Jeremiah 8:17-22: a reflection

17“For, behold, I will send serpents, adders among you, which will not be charmed; and they will bite you,” says the LORD. 18Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow! My heart is faint within me. 19Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land that is very far off: “Isn’t the LORD in Zion? Isn’t her King in her?” “Why have they provoked me to anger with their engraved images, and with foreign idols?” 20“The harvest is past. The summer has ended, and we are not saved.” 21For the hurt of the daughter of my people, I am hurt. I mourn. Dismay has taken hold of me. 22Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then isn’t the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

Jeremiah grieves deeply over the brokenness of his people. His heart is faint within him; he mourns; dismay has taken hold of him. And out of his grief comes a cry that has echoed ever since: Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of my people not been restored? He aches over a brokenness that seems to have no remedy, longing for a healing that has not come, and crying out to know whether there is any cure at all.

Notice Jeremiah's ache over unhealed brokenness, and his longing question: is there no balm, no physician, no healing? He grieves that his people remain wounded and unwell, and he cries out for a remedy. It is a question many hearts still ask over the brokenness of the world and of their own lives: is there any cure for this? Is there any healing for what is so deeply wrong?

And the gospel gives the answer Jeremiah longed for. There is a balm in Gilead; there is a Physician. For Christ has come, the great Physician of souls, who heals the brokenness that sin has caused, who binds up the wounded and gives health to the sick in soul. The cure Jeremiah cried out for has come, in Christ. When you ache over brokenness that seems to have no remedy, your own or the world's, and cry with Jeremiah, is there no balm?, hear the answer: there is a balm, there is a Physician, in Christ. Bring your unhealed wounds and your deep brokenness to him, the great Physician, who heals what sin has broken. The cure Jeremiah longed for is found in Christ; take your brokenness to him.

Lord, Jeremiah grieved over the brokenness of his people and cried out, is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why is the health of my people not restored? He ached over a brokenness that seemed to have no remedy. I know that cry; many hearts still ask it over the brokenness of the world and of their own lives: is there any cure for this? And thank you that the gospel gives the answer Jeremiah longed for: there is a balm, there is a Physician, in Christ, the great Physician of souls, who heals the brokenness that sin has caused, who binds up the wounded and gives health to the sick in soul. When I ache over brokenness that seems to have no remedy, my own or the world's, and cry with Jeremiah, is there no balm?, help me hear the answer: there is, in Christ. Help me bring my unhealed wounds and my deep brokenness to him, the great Physician, who heals what sin has broken. Thank you that the cure Jeremiah longed for is found in Christ.