The Names of GodSample

Yahweh Rophe: The LORD Who Heals

Many recipes say, “Salt to taste.” This recognizes that everyone has a preference for how much salt they like in a dish. You can always add more salt at the table if your preference is a bit more than the cook’s preference. But what do you do, as a cook, if you accidentally add too much salt to a pot of soup?

In Exodus 15, Moses led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. They’ve made it beyond the Red Sea, and now they are in the desert of the Sinai Peninsula. Deserts, by definition, have little water. The Israelites have walked for days without water, and now that they have found water, they can’t drink it! There is nothing Moses can do. No person can turn salty water fresh.

But God can. It’s a miracle in the desert, water sweet enough to drink. Then God makes them a promise: to heal their diseases if they continue to trust him. Yahweh Rophe: the LORD who heals. And the LORD heals our sins. Which is harder – to make salty water sweet, or forgive sins? In each case, it is only something God can do.

If your soup is salty, there is something you can do: chop up a potato and add it to the soup. The potato will absorb the salt, and when you remove the potato before serving, the salt will go with it. If you have sins that need to be forgiven, there is something you can do: turn to Jesus, the only one who can forgive and heal you.

Prayer: Dear God, the one who heals, I need you today. Please heal my body. But if you choose not to heal me, give me the strength to endure and the faith to trust you. Amen.