Balm in Gilead (Jer. 8:22)
This sermon was preached on 23/1/2011
It is likely that this verse alludes to a common proverb. Gilead was well-known for its medicinal balm. Reference is made to the existence of this balm in the story of Joseph in Genesis 37:25: ‘Then they sat down to eat. And looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing gum, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry it down to Egypt.’ Obviously, where such medicines could be found would be where expert physicians would also be found.
1. The state of the people
The background to the chapter is the invasion of Judah by the Babylonians. This invasion was allowed by God as a punishment of the people for their sins. They had been guilty of a form of idolatry that involved combining the worship of the true God with worship of idols. Probably they regarded this combination as progress in their religious understanding, but the actual outcome was that they lost the knowledge they had been given about the Lord and his ways.
In addition to their syncretism they became superstitious. Verse 19, which refers to the cry of the people regarding the temple in Jerusalem, reveals that their attitude was merely one that assumed they were safe because they still had the outward forms of the worship of God. Jeremiah, as he recites their cry, is interrupted by the Lord who asks, ‘Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images and with their foreign idols?’
In verse 20, the people respond again, pointing out the hopelessness of their situation. They liken themselves to a people whose harvest has failed and who therefore have no prospect of provision. Applying it to their situation, they realise that they are about to be destroyed by the Babylonians. They were concluding that they had left it too late to do anything about it.
2. The sorrow of the prophet
Jeremiah did not view the people’s fear with indifference. Nor did he assume an air of self-righteousness and say, ‘I told you so.’ He had warned them of the consequence of their ways, yet the fact that his warnings were about to be realised did not mean that he was pleased with their fate. Instead he felt the situation deeply: ‘For the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart wounded; I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me.’ This scenario is a common one in the Old Testament prophets: their calling from God often was one of predicting judgement for the people because of their sins, yet it was accompanied by intense regret at what the people had brought on themselves.
3. The solution of the problem
In the midst of his sorrow, Jeremiah also expressed surprise. The reason why he was surprised was because he knew that there was a remedy. This is why he uses the allusion to the physicians of Gilead: ‘Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?’
Of course, Jeremiah is not referring to the literal doctors in Gilead; instead he is referring to God. Just as the remedy was near geographically (Gilead was part of the territory of Israel at one time), so the spiritual cure was close to where they were. What was needed in a physical sense was for the sick person to approach one of the physicians of Gilead explaining what was wrong and asking him for the appropriate cure. Similarly, the Jews had to approach their Healer and sorrowfully ask him to heal them of the consequences of their sins. If they repented of their sins and returned to the Lord, then he would remove the threatened judgement and restore their security from their enemies. But the prophet is surprised that they had not done this.
There were many reasons to encourage them, but these reasons had been ignored. Two of these reasons were these: the promises of God and the experiences of previous generations. They could read the Book of Judges and note how God had sent deliverers whenever their ancestors had repented of the sins that brought them into judgement. Or they could have responded to the many warnings of the prophets to return to the Lord. But they had not done so, and the prophet was surprised. So because of their rejection of the Lord, they were going to experience his judgement.
4. The significance of the problem for us
The message of Jeremiah is not only an account of a period in the history of ancient Israel. In addition, it is a picture of where we can be if we refuse to come to the Lord for healing of our problem. What is our problem? It is sin.
The disease and its symptoms
When we think of our sinfulness, there are several features of it that can be mentioned. We know these features because the Heavenly Physician has already diagnosed the problem. First, it is universal; it is a plague that affects everybody. Second, it is inherited; it is a disease that is passed on to us from our parents. Third, it is extensive in that it affects everything about us. Fourth, it is lethal; it will bring us to death, to eternal death. Fifth, it will destroy us in hell; sin does not cease to be active when we die, instead it will continue to make people worse and worse for ever. Hell is not a static condition; instead it is a regressive situation where everyone gets worse in character and action endlessly.
Sin has its effects on us today, and not only in connection to our words and actions. J. C. Philpot commented on this verse with regard to the effects of sin: ‘Her understanding, her conscience, and her affections were all fearfully maimed. The first was blinded, the second stupefied, and the third alienated. Every mental faculty thus became perverted and distorted. As in a shipwrecked vessel the water runs in through every leak, so when Adam fell upon the rocks of sin and temptation, and made shipwreck of the image of God in which he was created, sin rushed into every faculty of body and soul, and penetrated into the inmost recesses of his being.’
The condition of our minds, consciences and affections reveal the symptoms of the disease. Our minds approve of sinful actions and develop arguments in defence of them; our consciences remain silent when we do wrong things and do not point out that these actions are wrong; our affections love and enjoy and find comfortable the situations of sin. All these are symptoms that we are gravely ill in a spiritual sense.
Some responses to having the disease
When a person discovers that he has this terrible and terminal disease of sin, he usually desires a cure. But instead of going to the Good Physician, he contacts others who offer a way of deliverance. So he may go to Dr. Forget the Past (the past has gone and it is actually a symptom of a diseased mind to be concerned about the past) or to Dr. Tolerant (God is not as strict as the Bible says and instead of a dreadful end from the illness each sufferer will be welcomed into heaven) or to Dr. Civil (be nice to everybody and God will be nice to you). There are many such practitioners to consult, but they are all quacks.
A second possible response is to engage in self-help cures. Such people admit that they have not what they should have been, but in the future they intend to be better. Their favourite times of the year are the occasions when they can make resolutions. It takes some of them a long time before they realise that such activities is the equivalent of putting an elastoplast on a wound that is becoming gangrenous. You cannot cure yourself of the disease of sin.
A third response that is quite common in religious circles is for the person to adopt a fatalistic attitude. He is like a sick person, who is aware of his problem, but instead of phoning the doctor to come and see him he decides to wait and see if the doctor will call without being asked. Such an attitude is not only fatalistic, it is also folly. That is not the way to deal with Jesus Christ, the Good Physician. Your predicament demands that you call on him immediately.
The locations of the ill
Some are found as outcasts of society, beyond the pale. It was about them that Jesus spoke in Luke 5:31-32: ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.’ Or in the words of Luke 14:21-23: ‘Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, “Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.” And the servant said, “Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.” And the master said to the servant, “Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.”’
Others are found in churches, even evangelical ones, as can be seen from the description of the church of Laodicea in Revelation 3:17-18: ‘For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.’
The Good Physician
What can we say about him? First, we should note that his services are free. You don’t have to pay for his help. Second, his success-rate is 100%; nobody who has utilised his services have failed to be cured. Millions of sin-sick souls have gone to him for help and today they are in heaven in perfect health. Third, his surgery does not have a waiting list for people waiting to join it. In fact, he wants as many patients as possible. Fourth, his stamina is never weakened; his strength to go to where a patient is is as strong today as it ever was. Someone may imagine that they have journeyed far into sin and are miles away from help. Such miles are not a barrier to Jesus. When he hears a sinner calling for a cure, he covers that distance in a second.
His solution is his own sacrifice on behalf of sin applied to us by his partner, the Holy Spirit. We have to come to his surgery, its address is the middle cross on Calvary. When we come there and ask him to forgive us our sins on the basis of his sacrifice, immediately all our sins past, present and future are forgiven. We have many kinds of sins: sins of thought, word and deed; sins against people and sins against God. The list is endless and the frequency of sin is numberless. Yet the sacrifice of Christ cleanses from all sins.
The most famous verse in the Bible (John 3:16) comes in the context in which reference is made to the Israelites, who had been afflicted with a deadly disease, finding a cure by looking to a serpent uplifted on a pole. Similarly, we have to look to Jesus on the cross, and when we do we will be cured of our disease.