The Covenant of Healing
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the bitterness in our lives? It wasn’t for His sin, it was for our sin. It was the chastisement of our
peace. The Bible says that He took our infirmities, He bore our sicknesses, and He carried our
pains (Matthew 8:17), and when they threw that tree in there, the bitter changed. How did He do
that? It took a miracle, right? Molecules changed. The bitter became sweet, and it just happened
like that. Could bitterness in your life become sweet?
You might say, “Boy, I’ve got a bitter pill in my marriage. Oh, it’s bitter… I’ve got bitterness
with my kids… I’ve got bitterness on my job…”
Do you know what they might have thought when they first went up and tried to drink the water?
They might have thought, “We need a new waterhole. This waterhole is bad, and we need a new
one. This one is bitter. It can’t be fixed. We need a new waterhole.” There are a lot of folks who
think that. “My marriage is bad. I need a new wife… I need a new husband… I need new kids;
these are crazy… I need a new job. I need a new boss… This is terrible, this is bad. I just need a
new one… That’s the only fix for this...” No, it’s not the only fix. We serve a God Who can
make the bitter sweet. He did it. He does it.
Don’t be ready to throw things away. God put you in some of these situations. You might not
have made the best of them. You might have made mistakes, and they might have made
mistakes, but no matter how bitter and awful it is, you need to believe God that He can make it
sweet. I’ve seen it again and again.
Now let’s keep looking at this. He did it, and the waters were made sweet, and, “There he made
for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them.” Now this is covenant language.
If you’ll study it, you’ll find that some of these words are used interchangeably with “covenant.”
I’m going to show you other scriptures that actually use the word, but He established something.
Can you tell this is not a fleeting thing? It says that He established something, that He made a
statute and an ordinance. Note the language. They’re all lapping up the sweet water. Their thirst
is quenched, they’re satisfied, and they know they’re in the presence of the miraculous. This
water was impossible to drink just seconds ago. The Lord spoke to them and said, “If thou wilt
diligently hearken to the voice of the L
ORD
thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight,
and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases
upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the L
ORD
that healeth thee.”
(Exodus 15:26)
This is big. This is one of those great “I Am” statements in the Word of God. Remember when
Jesus said, “I Am” when they came to take Him? He said, “Who are you looking for?” They
said, “Jesus,” and when He said, “I Am,” they all fell back on the ground. (John 18:6)
Remember when Moses at the burning bush said, “Who am I going to say sent me?” The Lord
said, “You tell them ‘I Am’ sent you.” (Exodus 3:14)
“I Am” what? “I Am” too much to say. Actually, when He says, “I Am the Lord who heals you”
(Exodus 15:26), the words make up one of those great compound Jehovah names. He said, “I am
Jehovah-Rapha.” This is great! Do you believe God is great? Do you take His Name seriously?
He said, “I am Jehovah.” What does “Jehovah” mean? “Jehovah” means “The Self-Existent
