Jehovah Jireh and Jehovah Rapha share a common connection in the testing of God’s people.
When Isaac was a young man, God tested Abraham saying, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you'” (Genesis 22:2 NKJV). The Hebrew word nasah, which means “to prove” or “to test,” is frequently used in the Old Testament to describe God testing the faith and faithfulness of people (preceptaustin). This test would reveal the depth of Abraham’s devotion to God.
When faced with a test or trial, we may be tempted to question God. However, we need to lean into the strength and grace of who He is. He promises to provide us a way of escape that we may be able to endure it (1 Cor. 10:13). Notice this way of “escape” doesn’t mean we escape the trial, but by trusting Him, we are enabled to endure it. Abraham trusted God and responded immediately in complete obedience. He “rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance” (Genesis 22:3-4 NASB95).
“Abraham said to his young men, ‘Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you” (Genesis 22:5 NASB95 emphasis added).
Although the circumstances may not have made sense, Abraham was compelled to worship God through the trial and trust Him regardless of the outcome. “It was with an unfaltering tone that the patriarch told his young men that they ‘two’ would presently return. Even though he should actually take Isaac’s life, he was sure that he would receive him again from the altar in health” (FB Meyer, Genesis 22).
Hebrews gives us a glimpse into Abraham’s profound faith. “It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, even though God had told him, ‘Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.’ Abraham reasoned that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again. And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead” (Hebrews 11:17-19 NLT).
So “Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together” (Genesis 22:6 NASB95). When Isaac inquired about the lamb for the burnt offering, Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son” (Genesis 22:8a NASB95).
When they arrived, “Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son” (Genesis 22:9-10 NASB95). But the Angel of the LORD (pre-incarnate Christ) called to him from heaven and stopped Abraham from sacrificing his son. “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.’ Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son” (Genesis 22:12-13 NASB95, emphasis added).
“Abraham called the name of that place [Jehovah Jireh] The LORD Will Provide, as it is said to this day, ‘In the mount of the LORD it will be provided.”
Genesis 22:14
“It was only at the very last moment that God indicated the ram as the sufficient substitute. So God’s deliverances always come, they are provided in the mount of trial and sacrifice” (FB Meyer, Genesis 22). Interestingly, the Hebrew word for “provide” is ro’eh, a verb meaning “to see” (Zodhiates, CWSB #H7200). You could translate verse 14 as “In the mount of the LORD, God’s provision shall be seen” (Nathan Stone, The Names of God). Seeing indicates providing, as Hudson Taylor would say: “The Lord will see to it.” We, too, can trust Christ’s provision in our “mount” of trial and sacrifice. There is incredible symbolism in God’s choice of Mount Moriah, as it is the same location where the Temple would one day stand, where all the sacrifices would take place. Calvary was slightly northwest of Moriah, “on which God the Father offered up His only Son, the Son Whom He loved” (John 3:16; 3:35; 15:9 preceptaustin).
As Abraham saw God’s provision in the ram, we see His provision in the perfect Lamb of God, sacrificed in our place (John 1:29). I believe the revelation of God’s name as Jehovah Jireh was meant to point us to Jesus, “the Provision which guarantees all other provision. ‘He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things?'” [Romans 8:32] (McLaren). We can run to our Jehovah Jireh when we are tested. He not only sees our need, but He has the provision to meet it (Colossians 2:2-3). I find it amazing that the Angel of the LORD is the One who stopped Abraham from slaying Isaac. One day, almost 2000 years later, He would be the substitutionary sacrifice, dying in our place. Do we acknowledge the provision Christ offers and understand its significance? Are we ready to surrender everything to Him?
Often, testing follows a mountain-top experience. The children of Israel experienced this after the monumental crossing of the Red Sea. We read in Exodus 15:22-23, “Then Moses led the people of Israel away from the Red Sea, and they moved out into the desert of Shur. They traveled in this desert for three days without finding any water. When they came to the oasis of Marah, the water was too bitter to drink. So they called the place Marah (which means ‘bitter’)” (NLT). Their circumstances had turned from blessed to bitter as they reached a dead end with no water in sight. You would think they surely would trust God because of all He had accomplished for them. But instead, they “complained and turned against Moses” (v. 24). Moses had the right response when faced with a bitter circumstance. He cried out to the LORD [Jehovah] for help.
God gave Moses an unexpected answer in Exodus 15:25, which says, “The LORD showed him a piece of wood.” How could wood possibly help in this situation? But Moses trusted God and threw the wood into the bitter waters, and they became sweet! The Hebrew word for “wood/tree” is “es,” which is the same word used in Genesis 22 to refer to the “wood” for the burnt offering. To me there is no coincidence that the Septuagint translates this word as “xulon,” the same word used for “cross” in the New Testament (Acts 5:30). “There is little doubt that the ‘healing’ of the bitter waters by a tree foreshadowed another healing tree, the tree of Calvary” (preceptaustin). “And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin, and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24 NASB95).
Exodus 15:26 continues, “It was there at Marah that the LORD set before them the following decree as a standard to test their faithfulness to Him. He said, ‘If you will listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in His sight, obeying His commands and keeping all His decrees, then I will not make you suffer any of the diseases I sent on the Egyptians;”
“For I am [Jehovah Rapha] the LORD who heals you.”
Genesis 15:26b NLT
“Rapha” is a verb meaning to heal, to make fresh. It describes the process of healing, being restored to health, and being made healthy. It [conveys] the restoring of a person’s soul (Zodhiates, CWSB #H7495). Although the Hebrew word “Rapha” refers to both physical and spiritual healing, its primary use in the Old Testament focuses on spiritual healing. Exodus 15 emphasizes God’s power to heal the disease of sin and its consequences. He is the Great Physician. Sin makes the heart sick, as Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?” (NASB95). Jesus once told the Pharisees, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor – sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners” (Mark 2:16-17 NLT).
“The test Israel faced in the wilderness is the same one believers face today: they and we have to listen to the voice of God, do what is right, and obey His commandments. This is the pattern for victory when we face bitter circumstances which might otherwise bring discouragement and disillusionment” (preceptaustin). If we do not yield to God amid testing, we can be sure of His chastening in our lives (Hebrews 12:6).
When we think of Jehovah Jireh (God our Provider) and Jehovah Rapha (God our Healer), we often focus on our immediate, temporary needs and desires. While God is fully capable of blessing us materially and physically, our eyes should be on the eternal, not the temporary. Instead of doubting God during trials, we should recognize the strength and provision we have in Christ to persevere. When facing bitter circumstances, rather than complaining, we should listen attentively to His guidance and follow it with a heart fully surrendered to Him. Only then will we taste the sweetness of the Lord (Psalm 34:8) and experience restoration and healing in our souls.
The revelation of Jehovah Rapha was meant to “illustrate this great name of God, [as] the tribes were brought into so painful a condition. Indeed, all the experience of a believer is meant to glorify God, that the believer himself may see more of God, and that the world outside may also behold the glory of the Lord. Therefore, the Lord leadeth His people up and down in the wilderness, and therefore He makes them cry out because there is no water; all to make them behold His power, and His goodness, and His wisdom. Our lives are the canvas upon which the Lord paints His own character” (Charles Spurgeon).
Remember, times of testing don’t last forever. After the test at Marah, God led them to “Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy date palms, and they camped there beside the waters” (Exodus 15:27). I love this quote: “There is healing for your deepest pains and disappointments. There is victory over addictions, past hurts, and past failures. There is physical, but even better, spiritual healing available by running to the strong tower of Jesus, your Jehovah Rapha. If you have become sidetracked at Marah, bitter in soul and spirit, feeling that life is unfair or God is unfair, the only way to go from Marah to Elim and find sweet water is to run to Jehovah Rapha, the God who heals” (preceptaustin).
“Come, let us return to the LORD. For He has torn us, but He will heal [rapha] us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us.”
Hosea 6:1 NASB95
Week 4 Reflections
- Compare Genesis 22:2,11-12 with John 3:16 and John 1:14-18. Now read Colossians 2:2-3; 2 Peter 1:3; Matthew 11:28; Matthew 6:31-34; ,and Philippians 4:19. What are some of the provisions we have in Christ?
- Read the following passages and note what you learn about Jehovah Rapha: Ps. 103:1-3; 2 Chronicles 7:14; Psalm 41:4; Psalm 107:20; Psalm 147:3; Isaiah 53:5; Isaiah 57:15-19; Hosea 6:1; Hosea 14:4; Exodus 15:25-26; 1 Peter 2:24
- According to the following passages, how does Jehovah Jireh provide for us in times of testing? James 1:2-4; Romans 8:26-28; 35-39; 1 Cor. 10:13; Romans 5:1-5; Hebrews 4:14-16; 2 Cor. 9:8.
- How can we rejoice in suffering, according to 1 Peter 1:3-9? What does verse 7 say is the purpose of the various trials mentioned in verse 6?
- How should we respond during trials according to the following passages? James 1:2-4; 2 Corinthians 12:6-10; 4:16-18; 1 Peter 4:13-19; Romans 8:18; James 1:12; Col. 3:1-4
- Read 1 Peter 5:6-11. What is an important attitude to have during trials, and why? What promise do you see in verse 10?
Journal Prompts
Have trials and tribulations consumed your mind lately? How does the meaning of Jehovah Jireh and Jehovah Rapha minister to your heart in your current situation? Remember to focus on the eternal aspects of His provision and healing. Have you been tempted to doubt or question God? Is there a Scripture from the above section that really spoke to your heart? Write a prayer of surrender to God. What is He asking you to lay on the altar? Do you love and trust Him above all things? As Jehovah Rapha, how can He make bitter waters sweet in your life? What are ways you can worship God in times of testing?
Resources
Click below for the Session Video & Discussion:
Click below for the Session Teaching Audio Podcast:
Simply Persuaded 