The Hope of Israel
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Jeremiah 17:7-14
7. "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. 8. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit." 9. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt; who can understand it? 10. "I the Lord search the mind and try the heart, to give to every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings." 11. Like the partridge that gathers a brood which she did not hatch, so is he who gets riches but not by right; in the midst of his days they will leave him, and at his end he will be a fool. 12. A glorious throne set on high from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. 13. O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake thee shall be put to shame; those who turn away from thee shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water. 14. Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved; for thou art my praise.
Our faith must be grounded in God’s word. If we study His word, and practice living by His commandments, our faith will sustain us in difficult times. During a drought trees send their roots up to the surface to acquire more water. But those trees, with shallow roots, are easily blown over in a strong wind. The tree with deeper roots stands.
Our trust must be in the Lord. Otherwise we will be disappointed and deceived. God’s word is unchanging and unfailing. The world deceives us and everything in it will disappoint in the end, if we have no faith. Our hearts deceive us—we long for earthly possessions and for power and for influence. Money is the mark of success by worldly standards. But we know better when we are grounded in God’s word.
The only possession we need, we already have through Jesus Christ. The only wealth we should seek to acquire is the richness of our reward in heaven. Without deep and abiding faith, we roam the earth, lost and confused and feeling completely alone. When we abide in God’s word, we have a beacon to guide us through all of life’s trials and tribulations. And we can rejoice through them, because we know what awaits us!
But we are foolish, weak, and proud. We forget who made us, and why. God knows our tendency to elevate ourselves too highly, to desire the things of this world too often, and to think only of that which gives us immediate gratification. He knows, because He made us. What Jeremiah reminds us is that God carves out an emptiness within each of us. It is a place deep in our souls that only He can fill up. Though we try, in vain, to fill that emptiness with every worldly thought and desire, action and deed, in the end we feel abandoned and alone. Nothing on this earth can satisfy!
If we would only put our foolish pride aside and run to God, our lives would be so full and we would “not fear when heat comes” into our lives. If we put God’s word in our hearts, we shall be saved. We will be judged in the end by how we lived our lives. By who and what we honored and praised. We must choose to be the tree by the stream with a deeply rooted faith, or we can roam the earth, desperate and alone, searching for something that will never satisfy.
I hope today you will call out to God saying, “Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved; for thou art my praise.”
Mary
