©Bonnie LaBelle
Chapter 8:18-9:3 (ESV) - My joy is gone; grief is upon me;
my heart is sick within me.
Behold, the cry of the daughter of my people
from the length and breadth of the land:
“Is the LORD not in Zion?
Is her King not in her?”
“Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images
and with their foreign idols?”
“The harvest is past, the summer is ended,
and we are not saved.”
For the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart wounded;
I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me.
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?
Oh that my head were waters,
and my eyes a fountain of tears,
that I might weep day and night
for the slain of the daughter of my people!
“Oh that I had in the desert
a travelers' lodging place,
that I might leave my people
and go away from them!
For they are all adulterers,
a company of treacherous men.
They bend their tongue like a bow;
falsehood and not truth has grown strong in the land;
for they proceed from evil to evil,
and they do not know me,” declares the LORD.
Question to consider: Why does Jeremiah mourn in today’s passage?
This is another verse of poetry or song which appears to have Jeremiah witnessing the cries from all over the land of Judah as they are judged by the Babylonians and breaking down in tears before the LORD on their behalf. I know Daniel had a copy of Jeremiah’s prophecy while in exile in Babylon. I wonder whether Jeremiah had at least heard of what Ezekiel proclaimed beyond the river once the countryside of Judah was overrun in answer to his questions, “Is the LORD not in Zion? Is her King not in her?”
Ezekiel proclaimed these words of the LORD, “As I live, declares the LORD God, surely in the place where the king dwells who made him king, whose oath he despised, and whose covenant with him he broke, in Babylon he shall die.” (Ezekiel 17:16). The prophecy went on to describe his death because of a treaty with Pharaoh which angered Nebuchadnezzar. Ezekiel also described the leaving of the glory of the LORD from the temple before its destruction.
I would argue that in the midst of Jeremiah’s tears over the land of Judah, it was the LORD who posed the question, “Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images and with their foreign idols?” Why would Jeremiah bother to intercede for Judah with tears knowing that they seemed to have no interest in being faithful to the LORD?
Despite the fact that they were deserving of judgment, Jeremiah wept because his people couldn’t be saved. Gilead, a region to the east of the Jordan in the land given to Reuben, Manasseh, and Gad, was known for producing a tree resin which was used as a healing balm. Jeremiah referred to it metaphorically to wonder whether there was a way to restore the relationship between the LORD and Judah. However, the question was rhetorical because Jeremiah then wept uncontrollably for those who were to be slain in this judgment.
When Moses interceded for Israel with tears, the LORD relented of His judgment, but in today’s passage, the LORD is unswayed by the tears of Jeremiah and declared that just as Jeremiah wished he had the capacity to weep day and night for those slain in Judah, the LORD regretted making His dwelling among them because of their treachery. He would rather have made His dwelling in the desert than among the people whose prophets used their words as a deadly bow, spreading lies in the land as they proceeded from evil to evil. Their lies of “peace, peace” while the people continued to sin against God were as deadly for the people of Judah as if these prophets had picked up a bow and shot them full of arrows.
The people of Judah may have proclaimed to belong to the LORD, but they did not even know Him.
Dear heavenly Father, today we live in a time in which the world is ripe for judgment. Thank You for offering us Christ, the true balm of Gilead, before this day comes. Help us to share this grace with those around us, and may it be received with joy and thanksgiving. Amen.