Watchman: If Only His People Would Listen–But First We Must Come to Him by Faith, Listen to His Voice, and Obey

By SRH,

Just three days following the miraculous passage of the sea, the Israelites started griping about the scarcity of water. In the first well, the water tasted bitter. The water became drinkable once Moses tossed in a specific tree, as God had instructed. Is it possible that this is a representation of how Jesus' sacrifice on the cross made this world more bearable?

God showed them another side of His character in the very following sentence. They would be delivered from the sicknesses they witnessed in Egypt, He promised, if they would just hear His voice, do what was right, listen to His commandments, and observe His regulations. "I am YHWH Rapha," God declared. To put it another way, He is the divine healer. The Lord would heal their illnesses in the same way that He had healed the water.

Isaiah prophesied that we would be healed "by His stripes," or the lashes that the Messiah endured on our behalf (Isaiah 53:5). According to Peter, this signifies the restoration of our souls' spiritual health. 24 So that we can put our sins into his hands and die to sin, Jesus laid his body on the cross.

You have been made whole by his sacrifice. Matthew 2:24 The Holy Spirit revealed to Peter that the words of God spoken to Moses and the prophesy of Isaiah both foretold the salvation that would be ours through Jesus Christ. Even while God has the power to cure our bodies if He so desires, the real healing happens on the level of spirit. The hardest thing for the Egyptians was that they had heartlessness. A hard heart can only be softened by Jesus. But we must approach Him believing, then hear His instructions, and then follow His commands.