The Balm Of Gilead

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.