“I would comfort myself in sorrow; my heart is faint in me. Listen! The voice, the cry of the daughter of my people from a far country! Is not the Lord in Zion? Is not her king in her? Why have they provoked Me to anger with their carved images—with foreign idols? The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved!For the hurt of the daughter of my people I am hurt. I am mourning; astonishment has taken hold of me. Is there no balm in Gilead, is there no physician there? Why then is there no recovery for the health of the daughter of my people?” Jeremiah 8:18-22 (NKJV)
The prophet Jeremiah is mourning for his countrymen and his mourning prompts him to ask the rhetorical question; “is there no balm in Gilead?” Jeremiah knows full well that the reason his people are in such a sad state is found in their lack of faith and in their disobedience to God. His question is really, is God not present with His people? Is there not healing available for their misery? Of course God is present, of course there is healing available if the Israelites would turn to God in earnest and obey His commandments. They have forsaken obedience to God and turned to idolatry and the following of false teachers as a way of life; only paying lip-service to God Who has called them His very own people. A terrible, and sad lot are these Israelites of Jeremiah‘s day.
We tend to shake our heads and wonder how these people could desert the very God responsible for their freedom and blessings; standing in awe of the ridiculous actions of God’s chosen race. Are they any different than we are today? We trust in all manners of “other sources” for relief from our troubles, denying God and depending on whatever else the world recommends. We, like those Israelites, are charting a course for destruction if we continue down this same path. They wound up in Babylon. Where will we find ourselves in the end?
Yes Jeremiah, there is a Balm in Gilead, there is a God in Heaven, and there is healing and salvation for those who will trust and obey the Great Physician. Like the old Hymn says, “for there’s no other way…”
