A Tree Planted By Water

A Tree Planted by Water

Jeremiah chapter 17:5-8 talks about two different people. A man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, and a man who trusts in the Lord. In our lives, all of us have experienced a desert, either you are in a desert now or have experienced one before. When we speak of a desert, we are talking about a situation of trial and tribulation. Some of you may have perhaps lost your job recently. Or maybe you are struggling for a VISA, or maybe you have lost a loved one. It may be a medical need, or a long term sickness and desert that you are going through. It may feel like there is no hope for the future. That is how a desert is.

In Jeremiah 17, he gives hope for people who are in the desert. Today I would like to meditate and learn about how we can grow in a desert. Maybe you are going through a desert-like trial where you have lost hope. Please turn with me to Jeremiah 17. When we read Jeremiah 17 there are real parallels between it and Psalm 1.

There is a contrast between a shrub in a desert and a tree in a desert. Both of them have the same environment but have two very different outcomes. Let’s read the text beginning at verse 5 of Jeremiah 17. “Thus says the Lord: ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord. For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when good comes. But shall inhabit the parched places of the wilderness, in a salt land which is not inhabited.’” - Jeremiah 17:5-6

You know, next to the Dead Sea in Israel you have a lot of salt, and nothing grows there except an occasional shrub. In contrast, verse 7 says, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by water, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; (notice) but its leaves will be green and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit.” - Jeremiah 17:7-8

I. Planted as the Right Tree

A shrub represents a life that is empty, a life that really exists but there is nothing steady holding it. There is no sense of well-being, no sense of meaning, and no real sense of permanent accomplishment. Whereas the tree represents a life that is really fruitful and strong. And God wants us as believers to be fruit bearing like a tree. As a matter of fact, Jesus said that if you aren’t bearing fruit, “he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.” (John 15:6) God wants us as believers to be fruit bearing. God wants us to bear fruit while we are going through our desert experience, and to not be anxious in a year of drought.

Well, what is fruit? Fruit is the expression of the inner nature. Bearing fruit means that we express the inner nature of God and through the Holy Spirit. The Bible says, in Galatians 5:22-23, “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control”. According to the Scriptures, we need to bear these fruits in a year of drought, when the heat is the hottest, and there is no rain in the forecast.

Notice that not only are we able to bear fruit, but in Jeremiah 17:8 it says, “And will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit” – even when times are bad. It’s possible to bear fruit in a time of drought, and it says in Psalm 1:3, “He brings forth his fruit in his season.” That doesn’t mean that there are times when I have the fruit of the Spirit, but there are other times when there is just no season for it. That’s not what it means. It means that there are times when there’s the season for figs, and there’s the season for oranges, and there’s the season for bananas. You are always bearing some fruit. It’s God’s intention that we always bear some fruit, We bear our fruits in His season.

Now if we want to thrive in the desert, be very clear first of all that we have to be a tree and not a shrub. If you are just a shrub – empty, aimless, without purpose, disconnected from God – you can never bear fruit. We have to distinguish fruit from work. The first way in which we can survive in the desert is number one, we have to be planted. We have to be a tree and not a shrub. How do I become a tree?”