I invite your attention to the
book of Exodus, chapter 15. Today's message is the second
in a series on Jehovah's names or Jesus' names. Our text for the series is in
the prophecy of Isaiah, chapter 42, verse 8, where God says, I am Jehovah,
that is my name, and my glory I will not give to another, nor
my praise to carved images. We observed in the preceding
message, which introduced this series, that God's most prominent
names are Elohim and Jehovah. Jehovah is his name and his relationship
with his people is their Redeemer. And this name Jehovah means I
am who I am and to make God to be the self-existent one. And this name belongs to Jesus. For Jesus is Jehovah. And we
observe that there are twelve compound names for Jehovah. These twelve compound Jehovah
names are names that have his name Jehovah and then a title
that describes whom and what he is. There are twelve of them. In the synopsis that we gave
to you, those twelve are Jehovah, Jireh, the Lord will provide,
Jehovah Raphael, the Lord who heals you. Jehovah Nissi, the
Lord is my banner. Jehovah Kodesh, the Lord who
sanctifies you. Jehovah Shalom, the Lord is peace. Jehovah Elyon, the Lord most
high. Jehovah Roi, the Lord my shepherd. Jehovah Asa, the Lord our Maker. Jehovah Elohim, the Lord our
God. Jehovah Tzabalot, the Lord of
Hosts. Jehovah Tzidkenu, the Lord our
Righteousness. And Jehovah Shammah, the Lord
is there. Twelve of these names, and every
one of them belongs to Jesus Christ. We looked last Lord's
Day at that first name. Jehovah Jireh, the Lord providing
a lamb as a substitute for Isaac. And today we come to consider
the second name, Jehovah Raphael. Our text is in the book of Exodus
chapter 15. Now let me set the background
for you and then read a passage that brings us up to the text.
My text will be found in verse number 26. The children of Israel
have been delivered out of Egyptian bondage through the hand of Moses
and through the plagues that God sent upon the Egyptians by
which time Pharaoh and the Egyptians were glad to see the people leave.
Then they realized that, hey, we just liberated the slaves,
now who's going to work for us? So they went after the children
of Israel to bring them back. The children of Israel have come
to the Red Sea. The enemy is behind them. They
have walked into a triangle with the sea on one side, the mountain
on the other. They cannot cross either. and
Pharaoh coming up from behind. The Lord told the children of
Israel, just be still and watch. And Moses stretched out his rod and by the power of God the Red
Sea parted. The wind of God blew. The land
under the sea turned to dry land. Israel walked through the Red
Sea on dry ground. And when Pharaoh of Egypt saw
that they did it, he figured he could do it too. And he came
after the children of Israel, and the Lord who parted the waters
brought them back together. And we read that Pharaoh and
his hosts were drowned in the Red Sea. The horse and its riders,
God has drowned in the sea. They sang the song of Moses. It's in the first part of chapter
15. It was a joyous occasion with dancing and jubilation as
the people realized how mighty and awesome is this God who has
said He will lead us. And then they began their journey
38 years in the wilderness on the way to Canaan. It's actually
just a short trek. But these people were going to
murmur and complain every step of the way despite the blessings of God
upon them. And so it's about to begin. They
have just seen the hand of God at the Red Sea And now they begin
their journey into the wilderness. Exodus chapter 15, verse 22. So Moses brought Israel from
the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shear,
and they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. Now folks, this is serious. Israel probably numbered, perhaps conservatively,
two to three million people. They got to be fed in the wilderness
and they have to have water. They have to have it. And here
for three days into the journey, we find no water. And when they
came to Myra, that word Myra, means bitter. It is the name
from which we get the feminine name Mary from. They came to
the waters of Myra, and they could not drink of the waters
of Myra, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was
called Myra, bitter. And the people murmured against
Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And Moses cried unto the
Lord Jehovah, and Jehovah showed 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 Jehovah
thy God, and will do that which is right in his sight, and will
give ear to his commandments. Boy, he's asking a lot here,
folks. But observe what he's going to
do. Now, what are they to do? Diligently hearken to the voice
of Jehovah thy God, and do that which is right in his sight,
and give ear to his commandments. and keep all his statutes, then,
Jehovah says, I will put none of these diseases upon thee which
I have brought upon the Egyptians. What were they? Well, now you
do remember the ten plagues, do you not? Yeah, this and that
and the other. And the Lord said, you obey me,
none of those diseases will come upon you. And then he says, I
am Jehovah Rapha, the Lord that healeth thee. That's his name. Jehovah Rapha, the Lord that
healeth thee. And he heals us in the person
of Jehovah the Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Jesus
Christ is the healer of his people. He fulfilled the prophecy that,
to you who fear my name, the Son of Righteousness shall arise
with healing in His wings. Malachi 4 verse 2. Now, note
carefully. The Son of Righteousness shall
arise with healing in His wings, but only to a certain people. To you who fear my name. Out of your darkest night, that
Son of Righteousness will arise with healing in his wings. I
never read this text now, but what I recollect, an incident
that happened to my son who was stationed for a year with the
U.S. Army in Afghanistan. He was a broadcast journalist
and he was taken by helicopter to the top of a mountain He was supposed to be deserted,
just him. He used to take pictures and
write a story, a geographical survey of the place and from
the top of the mountain he had a good view and then the helicopter
pilot assured him, I'll be back for you end of the day. So my
son is dropped on top of a mountain to do a story And while he's
doing it, suddenly, inclement weather set in and that helicopter
could not return. My son is on top of a mountain.
It's getting cold, getting wet, and it is windy and he was not
dressed for this. And he had to spend the night.
He told me it was one of the worst nights he ever spent in
his life. Cold and freezing and wet. And
since he could not sleep, he knew which direction the east
was. And so on top of that mountain
in Afghanistan, not far from Bagram Air Base, he sat down and waited for the
sun to rise. and maybe bring some warmth to
his chilling bones. He waited and waited, and finally
he could see that sun beginning to come across the top of the
horizon. And as it did, and its rays reached
him, he could feel the warmth. And since the sun was rising,
the weather was good, eventually the helicopter returned. But
I've often thought about that, my son up there waiting, waiting
for the sun to rise with healing in its rays. Malachi wrote this
passage 400 years before the birth of Jesus Christ. Jehovah
said to you who fear my name, the son of righteousness shall
arise with healing in his wings. When Malachi came to the end
of chapter 4 in his prophecy, he put his quill down and God
did not say another word for 400 years. The 400 silent years
we call them. It was dark. It was cold. But the people of God had this
promise. to you who fear my name the son
of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings and
sure enough he did in the person of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ the son of righteousness the brightest righteousness you
ever saw he who is right and in him is no darkness at all
he arose The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. Yes, they did. The Son of Righteousness
arose and there was healing in His wings. Just as you feel the
rays of the sun bringing warmth to you, His wings had rays that sent forth healing. And everywhere He went, what
was He doing? Healing. We read in the Gospels
that they came from all directions to Him, believing. He healed
no one but a believer. But believers came. We believe
you can heal. We heard what you did for this
one. We heard what you did for that one. We believe you can
heal us. And the Scripture says He healed
them all. Never lost a case. Healed every
kind of infirmity you could imagine. Healed them all. Never charged a penny. And he
never had to advertise. Here they came. He healed them
all. The prophecy of Isaiah speaks
of Jesus Christ, the servant of Jehovah, and declares unto
us that by his stripes we are healed. Healed of what? All our spiritual infirmities. If you want a good description
of the infirmities of God's elect, you might call it leprosy. It probably embodies more than
any other the infirmity of God's people. The prophet says, we
are all as an unclean thing, a leper, and all our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. We're lepers. We're outcasts. We have to walk around acknowledging,
unclean, unclean! Jesus came. He did the most remarkable
thing. When lepers came to Him to be
healed, He did the unthinkable to the untouchables. He touched
them. He touched them and they were
healed. And consider all those other infirmities that Jesus
healed. The deaf came to Him and He opened
their ears so that they could hear. He did that to us spiritually. Our heart is deaf. He opens our
ears. He opens our eyes so that we
can see Him. We behold the glory of the knowledge
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. When Jesus loosened muted tongues,
He's showing us that He'll heal us so that we can proclaim His
goodness to people. When Jesus healed cripples, He's
showing us that He'll heal us so that we can come to Him. Nay,
we run to Him. Draw of us and we will run after
Thee. But He's got to heal you of your
crippled condition first. You've got a bad heart condition.
That heart is deceitful, desperately wicked above all things. Who
can know it? So what does He do? He takes
it out, that old, cold, stony heart. puts a new heart in there,
a heart of flesh that warmly beats for Him. You see, every
healing that Jesus did among physical people here on this
earth showed the kind of healing that He does for us spiritually. Ah, did He not go to the tomb
of a dead man named Lazarus? Been dead four days, by now he
stinks, his sister said. Jesus said, show me the tomb,
show me the tomb. Jesus walked to the tomb and said, Lazarus, come forth! And he that was dead came forth. And Jesus said, Loose him and
let him go. Do you want to see the Gospel?
There it is. What does Jesus do? Comes to
the cemetery of sin where you and I live and what does He do?
Son, come forth! And Son came forth. Oh, He's still bound in His religion
and in His old ways and so Jesus says, Now just loose him and
let him go. Did He do it? Yes, He did. You
see, this is everything that Jesus did in healing people in
the physical realm shows us what He does in the spiritual realm.
But it goes even further than that. It is no wonder that we
call Him the Great Physician. The Great Physician. Remember
what we said. He never advertised. never had
to, never put out a shingle, never charged a fee, never lost
a case, and was never sued for malpractice. What a position
is this? Who is he? He is Jehovah Rapha. Now one more point before we
leave this text. The bitter waters of Marah Evidently
a huge oasis. Big enough to handle the thirst of all those people. And you cannot drink the water
because it is bitter. Moses says, Lord, what shall
I do? See John 3? Yes. cut it down, cast it into
the water, then drink the water. What kind of tree was it? We're
not told. Therefore, it's not important.
I take great comfort in that. If God's Word doesn't tell me
what it is, it's not important. Cut that tree down, throw it
into the water, now drink. And the water was sweet. The
water was sweet. Well, there were waters that I tried,
and they were bitter. Could not drink them. But God
put a tree into the bitter waters, and that tree was Jesus Christ. The Tree of Life. You remember
that Tree of Life back in the Garden of Eden? That's Jesus
Christ. Have you read about that same
Tree of Life in the New Jerusalem in the last part of the Revelation?
That's Jesus Christ. When Jesus Christ is put into
the bitter waters of life, they are healed. And you can drink
them. They are healed. He is Jehovah
Rapha. Look at another one. Jehovah
Nissi. The Lord is my banner. Exodus
17. So go to Exodus 17. We just looked
at Exodus chapter 16. Now we come to Exodus chapter
17. In the end of Chapter 16, the Lord gives manna
in the wilderness, fed them, brought them to Mount Sinai so
they have made the journey all the way to Mount Sinai where
God will come down and enter into a covenant with the people
of Israel When we come to chapter 17, we read, And all the congregation
of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of sin after
their journeys, according to the commandment
of Jehovah, and pitched in Rephidim, And there was no water for the
people to drink. All right, we got the same problem
again. There is no water. Remember, it's a desert. And there are many people whose
thirst needs to be slaked. No water. Wherefore, the people
did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that
we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why
side ye with me? Wherefore do you tempt Jehovah?
And the people thirsted there for water. And the people murmured
against Moses and said, Wherefore is this, that thou hast brought
us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our cattle
with the thirst? Well, folks, Moses did not force
anybody to go with him. They all went willingly and were
glad to, but now that there is some difficulty in the way, it's
Moses' fault. It's not us. We're just murmurers. He's the leader. And so, you
know, they murmur against him. And Moses cried unto Jehovah,
saying, What shall I do unto this people? They'd be almost
ready to stone me. And Jehovah said unto Moses,
Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders
of Israel, and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take
in thine hand, and go. Now watch that rod. That rod
was Moses' constant companion. It was his shepherd's rod that
he had on the mountain when the Lord came down to him and called
him to lead the children of Israel out of Egyptian bondage. He had
a shepherd's rod and the Lord sanctified it so that everywhere
Moses went, that rod was in his hand. It was a symbol of authority. I recall when my family lived
on the island of St. Lucia, British former British
island and still had a great British influence and you could
always tell if a policeman had a high rank because if he was high rank and
not a mere constable if he was of high rank he had a swagger
stick he didn't do anything with it he just carried it I suppose
he could have used it if he had to, but it's a symbol of authority. Everywhere you see Moses go,
what's he got in his hand? That rod. His constant companion,
it is his symbol of authority. It was that rod that he used
to put over the Red Sea so that it parted and the children of
Israel walked through on dry ground. Verse 6, Behold, Jehovah
says, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb,
and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out
of it that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight
of all the elders of Israel. What a sight that must have been.
The people saw a rock, and Moses walks up to it, with a rod in
his hand and says, get ready for water. Out of a rock? Yes, out of a rock. And he called
the name of the place Massah and Meribah because of the chiding
of the children of Israel and because they tempted Jehovah,
saying, is the Lord among us? They had plenty of water. I'll
make one more point before I go to the next passage because that's
the one I'm leading you to. I wanted to show this one also
because of this fact. That tree that Moses put into
the bitter waters of Marah typified Christ. That rock that Moses smoked with his rock
from which flowed water? Folks, I'm not talking about
water like you'd get from a spigot. It was a gushing fountain, enough
to slake the thirst of all those people. Paul the Apostle says,
when he writes to the Corinthians, that rock was Christ. When Jehovah smoked Christ, out
came cleansing water, out came a fountain that resulted in the
slaking of our thirst, did it not? That rock was Christ. I
want to stress this point to you. When you read the exodus
of Israel and their journey in the wilderness, Christ is there
in every incident. Portrayed and pictured and typified. But now we come to verse number
8. Then came Amalek. Oh yeah, arch adversary. And fought with Israel and reffed
him. And Moses said unto Joshua. Now
Joshua is Moses' second in command. Moses is now an old man. He's about 80 years of age. Joshua's somewhat younger. And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose
us out, men, and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will
stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand. There it is, that rod of God.
So Joshua did as Moses had said to him. and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron and Hur, here's
the introduction to Hur. Aaron was Moses' brother, high
priest of Israel. They went to the top of the hill,
and it came to pass when Moses held up his hand with the rod
in it, that Israel prevailed. And when he let down his hand,
Amalek prevailed. How long can you keep your hand
up, folks? With a rod in it. With a rod in it. The rod does
not weigh much, but pretty soon it gets heavy. The arm itself
gets heavy. And Moses' arm is getting heavy. And as long as he can hold that
rod straight up, Israel prevails. Joshua leads the way. And when
the arm gets weak and the rod begins to lower, Amalek is making
the advance, Joshua and Israel are retreating. But Moses' hands were heavy and
they took a stone, Aaron and Hur did, and put it under him
and he sat there on. And Aaron and Hur stayed up his
hands. The one on the one side and the
other on the other side. And his hands were steady until
the going down of the sun. Can you imagine? Joshua and the
children of Israel have got to be able to see that when Moses'
hands are up, we are progressing. And then when they see that the
Amlekites are pressing, and Israel is having to retreat. What's
going on? Look up the hill. Moses' hands are down. He's weak. You've got to imagine. Come on.
We need his hands up. How comforting it must have been
to have seen Moses sitting on that rock and two men holding his hands
up. And Israel prevails until the
end of the day. until the going down of the sun.
And Joshua discomforted Amalek and his people with the edge
of the sword. And Jehovah said unto Moses,
Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the
ears of Joshua. For I will utterly put out the
remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. Here's my text. And Moses built
an altar and called the name of it Jehovah Nissi. The Lord my banner. The Lord my banner. There was a battle fought that
day. When armies go to battle, they
go under a banner leading the way. The banner is in front of
the advancing troops. It is to never touch the ground. And if the banner bearer is ever
wounded, someone is to take hold of that banner before it hits
the ground. It identifies the army. Maybe a large army has different
companies, A, B, C, and D. Each one has its own banner,
so that when you report to Company B, you know where you're going. You look for the banner of Company
B. Well, Jehovah is my banner. Moses, write it for a memorial, evidently meaning that in future
years and generations, people will pass that way. And when
they do, they're going to see that altar, and evidently the inscription
written there on, letting them know that a great battle was
fought in this place, and the worshippers of Jehovah were triumphant. Jehovah is my banner. Well, I
want you to know that Jesus Christ is the banner of His people. We know where we are to go when
we report to His camp. We go to His banner. He is the
banner. When we go into battle, the banner
of Jesus is leading us as we go into the fray against the
spiritual forces, wickedness in high places. He is our banner. It is He that leads the way.
We read in the prophecy of Isaiah 11, verses 10 through 12, And
in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, who shall stand as
a banner to the people, a root of Jesse." Now that's an interesting
term. The people of God, the ancient
Israelites, they knew Jesus as David's son. Here he's David's
root. He's the root of Jesse. Jesse's
the father of David. Our Lord is both David's son
and David's root. The offspring of David and the
one who brought David into the world. The root of Jesse who
shall stand. Yes, he stands. like Saul, head and shoulders
above the others. You see Him. You know where the
banner is. You know where you can go to
find the help that you need. And as we go into battle under
Jesus, our banner, against spiritual foes, we let the worshipers of
Satan know we will be victorious through Jesus. I'm going to stop at that point
today, but I want you to know this. Whatever infirmity you
have, child of God, I will not say this of everyone else, but
of you children of God, you have a great physician. He heals you. He puts none of the diseases
of the Egyptians upon you, and he will heal every disease,
every infirmity, every sickness you ever have. Well, you miss a preacher? Your son died of cancer. The
Lord didn't heal him. Oh, yes you did. If you could
see my son now, no cancer! None! What infirmity do you have? He'll heal you. If not on this
earth, in heaven's glory, there is no need for a physician in
heaven. No hospital, no clinic, no wail
of a siren of an ambulance. None of those. Everyone in heaven
is in perfect health. Now that is not true of those
who reject this one who heals. They go to the place where there
was weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, infirmity and sickness
and torment forever. Be not among them. Come to the
great position. Make Him your banner. Go forth into the fray against
Satan with Jesus Christ. O God, our Father, be pleased,
we pray, to bless this Word to the glory of Your Son, in whose name we humbly pray.
Amen.