Balm

Wednesday 16^th September

Read Jeremiah 8:18-22

“You who are my Comforter in sorrow,
    my heart is faint within me.
¹⁹ Listen to the cry of my people
    from a land far away:
‘Is the Lord not in Zion?
    Is her King no longer there?’

‘Why have they aroused my anger with their images,
    with their worthless foreign idols?’

²⁰ ‘The harvest is past,
    the summer has ended,
    and we are not saved.’

²¹ Since my people are crushed, I am crushed;
    I mourn, and horror grips me.
²² Is there no balm in Gilead?
    Is there no physician there?
Why then is there no healing
    for the wound of my people?” (NIVUK)

These words challenge us in different ways. The message of impending doom and judgement is overwhelming. The temptation to look away, skim over the repetitive declarations of sinfulness, and flick through to hope and peace is ever present. Yesterday we did just that. We considered the vipers set loose amongst God’s people and we looked away to the One lifted up to heal us, to remove the poison of sin from our souls.

In doing so, we ever run a greater risk. To look away from the consequences of sin, the human cost, is to lose a little of our soul also. Lamentation is as important as praise. If we are not moved by the fate of those around us are our hearts truly transformed?

Jeremiah was overwhelmed also. The coming judgement affected real people. His people. He so identifies with them that the consequences of their coming judgement fall on him (v21). He experiences their frantic search for aid and succour deep in his soul (v22). He laments and mourns and weeps over a people who barely deserve his tears. His spirit desperately needs God’s Spirit (v18).

Does ours?

Where is the balm?