YAHWEH Rapha, YAHWEH Ra'ah

Read Exodus 15:22-26, YAHWEH Rapha

In our previous posts we studied 5 compound names of God.  These are names that in English are hyphenated, but in Hebrew are one compound word.  Today I want to mention two important references to God that are not so much names as they are descriptions.  Each appears once, in the Hebrew “active participle.”  The describing word is a “verbal adjective,” a term describing God as performing an action.  Here is what we are saying.

·       In Exodus 15, in the first stop after leaving the Red Sea, God healed the undrinkable waters of Marah (Marah means bitter).  This incident set a pattern, that God would test Israel in the desert to see if they would follow Him.  This was preparation for the covenant God would make with Israel at Mt. Sinai (if you obey Me you will be my special treasure, Ex. 19:5).  In this passage God promised that if Israel followed Him, He would put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians.  He described Himself, saying, I am the LORD who heals you (I am YAHWEH Rapha, the LORD healing you).

o   “Rapha” appears 67 times in the OT, first found in Gen. 20:17 where God healed the Gentile Abimelech and his house, in answer to Abraham’s prayer.

o   In Isa. 53:5 it is used of Messiah:  By His stripes we are healed.  Peter quotes this of Christ in 1 Peter 2:24. The context in both passages indicates Jesus’ stripes brought healing from sin and its effect, so that we can live to please God.  The total healing will not be complete until the complete redemption of the body when we are in His presence (Rom. 8:23-25).

Read Psalm 23:1-6, YAHWEH Ra’ah

·       The Shepherd Psalm begins, The LORD is my shepherd, YAHWEH ra’ah.  The term is general, in the sense that it applies to a person who does all the things that sheep need to have done.  Thus He leads them, makes sure they have food to eat, cares for their scratches and sicknesses, and so forth.  The Psalm itself, of course, is a tremendous description of what the LORD does as the Shepherd for His people.  The result is that they have no want, no lack of anything.  This provision applies to the needs of this life as well as the one to come.

o   Another great description of what a shepherd does is found in Ezek. 34:4: they strengthen the weak, heal the sick, bind up the broken, bring back those driven away, and seek the lost. 

o   The connection with Christ is hard to miss.  He is the good Shepherd (John 10), who gives His life for the sheep (10:11,17-18).  As the door of the sheep (10:7-10) He sees every one of the sheep as they enter the fold; thus, He fulfills Ezek. 34:4.  He gives eternal life to His sheep (10:28), which is the full and rich life described in Psalm 23.