The Lord That Heals

…I am the LORD, your healer – Exodus 15:26

As I write this, I am recovering from one of the worst night’s sleep — or lack of sleep — ever. Whether or not I was food poisoning we might never know, but 24 hours ago I was feeling fine and now I feel like I survived a massive physical ambush.

I have experienced longer, more sustained illness, but this type of thing has been rare for me in the last 20 years. Nevertheless, I am always amazed at systemic healing; how the body has created in such a way that it want to right itself when things go wrong. You see this most in a cut finger; clotting begins almost immediately and in successive days, as long as you properly care for it, the gash begins to disappear. Thankfully, our modern medicines allow us to give the body’s natural tendencies a hand and speed the healing of infections, or reset broken bones.

(As an aside, I think this is why various cancers are so dreaded, they don’t follow this pattern; almost by definition things get worse.)

It’s easy to place this systemic healing in a category of “all things work together for good;” not the misquoted and mis-applied version of the verse, but the idea that the body is naturally pointed toward healing, and in this God deserves equal credit as he would in a situation where his intervention is more sudden and more apparent, as in the case of a condition that has been lingering.

I believe that God is positively disposed and favorably inclined to hear and answer our petitions, including those for our physical bodies. I wrote about that phrase in this article.

But like the Romans 8:28 reference there is more to be said about God’s healing power in Exodus 15:26 than what I quoted above. See the three dots (ellipses) before the verse begins “…” ? You have to be very careful when people quote verses that way.  The full verse reads:

[The Lord 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.”

This immediately tells the verse is

• conditional
• contextual

God affirms his position as “healer” but even there, the promise is preventative. Does this mean God’s can’t heal you of the physical need you face right now? Of course not. But I believe it means we should ask not claim.

Physical healing is part of the hesed or grace of God. Our faith should be such that we ask; asking for even the greatest miracles. Keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking. But do this in faith in God’s limitless ability, not his obligation that is based on a verse that may be out of context or have conditions you are required to meet.

Ask expecting not a miracle of healing, but an undeserved administration of grace. A lyric that often runs through my head — part of a song I wrote myself — in times like this is

Touch me, heal me
You’re a God of mercy
Touch me, heal me
You’re a God of grace
Touch me, heal me,
Lord I cry out to you
Won’t you touch me and heal me I pray.

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Speaking of song lyrics reminded me of this song by Don Moen, I am the God that Healeth Thee.