1 A Balm in Gilead, Jeremiah 8:18-9:11 (November 2, 2014) 18 My joy is gone; grief is upon me; my heart is sick within me. 19 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? 20 The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. 21 For the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart wounded; I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me. 22 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! 2 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. 3 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. 4 Let everyone beware of his neighbor, and put no trust in any brother, for every brother is a deceiver, and every neighbor goes about as a slanderer. 5 Everyone deceives his neighbor, and no one speaks the truth; they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves committing iniquity. 6 Heaping oppression upon oppression, and deceit upon deceit, they refuse to know me, declares the LORD. 7 Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: Behold, I will refine them and test them, for what else can I do, because of my people? 8 Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceitfully; with his mouth each speaks peace to his neighbor, but in his heart he plans an ambush for him. 9 Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the LORD, and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this? 10 I will take up weeping and wailing for the mountains, and a lamentation for the pastures of the wilderness, because they are laid waste so that no one passes through, and the lowing of cattle is not heard; both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled and are gone. 11 I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a lair of jackals, and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant. PRAY We are studying the book of Jeremiah for seven weeks this fall, and today we get to the passage that, probably more than any other, earned Jeremiah his nickname: The Weeping Prophet. You don t get any more weepy than verse 1: 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! The weeping prophet. Now, why was Jeremiah so sorrowful? He was grieving because of the people of God. We read that he was grieved because of Israel. Israel was full of unfaithful people (that s verse 2) and untruthful people (that s verse 8). God s own people in no way reflected the character of God.
2 And then we read that Jeremiah was grieving for Israel. Jeremiah knew, as we ve said each week in our study on this book, that judgment was coming. God was going to punish Israel for her sins, and the means of God s judgment would be the Babylonian Empire. That leads to one of the most poignant Scriptures in all the Bible: 19 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? [says the Lord] 20 The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. Jeremiah was the weeping prophet. He was sorrowful. And that s what I want us to look at this morning sorrow, or depression, to use a clinical term. What is the role sorrow has to play in the Christian life? Just a heads up: not a detailed exposition on these verses in Jeremiah (though of course we will look at them), but more of a survey about what the Bible as a whole has to say about the subject. Three points: first, I want us to see that there will be sorrow. Second, the sources of our sorrow. Third, where we can go with our sorrow. First, that there will be sorrow. Probably for at least some of us this morning it seems ridiculous, it seems unnecessary, to devote an entire point to the proposition that there will be sorrow in the Christian life. Of course, you might think, there will be sorrow how could there not be sorrow in a broken, fallen world like ours? But when you participate in some circles of Christianity, if you listen to some Christian teachers, you d think that sorrow just should not be a part of a normal, healthy, victorious Christian life. In fact, according to some teachers, if you re going through times of sorrow then there s something wrong with you. You re not doing something right, you re lacking in faith. Many of you will know who Joel Osteen is. One of his more recent books is called Every Day a Friday, and in it he writes that Christians need to smile more. If you smile more, he says, you ll make more money, make more friends, you can turn your life around. And in chapter three of his book he talks about his sister Lisa. For months, he said, Lisa had no joy. She was depressed. She wouldn t leave her house. Family and friends tried to help her, but it was no use. She prayed and read the Bible, and that was no help. Do you know what helped her? Finally, he says, Lisa put on a smile out of sheer determination. She smiled by faith. She chose to wear a cheerful countenance. [As a result] she broke free from the chains of depression Have you heard the saying, You ve got to fake it until you make it? You may have to wear a fake smile, but if you keep at it, God will turn it into a real smile We all can find some reason not to smile, whether it s high gas prices or low income. But your response should be, I m too
3 blessed to be stressed. My future is so bright, I need sunglasses. Or If I was doing any better, I d be twins. Now Osteen s right in one sense of course the Christian life should be full of joy, we should smile as Christians. I wish I smiled more than I do. There s nothing wrong with that at all. Joel Osteen emphasizes joy and victory in the Christian life, and those are good reminders for us. He emphasizes positive thinking, which is also helpful. But he s wrong on two very important points: first, Christians never have to be fake. There is no gospel, no good news whatsoever, in fake it until you make it. That advice is the opposite of what the Bible teaches; we see no examples of that philosophy in the Bible. For example, the Psalmist was never fake. When the Psalmist was before the Lord, he was always exactly who he was either in rejoicing or depression. As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. Where can I go and meet with God? My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, Where is your God? Psalm 42:1-3. Do you think he was smiling when he wrote that? Psalm 130:1-6: Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD; O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive, to my cry for mercy. If you, O LORD, kept a record of sin, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared. I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word [not my smile] I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. No smiles there. One last psalm: The LORD is close to those who fake it until they make it? No, The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:18. I just gave you three examples from the psalms; I could have given you fifty. The last thing the Bible wants from us is to be fake. Second, there will be times when a Christian is so full of pain and sorrow that they can t smile. It s just not possible. If there is one chord running through the Bible, it is that in this fallen world we will have sorrows. The Psalms testify to it, as we ve seen. Jeremiah testifies to it; Jeremiah wrote the book of Lamentations, which basically means Book of Sorrows. Ecclesiastes 3:1, 4: For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance One of my favorite examples of this is in the book of 1 Samuel, where we meet a woman named Hannah. Hannah is married to a godly, loving man, Elkanah, he s apparently a wealthy and influential man in Israel. So, Hannah has a husband, and Hannah has money. Is she smiling? No for three reasons. First, because she doesn t really have Elkanah, she shares him with Peninnah, his other wife. Second, Hannah can t have any children her womb is closed. She is barren. Third, Peninnah has children. She keeps
4 having children, getting pregnant like clockwork every eighteen months. Hannah had to share her rival with the fertile Myrtle of the ancient near east Every year Elkanah took Hannah and Peninnah and the children up to Shiloh to worship the Lord at during one of the big festivals. And every year this festival got more and more bitter for Hannah, because Peninnah, we read, would provoke Hannah on her childlessness. One commentator on the Old Testament imagines that it went like this: they re all sitting down at the picnic table in Shiloh, Elkanah, Hannah, Peninnah, all the children, and Peninnah is getting the lunches out for all her kids. And Peninnah says to them, OK, do you all have your food? My goodness, there are so many of you. Mommy, Mommy, Ms. Hannah doesn t have any children. I know, dear. Doesn t she want children, Mommy? She does, but she keeps disappointing Daddy. Does Daddy want more children? Yes, he does, very much so. Oh, Hannah, by the way, did I tell you, I m pregnant again? So, what does Hannah do? We read in verse 10: She was deeply distressed and prayed to the LORD and wept bitterly. Please know that just because you are full of sorrows doesn t mean that somehow you re doing something wrong, that somehow you re not the Christian you need to be. Some Christians do act like if there s you re downcast it s your fault. They say, Oh, you re suffering, you re sad? Well, have you claimed all the promises? Have you confessed all known sin? Are you having your quiet time? Are you praying? Are you thanking God? Are you doing everything right? No you can do everything right and yet, still, there will be sorrow. Second, the sources of our sorrow. Why do I mention this? You may be thinking, J.D., I am weeping and mourning, and I know exactly why. I don t need you to tell me. OK, I get that and that may be true. So, for example, Jeremiah, it s obvious, was a fountain of tears, and we know why. His sorrow had a relational source. His beloved people, his nation, Israel, was rejecting God. Now, that will bring tears to your eyes. My goodness, we cry these days when our favorite sports team loses. How much more when your nation, your own people, chases after false gods and walks down the broad and wide road of destruction without any thought of turning back? If you have a loved one who is destroying their lives with their decision-making, especially if they reject the gospel, then of course that will make you sorrowful. Sometimes your sorrow is relational. But sometimes your sorrow has a moral source. So I ve known people, men and college students in particular, who by all outward appearances had everything going for them in their lives, but they could not stop looking at pornography on their computers. And the guilt of what they were doing began to weigh them down, and they started having panic attacks and sank into a depression. Why? Because while sin can bring you brief periods of ecstasy, it will, over the long haul, completely destroy you. Your soul cannot handle
5 sin long term. So sorrow can have a moral source; you behave immorally and it will steal any chance you have for happiness. I love Proverbs 28:1: The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion. Again, those seem pretty obvious. The next two sources, though, when they send sorrows your way, can hide from you. The Bible makes it clear that sorrow sometimes has a spiritual source. Paul says in Ephesians 6:12: 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. So our sorrows can be the result of demonic activity. In fact, we read in 1 Samuel 16 that King Saul was tormented by an evil spirit. Finally, our sorrow can have a physical source. If certain parts of your body are not working correctly, like your thyroid, if it s not doing what it needs to do, you can get so low that you don t want to live anymore. Even though there s nothing morally wrong in your life, even though there are no severe relational problems in your life, but purely because of physical issues you can be in the deepest, darkest depression. Same thing with lack of sleep sleeplessness can make you feel like you re going insane. Same thing can result from side effects of various medications. So it s easy to feel bad and have absolutely no reason why, when all along it was a physical issue. Now why do I point that out? Simply to show you how incredibly varied and complicated the reasons behind your suffering might be. If you come from a strong family background where you were loved and affirmed, the relationships you have now are healthy, you aren t willingly giving yourself to any sinful behavior, but all of the sudden you find yourself in the middle of depression, it might be a simple physical issue. Go to a doctor, get some medication to correct it, and it could be that in no time you re back to where you were. But if you grew up in a very dysfunctional family, where there was little love but a lot of abuse, and the relationships you re in now are a mess in large part because you did not see healthy relationships patterned when you were young, so you don t know how to have them, and if you re caught up in certain sinful behavior patterns (often as coping mechanisms), and, to top it all off, you ve been dabbling in the occult (and that happens it s not that uncommon) and then you find yourself depressed well, it s going to take a lot longer to overcome your sorrows. You can t expect someone in that position to snap out of it after two or three counseling sessions. Third, what do we do with our sorrow? Look back at verse 18: My joy is gone; grief is upon me; my heart is sick within me. Now the Hebrew word translated as joy in the ESV is not the usual Hebrew word for joy. There s a particular Hebrew word (simah) that s almost always used for joy in the Old Testament. The actual Hebrew word used here is a different word, and it s the only time it s used in the Old Testament, so the translators have a hard time knowing what to do with it.
6 But most likely the word doesn t mean simply joy as an emotional state I can attain, but rather it means a source of brightening and restoration in sorrows. So I prefer the way the NIV 1984 translates verse 18: O my Comforter in sorrow, my heart is faint within me. Do you see what the NIV does? It personalizes joy and comfort. Now, if you look around, you ll notice most translations don t personalize the word the way the NIV does? Why? Here s how one commentator put it: Very likely the reason that most Jewish scribes and some Protestant commentators [have not personalized joy in] this verse is that they do not understand the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. Jeremiah wasn t crying out in some general way about how his joy was gone; he was crying out of his deep sorrow to the One who could give him joy. He was crying out the Holy Spirit of God. Who is the Holy Spirit? He is God just as much God as the Father or as Jesus. He is the third person of the Trinity. In the gospel of John, especially chapters fourteen and sixteen, we learn more about the Holy Spirit than anywhere else in the Bible. John 14:16 is where we first read about him, and there Jesus says: And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever The ESV calls the Holy Spirit the Helper. The Greek word translated as Helper is parakletos, from two Greek words para, which means to come along side someone, and kaleo, which means to call or declare. I want to spend a little time on the etymology of this word here I don t do this often but this is such an usual and important word and we don t get a lot of instruction in the Bible on the Holy Spirit so I want to take advantage of the opportunity. Now, if you have five different translations, you might get five different words some of the newer translations have Helper or Counselor or Encourager or Friend. Why? Because no one English word really works to translate parakletos. And I don t think those words do justice, because they make the Holy Spirit sound like a camp counselor or someone you d just go hang out with. But in a lot of the older translations (King James, American Standard Version), they use the word Comforter. Now, that word isn t much help to us today, because when we use the word comforter, we think of a quilt or a blanket. But that s not what comforter meant in Old English. It comes from two Latin words, con, which means with, and forte, which means power. We still use those words con shows up often in modern English as a prefix. And you ll still hear people from time to time, when describing a strength or a talent someone else has, say something like this: That really is her forte. Who is the Holy Spirit? Who is the Comforter? He comes alongside you with power. And what does the Holy Spirit do with power? The Holy Spirit speaks to you to bear you up in your sorrows.
7 Let s say you re going through a time of deep sorrows, and you say to yourself, There is no way God could love me if I m going through this no way. God must be punishing me if I m hurting like this. Maybe there is no God if I m hurting like this. What do you do when you hurt like that? If you re a Christian, then the Holy Spirit will come alongside you and with power, he ll comfort you. He ll say, That can t be true. It can t be true that God doesn t love you, it can t be true that God is punishing you, because Jesus Christ died for you. A good way to describe the Holy Spirit s ministry is that it is a spotlight ministry. A spotlight does not draw attention to itself, but to the building or the person to which it points. The Holy Spirit comes alongside you and with power shines a spotlight on Jesus, and says, If God would send his one and only Son to die on the cross for your sin, then why in the world would he abandon you now? The Holy Spirit will come, and speak to your heart, comforting you. And maybe he ll bring Scripture to mind often he ll bring Scripture to mind. Do you know Romans 8:35-39? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Or, say you re full of sorrow because you ve sinned. You ve really screwed up, and now some relationship in your life is wrecked. And you feel so guilty, so condemned, as if no one could ever love you because of what you ve done. Say that s you. If you re a Christian (and Christians can royally mess up, by the way), if you re a Christian, guess what: you ll find the Holy Spirit coming to you and comforting you with power. He s going to tell you: Wait a minute yes, you sinned. Yes, you blew it. But that s not the final word. The final word is Jesus Christ on the cross, and he did not die for perfect people. He died for sinners! Yes, what you did was awful, but look how awful Jesus on the cross is. He did not die just for the little sins you commit; he died for the grievous sins. See how bloody and bruised he is? That was to pay for all your sins. Do you know 1 John 3:19-20? By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. The Holy Spirit, the Comforter, comes along side you parakaleo and says, Yes, your heart condemns you right now, but God is greater than your heart. His grace is greater than all your sins. Go to him, ask for forgiveness, and it will be yours. Or, as another hymn puts it: I hear the words of love, I gaze upon the blood, I see the mighty sacrifice and I have peace with God.
8 You go to the Holy Spirit in your sorrows. One last thing: please don t over-spiritualize this sermon. Please don t think, Oh, when I m depressed, it s just me and the Holy Spirit. He s the only one I can turn to. I ve just got to go and get in my prayer closet until I feel better. Absolutely not. I m afraid some of you might never come out of your prayer closet with that attitude. The Holy Spirit does work directly on your heart, but he does not only work directly on your heart. He can and will use other means to minister to you in your sorrows. Galatians 6:2: Bear one another s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. So, yes, you ll pray and go your Comforter in sorrow, and ask him to work directly on your heart. But you ll let others around you bear your burdens. Do not do this alone. You must go to your friends and talk with them and let them know what s on your heart and get them to pray for you. If you re married, you must go to your spouse and let him or her know what s going on. You may need to sit down with a pastor or a counselor someone who s trained to listen and advise and let them bear your burdens, let them pray for you. They may send you to a physician so that she can make sure there aren t physical reasons for your sorrows. And most importantly: you must go to worship in your church and let the Holy Spirit minister to you there. Perhaps the most important way the Holy Spirit ministers to God s people is through corporate worship, through the songs, through the prayers, through sermon, through the Lord s Supper, reminding you week in and week out how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. Jeremiah says, 22 Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Jeremiah 8:22. We know there is we know that through our Lord Jesus Christ, through His Spirit the Comforter and through Christian friends on earth there is a balm in Gilead. A healing balm for our sorrows. He will heal all our wounds and wipe our tears away. Come, ye disconsolate, where ere ye languish; come to the mercy seat, fervently kneel; he bring your wounded hearts, here tell your anguish; earth has no sorrows that heav n cannot heal. Where are you going in your sorrows? Are you going to Christ through the Holy Spirit? If so, you will find healing for your wounds. As the old spiritual puts it: There is a balm in Gilead, to make the wounded whole; there is a balm in Gilead, to heal the sin-sick soul. Sometimes I feel discouraged, and think my work s in vain; but then the Holy Spirit, revives my soul again. PRAY