It’s broken. I am hurting. I am frustrated. I feel like everything is over. People have told me, “Be calm. Be peaceful.” I can’t because my life is broken. I feel like I am absolutely ruined, and I don’t know any way to cure it. O Beloved, listen, there’s a balm in Gilead, and we’ll talk about it today.
When you look at the United States of America, and you take a good close look, what do you see? I see brokenness. I see homes that are broken. I see lives that are broken. I see relationships that are broken. I see dreams that are shattered. I see people just falling apart, young people just ruining their lives, getting involved in things that are going to hold them captive. I look at our society, Beloved, and I think “Oh we are so broken.” Deception results in brokenness. Deception doesn’t bring healing. It brings destruction. And this is what we’re looking at this week.
We’re looking at Jeremiah 7, 8 and 9. We’re seeing what happens when a people hold fast to deceit, when they trust in empty things like thinking that because the temple of the Lord is here in Jerusalem we’re gonna be all right, because we’ve got the law of God, we’re going to be all right. We’ve got the Torah. It’s gonna be all right.
No, it’s not. It’s not going to be all right if you’re not all right. And when I’m talking about you being all right, I’m talking about you being righteous, being full of lovingkindness, being just, amending your ways and living according to the precepts of God, [according to every word that comes out of the mouth of God]. (PARAPHRASE, Matthew 4:4) These people were broken because they did not know the ordinance of the Lord. They didn’t know the Lord. And so we come to Jeremiah chapter 8, verse 11 where I left off. It says “„They heal the brokenness of the daughter of My people superficially…..” (Jeremiah 8:11)
Who is this? It’s the prophets. It’s the priests. It’s those that are supposed to be ministering the Word of God, ministering truth, speaking for God, telling the people what God has to say because they don’t have their own copy of the Word of God. They’ve got to hear it from someone. The scribes are giving them a lie. And they think that they’re wise, and they’re not. And so he says “„They heal the brokenness of the daughter of My people superficially, saying “Peace, peace,” but there is no peace..” (Jeremiah 8:11)
I mean the prophets were going around prophesying falsely. His people loved it. And they were saying ah, “Peace, peace. God’s, God’s not gonna judge this country. The temple is here. We’ve got the law of God. We’re God’s chosen people. God’s not going to judge us.”
Oh, God was. He had been judging them, but the severity, the climatic judgment had not yet come yet. And when you look at this and you compare it to chapter 6, verse 14, you find out, hey, he said this word for word in another message in chapter 6, in verse 14, this is what he says. He says, “„They have healed the brokenness of [the daughter of] My people superficially, saying, “Peace, peace,” but there is no peace..” (Jeremiah 6:14) They say it, but it’s not deep. It’s not inside. It’s not a comfort. It’s not a balm.
Go back to chapter 8, verse 12. “„Were they ashamed because of the abomination [that] they had done? They…were not ashamed…..” (Jeremiah 8:12) They would be shamed because they would not be ashamed. Do you understand? When you’re not ashamed, and you’re doing something wrong it’s going to lead to eventually you being shamed. I mean you hear people confess all the time, “I’m ashamed I did that. I’m ashamed that I forgot to declare that on my income tax. I’m ashamed that I lied. I’m ashamed that I smoked the marijuana. I’m ashamed that I was unfaithful. I’m ashamed that I had this affair with another man. I’m ashamed of that.”
But listen, if they don’t say, “I’m ashamed,” if they don’t call it what God calls it then they’re going to be shamed because they’re not dealing with the heart of the matter. He says, “„Were they ashamed because of the abomination they had done? They…were [certainly] not ashamed…they [didn’t even] know how to blush…..” It did not even bother them. “„…Therefore …..” When you find a “therefore” find out what the “therefore” is there for. “„…[Therefore they] shall fall among those who fall; at the time of their punishment they shall be brought down,. says the LORD.” (Jeremiah 8:12)
Now if you are studying along with me, you have gone to our website “preceptsforlife.com,” and you have studied along with me, you already have the text marked. We’ve already told you that “therefore” is a term of conclusion. I mark it with three red dots in the shape of a triangle. And when I see it I know, hey, he’s concluding something. He summarizing something. He’s letting us know, and what he’s letting us know is this that deception leads to a fall, that deception leads to judgment. Deception leads to brokenness. Deception leads to shame. And deception leads to a fall.
So He goes on to say in verse “„…at the time of their punishment they [will] be brought down,. says the LORD. „I will surely snatch them away,. declares the LORD; „there will be no grapes on the vine…no figs on the fig tree…the [leaves] will wither; and what I have given them will pass away.. Why are we sitting still? Assemble yourselves…let us go to the fortified cities….”
Okay, all right, this is the way it is. I can’t do anything about it. Take me to the fortified cities. Let me perish there. It’s over. “…[the LORD]…has doomed us and [He’s] given us poisoned water to drink….” (Jeremiah 8:12-14) We might as well go, God’s doomed us. He’s given us poisoned water to drink.
God’s saying, “Wait a minute. Wait a minute. I’ve been calling to you “Return, return to Me. Return to Me. You forsook Me. Come back. I’ll take you back. I’ll heal your brokenness. I will, if you’ll just return to Me.” He says now, “We waited for peace, but no good came; for a time of healing, but behold, terror! From Dan is heard the snorting of his horses; at the sound of the neighing of his stallions the whole land quakes….” (Jeremiah 8:15-16) What is he saying?
We know evil’s coming from the north. We know that evil is coming down right upon them and down from the north as it came from Assyria and now it is eventually. He hasn’t mentioned who it is yet, but it’s going to come from Babylon. It’s going to come down. It says “We can hear the neighing of his stallions. We can hear them as they lift their heads, as they snort into the wind, we can hear it.” Here are a people that do not fight on horses. These are people that don’t have a cavalry. And a cavalry is coming, charging down against them. And this is what it says, “…For they come [to] …devour the land and its fullness, the city and its inhabitants.” (Jeremiah 8:16)
Beloved, when you choose to be deceived, when you refuse truth what happens is it leads to judgment. It leads to a brokenness. It leads to a bondage. And this is what he’s saying. “…They [have] come [to] devour the land and its fullness….” (Jeremiah 8:16) It leads to a land that is devoured, that is just absolutely consumed. He says, “„For behold…,.” and God is speaking, “„…I am sending serpents against you, adders, [and] …there [will] be no charm…..” Those, those snakes and adders are going to come up and you’re not going to be able to play your music and send it back into it’s basket. It says, “„…[There will be no charm,] and they will bite you,.
declares the LORD.”
Listen to Jeremiah. “My sorrow is beyond healing, [my sorrow is beyond healing] my heart is faint within me!” (Jeremiah 8:17-18) He sees, he knows what is coming. He’s the spokesman of the Lord. He’s faithfully delivered the message. He hasn’t been dismayed by their faces, and he knows that God told him in Jeremiah chapter 1, “„…I [will watch] over My word to perform it..” (Jeremiah 1:12) It’s going to happen.
And so he says, “Behold, listen! The cry of the daughter of my people from a distant land: „Is [not] the LORD…in Zion? Is her King not within her? Why have they [forsaken] Me with their graven images, with foreign idols?.” God’s there to help them. Why did they turn away from the living God? Why did they turn to these idols, these foreign idols that are made with hands?
And then he says, “„Harvest is past, summer is ended, and we are not saved.. For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am broken….” Jeremiah’s looking at them. He’s looking at their future. He’s looking at what’s happening. He’s looking at their brokenness and he says, “[For the brokenness of the daughter of my people, I’m dismayed, I’m broken;] I mourn, dismay has taken hold of me. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? [Then why] has not the health of the daughter of my people been restored?” (Jeremiah 8:19-22)
There is healing. There is healing for brokenness, and His name is Jehovah-Rapha. We’ll talk about it more, and you don’t want to miss it.
Years ago, I looked at people that were so broken, that were hurting so bad. I would teach them, and then they would come and they would tell me about the sexual abuse that they endured, about the rejection and many times they hadn’t told anyone else. And my heart just ached for them. And I saw them going from counselor to counselor to counselor getting all this psychology, and it wasn’t helping. And one day as I was reading Jeremiah, I came across this verse, Jeremiah chapter 8, verse 21 and 22. “For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am broken; I mourn, dismay has taken hold of me.” I’m dismayed. Why am I dismayed? Why am I floored? I’m floored, he says, because, “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no [great] physician [is there no physician] there…?”
And he says, “Yes!” The implication is, hey there is a balm in Gilead. There is a great physician there. And so then he asks the question, well “…Why then has not the health of the daughter of my people been restored?” (Jeremiah 8:21-22)
There is a balm in Gilead. There is a great physician. Do you know what the great physician’s name is? Jehovah-Rapha, it’s the name of the Lord. As I was thinking about all this, I thought about Psalm 107, verse 20. “He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from [all] their destructions.” (Psalm 107:20)
I remembered as we would travel because every year without fail, we take people to Israel and we teach them the Word of God. And one of my favorite drives is to leave the Galilee, to come down to the very southern end of the Sea of Galilee, and to start down that road that runs parallel with the Jordan River. You look across and there’s a fence there because Jordan is on the other side. But you see the most lush valley. You see green everywhere, and you know that that’s Gilead, in Genesis and you might want to write this down, 37:25 and write down Ezekiel 27:17, talks about the balm of Gilead. (See Ezekiel 28:17)
And what I want us to see is in verse 25 of Genesis 37 it says, “Then they sat down to eat a meal….” And it’s talking about when they take Joseph, and they put him in a pit. And then they’re going to sell him to passers by. Who did they sell him to?
It says, “…As they raised their eyes and looked, behold, a caravan of Ishmaelites was coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing aromatic gum and balm and myrrh, on their way to bring them down to Egypt.” (Genesis 37:25) They had gone up to Gilead to get, among other things, among the myrrh and that, the balm, the healing substance that they would take down to Egypt.
And when they took the healing substance they took the man that would be the source of healing even for Egypt, which was Joseph. Of course, Joseph didn’t know it, and his brothers didn’t know it. But he would be the restorer. He would be the healer.
So Jeremiah is dismayed because people do not have to be broken. Well as I studied all that, then I went and I stayed in the home of Ruth Hunt, who was married to H.L. Hunt who was an incredibly, one of the most wealthy men in the whole world. He had two wives going, and they didn’t know it. And June’s a good friend of mine. And I would suggest that you get her book on forgiveness and read her story. And you’ll read about the healing that can come to a broken, broken family.
But as I stayed in this mansion, it was like Mount Vernon. And I stayed there. And I was up in the bedroom, and I was going to speak at Dr. Criswell’s church, First Baptist in Dallas, Texas, God began to give me the beginning of a book now that you can get. It’s called, “Lord, Heal My Hurts.”
And I began to study the Word of God, and I saw, hey, there’s no hurt, no wound that God cannot heal. There is a balm in Gilead. It’s the Word of God. And there is a physician there, and His name is Jehovah-Rapha, the Lord God that heals. So if you want health, you can have it. I would suggest that you get the book. We start out in the book of Jeremiah, and you go through it. And you cry, “Heal me, oh Lord, and I shall be healed.” That’s from Jeremiah, and we’ll study it later.
Well, he’s looking at the brokenness of the daughter of his people. He’s looking at the fact that there’s healing, and they’re not being healed. And he says, “Oh…,” and this is Jeremiah and you color these pronouns here orange. “[Oh] that my head were waters [that] my eyes [were] a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!” He says, “Oh that I had in the desert a wayfarers. lodge…that I might leave my people [that I might] go from them…!”
He says, “…All of them are adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.” (Jeremiah 9:1-2) And he’s not just talking about spiritual adultery. Because as we saw last week they are trooping to the harlot’s house, these are a people that are supposed to be moral. God has said to them that they should not covet another person’s wife and their wives are being taken by other men. (See Exodus 20:17) He says, they “…are adulterers…,” they are “…an assembly of treacherous men.” (Jeremiah 9:2)
When people are deceived, when people walk their own way they become very, very treacherous. You look at it. You look at Hitler. You look at Mussolini. You look at Stalin. You look at Lenin. You look at the leaders of China. They’re treacherous, treacherous men in their history that have done brutal things. You look at the head of North Korea. You look at this. He says they’re, “…treacherous men. „They bend their tongue like [a] …bow…..” It says and “„…Lies and not truth prevail in the land…..” So their tongue comes and it shoots the arrows of lies into people’s hearts. He says, “„…They proceed from evil to evil…..” It says, “„…They do not know Me…..” (Jeremiah 9:3-4)
Now one of the key things, the preventative for deception is to know God, to know Him intimately, to know Him as He is. That’s how this chapter ends. And that’s how we’re going to end it.
But He says “„…They do not know Me…..” And because they do not know Him, “„Let everyone be on guard against his neighbor…do not trust any brother; because every [one] deals craftily…..” It says, “„…And every neighbor goes about as a slanderer..” (Jeremiah 9:4)
I mean they’re in your house, and they’re talking nice about you. And then they’re out in the streets, and they’re among others, and they’re cutting you down. And they’re saying, “Oh, let me tell you this.” He says, “You can’t trust anyone.” This is a people that have rejected the knowledge of God. This is a people that have forsaken the fountain of living waters. This is a people that are self-destructing. Why?
Listen to this. “„Everyone deceives his neighbor and does not speak the truth…..” They do not know the truth. “„…They have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves committing iniquity..” (Jeremiah 9:5) They are just plumb worn out, because of all the sin that they’re involved in. O Beloved, they’re broken, and they need healing. And there is a balm in Gilead.
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