Jesus: Balm of Gilead

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Jeremiah 8:18–22 NASB 2020
18 My sorrow is beyond healing, My heart is faint within me! 19 Behold, listen! The cry of the daughter of my people from a distant land: “Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King not within her?” “Why have they provoked Me with their carved images, with foreign idols?” 20 “Harvest is past, summer is over, And we are not saved.” 21 I am broken over the brokenness of the daughter of my people. I mourn, dismay has taken hold of me. 22 Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has not the health of the daughter of my people been restored?
I have often heard Jesus referred to as “the Balm of Gilead.”
There is no Bible verse that labels Him so.
There is only this one reference we have just seen in Jeremiah.
But perhaps, even though Jesus is not labeled such in other passages, perhaps we can see that Jesus is the answer to the sin-sickness of this nation.
In this passage we hear Jeremiah lamenting for his nation. A nation that as the scriptures leading up to our text tell us:
Jeremiah 7:8–11 NASB 2020
8 “Behold, you are trusting in deceptive words to no avail. 9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, offer sacrifices to Baal, and follow other gods that you have not known, 10 then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are saved!’—so that you may do all these abominations? 11 Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your sight? Behold, I Myself have seen it,” declares the Lord.
Jeremiah 7:30–31 NASB 2020
30 For the sons of Judah have done that which is evil in My sight,” declares the Lord. “They have put their detestable things in the house which is called by My name, to defile it. 31 They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of Ben-hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, and it did not come into My mind.
Jeremiah 8:5–6 NASB 2020
5 “Why has this people, Jerusalem, Turned away in continual apostasy? They hold on to deceit, They refuse to return. 6 “I have listened and heard, They have spoken what is not right; No one repented of his wickedness, Saying, ‘What have I done?’ Everyone turned to his own course, Like a horse charging into the battle.
In our text, Jeremiah looks at his nation and weeps for its hard-heartedness.
He weeps for unrepented sin.
He weeps for a people destined for slavery in a foreign land because of the choices they have made — because they have provoked the righteous judgment of Almighty God.
He weeps for a people who will not turn to the King.
He says in verse 21:
I am absolutely dismayed at a people who are so sick even while medicine for healing that sickness is within sight.
Even while there is a physician that can diagnose and cure their disease within reach.
The region of Gilead was as close as 20 miles away from Jerusalem, from Zion.
Within sight from the heights of the city.
Jeremiah is saying:
There is a hospital with doctors and medicine within sight.
Why aren’t my people healed?
Because they refuse.
That is the situation today in the United States of America.
It is sick.
It is broken.
It is lost.
Let us weep over this nation.
Let us plead with God to turn this nation back to Himself.
Let us weep for the children sacrificed to the god of selfish sexual satisfaction outside the bonds of marriage.
Let us pray that the eyes of a blind nation, blind to God, blind to His mercies, His love, His grace, blind to His salvation — let’s pray that a blind nation receive sight to see their Balm of Gilead, their Great Physician — Jesus — standing right in front of them, waiting for them to turn to Him in repentance.
Truly Jesus is the ONLY medicine our nation needs, the ONLY physician that can cure our sin-sick hearts.
Tonight, let US turn to Jesus and plead with Him for our nation.
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