“For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me. Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?” (Jer 8:21-22 AV)
These are the words of the Prophet Jeremiah as he considers unrepentant Judah. His concern is two-fold. He is astonished at the depth of depravity of his fellow Jews. He cannot believe they have fallen so far from the law of God and are suffering serious consequences from their rebellion. They cannot see just how sin sick they are. The frustration and astonishment reach a crescendo when Jeremiah asks a follow-up question. There is no reason for this sin-sickness. There is a balm in Gilead that will heal the sin-sick soul. There is a resolution to their miserable existence. They do not have to suffer famine, warfare, and pestilence. The blessings of God can be part of their daily life. What impressed me this morning is the depth of concern that the Prophet feels. There is nothing he can do about it. Rather than becoming callous at the condition of a doomed people, he allows their condition to bother him. He allows the hopeless condition of those whom he is trying to reach to turn him into a man who is consumed with their condition. His is black (very discouraged and saddened) and astonished. This astonishment has taken hold of him. It controls him. He cannot get beyond the reality of God’s people living in complete rebellion.
It is too easy to disengage from the reality of
the situation of people if you are totally and continuously surrounded by
it. My wife has been diagnosed with a
NET. This means we will be frequent visitors
to the Cancer department of our local hospital.
We will bump into all sorts of patients suffering from different types
of cancer. We will see those who are so
weak they can barely move. They will
come in in a wheelchair and will need assistance with every single task. There will be many patients with some sort of
head covering because they lost their hair from treatments. There will be some patients using
walkers. There will be some patients
using canes. There will be others who
can walk on their own and if it weren’t for a head covering and the tone of
their skin, you would never know they were suffering from cancer. Then there are others, like my wife, who looks
perfectly fine. She is not suffering
from any symptoms related to her cancer.
As we visit our doctors for treatment and follow-up, we will see all
those patients in the same situation as my wife. If we are not careful, we will cauterize
ourselves against empathy for others because our situation is relatively the
same. When we see something for so long we
tend to get used to it. We lose the
human element. We lose the ability to
feel. It is not deliberate. Sometimes it is necessary. It is just a pattern of life.
The heart of the Prophet is obvious here. A caution is in order here. Jeremiah does feel things deeply. He sees Judah and knows they are headed for real problems. He knows no matter how much he preaches or what message he preachers or even the tenor of his message, nothing will change. Judah is bent on rebellion and there is nothing he can say or do that will change it. He feels compassion for those who are helplessly heading for a great diaspora and enslavement. He sees their future. He allowed this inevitability to touch him deeply. So deep, that he quit preaching for a time. Some might say that the saint should care for his emotions so they do not lead him to a fatal decision. But the thing is, Jeremiah may have quit for a time, but the LORD revived him and he ended well. As long as we maintain our walk with God, we will endure the emotional turmoil of a ministry that may not be all that we want it to be. It is better to feel and need revival than to not feel at all. This is our lesson today. Do not allow the familiarity of a condition or situation to move the heart to callousness. You may burn out. But don’t let that stop you from feeling something. Get revived. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you a balance of compassion and patience. Never stop feeling. When we do, we cease to live.
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