62. IS THERE NOT A BALM IN GILEAD?

From my understanding, in the Bible days, balm was used for healing and soothing of ailments.

With this in mind, in Jeremiah 8:22, the Prophet, communicating God’s sentiments, lamented over the spiritual condition of God’s people in Judah and the hurt that they were enduring as a result of their own rebellion, disobedience and sin. He asked the question rhetorically, knowing full well that he had the power to deliver them from their burdens, if only they would repent and return to him:

“Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?”

The question, asked so many years ago, remains applicable today, in this Church age. Something has gone very wrong with many of us who profess to be Christians, as most of us seem to be suffering from an acute case of spiritual declination and indifference.

There is a balm to address this malady but we refuse to avail ourselves of it because of the deceitfulness of sin. Sin has attacked us, overtaken us and deceived us, so that our hearts have become hardened without our full conscious realization. This causes us to be deluded into thinking that dead routine and a preoccupation with frequency of attendance at Church Services is okay, all that God requires and therefore, what pleases him. So deceived are we, that we think that just keeping the routine going is okay, while we fail to be honest enough and humble enough and bold and courageous enough, to address our issues, like the real need for repentance, for brokenness and for obedience.

Hebrews 3:12-13 exhorts:

• “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”

Sin therefore, has the power to cloak itself in subtlety and if not unmasked quickly, exposed, confronted and gotten rid of, no matter how painful this may be to the flesh, it has the potential to harden the heart, causing an individual to drift further and further away from God.

Is this not what happened to Solomon? He entertained sin through outlandish women, in the name of love, thinking perhaps, that he was too wise to be conquered by it. Yet, sin, patient in its objective, eventually overcame him. He was deceived by it, under its guise of love, his heart slowly became hardened and in his old years, when experience with God ought to have entrenched his faith and devotion, he grew distant from the God he loved and who dearly loved him.

Of his sad state of affairs despite how wise he was, Nehemiah 13:26 recounts:

• “Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel: nevertheless even him did outlandish women cause to sin.”

Even after God made efforts, twice, to cause him to return to him, Solomon’s heart had grown so hard, that he did not. He valued his so-called love for heathen, ungodly women, above the God of heaven and earth. In idolizing them, he inevitably set up other physical idols to please them.

The Word of God states in 1 Kings 11:9: “And the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the LORD God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice”.

1 Kings 11:1-5 also reads:

• “But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites: Of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love. And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart. For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.”

Similarly, in Jeremiah 8, the question was posed, as to why Israel had not yet returned to their God. The answer was then given. It was because of the deceitfulness of sin, which had so hardened their hearts that they refused to return, to their demise. In Jeremiah 8:4-9, God, speaking through the Prophet, stated:

• “Moreover thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord; Shall they fall, and not arise? shall he turn away, and not return? Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return. I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright: no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle. Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the Lord. How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain. The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord; and what wisdom is in them?”

Notably, Israel had maintained a form of religiosity, deluding themselves into believing that everything was okay with them spiritually in terms of their relationship with God, although this was far from the truth. They had rejected the Word of God by refusing to obey it, as many of us professers of Christianity do today, yet they were continuing on as if they had not sinned and as if there was no need for brokenness, repentance and a return. They were offering God mere lip service, calling him Lord when their hearts were far from him and engaging in a routinous activities of no value or merit in and of themselves.

In Jeremiah 6:16, the Prophet bellowed: “Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls…” Yet, he continued, “…But they said, We will not walk therein.”

(Written on 18th December, 2023)