My Healer

Today I am going to focus on God, my healer. It's going to be a little language lesson for you.  :)

In Exodus 15, at the end of verse 26, it says, "For I am the Lord who heals you." The words referring to the Lord are Jehovah Rapha (how we would see them, not the true Hebrew).

The word rapha or raphah means to mend (by stitching) or to cure, cause to heal, physician, repair, make whole.

In my searching this morning I have found that this word is not only used for physical healing, but David in Psalm 41 asks God to heal his soul because he had sinned. A few Psalms later, in chapter 60, David again asks God to heal something, but this time it's about the earth being broken.

Moving on to Psalm 103:1-5(NKJV).

Bless the LORD, O my soul;
And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
And forget not all His benefits:
Who forgives all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases,Who redeems your life from destruction,
Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,
Who satisfies your mouth with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. (emphasis added)

 Look at that verse. I suggest reading the whole chapter; it's awesome. But for this blog, I really want to focus on verse 3.

"Who forgives all your iniquities." Let's stop there for a moment. The Hebrew word for iniquities is avon (with accents that I can't type here). It means perversity, moral evil, fault, iniquity, mischief, sin. How many? ALL. That is so important to understand.

"Who heals all your diseases." Diseases, tachalu (please don't ask me to pronounce that one), means malady, disease, sickness. How many? ALL.

Both the forgiveness and the healing were complete when Jesus was beaten, crucified and then rose from the dead. Keep reading and I'll show you.

Isaiah 53:5

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. 

Hallelujah! Praise God!

But this is all Old Testament. Don't we live in the New Covenant? Ah, but we do and now let's go to 1 Peter 2:24, "who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed."

This word, healed, is the Greek word iaomai, which means to cure, heal, make whole. There is another Greek word that also means to heal or make whole, but it encompasses another meaning as well. The word is sozo. It means to save (deliver or protect), heal, preserve, save, do well, be whole. This word is used throughout the New Testament. Most times it is translated "save," but a number of times it is translated "be made whole" or "heal."

It's an exciting word. I encourage you to check it out. I also encourage you to embrace Jesus as your healer, as well as your Savior.

Do you have a time when He was your healer? I would love to hear about it.

Please leave a comment. I read every one. Sometimes blogger won't let me respond, however. It's finicky that way.  :)

As always - under HIS wings,

Ginger

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