and I will
praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

Who among the gods is like you, O Lord? Who
is like you-majestic in holiness, awesome in glory,
working wonders?

In your unfailing love you will lead the people
you have redeemed. In your strength you will
guide them to your holy dwelling.

Nothing compares to God’s unfailing love and mighty strength for His people.

Nothing can match God’s majestic holiness, His awesome glory, and His wonderful works which He displayed so mightily in the liberation of the Israelites from the bondage of Egypt. For a brief moment, the children of Israel were thankful for God’s awesome salvation, power and goodness and their hearts overflowed with praise. But that would all change as the journey began into the wilderness toward the promise land. It did not take long for the Israelites to forget the salvation, strength, guidance, glory, and magnificent works of Yahweh and begin to complain and murmur against God and Moses.

Exodus 15:22-25 (KJV):

So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and
they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and
they went three days in the wilderness, and found
no water.

And when they came to Marah, they could not
drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter;
therefore the name of it was called Marah.

And the people murmured against Moses, saying,
what shall we drink?

And he cried unto the Lord and the Lord shewed
him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters,
the waters were made sweet: there he made for
them a statute and an ordinance, and there he
proved them.

In just seventy-two hours, the children of Israel forgot the goodness of God and failed to remember His great deliverance in Egypt. They grumbled against Moses, and unbelief dominated their minds. They refused to believe that God Almighty could provide water to drink, even after they witnessed countless awesome acts of God’s power to liberate them from Egypt and take care of His people. Moses cried unto the Lord, and God came through again as He turned the bitter waters sweet for His people.

It is amazing that God lovingly chose this moment to reveal to the Israelites another important characteristic of His nature and a wonderful covenant promise of healing. Yahweh-Rapha’s healing power can make all the bitter areas of our life sweet. There is often a root of bitterness in the sickness and disease that inflicts mankind. A bitter soul and mind can wreak havoc on the physical body and torment the thoughts, life, and emotions of a person. The mind and body cannot flourish when a heart is contaminated and infested with bitterness. Yahweh-Rapha can completely remove the stinging numbness and deep pain of bitterness and restore sweet joy and peace to every fiber of our being. God’s healing balm flushes away all the bitterness and gives us a new day to live in His healing grace and wholeness.

Israel had begun to be corrupted from within by a spirit and attitude of bitterness that grew out of their captivity in Egypt. Israel’s bitterness was hindering them from trusting and praising God and diligently following His Word. This bitterness would spread like a wild fire and corrupt them physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Yahweh-Rapha was tenderly showing His people that He is the healer of all bitterness of heart and soul, and that bitterness is evidence of a sick heart that has no trust and confidence in the Lord. Bitterness is always an impediment to the healing of the Lord and clogs up our heart from loving and serving Him. Bitterness opens the floodgates to sickness and disease of the body, emotions, mind, and soul. God wants your soul to bathe in the sweetness of His love, where bitterness has no place.

Jeremiah 30:17 (English Standard Version):

For I will restore health to you, and your wounds
I will heal, declares the Lord, because they have
called you an outcast: “It is Zion for whom no one
cares!’

You may have bitterness and disappointment against family, friends, or people who have forsaken you and labeled you an outcast. You may have bitterness that took root as a child, as you felt no one cared about you and you had been cast aside as worthless or having no value. You may have deep wounds in your heart from people who have betrayed you and let you down, leaving a long trail of bitterness and unforgiveness in your soul. You may have been traumatized by addictions, abuse, hatred, and bad experiences that have deeply wrecked your emotional and physical well-being. People may call you an outcast and say you are useless, not wanted, valueless, and hopeless. But that is not what the Lord says. That is not what the Lord thinks. That is not what the Lord believes. The Lord is saying, “I am Yahweh-Rapha and I will restore your health and mend your heart.” The Lord is saying, “My heart aches to heal every wound of bitterness, every disappointment, every heartache, every dysfunction and every burden.” Yahweh-Rapha is offering you total healing and restoration, and is waiting for you to trust in Him and His Word. Yahweh-Rapha wants you back in His loving embrace, enjoying the full comfort of His healing presence. Yahweh-Rapha wants to restore you to good physical health; He wants too restore you to a sound mind with a clear conscience; He wants to restore your emotional health and give you His divine peace and favor.

Yahweh-Rapha is the wonderful healer, the awesome repairer, the magnificent mender, and the Great Physician of the body and soul. Yahweh-Rapha is the cure for every single sickness, disease, and infirmity that has ever inflicted the body and mind of the human race.

Psalm 103:3 (Message Bible):

He forgives your sins-every one. He heals
your diseases-every one.

Matthew 4:23,24 (NIV):

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their
synagogues, preaching the good news of the
kingdom, and healing every sickness and disease
among the people.

News about him spread all over Syria, and people
brought to him all who were ill with various
diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-
possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed,
and he healed them.

Exodus 23:25,26 (Message Bible):

But you-you serve your God and he’ll bless
your food and water. I’ll get rid of the sickness
among you; there won’t be any miscarriages or barren women in your land. I’ll make sure you live full and complete lives.

No matter what the disease, no matter what the infirmity, and no matter what the sickness, Yahweh-Rapha intensely desires to heal each and every believer. Healing is not some ancient thing of the past, or only available in Bible times. God is not the God formerly known as Yahweh-Rapha. God does not change, as He always was and always will be Yahweh-Rapha, the covenant Lord who completely heals. The healing power of Yahweh-Rapha enables us to live full and complete lives in physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual harmony. There is no physical sickness, mental infirmity, spiritual malady or disease of body and soul beyond the reach of the healing power of Yahweh-Rapha.

Jeremiah 17:14 (American Standard Version):

Heal me, O Yahweh, and I shall be healed;
save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art
my praise.

Message Bible:

God, pick up the pieces, put me back together
again. You are my praise.

Psalm 147:3 (God’s Word to the Nations)

He is the healer of the brokenhearted. He is the
one who bandages their wounds.

Yahweh-Rapha as the healer and restorer is the one who picks up the pieces and puts you back together again. His healing is cleansing, complete, rejuvenating and absolute. When Yahweh-Rapha heals you there is nothing lacking or incomplete in that healing. Yahweh-Rapha is the great healer of the brokenhearted. The word “broken” in the Hebrew means: to be broken down or to be broken in pieces, to be wrecked, to be crushed, to be ruptured, to be shattered and to be maimed. The human heart is fragile and often the most susceptible to the ravages of sickness and disease. Mental bondage and infirmity are rampant in our society, as a person’s heart and soul becomes crushed, shattered, and ruptured by the circumstances of life. The heart gets broken in pieces, and the world offers no hope of restoration. Sometimes the greatest need of healing for someone is the healing of their broken and shattered heart. The crushed in spirit desperately need the healing and mending power of Yahweh-Rapha to repair and restore complete inner harmony and peace. Yahweh-Rapha promises deliverance and healing from all mental bondage and every heartache known to man; Yahweh-Rapha will mend your broken dreams; Yahweh-Rapha will bandage and cleanse every wound of the heart; Yahweh-Rapha will tenderly repair every rupture of the heart and make the tattered, broken heart whole once again.

Psalm 34:18 (NIV):

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and
saves those who are crushed in spirit.

All depression, oppression, despair, misery, melancholy, hopelessness, sadness, dejection, unworthiness, fear, unhappiness and any other mental infirmity and prison of the mind melts away in the loving arms of your Heavenly Father and your wonderful Lord, who is your healer, your repairer, your mender, and your restorer.

This loving, wonderful Father, reached out to a world broken with sickness, disease, and heartache and sent His only begotten Son to bring Yahweh-Rapha into manifestation upon the earth and among His chosen people. Jesus Christ was the Great Physician, the awesome healer, and the magnificent mender who healed the diseased, the sick, and the brokenhearted, and touched the people with the healing wholeness and restoration of Yahweh-Rapha. Record after record in the gospels dynamically illustrates Jesus Christ carrying out His Father’s will by healing every infirmity of mind and body among His people and bringing great healing deliverance to them.

Matthew 15:29-31 (NIV):

Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee.
Then he went up on a mountainside and sat down.

Great crowds came to him bringing the lame, the
blind, and the crippled, the mute, and many others,
and laid them at his feet; and he healed them.

People were amazed when they saw the mute
speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking,
and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of
Israel.

Luke 4:40 (NIV):

When the sun was setting the people brought to
Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and
laying his hands on each one, he healed them.

Matthew 4:23,24 (NIV):

Jesus went throughout Galilee teaching in their
synagogues, preaching the good news of the
kingdom, and healing every sickness and disease
among the people.

News about him spread all over Syria, and people
brought to him all who were ill with various
diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-
possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed,
and he healed them all.

Verse 24 (Message):

Word got around the entire Roman province of
Syria. People brought anybody with an ailment,
whether mental, emotional, or physical. Jesus
healed them, one and all.

Luke 6:19 (Twentieth Century New Testament):

And everyone in the crowd tried to touch him,
because a power preceded from him which made
everyone well.

Jesus Christ lovingly reached out to the sick and afflicted and tenderly touched them, healing each and every one. No sickness or disease could stand against the power of Yahweh-Rapha, and there was great praise and joy in Israel. All that came to Him in believing faith were healed as he lifted the bondage of sickness and the misery of disease from their lives. The preaching of the good news of the kingdom and the healing of the people were constant companions in the ministry of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ vividly showed in his ministry that his Heavenly Father was the God who heals all those who come to Him. The children of Israel had never seen before such an awesome display of the nature of God as Yahweh-Rapha. Everyone that comes to Him is made well; everyone that comes to Him is restored and everyone that comes to Him is made whole.

Acts 10:38 (New King James Version):

How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the
Holy Spirit and with power, who went about
doing good and healing all who were oppressed
by the devil, for God was with him.

Luke 4:18 (Amplified Bible):

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has
anointed Me [the Anointed One, the Messiah] to
preach the good news (the Gospel) to the poor; He
has sent Me to announce release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind, to send forth as
delivered those who are oppressed [who are down-
trodden, bruised, crushed, and broken down by
calamity.

God anointed Jesus with spiritual power and sent Him to heal all who were oppressed of the devil. The word “oppressed” in the Greek means: to exercise power over something so to keep it down or captive to its harsh control; it’s to be under a tyrannical power and to be exploited by a captive power. Oppressed means to be downtrodden bruised, crushed, and broken down by the calamity of physical, mental, and spiritual disease or sickness. Yahweh-Rapha is not the oppressor, but the healer, and He desires His children be delivered from all oppression that torments the mind, body and soul. Sickness and disease are a form of oppression that is used to keep a person broken down and crushed by its power. The devil is the oppressor, the thief, and the adversary who is always trying to steal the blessing of healing from the children of God. Yahweh-Rapha wants to restore His children to complete health, vitality and life. The devil wants to oppress everyone with sickness, disease, infirmity, and death. The goodness of God was revealed in the healing that God provided by His Son that demonstrated His love, mercy, and grace. God sent His Word to heal His people and Jesus Christ, as the Word of God in the flesh, accomplished the good things of God by healing and delivering God’s people from the oppression of sickness and disease.

Sickness and disease do not originate with God but entered the world with the fall of Adam and the corruption and pollution of sin that infiltrated the entire creation. Mankind became terribly marred by sin, evil, sorrow, and the countless disorders that plague the physical, emotional, mental, and behavioral components of man’s being. The entire human race groans and travails under the heavy burdens and consequences that result from sin and the Fall. These burdens include sickness, emotional illness, behavior dysfunctions, death, heartaches, loneliness, famine, bereavement, disease, loss, futility, fear, depression, hopelessness, and everything else that is contrary to God’s loving design and desire for His creation. How sorely mankind is need of a healer! Yahweh-Rapha steadfastly desires to repair these blotches on His beautiful handiwork and heal, repair, and restore His creation to its proper function and beauty. Yahweh-Rapha earnestly wants to repair men and women who are the crowning glory of His works and restore their dignity, giving them complete deliverance from the bondage of sin. This complete redemptive healing can only be accomplished through Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross and in His resurrection. Just as Moses cast the tree in the waters of Marah and made the bitter water sweet, Jesus Christ was crucified upon a tree to take away the bitter waters of sin and restore the sweet living waters of healing and restoration to all those who come to Him. The healing tree of Calvary provides redemptive healing and wholeness.

I Peter 2:24 (King James Version):

Who his own self bare our sins in his own
body on the tree, that we, being dead to
sins, should live unto righteousness: by
whose stripes ye were healed

Galatians 3:13 (NIV):

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the
law, being made a curse for us, for it is
written, “Cursed is everyone who is hung
on a tree.”

Jesus Christ paid the full and complete price for our redemption on the tree of Calvary by not only bearing our every sin, but also by bearing our sicknesses and our pains. Jesus Christ redeemed us from the bondage of the curse of the law, and part of that curse was sickness and disease. Physical, mental, and spiritual healing is an integral part of the atonement and salvation that God made available by sending His only begotten Son to a world plagued with sin, sickness, and disease. In the Greek, “to be saved” means to be made whole, and that not only includes remission and forgiveness of sins, but also includes a physical restoration and healing of the body and soul. Jesus Christ was our complete substitute on the cross, as God made Christ to be sin for us as He died in our place so we could be made free from the penalty of sin. But the cross of Christ is much more, as God also laid upon that cross every sickness, every infirmity, every disease, and every pain that has inflicted and tormented the human race since the fall of Adam. All the bitterness that infiltrated the world from the curse of the Fall was laid on the cross of Christ, and He broke the authority and power of sin, sickness, disease, and death.

Jesus Christ broke the power of the curse and made life sweet again. God gave us a new nature and made us a new creation in Christ. The old ways of sin, sickness, pain, disease, and physical or mental infirmity have no more authority over the born again believer,
who chooses by faith to walk in their redemptive sonship rights. The cross made available the promised blessing of salvation, and this includes the blessing of sweet healing to our mind, body, and soul.

Christ’s awesome redemptive work enables us to live in righteousness and reign as kings in life, enjoying the more than abundant and good life that God has so richly and freely given us in Christ. According to Ephesians 4:8, Jesus Christ led captivity captive, and we no longer have to be in bondage or under the oppression of anything, for we have been delivered and made free. Anything that could ever hold you in captivity or bondage, Jesus Christ triumphed over it by leading it captive to the cross he bore at Calvary. Oh, that the Christian Church might see how big their redemption is in Christ! Oh, that the Christian church might see how much was accomplished for them at Calvary. We were justified, made righteous, sanctified, made whole, given a new nature, healed, delivered, set free and glorified by our Lord’s wonderful atonement and redemption accomplished at Calvary. The power of the devil was broken and paralyzed, and he became eternally defeated against the children of the living God.

I Peter 2:24 clearly proclaims that “by his stripes we have been healed.” The word “stripes” in the Greek is a welt, wale, bruise or wound caused by blows; it is the mark left on the body by the beating with a rod or a whip or the fist; it is a lashing that draws blood. It literally means a “battle face” which is a face that looks like it has been through an extreme battle, war, or fight. In the Hebrew, it means: the mark or print of blows in the skin. Jesus Christ was subject to savage beatings by the religious leaders and the Romans over a period of time of about forty (40) hours, from the time of his arrest until the time of his death. The vicious blows on the body of Jesus Christ began during his illegal trial, when one of the officers of the temple was offended by Jesus’ remark to Annas, the high priest, and struck him with a rod (more accurate translation from the Greek). The Greek word “smitest” in John 18:23, describing this beating, means “to skin, flay or scourge.” The rod would have been a thin, flexible whip-like cane. Upon hitting the face, it would easily bend and wrap around the face, cutting the flesh.

The second record in the Gospels of the stripes that Jesus Christ bore for you is after the illegal sentence of death by the high priest, scribes, and elders. The high priest’s servants, the guards, the religious leaders and the mob began to spit on him after the mock trial, and covered his face and began to strike and beat him with their palms and with rods, mocking the Son of God. The Greek words used in the Gospel accounts indicate that they skinned, flayed, or thrashed him with their hand, fist, rod, or weapon and violently beat and pummeled him with repeated blows. This opened terrible wounds on the body and face of Jesus.

Later the Romans would brutally beat and flog Jesus beginning with the scourging ordered by Pontius Pilate. The soldiers stripped Jesus, tied him to a post, and savagely flogged him. The Romans used a scourge of cords or leather thongs to which were attached pieces of lead, brass, or small sharp pieces of bone. The whipping on the bare back would hideously gouge the flesh, literally plowing it loose from the ribs and vertebrae. In Word Studies of the Greek New Testament, Wuest expounds more on this brutal Roman scourging:

Criminals condemned to crucifixion were ordinarily
scourged before being executed. The victim was
stripped to the waist and bound in a stooping position,
with the hands behind the back, to a post or pillar.
The suffering under the lash was intense. The body
was frightfully lacerated. The Christian martyrs at
Smyrna about A.D. 155 were so torn by the scourges
that their veins were laid bare, and the inner muscles
and sinews and even the bowels were exposed. The
Greek word translated “stripes” refers to a bloody wale
trickling with blood that arises under a blow. The word
is singular, not plural. Peter remembered the body of
our Lord after the scourging, the flesh so dreadfully
mangled that the disfigured form appeared in his eyes
as one single bruise. Thus we have the portrait of the
suffering Servant of Yahweh. His blessed face so
pummeled by the hard fists of the mob that it did not
look like a human face anymore. His back lacerated
by the Roman scourge so that it was one mass of open,
raw, quivering flesh trickling with blood.

The effects of this scourging are vividly described in Psalms.

Psalm 129:3 (KJV):

The plowers plowed upon my back; they made
long their furrows.

Rows of ploughed flesh lined Jesus’ back from these beatings, as his back looked like a freshly ploughed field with deep furrows. Yet the brutal beatings and stripes that Jesus Christ bore for your healing was not done. After the death sentence by crucifixion, Pilate sent Jesus into the judgment hall, the Praetorium, with a cohort of four to six hundred Roman soldiers, who gathered to mock and torture him some more. They put on his head a crown of thorns, composed of twigs broken off from a thorny plant which grew on wasteland nearby. These thorns were long, sharp, and re-curved and were driven into his scalp causing festering wounds and profuse bleeding. They viciously flogged Jesus again as the cruel mocking and terrible scourging lasted into the night, and in the morning they dragged Jesus out of the judgment hall to be crucified.

God gave Isaiah revelation concerning this brutality of our Lord’s sacrifice for us.

Isaiah 50:6 (Holman Christian Standard Bible):

I gave My back to those who beat Me, and
My cheeks to those who tore out My beard.
I did not hide my face from scorn and spitting.

Isaiah 52:14 (NIV):

Just as there were many who were appalled at
Him-his appearance was so disfigured beyond
that of any man and his form marred beyond
human likeness.

New Jerusalem Bible:

As many people were aghast at him-he was so
inhumanly disfigured that he no longer looked
like a man.

All of the devilish forces of hell were unleashed upon the body of Jesus, and he was beaten so badly that it grossly disfigured his appearance beyond human likeness. You could hardly even recognize that he was a man as they ravaged his back and face with cruel scourging, and viciously pummeled his face with their fists and rods, even ripping out his beard. His body was a massive bloody mess of torn and ripped flesh that caused him extreme agony and pain. Jesus went through this unimaginable physical and mental torture to pay the price for our sins, our sicknesses, our pains, and our infirmities. At any moment during this torment and anguish, Jesus could have called 72,000 angels to stop the madness and free him from this torture (Matthew 26:53). But he chose instead to endure the cross, to endure the pain, to endure the beatings, to endure the mocking and to endure the torture because he loved you and me. When Jesus was beaten, mocked and crucified, he had you on his mind. Jesus would have gone through all the agony of the crucifixion for you, even if you would have been the only person who would ever believe and be saved. That is how special and valuable you are to our Lord.

Hebrews 12 tells us that with great joy Jesus endured the cross, because he knew he was paying the price for our complete deliverance and redemption. Jesus died in our stead; he paid the penalty for our sin and its consequences; he bore our sins, our sicknesses, our pains and our infirmities; he was savagely beaten and crucified for you so that he could justify you, make you righteous, sanctify you, and bring you into the family of God as a son and daughter. He broke the authority of sin, sickness, and disease by his sacrifice on the cross. He delivered us from the authority and power of darkness and gave us full citizenship in his kingdom. What a Savior! What a Lord! The love of Christ is so big that it is beyond human understanding that Jesus would bear the ultimate physical and mental torture and gross disfigurement of the crucifixion and die on the cross for you and me. We are made whole by the blood he shed for us and the body he allowed to be broken for us.

The prophet Isaiah further expounds on what Jesus bore on his cross and the physical, mental and spiritual healing that are part of our redemption.

Isaiah 53:3-7 (KJV):

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of
sorrows and acquainted with grief: and we hid as
it were our faces from him; he was despised, and
we esteemed him not.

Surely he hath borne our griefs (Hebrew choliy-sickness)
and carried our sorrows (Hebrew-makob-pains: both physical and mental): yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was
bruised (Hebrew-shalowm-crushed, broken, shattered)
for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was
upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned
everyone to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on
him the iniquity of us all.

The Word of God proclaims that Jesus bore our sicknesses and carried our pains. God emphasizes this indisputable truth by the word “surely” in verse 4, which means “truly, certainly and absolutely” and indicates its stability, faithfulness, firmness, and truth. God wanted to leave no doubt in your mind as to this firm truth that all of your sicknesses and pains were absolutely and certainly borne on the cross of Christ. The word “borne” in the Hebrew means: to lift up, to be taken away, to be carried off, to be swept away, and to move by bearing. The word “carry” in the Hebrew means: to bear a heavy load or burden. Both words do not just mean suffering, but denote an actual substitution and a complete removal of the thing borne. Jesus took upon himself every sickness, every pain, and every sin known to man, and paid the price for each one, effectively discharging their power and bondage over us. Your sicknesses, your pains, your sins and all of their consequences passed from you to Calvary and salvation, health, deliverance, and peace flowed from Calvary to you. Jesus Christ was our complete substitute for sin and its consequences, which includes sickness, disease, infirmity, depression, anxiety, weakness, oppression, and all bitterness of mind and body.

Yahweh-Rapha accomplished complete healing on the cross of Jesus Christ and reversed the destruction of the curse brought by the fall of Adam. With Jesus’ brutal stripes that ripped his body apart, we have been healed. Remember-the word healed means: to cure, to cause to live, to revive, to make healthful, to restore, to repair, to mend and to make whole. How wonderful and magnificent is this blessing of healing that is inherent in our redemption. There is awesome physical, mental, and spiritual healing in our salvation that floods our entire being with healing wholeness and restores, repairs, and mends every bitter disease of body, heart, and soul. This sweet healing causes us to live in peace and contentment, and enables us to have a living, deep, and intimate relationship with our Heavenly Father. Yahweh-Rapha wants us to live healthful, vibrant and vivacious lives on the earth. Yahweh-Rapha wants us to have absolute mental health, where our minds are renewed to the truth of his Word and our thinking is pure and unpolluted by the fears, anxieties, and worries of this age. No longer do we have to be in bondage to any depression, any thought of inadequacy, any feeling of unworthiness, any fear of doom, or any gloominess, because our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ paid the price for our mental healing and brought mighty deliverance and freedom through his redeeming work on the cross.

It is so important for the Christian believer to discern the importance of the Lord’s body and what wonderful things were accomplished when it was broken for you. The Lord instituted the communion as a memorial of his finished work so the Christian believer could reflect and remember the greatness of the redemption accomplished by the blood and body of Jesus Christ. Most of us understand that in the communion ceremony, the cup represents the blood of Jesus, which was shed for the remission and forgiveness of sins. But how many of us really understand what the bread represents in the communion ceremony? Paul instructs the Corinthians believers on the importance of this very point in discerning the Lord’s body during the communion.

I Corinthians 11:28-30 (NIV):

A man ought to examine himself before
he should eats of the bread and drinks
of the cup.

For anyone who eats and drinks without
recognizing (discerning) the body of the
Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.

That is why many among you are weak
and sick, and a number of you have fallen
asleep (died).

The Corinthian church did not properly discern and recognize the significance and meaning of the broken, beaten body of our Lord in the communion ceremony. They received the consequences of their unbelief, as many among the church were weak, sick, and dying prematurely. The bread represents the body of our Lord that was viciously beaten and broken for our physical healing. There is not only great forgiveness in the communion ceremony, but great healing also. Just as the children of Israel ate physical wholeness to themselves when they partook in the Passover, as there was not one feeble, sick, or weak person among them when they left Egypt in triumph, so we also eat physical and mental healing to ourselves by partaking of the bread in communion. Yahweh-Rapha wants His children healthy, strong, and vibrantly alive. Yahweh-Rapha wants His children to live full and long lives free from the ravages of sickness, disease, and pain. God established the communion ceremony so the church would never forget the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior and the spiritual and physical blessings that flow from His death and resurrection. As Christian believers, we must claim our legal sonship right to physical, mental, and spiritual healing that Jesus Christ paid for on the cross of Calvary. If Jesus bore our sicknesses, diseases, and pains than why should we bear them? He is our Savior to the uttermost and made complete provision for our healing in his atonement.

Now we begin to see the magnificence of this second great characteristic of the goodness of God revealed in the name Yahweh, which is The Lord is our Healer. Yahweh-Rapha is our healer, our restorer, our repairer, and our mender and He sweeps away all the bitterness, oppression and depression from our lives. Yahweh-Rapha picks up the pieces and puts us back together again. Yahweh-Rapha heals our broken heart and bandages and cleans our wounds. Yahweh-Rapha has a covenant of healing with us, sealed by the blood and broken body of His only begotten Son. Yahweh-Rapha intensely desires for us to live in His healing power and enjoy the wonderful life that He has so richly given us.

III John 2: (American Standard Version):

Beloved, I pray that in all things thou
mayest prosper and be in health, even as
thy soul prospereth.

God wants us to prosper and be in health in every fiber of our body, soul, and spirit. God wants us to enjoy his goodness by claiming the great blessings of healing that He has freely given to us in Christ Jesus.

Proverbs 3:5-8 (The Message Bible):

Trust God from the bottom of your heart;
don’t try to figure out everything on your
own.

Listen for God’s voice in everything you
do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who
will keep you on track.

Don’t assume you know it all. Run to God
run from evil!

Your body will glow with health, your very
bones will vibrate with life!

Proverbs 4:20-22 (The Message Bible):

Dear friend, listen well to my words; tune
your ears to my voice.

Keep my message in plain view at all times.
Concentrate! Learn it by heart!

Those who discover these words live, really
live; body and soul, they’re bursting with health.

The voice of God to his children is a voice of healing. The plain message and good Word of God to His people is that the Lord is our healing and His life within us rejuvenates and re-energizes our body and soul so that they burst forth with vibrant health. God wants us to understand that just as He is love, He is healing and He has made complete, absolute provision for physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual healing through His Son. How wonderful to know the Lord as Yahweh-Rapha. This is part of the matchless goodness of God-He heals, restores, cures, and repairs everything that is broken in our lives. Praise God for His goodness.

By Timothy Rowe