“A TIME OF HEALTH”
God sent His prophets among His people to guide them back to spiritual health. Movement away from the commands of God can only lead to spiritual demise. One is never made stronger by compromising with evil. In the case of Israel and Judah, idolatry and failure to care about one another had driven a wedge between them and God. Of all diseases which plague mankind, none is worse that departing from the living God, the source of all blessings, physical and spiritual (Acts 17:28; Ephesians 1:3).
Jeremiah states that Judah was seeking for peace. This peace comes from having a proper subjection to the will of God. Even though they sought for peace, there was no good that came (Jeremiah 8:15). James writes that if a man draws nigh to God, then God will draw nigh to him (James 4:8). When one reads both verses seven and eight, we find these truths. One must submit to God, resist the devil and cleanse their hands (hearts). Had Judah returned back to the law of God and changed their ways, then God would have drawn near to them.
Judah depended on the early and latter rains for the success of their crops. If rains did not come, no planting nor growth of the seeds. Jeremiah uses this physical example to show how far the people had traveled in leaving God. The harvest was past and the summer was ended (Jeremiah 8:20). What normally occurred at such a time. The latter rains would come, they would harvest their crops and be prepared for the coming of winter. Here is the crop of which Jeremiah spoke. They were UNSAVED. How could one think you could plant one seed and get a different crop? Listen to God. A man reaps what he sows (Galatians 6:7).
Why were they yet unsaved? It was because they had provoked the Lord to anger with their graven images and strange vanities (verse 19). Was there not some medicine that they could take to get rid of this disease of being unsaved? Was there not a doctor to whom they could turn (verse 22)? One cannot turn to God with graven images and strange vanities encased in the heart. There must always be submission to God coupled with resisting the devil. It is this price that the dying spiritual nation of Judah refused to take. There was no balm (medicine) nor physician that could turn their condition around.
We see the days of Abraham when search was made for ten righteous souls to preserve the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Later it was the prophet Ezekiel trying to find righteous souls in Jerusalem. The remnant of the righteous can preserve things for a while. As in the case of Judah, time would run out, the summer has ended. We raise the same questions about our time. The question I raise is not about our nation of America but rather spiritual Israel today, which is the church of our Lord.
When churches claiming to follow the Lord corrupt worship, ignore the sins in the life of its members and take an indifferent attitude to false religions, we ask, is there no Physician? Those who left God’s Word and turned worship into entertainment and an appeal to the sensual nature of its members have given us praise teams, drama skits for preaching and now they ask, why can we not unite with the Christian Church (or any other denomination for that matter)? The seeds of compromising with evil will never produce a strong body (Ephesians 5:11).
The mechanical instrument was not in the original plans of the tabernacle that God gave to Moses. They were not present in New Testament worship. The way back to proper relationship with God is to understand Jeremiah 8:19. If graven images and strange vanities separate you from God then the removal of those images and vanities paves the way back to God.
Those who became Christians in Ephesus left a powerful example. Those who used curious arts brought their books together and burned them in public for all to see (Acts 19:19). Burning those books meant there was no turning back. They came to the great Physician for healing and by obeying the gospel, they became well. It was for them, a time of health.