WHAT HEALINGS ARE ALL ABOUT

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Exodus 15:23‭-‬26 ESV

When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah. And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, "What shall we drink?" And he cried to the Lord , and the Lord showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the Lord made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them, saying, "If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord , your healer."

Having delivered His people from the diseases of Egypt, God seals his promise with a name. His people may call on Him by the name Raphe, healer. He acted through the means of His servant Moses, and Moses through the means of a stick. Did God heal the waters of Marah? Yes. Did the stick heal the waters of Marah? Yes. God used the stick to heal the waters. Could God have spoken, and the waters of Marah been healed? Yes. But instead, the people were pleased to find pure, sweet drinking water in place of the bitter, and God was pleased to find faith and obedience on the part of His servant Moses. The kingdom of God goes forward, reuniting heaven and earth, reversing the bitterness of the Fall, not in a life free of bitterness and trials, but in the lives of His image-bearers doing His work before the world and before the Throne.

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