Going through the names given to God in the Bible can be a thrilling and profitable exercise. In this presentation, I would like to consider one of those names, which can be found used in the Book of Exodus (Chapter 15), just after the Israelites had crossed the Red Sea – that name is “Jehovah Rapha”.

The names of God provide a fascinating and potentially profitable entrée into one’s study of the scriptures. There are so many of them that between them point to God’s many and various attributes. When it comes to names like Jehovah Rapha, we can also see how this relates to Christ in the Old Testament (see here for a recent study, for example, when it comes to Christ in the Books of Moses, e.g. in types and shadows, when I overlooked this one). What I would like to focus on in this article is how the incident that that led to the Lord revealing Himself to the Children of Israel as Jehovah Rapha is also a particularly powerful type of Christ:  

“So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. And 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. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And he cried unto the Lord; and the Lord shewed 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 proved them, And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee. And they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees: and they encamped there by the waters” Exodus 15:22-27.

This story, coming right after the Israelites had miraculously crossed the Red Sea and at the start of their arduous forty-year journey wandering in the Wilderness, before entering the Promised Land, is the one and only place in the Bible where Jehovah Rapha is mentioned. It is in the context of water, the need for which being very important in their journey. In this story the Israelites found water but it was not drinkable and this led them to grumble and complain, which would turn out to be a recurring theme throughout their entire wilderness wanderings, part of which God’s purposes was to test the Israelites that they would trust and obey Him.  

“Water” is a word that appears 636 times in the Bible and when checking out when the word is used we frequently find from the context of where the word was used that this often has important spiritual applications. At the end of the passage given above, we find the Israelites camped at Elim where there was drinkable water. Not long after that, we find again the Israelites complaining at the lack of water and Moses being told by God to strike the Rock in order for the water to flow out of it (Exodus 17:1-7).

Two incidents where water had an important part to play was firstly when Jesus engaged with the Samaritan women at the well, when He told her: “But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” John 4:14. The second occurrence was toward the end of the time when Jesus was taking part in the Feast of Tabernacles, when we read that “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” John 7:37-38.

Regarding types and shadows and the striking of the Rock incident, we find that as far as the New Testament writers were concerned this was one of the many examples when something that happened in the Old Testament also related to a picture of the Christ: “Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; And did all eat the same spiritual meat; And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ” 1 Corinthians 10:1-4.

But let’s return to that time when we read about God revealing Himself to “His people” as Jehovah Rapha and the words “the Lord shewed him a tree”, which in other versions is translated along the lines “the Lord shewed him a plank of wood”. I confess, I have a good reason for preferring the KJV translation, for it ties in with something that was taught to me, likely in my teens, relating to a truth that I can now see as both important and precious. It was as a result of casting the tree into the waters that turned these from being bitter to sweet and therefore drinkable and led to healing.  

The first thing that stuck out for me is my observation that many/most who read this will have some condition where healing of some physical or heath condition is wanted or desired, especially among the elderly and sometimes includes dementia that affects so many who once were very bright. Then there are conditions, often hidden, we might class as mental, emotional or spiritual and often results in those affected not living the abundant life Jesus promised. What about these and could/should healing be expected in such cases?

This is a contentious subject including those who believe the gift of healing is for today. I don’t have a complete answer and often defer to what Paul felt the Lord telling him about his own condition – “my grace is sufficient for thee” (2 Corinthians 12:9).  This is where “the tree” comes in. Bitter waters are something we might experience and sometimes it is made worse by our lack of trust in and willingness to obey the Lord. But Jesus died on a tree (Acts 5.30, 10.39 and 13.29 relate) and it is applying that act of Jesus when He died on the cross for you and me to the bitter waters we may encounter that provides our healing and a wonderful example of the pre-incarnate Christ.