The Desperately Wicked Heart
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Jeremiah 17:5–10 NKJV
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 in the wilderness,
In a salt land which is not inhabited.
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
And whose hope is the Lord.
For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters,
Which spreads out its roots by the river,
And will not fear when heat comes;
But its leaf will be green,
And will not be anxious in the year of drought,
Nor will cease from yielding fruit.
“The heart is deceitful above all things,
And desperately wicked;
Who can know it?
I, the Lord, search the heart,
I test the mind,
Even to give every man according to his ways,
According to the fruit of his doings.
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This morning’s Old Testament passage for study comes from the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah who lived in the time of the Babylonian exile. Jeremiah lived in difficult times. The Northern Kingdom of Israel had been taken into captivity in Assyria about one hundred years earlier for their forsaking of the LORD and cleaving to idolatry and acts of wickedness. Rather than taking a lesson from this, the Southern Kingdom of Judah would not repent of their evil ways. there were attempts at reform such as during the reign of Josiah, but the general direction was to become even more wicked.
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The LORD sent Jeremiah to Judah and its capital Jerusalem to warn them of the LORD’s displeasure with them. They had committed apostacy and clung unto other gods and practiced their abominable acts in the name of worship of other gods. As a result, the LORD threatened to divorce Judah as He had Israel for their unfaithfulness. By the way, the word “apostasia” in Greek means “divorce.”
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We read in Jeremiah 3:8-11
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?Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also. So it came to pass, through her casual harlotry, that she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees. And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not turned to Me with her whole heart, but in pretense,” says the Lord.
Then the Lord said to me, “Backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.
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We also read in Ezekiel 16:51
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“Samaria did not commit half of your sins; but you have multiplied your abominations more than they, and have justified your sisters by all the abominations which you have done.
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Jeremiah who was called from his mother’s womb suffered a long prophetic career with much abuse. Yet, in spite of the evil treatment he received, continued to love and intercede for his people. This reflects well on the character of God who pleaded again and again for Judah and Samaria to reform. But the people preferred to listen to false prophets who told them what they wanted to hear. they said that the LORD was about to bless Israel. They claimed that God would or could never forsake His people. This provides a little context to this morning’s passage.
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Jeremiah 17:5-10 is in the the form of a psalm. A psalm is a type of song or poetry. God was singing this oracle out through the lips of Jeremiah. It is similar to the 1st psalm in that it contrasts the conduct of the good man and the evil man, except the order is reversed and the wicked man;s ways are mentioned first.
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The wicked man trusts in man and not in the LORD. The contrasting idea is that the righteous man trusts in the LORD and not man. The wicked man is cursed and the righteous man blessed. the second line gives further elaboration to the way of the wicked. He makes flesh his strength rather than the LORD. Judah was trusting in the strength of the walls and army which guarded the city. they trusted in the abilities of their king. Sometimes judah had made alliances with other nations to protect them. Even the “good” king Josiah had made alliances with Assyria and went out to battle against Egypt which resulted in Josiah’s death. Years earlier, another “good” king, Hezekiah made the mistake of showing all the riches of the kingdom including the LORD’s house to the ambassador of Babylon. Isaiah said that this would lead to further disaster for Judah. But at least Hezekiah placed his entire trust in the LORD to defend Jerusalem against the Assyrian king. And the LORD delivered Judah.
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The problem which comes from trusting God according to this passage is that it causes the person to depart from the LORD. This is something we need to seriously consider today. The world places its trust in “science”. Scientists and science are to be believed above all other things. They are the sole arbiters of reality. As a result, many believers have departed from the faith. There is still a vestige of religion left, or may I call it, superstition. There was a vestige of religion in Jeremiah’s day also. But the scientists of this day consider it to be the people’s opium, in other words a way to drug and deceive the people. One can think of Gibbons description of religion written over 200 years ago: “To the common people, all religions are equally true, to the philosopher, all religions are equally false, and to the government, all religions are equally useful.” We should reflect on what President Eisenhower thought. He is the one who added “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance. some belief in God was necessary to maintain good order in society. As America was a “Christian” nation, they should affirm Christ. I suppose if a nation was Muslim, they should serve Allah.
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the question I would ask is whether this “civic religion” actually created of maintained a civil society. In Jeremiah’s day, it appeared to be quite the opposite. It worked for a little while under Josiah, but by the time of the exile, the nation had descended into wickedness, all within a generation. Even during the 1950’s when Eisenhower was President, the seeds of decay were already sown. a new generation was arising. Singers like Little Richard and Elvis Presley, who were raised in very religious and Christian surroundings started rock and roll. One thinks of the gyrations of Elvis the Pelvis leading the way into the sexual revolution. Elvis tried to serve both masters. One can think of his wonderful rendition of “How Great Thou Art” and compare it to his singing “I Did it My Way.” Elvis’ personal life descended into addictions, chaos, and an early death. We also see in America since how fast the country has descended into moral chaos. We say we trust science. But is science really science at all?
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This is the end of the wicked man, that he and his works dissipate into nothingness. Jeremian describes it as a waterless desert. To make things worse.it is covered with salt. any water which might fall upon it would be rendered undrinkable. To make matters worse, after death in this life by thirst, there is the final judgment where the wicked shall spend eternity. We see an example of this of the rich man in the Parable of Lazarus and the rich man whose tongue was parched and his body tormented in hellfire.. The wicked might seem to flourish for a season in this life, but all must consider what happens next which is not for a season.
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The psalm now talks about the reward of the righteous man. Like what is described in the 1st Psalm, he is rooted by the streams and enjoys the abundance of life-giving water. It has broad roots which keeps the leaves of the tree green and provides nourishment as well. When the storms of life come, they will stand because the roots of the tree are deep and wide and anchors the righteous man even in times of the floods of abundance. The same abundance which becomes a snare to the wicked does not sweep away the righteous man who has the proper perspective that all wealth is a gift of God to be used properly for God’s glory. This is the ever-bearing fruit of the righteous in every earthly season, whether times be good or bad.
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If this song ended here, all would be well. But it does not end here. And this is the problem. This blessing of the righteous is followed by these well-known words in Jeremiah 17:9:
“The heart is deceitful above all things,
And desperately wicked;
Who can know it?
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Why does the text turn so negatively here? Why does it not appear earlier in describing the wicked man who departs from the ways of God. Surely the hearts of these wicked men are demonstrably wicked and deceitful. But aren’t the righteous good-hearted whose heart should be praised? Because this verse is placed here, one must wonder if there are any good people to bless at all. All of our hearts are desperately wicked. We are all by human birth and conduct sinners. We read in Psalm 24 :3-5:
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Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord?
Or who may stand in His holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol,
Nor sworn deceitfully.
He shall receive blessing from the Lord,
And righteousness from the God of his salvation.
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Which of us has hands clean enough or a heart pure enough to enter the gates of God’s holy Temple? Which of us has not been guilty of some form of idolatry or engaged in deceit? If we are hones with ourselves, we must all admit that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Can we justify ourselves by admitting that we are just a little bit crooked and not evil like such and such a person. Saying that we have failed less than someone else will not justify. We are just deceiving our own hearts. when the LORD says here: “Who can know it?”, the implication is that we can’t even know our own heart as we ought. Only God knows what it truly in our heart. When we expose our hearts to the searching word of God, we read in Romans 3:10-18
As it is written:
“There is none righteous, no, not one;
There is none who understands;
There is none who seeks after God.
They have all turned aside;
They have together become unprofitable;
There is none who does good, no, not one.”
“Their throat is an open tomb;
With their tongues they have practiced deceit”;
“The poison of asps is under their lips”;
“Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
Destruction and misery are in their ways;
And the way of peace they have not known.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
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This string of quotations which Paul cites from the Old Testament shows how hopeless and desperate every heart truly is. It is hard for us to swallow this truth, but it is the way God sees us and our lack of righteousness. We must remember that Abraham pleaded with the LORD to spare Sodom and Gomorrah to spare these wicked cities if even ten righteous could be found therein (Genesis 18:23-32). Ten righteous could not be found. God dis spare Lot and his daughters but not because they were righteous but by grace. Even though Peter refers Lot to be righteous who was vexed with the evil he saw and tried to protect the angels, his further conduct in getting drunk and his daughters plan to get the drunken Lot to impregnate them shows that Lot may have appeared quite righteous in comparison toe the men of Sodom. But Lot always had a weak heart. He was attracted to the will watered plains of Sodom and chose this land then he separated from Abraham who was left with what appeared to be very dry and parched land. If Lot’s heart was in the right place, he would have realized that Abraham, who yet had no children and Lot would have inherited all, was especially blessed to be fruitful in every way by the Lord. The source of strife was that Abraham’s herd and Lot’s herd were to numerous to abide on that land together. Lot would have done better to have given away ALL of his wealth and continues with Abraham. (He lost it all anyway.) Even when Isaac was born which made Isaac the heir, Lot would have been better off as a beloved nephew in the house and served Abraham than to have ended up hiding in a cave with his daughters.
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We also read in Jeremiah 5:1
“Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem;
See now and know;
And seek in her open places
If you can find a man,
If there is anyone who executes judgment,
Who seeks the truth,
And I will pardon her.
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Jeremiah could not find one righteous man in Jerusalem which had been set apart as a holy city by God no less than finding ten righteous men in wicked Sodom. These are the times Jeremiah lived in when God spoke this morning’s text to Jeremiah. Desperate times and desperately wicked and deceitful hearts even among the people of God. If we ended here, it would be most depressing.
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But this is not the end of the story. It is true that God tests all of our hearts and finds us wanting. And he has clearly told us so. If we received the fruit of our actions, we would remain eternally condemned. But there is grace. Noah was a good man by human standards, yet his salvation was not in his works but rather that he found grace in the sight of the LORD. Noah was not perfect as we would later see when he got drunk. Lot certainly was saved from the destruction by God’s grace. And God was willing to show grace to all the desperately wicked inhabitants of Jerusalem. Let us revisit the promise that he would have spared the Jerusalem of Jeremiah’s day if He could find one righteous man. He found none, but God’s promise to deliver if a single righteous man could be saved. Now where can we find such a righteous man?
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We as Christians know the answer. This righteous man came down from heaven. The righteous Son of God became flesh and tabernacled among us (John 1:14). He came unto His own people as a Son of Abraham and Son of David. But people with desperately wicked hearts acted out of desperation and crucified Him. But He also suffered at the hands of Pontius Pilate, a Gentile. A desperate world thinks things would go better if only we could kill God and rule over things ourselves. The world is still this way today, I might add. The desperation and wickedness of man is universal. But so is God promise. They killed God’s Son, Jesus, but that was not the end of the story. Jesus arose on the third day and ascended back to the Father after 40 days where He sits at the right hand of God to make intercession for us. It is this God who is unwilling any should perish but believe in His Son who died the death of our unrighteousness so that we could put on His righteousness. He, and He alone, is that one man who can save all who come to Him in faith.
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In the meanwhile, he has left us as witnesses to plead for sinners to believe on the One whom God has sent. Like Lot, we have not achieved the fullness of the blessing of heaven. But we have received a down payment in the form of the Holy Spirit who performs the works of God in and through us. We must never forget this lest we be filled with pride and boast as though we did these works in our own ability and power. We might, and I say might, we should do what is right in the sight of the Lord. We might be better than the heathen in comparison, but this is still far short of what we are called to be. One only need to look at the history of the Christian church to realize that at times it has acted more like the Jerusalem of Jeremiah’s day that the Holy Bride of Christ. It has even acted more desperately wicked than the heathen. This ought not to be. This is also true of Christians individually. At one moment we are like David before Goliath, and the next David before Bathsheba. As David who wrote the 24th Psalm could not in his own righteousness enter into the gates of the Temple, neither could we unless we are clothed in Christ.
