Peace without the Balm of Gilead

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RETURN TO SYLLABUS

JEREMIAH 8
Lesson #09
PEACE WITHOUT THE BALM OF GILEAD!

• Memory Verse: Jer 8:11
• Review
  • Chapter 8 of Jeremiah is a continuation of Chapter 7as though there is no division. Remember that the chapter and verse designations are a man-made device so as to reference specific text.
  • In Chapter 7 we discussed true repentance and the crossing of a spiritual line that brings the wrath of God.
  • In Chapter 8 we will discover the spiritual blindness that occurs when that spiritual line is crossed.
• Read Jer 8:1-3
  • Jeremiah continues to tell us the extent of the devastation that will come upon Israel from the rising Babylonian empire.
  • Death
    • In all cultures there is an established way of dealing with death that brings dignity to the passing of a person.
      • In Jewish culture, death was very personal within a family. The family members personally prepared the body for burial. We see that personal touch with the body of Jesus, when the women that followed Jesus brought perfume and incense to prepare his body for burial.
      • In the Jewish culture, burial was not done by digging graves into the ground because the ground was very hard. Instead they used caves. Dead bodies were laid on shelves in the caves. Then when the body had deteriorated, the bones and ashes were put into jars freeing the shelves for more recent bodies.
    • In all cultures there is also a way of dealing with the death of an enemy.
      • Usually the treatment of the dead enemy was an attempt to demonstrate ultimate power over and subjugation of the enemy.
      • In the Bible, some of these practices seem barbaric, and in fact they were. However, they demonstrate the thinking in that culture.
    • Jeremiah’s message tells us that when the Babylonian armies come, they will unbury the dead.
      • In other words, they went into the caves where dead bodies were buried and where jars of ashes and bones were kept.
      • They did violence to the graves and the dead. Why would they do that?
        • Honor given to dead ancestors is one way that societies maintain unity of the past with the present so as to insure a transition of the culture into the future.
        • Like the Assyrians, the Babylonians wanted to break these ties within a culture.

The Assyrians transported thousands of defeated people to other parts of the empire to break their spirit, their unity, and their ties with one another so as to subjugate them.

The Babylonians did the same thing. They transported the Jews in the Promised Land to Babylon.

• • • • Jeremiah says that the poetic justice is that the dead bones of these leaders will be scattered over the ground, exposed to the sun and moon that they worshiped as gods.
• Read Jer 8:4-12
  • The folly of the failure to repent:
    • =1= The people were not paying attention to common wisdom or reasoning common to daily living. (4-5)
      • When a person falls, he rapidly gets up on his feet. When a traveler takes a wrong road, he quickly finds his way back so as to take the right road.
      • Contrary to that wisdom, the Israelites fell into sin headed in the wrong direction, but they would not repent to get out of it and correct their path.
    • =2= The people were not listening to their own conscience. (6)
      • The Holy Spirit works through the conscience along with the Word of God to bring a repentant attitude.
      • However, a person has free will to choose not to listen to the Holy Spirit.
    • =3= The people would not listen to the Word of God by the prophet. (7)
      • They did not understand the voice of God.
      • They did not understand the mercy and love of God that warned them.
      • Even the animals have a godly instinct that God placed in them to insure their survival.
        • The migratory birds are an example.
        • But man in his pride and unbelief, does not listen to the voice of God’s warning.
    • =4= The people would not read the written Word of God. (8)
      • Read Deu 4:6-8
      • The wise men among the people that knew the Word of God did not make use of it. (9)
      • The supposedly wise among them will fall in the same destruction and captivity as the common people.
  • The reason for their folly: (10-12)
    • =1= Greed for the wealth of the world.
      • The priests sold their priestly service for money.
      • The false prophets worked for money. (Mic 3:11)
    • =2= Dishonesty in daily life.
      • Insincere business practices to gain money.
      • Taking advantage of people to gain money.
    • =3= Deception of others.
      • They pretended to have the answers to the problems in society to gain power and wealth.
      • They had no answers of wisdom to cure the ills of society.
• Read Jer 8:13-22 God’s actions control the situation
  • =1= God threatens the destruction of a sinful people, Israel.
    • God will remove the blessings from Israel. (13)
      • It is human nature to take certain things for granted. Israel was no different.
        • God blesses us in so many ways, but we have a tendency to take those blessings for granted.
        • When we consider that God could remove those blessings at any time for our good, we must repent of our ungratefulness.
      • Mercies abused are forfeited.
    • God will send armies that will strip the land. (16)
      • The people in the Southern Kingdom of Judah heard the sound of the Assyrian army as it came to the territory of Dan in the Northern Kingdom. (16)
      • Now the Babylonian army will come upon the Southern Kingdom of Judah.
        • In ancient warfare, armies lived off of the land as they went along conquering more and more territory.
        • It was not uncommon for an army to strip the land.
    • God will send serpents among them. (17)
      • Of course spiritually speaking, the ultimate serpent is Satan.
      • Notice that these serpents have a different nature that cannot be charmed. (17)
        • Satan has his own agenda.
        • Satan’s desire through the Bible is to defeat the believer and to destroy Israel.

Satan’s desire to destroy Israel is to prevent God from fulfilling His promises to bless Israel.

God promised the land from the Euphrates River to the Nile River to Israel. They have never possessed all that land.

For God to fulfill his promise, He must protect Israel from complete destruction until the Millennial Kingdom of Christ when Israel will then possess all the blessings of God through Jesus Christ.

• • • • Therefore, God will not permit the total destruction of the Israelites.
        • That was true in Jeremiah’s day.
        • That is true today.
  • =2= God will permit the despair of His people.
    • Jeremiah is already feeling the despair that will come upon his people. (18)
    • The people that had no fear of what was to come end up with no hope when reality finally comes upon them.
      • They could hide in the cities that have a wall of defense. (14)
      • However, even Jerusalem will not stand in this judgment.
    • But God’s ear is not deaf to the cry of His people. (19)
      • He hears the cry of the people from the Northern Kingdom that have already gone into captivity. (19)
      • They have reaped the result of their idolatry. (20)
      • Unfortunately the Israelites of Jeremiah’s day were not saved because they did not repent. (20)
  • =3= God will permit their disappointment when He does not protect them. (15)
    • The people would look for peace when the Babylonian armies came, because that was the message of the false prophets. However, there was no peace. (15)
    • Because God protected them from the Assyrian army, they assumed He would protect them from the Babylonian army.
      • This attitude is an attitude of presumption.
      • God honors faith based on humility. (Heb 11:6) He does not honor presumption based on self-righteous pride.
        • Remember when Jesus was being tempted in the wilderness in Matthew 4? He gives us an example of presumption.
        • Read Mat 4:5-7

Jesus was the Son of God. He knew the Father’s plan.

Yes, the angels would have saved Him if he had jumped, but such an act would presume upon God’s love and power.

Jesus did not have to prove his deity to himself, to the Father, or to Satan.

• • • On what did the people in the Southern Kingdom of Judah rely? They trusted in two things: (19)
      • =1= They trusted in the fact that the temple of God was in their midst in Jerusalem.
        • The temple meant the representative presence of God.
        • The temple contained the Ark of the Covenant, which was God’s throne on earth. Surely God would not let anything happen to the temple and the Ark of the Covenant!

In reality the Ark of the Covenant disappears from scripture after the days of Jeremiah.

You see, God does not need a physical object on earth to be a reigning God. He can rule from anywhere.

• • • • =2= They trusted in the fact that the throne of the lineage of kings passed down from King David was in Jerusalem.
        • Surely God would not permit the lineage of kings and David’s throne to be destroyed!
        • Why was David’s throne important?

God gave the Israelites the prophecies that the Messiah would rule from David’s throne.

In reality Jesus Christ can rule without a throne. He is the King of Kings.

He rules in people’s hearts today…those that give their lives to Christ.

• • • In what should the people have trusted? (22)
      • Jeremiah says his heart is hurting for his people. (21)
        • He has put on black clothing to indicate mourning. (21)
        • This was to call attention to his sad message.
      • The people should trust in the great Physician and His medicine:
        • Jeremiah questions whether there is a physician in Israel that can cure the nation.
        • Of course, the answer is yes, there is the Great Physician, Jesus Christ.

Even though the people had put idols in God’s temple…

Even though the glory of the Holy Spirit had left the temple…(Eze10:18)

• • • • • God would gladly welcome them into His kingdom if they would only repent.
        • However, the people would not take the medicine that God provided for them. What medicine?

The Balm of Gilead. What is it?

Gen 37:25 is the first mention of this ointment in scripture. It became well known throughout Israel.

Jeremiah will mention it again in Jer 46:11

The balm of Gilead was an ointment made from the very fragrant resin of the balsam tree. This pale yellow resin was also used in incense. (Exo 35:28).

As a medicine, the oil obtained from the bark, the leaves, and the berries was dissolved in water.

What does the balm of Gilead represent?

As incense is a symbol of prayer, the balm of Gilead is symbolic of spiritual cleansing through prayer. This is the way Jeremiah symbolically uses this well known medicine in his messages.

Therefore, because the New Testament tells us there is only one way to gain spiritual cleansing and that is through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, the balm of Gilead is a symbolic title for Jesus Christ.

• Application:
  • The people in the Southern Kingdom of Judah would not turn to God in repentance,. They would not take the medicine God provided for spiritual cleansing.
  • People today are no different. They will not receive Jesus Christ, the balm of Gilead, which God provides for them. When the final judgment comes, they will be just as surprised as the Southern Kingdom of Judah was when Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians.
  • Without the balm of Gilead, Jesus Christ, in your life, there is no hope and no peace with God.

HOMEWORK
Jeremiah 9

• Application of Jeremiah 8
  • In what or in whom do you trust for your daily life to meet your needs?
  • What is the medicine that Jesus Christ supplies for cleansing our life of sin?
  • Do you periodically take this medicine? How often?
• Preparation for Jeremiah 9
  • Read Jer 9:1-26
    • According to Jeremiah, what is the most important thing to know and understand in times of trouble?
    • Explain what you think that means!
• Memory Verse: Jer 9:24