Yahweh Rapha
Our reading today is an interesting one. The Israelites have come through the Red Sea and entered the wilderness. Water is scarce and they come to a spring called Marah, but the water was bitter. Moses, with God's guidance, throws some branches in the water which makes it more palatable. Then God speaks to them warning them to obey the Lord so that they will not experience the diseases of Egypt. Then He introduces Himself as Yahweh Rapha - the God who heals.Rapha means "to heal" "to make whole" "to properly mend by stitching" and "to repair." God does all of these things for us through his healing power. Rather than merely being about the healing the body, this Hebrew verb is also used in other ways - for example, God "heals" water, land, and nations, and he "repairs" an altar.
On a surface level, the application is straight-forward: Just as God healed the water, so He can heal us. Just as God can sweeten Marah (which means bitter), He can sweeten our bitterness too.
The Christian author Jamie Buckingham, in his book, "A Way through the Wilderness" offers a very interesting perspective from a journey he did retracing the journey of the Exodus. Buckingham suggests that the bitter of water Marah would not only have tasted bitter, but would probably have caused diarrhea which would have flushed many of the worms and gut parasites that that the Israelites brought from Egypt. The branches sweetened the water to taste, but they would probably still have experienced the other effects. This purge/cleanse/detox would then be symbolic of the cleansing that God wanted to do in the Israelite hearts.
God heals bodies, hearts, minds and souls. He heals societies and structures. He restores, renews and forgives. He is God our healer.
| Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. 23 When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah. ) 24 So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, "What are we to drink?" 25 Then Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the LORD made a decree and a law for them, and there he tested them. 26 He said, "If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you." (Exodus15:22-26) |
