START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Jeremiah 8:18-9:1
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OBSERVE:
The sense of foreboding and disaster that loomed over Jerusalem and Judah during Jeremiah’s time came from two sources, the two opposing superpowers that hemmed in Judah from North and South — Babylon and Egypt. But in Jeremiah’s mind, these forces were merely the weapons in God’s hands to carry out his judgment against unfaithful Judah.
Jeremiah is often called the weeping prophet because no matter how earnestly he warns Judah and its kings and priests about the need to repent, they do not heed him. He declares:
Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow!
Jeremiah knows that Judah is placing their trust in Yahweh. After all, the people declare:
“Isn’t Yahweh in Zion?
Isn’t her King in her?”
Ever since the time of Isaiah, many years before, Jerusalem in particular has been assured that they are invincible because it is the city where the temple of Yahweh is established, and where the eternal dynasty of David reigns.
But Jeremiah recognizes that they have a false sense of assurance. While God did establish Jerusalem and the Davidic line, Judah and Jerusalem have broken covenant with God. They have not been faithful to worship him alone and adhere to his law:
“Why have they provoked me to anger with their engraved images,
and with foreign vanities?”
Now, Jeremiah discerns, there is a growing sense of apprehension among the people of Judah in particular. An invading force from Babylon is drawing closer from the North, as their armies enter the northernmost cities of what was once Israel:
The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan:
at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones the whole land trembles;
for they have come, and have devoured the land and all that is in it;
the city and those who dwell therein (Jeremiah 8:16).
Now Jerusalem is beginning to realize that it may be too late to be delivered from the Babylonians:
“The harvest is past,
the summer is ended,
and we are not saved.”
Jeremiah finds no satisfaction at all in this impending disaster. He grieves for his city and his people:
For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt:
I mourn; dismay has taken hold on me.
Jeremiah asks plaintively if there is no source of help and healing for his sick nation:
Is there no balm in Gilead?
is there no physician there?
Why then isn’t the health of the daughter of my people recovered?
Gilead was a region East of the Jordan River named for the grandson of the Patriarch Joseph, and settled by some of the tribes of Israel. In Joseph’s time it had long since been overrun by Assyria and had become a vassal state.
But Jeremiah’s reference is to a highly valued balsamic ointment that was used as a medicine. The trade and use of this balm in ancient times could be traced back for centuries. Jeremiah seems to be asking why people who were so sick from their idolatry could not find the antidote in seeking their God.
Jeremiah’s lamentation continues as he reflects on the suffering that Judah has already experienced, and no doubt anticipates what is to happen in the future:
Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a spring of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!
APPLY:
Throughout history there have been times that a sense of impending doom hung heavy over nations:
- In 1775 in the American Colonies, there was the growing sense of resentment toward the British homeland for perceived injustices.
- In 1860 in the United States, it was the regional division between North and South over slavery.
- In 1936 in both Germany and Japan, there was the menace of growing territorial ambitions.
We may wonder sometimes if our times are any different. What is the apprehension and tension that makes the air of our times feel as though it is thick and heavy with growing storm clouds?
Jeremiah is aware of the storm clouds gathering over Jerusalem, but he senses his own helplessness to avert disaster. He knows that his people are placing their trust in past platitudes and phony gods. And yet they can’t seem to understand why they are not delivered from impending catastrophe.
Jeremiah knows that there is a balm in Gilead, and that healing is only to be found in repentance and return to the God of Israel.
This spiritual principle was true in Jeremiah’s time, and it is still true today.
RESPOND:
There is a deep sadness to be the one who can see that disaster is coming, and yet be unable to avert it. I am reminded of Cassandra, the Trojan prophetess in Greek mythology who could foresee the destruction of Troy by the Greeks, and the eventual murder of the Greek Agammenon who became her captor. To be a Cassandra is to be one who is always right, but never heeded.
That was Jeremiah’s sad lot also. And sometimes it is ours when we can see the eventual consequences of immoral or unwise behavior in our family, friends, or countrymen and women.
Yet we still have a responsibility to warn and to weep for them, even when they don’t listen.
The good news is that there is a remedy to the moral sickness that so many suffer today. It is found only in the one whom T.S. Eliot describes in East Coker IV, from Four Quartets:
The wounded surgeon plies the steel
That questions the distempered part;
Beneath the bleeding hands we feel
The sharp compassion of the healer’s art
Resolving the enigma of the fever chart.
Then there is the famous African-American Spiritual, that reminds us that Christ is the source of healing:
There is a balm in Gilead
To make the wounded whole;
There is a balm in Gilead
To heal the sin sick soul.
Our Lord, sometimes we do sense storm clouds rising in our times. Thank you for the reminder that there is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole. Amen.
PHOTOS:
“There Is a Balm in Gilead” is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license.
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