The Balm of Gilead
Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people? - Jeremiah 8:22
The Prophet asks a series of questions: Is there no salve, no soothing ointment, no medicine for our souls? Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people, my daughter? We have a song in our hymn book that says: "There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole. There is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul.” The Bible describes it as a "lament over Judah." "The Prophet Mourns For The People." A "sin-sick soul." Jeremiah's soul; a soul sick of sin. Sick of everything that separates us from one another, from God and even from ourselves. The dictionary defines Jeremiah as "a mournful complainer! One who laments even as he lambasts the situation of his people who cries as he cries out the wrath of God.
The incurable sore that plagues Israel throughout the book of Jeremiah.For thus says the Lord: ‘Your affliction is incurable, Your wound is severe. 13 There is no one to plead your cause, That you may be bound up; You have no healing medicines. - Jeremiah 30:12-13. Though the people of Israel were wounded by their wrong doings, God promised them to bless and heal their souls. “For I will restore health to you and heal you of your wounds,’ says the Lord” Jeremiah 30:17.
“There is more in the balm to heal than there is in guilt to wound; for there is more in grace to save than there is in sin to destroy.” - JC. Philpot
Today, let us meditate on the lamentation, and sufferings of the Prophet Jeremiah. He was a wounded prophet, a wound healing prophet, and a weeping prophet.
A) A Wounded Prophet:
I am hurt because my people are hurt. I am filled with sorrow, and fear has taken hold of me. - Jeremiah 8:21.
Here, Jeremiah said I am hurt, or I am wounded because of my people, the people of Judah. Jeremiah came from a strong spiritual background who was sought when they wanted to hear from the Lord there in Jerusalem. His family was very prominent in the spiritual community in Jerusalem. Jeremiah had heard the law of God in his early life. He had a heart that desired the things of the Lord. Jeremiah was blessed with a spiritual environment in which he was raised in a good way. Jeremiah’s time was one of extreme uncertainty, complacency, and factionalism.
Jeremiah’s anguish was born from being deeply wounded, both in his relationship with the Lord and with his fellow Israelites. As to his calling from the Lord, much like Jesus, the call of God came to Jeremiah 1:4 & 5. “The word of the Lord came to me saying, “before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; before you were born, I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations. - Jeremiah 1: 4-5. So before he was ever formed in the womb God said I knew you.
When we read Chapters from 38-40, Jeremiah is also deeply wounded by his fellow Israelites who utterly scorn him and eventually throw him into a pit and leave him to die. He continuously laments over his countrymen’s treatment of him. He described himself, I had been like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; I did not realize that they had plotted against me. - Jeremiah 11:19. This is parallel to the anguish of the suffering servant of the Lord Jesus Christ (Isaiah 53:7).
Jeremiah’s woundedness, in fact, is pervasive. This wound is not Jeremiah’s alone to bear. He also sees his people as deeply wounded—as suffering from a putrid, incurable, and festering wound that they refuse to care for. It is incurable because they inflict it upon themselves through unfaithfulness. Jeremiah as a prophet of unity. He was wounded, both by the Lord and by his fellow countrymen. It seems as though he stands more as a sign of division than unity. He also deeply identifies with the wounds of his people. Just as their wounds are incurable, when he says, “Why is my pain perpetual and my wound incurable, Which refuses to be healed?” - Jeremiah 15:18. He indicates that his wounds are incurable as well. Though he was wounded by his own people, the daughter of my people, he tries to help to heal their wounds by the balm of Gilead.
B) A Wound Healing Prophet:
Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people? - Jeremiah 8:22
Both God and the Prophet asked this question to the people of Israel. Is there balm in Gilead? Balm was a healing salve or ointment used to treat wounds and diseases. Gilead was a place in Israel where healing balm was produced in great abundance; many physicians set up their practice there because it was such a great source of balm. The answer to this question then is, “Yes there is a balm in Gilead. Yes, there are physicians in the land." The problem was that Israel had failed to use what God made available. Today the Church is God’s people, and we are failing to understand that there is healing available as we pray and claim the blood of Jesus over our lives.
When the Lord called Jeremiah before birth, he also called him to be an Israelite and one with his people. He's crying and he's crying out because the people of Israel have sold their souls to false gods. You can read about them in chapter 6: “They have healed the wound of my people lightly saying, 'Peace, peace,' when there is no peace" -Jeremiah 6:14.
Matthew 9:2 says, Some people brought to him a paralyzed man on a mat. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “Take heart, son! Your sins are forgiven.” The first words Jesus said to the paralyzed man were “Your sins are forgiven.” Then he healed the man. We must be careful not to concentrate on God’s power to heal physical sickness more than on his power to forgive spiritual sickness in the form of sin. Jesus saw that even more than physical health, this man needed spiritual health. Spiritual health comes only from Jesus’ healing touch.
Both the man’s body and his spirit were paralyzed. He could not walk, and he did not know Jesus. But the man’s spiritual state was Jesus’ first concern. If God does not heal us or someone we love, we need to remember that physical healing is not Christ’s only concern. We will all be completely healed in Christ’s coming kingdom; but first we have to come to know Jesus. Thanks be to God for that balm, who is Jesus, his Christ.
"Thus says the Lord “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, ‘We will not walk in it." -Jeremiah 6:16. What eventually happened to the nation of Israel, to Judah, says Jeremiah, because they chose to walk another way. And so he asks his question: "Is there no balm in Gilead?" Is there no salve to soothe our souls? "Is there no physician there?" Gilead was known for its healing balm. It’s as if they had it in their hands. We walked around wounded people and just looked. This balm was known for its fragrance, and it was very precious.
In spite of the pessimistic tone of the passage, we must ask: do you mean there is no physician? Is there no one who can heal our affliction? And I hear the words: here I am, the great physician, and I come to you bearing medicine for the soul. That is the word I hear from Jesus. On the way into Jerusalem, Jesus wept for the city: "If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. - Luke 19:42
Jesus came to Jerusalem bearing the message of reconciliation, but Jew and Gentile joined to crucify him. Jeremiah pleaded for his people of Judah to heal their wounds because of the ungodly way. We must apply the healing balm as we travel through life. We are all ministers and physicians to a sin-cursed world. When we find the broken, wounded, hurting, bleeding people, it is our responsibility to apply the healing balm of God’s grace and love.
C) A Weeping Prophet:
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! - Jeremiah 9:1
We are accustomed to referring to Jeremiah as the ‘weeping prophet’ – and rightly so. However, Jeremiah’s tears do not just speak to us about the prophet, but also about the people – and mainly about God. In that sense, we might refer to the weeping of Jeremiah, real and personal as it is, as a prophetic symbolic action reflecting the grief of God. Jeremiah the weeping prophet stood alone declaring God’s words while his beloved nation continued to reject the path of life. He wants to cry for his people continually.
God called Jeremiah to pray for the nation of Judah. Just as there was a cure for Israel’s spiritual condition, there is a cure for sin today. There is one who came as the supreme revelation of God’s Word, love, grace, mercy and forgiveness. Jesus came to this earth as the healing balm for man’s sinful condition. Jesus left his ministry in the hands of the church. Jesus’ work was that of applying the healing balm of God to people’s lives. There is a healing balm in the world today. The church carries God’s Word, love, mercy, grace, the presence of Christ and the Holy Spirit. We must apply the healing balm as we travel through life. The bottom line is that while we must pray for the sinner, we must also apply God’s healing balm in their life. God’s promise to Israel and the person who turns to Him will be healed of their wounds, saved, and delivered.
A reporter watched Mother Teresa of Calcutta as she cleaned the maggot-infested wound of a man on the street, only to say, “I wouldn’t do what you do for a million dollars.” Mother Teresa replied, immediately, with a bit of a smile, “I wouldn’t either.” Again she said when I see the sacrifice of the cross and the wound of Jesus Christ it meant nothing to me.
One day, Mother Teresa took in a woman off the streets of Calcutta. Her body was a mess of open sores infested with bugs. Mother Teresa patiently bathed her, cleaning and dressing her wounds. Teresa never stopped though she insulted and threatened her. Mother Teresa only smiled. Finally, the woman asked, “Sister, why are you doing this? Not everyone behaves like you. Who taught you?” She replied simply, “My God taught me.” When the woman asked who this God was, Mother Teresa kissed her on the forehead and said: “You know my God. My God is called love, Jesus Christ.”
Understand, God wants to restore you and heal you from all of your wounds. He promised us. For I will restore health to you and heal you of your wounds,’ says the Lord” Jeremiah 30:17. The world will say to you “they have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.” But they will not heal you. And as we seek a word of healing, we’re led to Jesus, who is the great physician and the healer of our lives. If we read the gospels, we know that healing stood at the center of his ministry. Wherever he went, he reached out and he touched people’s lives. He restored hope to those who lived without hope. He restored broken bodies and broken lives. We see this promise of healing in his own death and resurrection. Hanging on the cross as he did that day, Jesus tasted the bitterness, the pain, and the despair of humanity. He bore on his body the blows of human anger and hatred, and he offered forgiveness in return. When we hear the cry “Is there no balm in Gilead?” The answer that we hear is that it’s Jesus who brings God’s healing presence to us. Amen.
