Jehovah Rapha

This is a time of great concern and fear for many as the tiny corona virus aka Chinese virus has overwhelmed the world. Viruses are non-living submicroscopic agents that are much smaller than bacteria and can be seen only on special microscopes but still the corona virus has brought fear and panic to many. Thankfully a Christian doesn’t have to be much concerned as we worship a God who heals us.

From early Biblical history we see the God that heals. Soon after the Jews left Egypt, God taught them “if you will carefully obey the LORD your God, do what is right in his eyes, listen to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, then I won’t inflict on you all the diseases that I inflicted on the Egyptians, because I am the LORD your healer” (Exodus 15:26 ISV). Later during their journeys in the wilderness when they grumbled, “the LORD sent poisonous snakes that bit and killed many of them” (Num 21:6 CEV) but when they repented, “the LORD answered, “make a snake out of bronze and place it on top of a pole. Anyone who gets bitten can look at the snake and won’t die … and all of those who looked at the bronze snake lived, even though they had been bitten by the poisonous snakes” (Num 21:8,9 CEV). When King David counted the people of Israel, 70,000 men died. In repentance, “David built an altar to the LORD there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the LORD answered his prayer in behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped” (2 Samuel 24:25 NIV). When King Hezekiah was sick and about to die, when he cried and prayed and the Lord said “I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Look, I will heal you. … I will add fifteen years to your life” (2 Kings 20:5b,6a NET).

Healing takes a completely new dimension in the New Testament. When Jesus was on earth He was always healing people and doing amazing miracles; “Jesus went to every town and village. He taught in their meeting places and preached the good news about God’s kingdom. Jesus also healed every kind of disease and sickness” (Matthew 9:35 CEV). Jesus healed the blind, deaf, dumb, lepers, paralytics and sick. He raised people from the dead and exorcised many of their demons. After His departure, healing kept continuing through His disciples. “Many signs and wonders were being performed by the apostles among the people, … people kept carrying their sick into the streets and placing them on stretchers and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he went by. Even from the towns around Jerusalem crowds continued coming in to bring their sick and those who were troubled by unclean spirits, and all of them were healed” (Acts 5:12,15,16 ISV). “Philip went down to the city of Samaria and began to preach the Messiah to the people … unclean spirits screamed with a loud voice as they came out of the many people they had possessed, and many paralyzed and lame people were healed” (Act 8:5,7 ). “God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul so that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them” (Act 19:11,12).

Jehovah Rapha is one of the names of God meaning “I am the LORD your healer” (Exodus 15:26b) This tells us that one of the characteristics of God is healing. God does not bring sickness upon us but He heals us when we are sick. Psalm 103 repeated by many after a prayer clearly mentions in verse 3 that it is the Lord “who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases”. Some of us may have thought that healing has ended with Jesus and the apostles. But 1 Peter 2:24 says “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed”. Peter is quoting from Isaiah 53:5b which says “with his wounds we are healed” but he changed the tense from the past to the present! Healing goes into the future to the new earth where in New Jerusalem is “the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations” (Rev 22:2b).

Healing is not obtained in a casual manner but it required Jesus’ death to provide health for us. The Bible often links healing with forgiveness of sin as we see in Isaiah 53:5, 1 Peter 2:24 and Psalm 103:3. As Christians we should believe and receive healing. In this time of lock downs, meditate on how God loves you so much that He sent Jesus to suffer, be gravely wounded and die for you so that you will be safe from corona virus, sin and death. If a tiny sub microscopic agent can be so deadly, sin is infinitely more deadly. I hope that you will gain the understanding and strength to put it away and live in the blessing and health of God!

The deadliest pandemic

We are in the midst of the coronavirus aka COVID-19 aka the Chinese virus pandemic. Nearly 2 million people have been infected and 113,300 people have died across the world (as of 12 April 2020). There have been many other pandemics in the history of our world like the plague of Justinian, Black Death, the third plague pandemic and the Spanish flu. The worst of them was the Black Death which is said to have killed nearly one third of the population of the world! Due to a better understanding of bacteria, viruses, diseases and huge improvements in medicine, the world has been spared major pandemics for the last 100 years. But the corona virus has stealthily travelled across the world and fear has gripped people, especially since there is no known cure.

There is another pandemic greater than corona virus and even Black Death. It got introduced soon after man appeared on the scene and it is still infecting people with deadly accuracy, with a 100% infection and mortality rate! The name of this virus is sin. Sin was introduced when Adam and Eve decided to listen to the devil and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil instead of obeying God. The Bible says “sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men” Romans 5:12 (ESV). People kill and steal; there is poverty, sickness and disease. The ground is unable to yield enough food and many go hungry. There is distrust between man and animals. Many have tried different ways to overcome sin and death but never succeeded. The Old Testament prescribes an elaborate set of rituals and sacrifices to deal with sin but even that could not solve the sin problem as Hebrews 10:3,4 (ISV) says “through those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year after year, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins”. But around 2000 years hope arrived, Joseph was told about his virgin fiancée that “she will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he is the one who will save his people from their sins” Matt 1:21 (ESV).

Smallpox was a deadly disease and it is said that most of the Native American population died due to viral diseases like small pox. But Dr. Edward Jenner induced immunity against smallpox by infecting people with the milder cowpox. Similarly in 1 Peter 2:24 (AMP) the Bible tells that Jesus “personally carried our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin [becoming immune from the penalty and power of sin] and live for righteousness; for by His wounds you have been healed”. Just as small pox has been eliminated in the world thanks to vaccination, the perfect vaccine for sin was produced on the cross by Jesus Christ around 2000 years ago on Good Friday and revealed to the world that Easter. The Bible says in 1 John 1:7 that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. Although sin is the deadliest virus, the vaccine needs no painful injection; it is free and comes with a gift! Romans 6:23 (ESV) says “for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”.

Romans 10:9 (ISV) says that “if you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved”. So if you have been not been vaccinated against the deadliest virus of all time, turn away from your sin, declare that Jesus is Lord and believe on Him. You will get vaccinated from sin and get the free gift of eternal life. You will also get protection against the coronavirus aka COVID-19 aka Chinese virus since He is also our healer about which I will give more detail in my next post.