Shrub or tree?

 

Jeremiah 17:6 He is like a shrub in the desert…

This morning I was reading Jeremiah 17 and was captured by the contrasts I found between the person described in verses 5-6 and the one in verses 7-8,

5-6 says, Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength,  whose heart turns away from the Lord.  He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come.  He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.

Then notice the contrast in 7-8: Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.  He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.

Verses 7-8 have long been some of my favorites in their description of the person who trusts in the Lord, likening them to a tree beside a body of water.  I had never before noticed that this description is in contrast to verses 5-6, which describe the opposite – a person who trusts in the strength of their flesh, in themselves.  Notice the contrasts in the two scenarios:

1. One trusts in man, the other in the Lord;

2. One is like a shrub, the other like a tree;

3. One is planted in a desert, the other by water;

4. One experiences no good, the other remains green all the time;

5. One has a parched wilderness for living, the other has refreshing space;

6. One lives in an uninhabited (lonely) place, the other has no anxiety;

7. One lives in salt land, the other reaches water with its roots.

There is no doubt left as to the value of living close to God!

Grace in the wilderness

Jeremiah 31:2 The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness…

The paragraph in which this verse is found has a title in the Bible I am using: "The Lord Will Turn Mourning to Joy.”  This chapter in Jeremiah talks about how God will restore His people spiritually when they have repented of their sin.  As I thought about that promise of forgiveness and restoration, this phrase “grace in the wilderness” came alive in a new way.  When I repent and receive forgiveness, there are times when God has to give me grace as I live through the consequences of my sin.  That would be a “wilderness” which does not mean my sin has not been forgiven.  For those times of wilderness, God will give the forgiven person grace to help them through the natural consequences of sin that has been committed.  In the following verse (v.4) this truth is affirmed when God says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore [notice what He says next!] I have continued my faithfulness to you.”  God, out of love, applies His grace and faithfulness to every repentant sinner!

Some of God's "I Wills"

Jeremiah 33  Top Ten I WILLS of God’s promise of peace to His children

1. I will answer your calls to me, v.3

2. I will heal them, v.6

3. I will restore their good fortune, v.7

4. I will cleanse their guilt, v.8a

5. I will forgive their sin and rebellion, v.8b

6. I will provide good and prosperity, v.8b

7. I will restore the fortunes of the land, v.11b

8. I will fulfill my promises, v.14

9. I will provide a savior, v.15

10. I will have mercy on them, v.26

Salvation and restoration

Jeremiah 30-31 “I will…”

As I read through these chapters this morning, I was struck by the multiple ways God describes His loving restoration of His people.  Making a list of those ways is a blessing as I am reminded of God’s love and willingness to restore me when I wander away from Him, and of the bountiful blessings I have in Christ as a result of my salvation.  I could not make a “Top Ten” list today … there are more than ten blessings in spiritual restoration!  Look at this list!

            1. I will restore their fortunes

            2. I will bring them back

            3. I will break the yoke off your neck

            4. I will save you from far away

            5. You will have quiet and ease

            6. None shall make you afraid

            7. I will restore health to you

            8. You will be radiant over the goodness of the Lord

            9. I will comfort them

            10. My people will be satisfied with my goodness

            11. I will satisfy the weary soul

            12. I will forgive their iniquity

            13. I will remember their sin no more

Our great God

Jeremiah 51:15 He made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.

I must admit that I cannot really understand exactly what the meaning is to these phrases.  My logical self wants to be able to analyze the phrases in order to have more clarity or depth of their meaning, but I struggle with that.  It could be that if I knew Hebrew I could get more, but since I do not, I am left with just meditating on the greatness of God as expressed in this description of His power.  It was His power that enabled the creation of the earth.  It was His wisdom that gave Him the ability to put together the way everything works together to keep the world going, things like the evaporation of water from the ocean helping create rainfall.  I would never have thought of things like that on my own!  It was God’s understanding that created the universe and the vastness and un-knowableness of the universe tells me how great God’s understanding is and how much greater He is than anything else.  Thinking about this makes me understand a little better the phrase in a following verse (v.17) when Jeremiah says, “Every man is stupid and without knowledge…”  In comparison to our great God, how true this is!

Victory and freedom are coming!

Jeremiah 50:33b-34 All their captors hold them fast, refusing to let them go.  Yet their Redeemer is strong; the Lord Almighty is his name.  He will vigorously defend their cause so that he may bring rest to their land, but unrest to those who live in Babylon.

This verse is comforting to me when I think about the power of sins and weaknesses that I struggle against in my life.  I do not have the addictions that some people struggle with, but I see how difficult it is to break certain habits in my life, and they are like captors holding onto me.  Se when I read that my Redeemer is strong and that He is standing up for me, I am comforted.  Not only does He stand up for me, but this verse says He vigorously defends me!  The reason?  So that I can rest.  I do not have to fret and worry about my bad habits’ hold on me.  I can rest because my Redeemer is vigorously defending me, and that I will eventually have victory over those habits.

Get ready for battle

Jeremiah 46:3-4 Prepare your shields, both large and small, and march out for battle!  Harness the horses, mount the steeds!  Take your positions with helmets on!  Polish your spears, put on your armor!

I love how picturesque these words are.  You feel as though you are ready to join this army preparing for battle!  As I read and thought about this verse, I was reminded almost immediately of the passage in Ephesians6:11-17 in which we are told to put on all the armor of God so we can be ready to do battle with our enemy.  Here in Jeremiah, he says to prepare our shields, in Ephesians it is our shield of faith.  Here in Jeremiah we are to prepare our shields, both large and small, and that reminds me that even if my shield of faith is small, I should prepare it for use.  Then I take my position for battle with my helmet (of salvation) on.  I cannot battle sin and evil without salvation.  That is why all our armies and governments are so unsuccessful against crime and terrorism.  Finally, I am to polish my spear.  In Ephesians that is the Word of God.  So if I am not getting all the time more acquainted with God’s Word, my spear is not getting polished and I cannot fight this battle effectively.

Asking for directions

Jeremiah 42:2-4 …Pray to the Lord your God for us … that the Lord your God may show us the way we should go, … Jeremiah the prophet said the them, … “I will pray to the Lord your God according to your request…”

This is a sad account for numerous reasons.  The Israelite people who have been under the control of the king of Babylon have an opportunity to see God help them be freed from that servitude but they have an idea of how to do it on their own.  One has to wonder why they even bothered to seek out Jeremiah the prophet when they already knew what they wanted to do.  Maybe they were attempting to show some semblance of reliance on the religion of their forefathers in order to ease their consciences.  Or perhaps they were trying to cover “all the bases” of religion they knew of, and they knew their religious heritage was to call on the prophet of God even though they were already following other religions.  Based on what I see in my own day and age, I suspect that both were true.  I see so many people fall back on the religion of their parents or grandparents when they need help from outside themselves, all the while they are practically ignoring God otherwise.  Anyway, it is especially telling in these three verses in chapter 42 when they ask Jeremiah to pray to his God (“pray to the Lord your God” [italics mine]).  I almost chuckled at his response to them:  “I will pray to the Lord your God” [again, the italics is mine].  It was as though Jeremiah was reminding them of the fact that their heritage as fellow Jews was one that gave them the privilege of praying to their God for help.  How sad that they did not see or understand that, and in fact, as you read further in this story, they determined even before that prayer of Jeremiah that they would do what they had already decided to do.  And again, I am so sad to see that same kind of spirit evident in people around me who have failed to walk in God’s ways but who know what they should do.  They just are not willing to make that move to actively obey God.  There are times when I want to take them by the shoulders and shake that spiritual sense into them!  But they have to decide for themselves that they will listen and obey the voice of God.  Jeremiah could not force the people to obey and neither can I.

Punishment

Jeremiah 35:17 Therefore this is what the Lord God Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Listen!  I am going to bring on Judah and on everyone living in Jerusalem every disaster I pronounced against them.  I spoke to them, but they did not listen; I called to them, but they did not answer.”

God is loving and kind … and fatherly, and in that capacity, He does what every loving and kind father does with wayward children.  He threatens punishment and then metes it out when the children ignore the warnings.  I almost chuckled at the picture of my mother and father doing the same thing as what is pictured here.  There were times when every child was punished because the real perpetrator did not own up, or because we had all participated in whatever wrong-doing had been perpetrated, and here God says He will punish the whole country (Judah) and the whole city (Jerusalem) because of the fact that when He spoke everyone did not listen or answer.  The only difference is that in this case all were truly guilty.

My promise, God's promise

Jeremiah 32:39-40 I will give them singleness of heart and action, so that they will always fear me and that all will then go well for them and for their children after them.  I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me.

Once again, from these verses I am reminded that I rely on God for everything.  All I do is to decide to live for God and to honor Him in my life, then God Himself takes over.  According to these verses, He gives me even my ability to have no other focus.  He gives me the inspiration I need to love, honor and obey Him above all else.  He gives me the courage to stay close to Him and never turn away from Him.  Then He adds His promises of well-being and constant care, not only for me but for those who come after me.  In modern jargon, it is a win-win situation for me!  That is why, every morning, I ask God to honor my trust in Him to help me stay focused on Him that day.

Don't cry

Jeremiah 31:16 This is what the Lord says: “Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for your work will be rewarded,” declares the Lord.

There have been times when I have felt a great inner turmoil and frustration because of a sense of not accomplishing what I thought God wanted from me.  Sometimes that happens because I have not applied myself diligently enough, and if that is the case, my turmoil is well-founded.  But more often it is because I cannot see for myself the good results from something I have tried or am trying to do to accomplish God’s plan and purposes for me.  This verse is my encouragement to “keep on keeping on” in my efforts to serve and honor God in my life.  My work will be rewarded as long as I continue to work and not stop for weeping and tears.  Some rewards may even come only after I have left this life, but the reward will come. 

God's plan for me

Jeremiah 29:11-13 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call on my and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

I have never really put the thoughts in the first verse of these three together with the next two until I read them this time, for some reason.  I had always thought of verse 11 in terms of the planning of the future of my life, in terms of my vocation, my wealth, my experiences.  But when I read that verse with the following ones I realize the plans God has for me are more intimate to me even than those “big” plans.  The plans of my prosperity that will bring me hope are God’s plans to hear my prayers and to be near to me in every situation.  When I trust Him, when I call to Him for help, when I seek Him and turn to Him, I am fulfilling His plans for me.

Like a tree

Jeremiah 17:7-8 Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.  They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream.  It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green.  It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.

The picture of the tree by the water is one of my favorites from scripture to describe how God wants to work in my life, making it a life of productivity and faith.  That is the blessing God wants to give me in this life on earth if I will trust Him.  If I am “planted” near Him, I will have courage (“I will not fear”) and consistency (my “leaves will always be green”).  I will have peace (“no worries in a year of drought”) and productivity (“never fail to bear fruit”).  These blessings will only come in relation to how far I send out my roots to get the living water I need and if I have planted myself near  the streams of living water, I will never need to worry about growing dry.

Set apart

Jeremiah 1:5 Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart, I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.

This very familiar verse is once again my reminder of God’s omniscience and purposefulness in His creation, even in my creation as a human being.  Regardless of one’s theological beliefs or understanding of predestination, the beauty of this verse lies in the reminder that God does have a purpose and a plan for me.  Of course, I can appreciate this far more when I am living close to Him than if I were a “wandering soul” intent on my own desires.  There is a depth of delight in the knowledge that I am living out God’s plan for me even if it is not exactly what I had planned for myself!  He set me apart for this life, and I find great comfort and joy in that.  It is my destiny.