Characteristics of God: How I’ve experienced Jehovah Rapha in community
Jehovah, which is derived from the Hebrew word Havah, can be translated as “to be,” “to exist,” or “to become known.” The Hebraic translation of Rapha (râpâ) means “to restore” or “to heal.”
God first introduced himself as Jehovah Rapha when the Israelites were released from Egypt and were wandering through the wilderness. At the start of Exodus 15, the Israelites sang a song of worship to the Lord because of his goodness in bringing them out of Egypt. In verses 22-25, the Israelites came upon Marah, where the water is too bitter to drink, so they grumble until Moses asked the Lord, “What are we going to drink?” The Lord allowed Moses to throw a tree into the water and it became drinkable. The Lord continued to the people in verses 26-27 (CSB), “If you will carefully obey the Lord your God, do what is right in his sight, pay attention to his commands, and keep all his statutes, I will not inflict any illnesses on you that I inflicted on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you” [emphasis added].
For I am Jehovah Rapha.
If you’ve been around the Stand Unshaken blog for awhile, you’ve probably realized the theme of my writing typically delves into God’s character of healing, comfort and his emotional nature. I have previously referenced God’s name of Jehovah Rapha as being of great significance to me. All of my life, God as the Lord who heals me and comforts me has been my resounding song.
My junior year of college stands out as one of the hardest years of my life, and yet one of the sweetest in my walk with the Lord. Since becoming a Christian at 15, I had my first bout with suffering when I had just turned 20. As I’ve written about before, I started doubting my faith because of a really tough couple of months spent on a summer mission trip to New England. Before that summer, I had no real capability to process difficult emotions, and I was coming out of a hard school year as a first-year transfer student.
Sarah, a girl a few years older than me, led a Bible study I started going to after that summer because I was desperately in need of answers. I couldn’t rationalize following a God I knew was real but who I wrongly blamed for my experiences and hurt. As soon as Sarah and I met, we clicked and thus began a friendship that would last for many years, including through a move for the both of us from southeastern Tennessee to northern Kentucky to work for the same college ministry.
Sarah started discipling me weekly when I was a junior, and week after week, whether I felt like being a recluse in the comfort of my sadness and doubt or like things were getting better, I would go sit at a coffee shop with Sarah. When I didn’t feel the warmth of a God who sits beside me and comforts me, Sarah would remind me. She talked about God in a way that helped my faith come back day by day. Other people in my life played big roles during that time, alongside a counselor I was seeing weekly. Sarah’s intimacy with Jesus encouraged me to be vulnerable with him in ways that I had never been before. Many days went by where I was angry, hot tears rolling down my face in anguish, fear and anxiety about the things I was feeling. Sarah would sit with me, speak truth from Scripture over me, and lead me back to the compassionate, loving Christ who I had followed years before.
C.S. Lewis seemingly never fails to speak into areas of life that are the most difficult. He wrote, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”
I began to see my doubts and hurt as vessels through which God had molded me, changed my heart into one that resembled his more and more, and I began to see the hardships that I had gone through as a woven story of his grace, healing, peace and comfort. A resounding theme from this time of doubt and hardship that stands out to me years later is this: being in the presence of a community that walks intimately with Jesus can bring you closer to the Lord than you know. When I had no strength to stand, I had friends who walked alongside me to grab my hand and walk me back towards Jesus and his trustworthy character.
God claims himself as a healer and comforter. All throughout Scripture, we see God’s provision for his people, and through Jesus we see his redemptive plan for all of humanity. Perhaps the reason my faith has become what it has since my time in New England is Jesus’ compassionate nature and his absolute relatability through sorrow, grief, fear and suffering.
Psalm 116:1-2 reads, “I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.”
As I reflect on my junior year of college, I often become emotional as I think about how my relationship with God has grown and changed over the years. I will never again be the 19-year-old Kinsley who was heading into a summer that would completely change her life. But without her, I wouldn’t be the 23-year-old Kinsley who reflects with joy on God as Jehovah Rapha, her intimate healer and comforter. I’ve learned that I connect with the Lord most when I spend time with others talking about who he is, how he’s worked in each of our lives, and how he is real to us in each moment. When I think of God as Jehovah Rapha, I sit in awe knowing that my God is a healer and comforter to me because he loves me, he inclines his ear to me and hears my cry, so I will call on him as long as I live. Praise be to our God who calls himself Jehovah Rapha and who heals and comforts us in our time of need.