Does God Still Heal?

Scripture Reading

We open the Word to Exodus 15. I'm reading verses 22-27, and we're considering tonight another of the names of Jehovah in the Old Testament. Tonight it is Jehovah Ro′of, the Lord who heals.

Exodus 15:22, So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. 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, which is the word for bitterness. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, "What shall we drink?" And he cried unto the Lord, and the Lord showed 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 tested them, saying, "If you will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord your God, and will do that which is right in His sight, and will give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon you which I have brought upon the Egyptians. For I am the Lord that heals you. For I am Jehovah Ro′of, the Lord that heals you."

And they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees. And they encamped there by the waters.

Reflection on Exodus 15

Exodus 15 is a remarkable chapter. Israel had been delivered from the land of Egypt, and you find them singing in the first 21 verses—singing and dancing and rejoicing on the other side of the sea because God had given them a great victory. But it isn't long before their singing turns to sighing, their music turns to murmuring, and their choir starts complaining about life. They had gotten victory over Egypt, but they couldn't get victory over themselves. You can take the Jews out of Egypt, but you're going to have a hard time taking Egypt out of the Jews. God can save us out of this world, but He has an awfully difficult time getting the world out of us, and we love to complain.

The difficult experiences of life are teachers. Life is a school. It's not an easy school—there's no cheating on the exams—and all during life, we're learning two important lessons: we're learning about ourselves, and we're learning about the Lord.

The Jewish people here were learning what they really were like at the end of the great victory. They were shouting and singing, and they were saying to themselves, "We'll never disobey the Lord. We'll never do a thing against God." Oh, what a great victory! And three days later, they were griping and complaining and murmuring. They also learned something about the Lord: that no matter what circumstances they are in, the Lord meets the need. The name Jehovah means "I am." "I am that I am. I am what I am." Whatever you need—in this case, "I am the Lord who heals." He is Jehovah Ro′of, the Lord who heals. That word "heal" also means "repair." The word "heal" and the word "whole" go together. Holiness is health; healing is wholeness. "I am the Lord who makes things whole. I am the Lord who heals."

Now, in this life, there is another person who's the Destroyer. "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy." That's Satan in our lives. And through our lives, either we are destroying or we're building; either we are healing or we're infecting. Wouldn't it be an awful thing to go through life and infect people? We can trust God to heal us. I want to share with you several areas in our lives where we can expect God to want to touch us and heal us.

The Lord Who Heals Our Sinful Hearts

Let's start with the first one—the most obvious one. He's the Lord who heals our sinful hearts. In the Bible, sin is pictured in many different ways. It's pictured as defilement, and God has to wash us. It's pictured as distance, and God has to come and find us. It's pictured as darkness, and God has to bring the light to us. It's pictured as death, and God has to bring life to us. But often in the Bible, sin is pictured as disease, and God has to bring health to us.

Back in the Old Testament law, in Leviticus, God used leprosy as a picture of sin, and He devotes two long chapters in Leviticus just talking about leprosy. Certainly, God knew that ultimately leprosy would be a conquered disease—you wouldn't have plagues of leprosy—but He had these chapters written because it's a picture of sin.

In Isaiah chapter 1, when God gives a full-length photograph, an X-ray, if you please, of the nation of Israel, He describes them as a body just covered with sores, wounds, putrefying sores that had not been cleansed or mollified with ointment. God pictures sickness; God pictures sin as sickness, and God pictures salvation as healing. That's the meaning of Psalm 103 verse three where he says “Who healeth all thy diseases.”

"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 forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;"

That's what the Hebrew poet calls parallelism. The second stanza—the second line—reflects and amplifies the first line: "Who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases." God pictures forgiveness as healing.

Now, it's obvious that God doesn't heal all diseases, or we wouldn't have any cemeteries. I was sharing at a pastor's conference with my dear friend Howard Suden, and one of the pastors there was really gung-ho on Divine Healing. He was trying to disrupt things a little bit and said very pointedly to my friend Dr. Suden, "Don't you believe God can heal every sickness?" Dr. Suden quietly said, "Yes, everyone except the last one." And he's right. When the Bible says God heals all of our sicknesses, all of our diseases, He's talking about the forgiveness of sins. He's talking about the spiritual healing of the heart that comes when you trust Jesus Christ as your Savior.

This is where some people have gone haywire on Isaiah chapter 53. I think you've read Isaiah 53 enough to know that there's a little statement in there that has to do with, well, some of the physical needs. According to some people, Isaiah 53:5, "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed." There are those who say healing is in the atonement, and therefore, if you're saved and get sick, there's something wrong. Friend, if you want to be cruel, if you want to be cruel insidiously cruel, if you want to be unchristian, diabolically unchristian, you just walk into the hospital room of some saint of God and say, "You must not be living right, or you wouldn't be sick."

A few weeks ago, we had a phone call from a friend of mine, a member of our previous church. His wife was dying of cancer—a beautiful girl, gifted lovely voice, godly people. He called and said, "Pastor, I just want you to know that she's probably on her way out now. Pray for us that God will be with us." And yet, while she was in the hospital, people mailed her books saying, "Healing is in the atonement. If you're really saved by His stripes, we are healed." Why don't people read their Bibles? You want to know what kind of healing He's talking about? Turn to First Peter chapter 2 and find out, because it's the New Testament that explains the Old Testament for us. What does it say in 1 Peter 2:24?

"He 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."

He was talking about the healing of the heart. The first kind of healing God wants to bring to us is the healing of the sinful heart. He's the great physician. He is Jehovah Ro′of, the God that heals. All over the city of Chicago tonight are people who have the infection of sin in their hearts, and this infection is spreading. It's spreading poison, and it's killing, and only Jesus Christ can heal. There might be here tonight someone who's never been healed by the great physician. You can't really say, "God is the God who healed me." Trust Him, receive Christ as your Savior, and you'll experience the healing of your sinful heart. That's the first area.

The Lord Who Heals Our Bodies

I think a second area where the Lord is the Lord who heals is in the healing of our bodies. You say, "Now you're going to contradict yourself." No, I'm not. I do not believe that every Christian has a right always to claim healing because it's in the atonement, but I believe we have the right to pray and ask God if it is His will to heal us. I do not believe in Divine Healers; I do believe in Divine Healing.

I've noticed in my Bible that everyone who could heal the sick could also raise the dead. Some years ago, a man brought a huge truck and parked it about a half mile away from my home where I grew up, and he was going to have a big meeting, put up a tent. I'd go to bed at night at 10:00 or 10:30, and I couldn't sleep because all I heard was applause— "Let's give Jesus a great big hand for healing here!"—going on all during the evening, late at night. On the side of the van, it said, "Heal the sick, cleanse the leper, raise the dead." I had no report that any dead people were raised. I believe that God does heal. I've experienced it. I faintly remember getting out of the ambulance—a mess. I had more blood outside on my body than in my body. I'd been hit by a drunken driver who was going 90 miles an hour, got two windshields right in my face. You see, I have an excuse you don't, and taken into the emergency ward to be put back together again. Our people began to arrive from the church to stand with my wife and to pray, and the hospital chaplain came down—an unbeliever. He eventually committed suicide because of his alcoholism. He said to my wife, "He'll never make it, a real encouragement." And my wife said, "He'll make it." People were praying, and they were praying. Hundreds of our people got on the telephone, woke people up at night, and people began to pray. There never was a minute when I went down from that—very minute—we started going up, up, up. In two weeks, I was home because God's people prayed. God heals. God has healed some people in miraculous ways through prayer. He is the God Who heals. He does touch our bodies.

But did you notice what God did to heal that water He used means to do it? You see, God uses means to heal people. I really believe if I had stayed out there in my wrecked car and said, "Well, God can heal me," He wouldn't have done it, because God provided emergency squads and paramedics and transfusions and all of this equipment to help His people. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. You know why we have blood transfusions? Because God's got Christians who need blood. God did this for His people. You know why we have all of this equipment? God knows we need it. God uses means to heal people.

When He said, "I am the Lord who heals you," now get that tree, throw it in the water. God used means, and God said to the Jewish people, "Obey My law, and you won't get sick." He gave them some good laws to keep them from getting sick. He told them what not to eat. He told them how to handle the waste products. You know, a sanitary engineer can read Exodus and Leviticus and discover modern sanitation. You know that God told His people to wash their hands in running water—that was in the Old Testament long before doctors. Why? When doctors first began to wash their hands, they were criticized for it. Did you know that God told them what not to eat? God told them where to put their waste material. God told them to wash with running water. God instituted quarantine. He says, "Boy, if you've got a running issue, get out of the camp. If you got leprosy, get out of the camp." God isolated long before we ever did this. And so it was true: if the Jews obeyed God's law, they wouldn't get those diseases that they would have gotten down in the land of Egypt. And if they did get sick through disobedience, it was God's chastening for them.

Now, sometimes we get sick just because we're human. I'm amazed we aren't more sick than we are. I'm sure I breathe a pack of cigarettes just in restaurants in Chicago in one week. I was having lunch with a friend recently, and the people at the next table—I felt like I was smelling the exhaust pipe of a truck. A person could get cancer secondhand in Chicago. He is the Lord who heals us, but He uses means to do it. And you got to remember something else: God promised the Jewish people, "If you obey My law, I'll keep these diseases away." He never promised that in the New Testament. In the New Testament, God never gave us the same kind of laws He gave in the Old Testament. He said to the Old Testament Jew, "You obey My laws, and your flocks will multiply, you'll always have money, you'll have everything you need, the rain will come down, you'll be blessed." He never said that in the New Testament. First thing Jesus said was, "Blessed are the poor," but He is the Lord who heals.

I believe in praying for the sick. We do it here at Moody Church, and God sometimes answers in marvelous ways. Sometimes God answers in a better way—He just takes the person home, and then the person really is healed. In fact, the person who goes home to be with the Lord is much more alive than we are right now.

Jehovah Ro′of, the Lord who heals the soul, the Lord who heals the body.

The Lord Who Heals the Broken Heart

Thirdly, the Lord who heals the broken heart. I want you to mark a verse in the Book of Psalms, would you? We love the Book of Psalms here.

Psalm 147, verse 3 and 4. You'll need this someday.

"He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He appointeth the number of the stars and calleth them all by their name."

These two verses amaze me. The God of the galaxies is the God who knows about my broken heart. Now I can understand verse four: "He determines the number of the stars; we can't do that. How many are up there? Abraham, you count the stars. I can't do it. Lord has a computer; still can't do it. Here is the God who counts the stars. I can understand that He knows the galaxies, He measures them. But for God to be concerned about my broken heart—nobody. He says, "He is in fact, He puts that first. He heals the brokenhearted and binds the wounds." God expects His people to have broken hearts.

Now, there are people here tonight who have got broken hearts—somebody's broken hearted over a child you prayed for, and you raised the child to serve God and to live for Him, and now the child became a prodigal, gone away from God. Heartbreak—somebody's heartbroken over a disappointed plan. You had something all planned; it was working in that direction. Boom, it blew up, and when it blew up, you broke down. Broken hearts—somebody goes to the doctor and gets an examination. The doctor says, "I'm awful sorry, you have to have surgery." Broken heart—life is filled with broken hearts.

I remember a friend of mine coming—she's very wise in the Lord—and we were talking about a certain situation. I said, "Well, she's got a broken heart." And my friend said, "Ah, but the Lord can heal that broken heart if she'll just give Him all the pieces." That's a good piece of counsel. The Lord can heal the broken heart if you just give Him all the pieces. But we hold on to this piece, "Lord, I want that," and "Lord, I want that." And God says, "Sorry, you got to give Me all the pieces, and I'll put them back together for you." He binds up the wounds. You know how He binds them up? With His promises. The promises of God are the bandages for the soul. And my friend, when you find your heart broken—somebody has disappointed you, God has disappointed you—don't fuss over it and don't get into self-pity. Self-pity is just one short step from self-destruction. Just say, "Dear Lord, my heart's broken. You know it hurts. It hurts. It hurts in ways I can't tell anybody else." "Oh God, it's about to strangle me." Here are all the pieces of my broken heart. Then open your Bible, and God will take some of the inspired bandages and bind up the wounds. He heals the brokenhearted.

You say, "Why does the Lord permit us to have broken hearts?" Well, you want to have a ministry—you're praying, "Lord, use me." You know how He'll use you to help Him bind up the brokenhearted. A famous preacher said at the end of his life, "If I had my ministry to live over again, I would preach more to broken hearts." I think he's right. I've tried in my own ministry to have a word of encouragement, not to be using a scalpel constantly, but to be bandaging broken hearts with the promises of the Word of God. Now, you want to have that kind of ministry—your own heart's got to be broken first. You really can't minister to a broken heart unless you've been ministered to for your broken heart.

He's Jehovah Ro′of. He heals the broken heart. Jeremiah 3:22 says, "Return, O backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings." Jeremiah is the only Old Testament prophet who really preaches about these backslidings. You don't find the word "backsliding" in the New Testament. The idea is there, but not the word. But Jeremiah uses it over and over again. Israel's backsliding—not back jumping. Nobody ever jumps out of the will of God. You kind of slide out of the will of God. "I will heal their backslidings." He’s comparing backsliding to getting sick.

Remember the last time you got sick? Here's the way it went: A sneaky old germ got into your system. You didn't know it was there, but it got in somehow—some defilement, some infection got in. Then gradually, you began to decline. You got tired, you lost your appetite, you got irritable, snapping at your roommate and snapping at your family. Then you had a collapse—all of a sudden, couldn't do it anymore. Done for. A lot of pain, a lot of discomfort, fever, restlessness. Doctor comes, "Oh, we can take care of that." Orders a few hundred dollars in medicine, gives you some injections, and kills all the germs. But you know what? Even after you've killed the germs, you still have to recuperate. Remember that? Sure, God kills all the germs, and then you've got to recuperate, get back again.

Well, you know, backsliding is like this: A little bit of sin creeps in—envy, criticism, impure thoughts, malice. Just a little bit of sin creeps in, and it starts to infect the whole system. Before long, you're spiritually listless, you lose your appetite for things spiritual, you get irritable, get critical, don't want to feed on the Word of God. There's a gradual decline, and then boom, there's a collapse, and someone says, "What happened to him?" "Oh, he's been growing germs; they should have killed them when they got in the system." Then you come and say, "Lord, I'm sorry, I'm backslid. Forgive me, cleanse me." And God wipes away the sin. God cleans out the germs, but you still got to recuperate.

A lot of folks forget this. I counsel with a lot of people. They say, "Pastor, I've been living away from the Lord for the last six months, but man, I've confessed my sin. Why am I not stronger?" It takes a while to recuperate from backsliding. Get your appetite back, feed on the Word of God, get some exercise, some sunshine. He heals our backslidings. Maybe somebody here tonight is infected and just needs to be cleansed and healed of backsliding. God has gotten spiritually irritable.

Applying Exodus 15 to Our Lives

But back to Exodus chapter 15. Finally, our Lord heals our bitter circumstances of life. Let's go back with the Jews now and see what happened. Life is a combination of bitter and sweet. The sooner you learn that, the better off you'll be. Life is not all sweetness, and life is not all bitterness. When you're enjoying the sweetness, keep in mind there's going to be some bitterness. And when you're in the midst of the bitterness, keep in mind God has the sweetness. You see, you have Marah, which means bitter, and you have Elim, where you had water and palm trees and refreshment. God knows how to balance our lives. The Arabs have a proverb that says all Sunshine makes a desert. God knows how to balance our lives.

God delivered from Egypt, and they sang on the shores of the Red Sea, "The Lord has triumphed. Praise God!" And then they started marching. One day—no water. Two days—no water. We may be there someday. Three days—no water. You know what God was teaching them? You can't live on past victories. Can't do it. Some of you are trying to. "Oh, I had a great time in church.” Praise God! I'm glad you did. But next week, what good will it do us? Can't live on past victories. He was teaching them that they couldn't trust themselves, but they could trust Him.

Now, three days without water is bad enough, but when you do find water and discover you can't drink it, that's worse. They said, "Lord, what kind of a God are you? Do you love us?" You know, we sang the doxology, "Praise God, from whom all blessings flow." These are blessings. Three days—no water. And now we find water, and it's bitter. That's disappointment. You've been through that: one day, two days, one week, two months, two years—Oh God! There’s the answer? No, it isn't. He was teaching them not to walk by sight, but to walk by faith.

We're so prone to jump on the first thing that comes along when we're going through difficult circumstances. "There's the answer? No, the answer is never there. Or there, it's up—it's God." Life is a combination of the bitter and the sweet. Sometimes we bring the bitterness on ourselves. Here, they were drinking bitter water in the will of God. They were obeying God, following the pillar of cloud, following the pillar of fire, and they came to the water. Here was bitterness in the will of God. But sometimes we bring the bitterness on ourselves.

Remember Naomi? Naomi and her husband lived in Bethlehem. A famine came, they left Bethlehem, went down to Moab. God had cursed Moab. God says, "Moab is my washpot." You know what that means—Moab is where I throw my garbage. They left Bethlehem, the house of bread, and went down to Moab, the garbage dump. Her two sons married girls of Moab—Jews weren't supposed to do that—and the two boys died. Oh, what a rough life—famine, two funerals. Then the daughter-in-law leaves, and Ruth says, "No, I'm going to stay with you." And Ruth and Naomi are alone. The husband died, the boys died. "Go back to Bethlehem." They said, "Hey, here's Naomi." Naomi said, "Don't you call me Naomi anymore. You call me Mara," which means bitter. "Well, just a minute, young lady or old lady is the case, might be. You brought that bitterness on yourself. Who told you to leave Bethlehem? Who told you to go down to the garbage dump? Who told you to marry your sons to girls outside the Covenant? Don't you come and complain about bitterness—you brought it on yourself."

"He who sows to the flesh shall reap corruption." Sometimes other people bring the bitterness. Oh, I've seen this in life. I've seen parents go through bitter experiences because of children and vice versa. Children go through bitter experiences because of parents—outside the will of God.

Jeremiah, when you read the Book of Lamentations, he says, "Oh, the bitterness that we're going through." Why was Jeremiah going through bitterness? It wasn't his fault the nation fell. No, they'd sinned. But here they were, bitter because they didn't find what they expected, yet they were in the will of God.

What to Do When Life Gets Bitter

Now, the big question is, what do you do when life gets bitter? You've seen the bumper sticker that says, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." That's a cute philosophy, but how do you do it? During the Depression, the song they were singing was, "Every cloud has a silver lining." Someone says, "Great, how do I get it to the bank?" Some of these cute philosophies: "Life gives you a lemon, make lemonade." Great, how do you do it?

There are some people when life gets bitter—they murmur. Verse 24: the people murmured, complained, "Oh, the bitter people." You meet them, they take it out on everyone—take it out on the bus driver, take it out on the elevator operator, take it out on other people. They're bitter against life—poison. Some people, like Moses, when life gets bitter, they pray. He cried unto the Lord.

When you've come to the point in life where you find bitter waters where you expected sweet waters, turn to God. Just say, "Now Lord, you brought me here. If you want me to drink bitter water, I'll drink it. Whatever you want me to do, I'm here. I can't explain it. I don't enjoy it, but here I am." Moses said, "Lord, you got to do something." God said, "Moses, open your eyes as a tree over there." You know, the solution to many of our problems isn't very far away. Just have God open your eyes. He took the tree and cast it into the water, and the water became sweet.

Now, all of this is a parable. All of this is certainly a symbol of how the Lord makes the bitter things in life sweet. How does He do it? He takes us to a tree—what tree? Calvary. Our Lord Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree. I've noticed in my Bible, in the New Testament, that whenever the writer talks about suffering and difficulty, he invariably connects it with Calvary. The whole theme of First Peter is suffering, suffering, suffering, then glory. Every time Peter talks about suffering, he ties in the Cross of Christ, for Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow His steps.

You know what to do when you find the bitter waters—you might find them at home, you might find them at school, you might find them here at the church. When you're drinking of the bitter waters, you know what you should do. You know what I should do:

Number one, Pray: "Dear Lord, what should I do?"

Number two, Identify it right away with Jesus Christ: Say, "Lord, You drank the bitter cup for me. Is there some way You want me to sweeten these waters?" My first step is going to be to identify with Your suffering. You suffered for me. When Jesus went to Calvary, somebody handed Him a cup. In that cup was wine mingled with myrrh. Now, myrrh and marah are the same basic word. Myrrh is a bitter substance that has a narcotic influence. When you mix it with wine and drink it, it kind of deadens your feelings. But Jesus wouldn't drink it when He went to the Cross. He said, "I'm not going to go there drugged. I want to be in full possession of My faculties so that I can willingly lay down My life for the sheep." No, He didn't drink that cup of narcotics, but He did drink a bitter cup.

When Peter tried to defend the Lord, the Lord said, "Put your sword away." "The cup that my Father has given me to drink, shall I not drink it?" What cup did He drink? The bitter cup of suffering— not just physical suffering, but spiritual suffering. Then you and I gripe about the bitter waters that we have to drink occasionally. Shame on us. The thing to do is to accept it for Jesus' sake. Say, "Lord, if this bitterness has to come into my life, if it's not the result of my sin, if it has to come into my life, I'll do it for Jesus' sake. He drank the bitter cup for me, and God will transform the bitterness into sweetness." And then, you know what else He'll do? He'll say, "Let's move on now," and so we'll leave that place of difficulty. And somebody will say, "Hey, I see trees. I see wells—Elim." And God leads us away from that place of bitterness to the place of blessing.

Hear me, my friend. God knows how to balance your life just as He balances the universe—seed time and harvest, winter and summer, day and night. If we only had day, how horrible it would be. If we only had night, how terrible it would be. God knows how to balance it. God knows how to balance our lives. If all we had was Elim with the trees and the fruit and the water, we'd get spoiled. If all we had was Marah with the bitterness, we'd become bitter. And God knows how to balance them.

But did you notice this? He didn't lead them to Elim until first they had learned how to make the bitter waters sweet. You say, "Why hasn't God led me to a place of rest and refreshment? Have you let Him make the bitter waters sweet? Are you complaining about the bitter waters? No need to complain. Take it to the Cross. Take the tree, apply the tree to the sufferings of life by simply saying, as Jesus did, 'The cup that my Father has given me, shall I not drink it? Father, I will drink this cup. Jesus suffered for me. If I must suffer, I will suffer.'" And then He has a way of moving in and making those bitter waters sweet. He is Jehovah Ro′of, the Lord who heals whatever may be the wound in your life or the bitterness in your life. Let Him heal it. You'll be happier, others will be happier, and God will be glorified.

Closing Prayer

Let's pray together.

We're thankful, Father, for this time together, for the ministry of the Word, through music that is spoken to our hearts, for this encouragement from Your Word in preaching that has encouraged our hearts. I want to thank You, Father, for teaching me, and I pray that You've helped me to teach others. We accept Your will, oh God. We would not want to murmur, complain. The cup that You gave, we drink it. If it's bitter, we do it for Jesus' sake. Help us to live by faith. I pray in His name.

Amen.