Year 2, Week 12, Day 3 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 12, Day 3

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Jeremiah 16-17.

Today’s reading continues the second collection of declarations against Judah. Jeremiah 2:1-20:18, the first segment of the Book, contains two collections of declarations against Judah. In light of the imminent destruction that awaited Jerusalem, Jeremiah 16 records a series of restrictions that the LORD places upon Jeremiah: “The word of the LORD came to me: “You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place” (Jeremiah 16:1-2). Having a wife and children, at that moment, would simply result in greater tragedy: “They shall die of deadly diseases. They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried. They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. They shall perish by the sword and by famine, and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth” (Jeremiah 16:4). Jeremiah 17 returns to the matter of the heart: “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; with a point of diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart…I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds” (Jeremiah 17:1a,10). The LORD knows the heart of Judah, and He has seen that the heart is deeply etched with sin.

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading is the deep contrast described in the distinct postures of the heart: “Thus says the LORD: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD” (Jeremiah 17:5). The LORD, who searches the heart, is disclosing to Jeremiah what He sees going on in the human heart. Without this disclosure from the LORD, no man would grasp the operations of the heart, as the LORD sees it: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). The heart operates with deception, even to the one whose heart is under consideration. The self-deceiving operations of the heart renders accurate self-diagnosis unlikely. As great as the problems and troubles are that exist outside a person, a deeper problem and trouble exists within a person—a wickedly deceitful heart.

While the human heart is not fully discoverable, it does provide ample evidence of its condition through its responses to life: “He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land” (Jeremiah 17:6). The most important aspect in a person’s life, and thus, the most determinative factor for how a person chooses to live their life, is the posture of the heart. A heart either relies upon the LORD or a heart relies upon itself. Since the heart operates with deception, it can only be discerned by observing its fruit or outcome: "For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks” (Luke 6:43-45). A heart that is turned away from the LORD is detected through its outward responses to life. The idolatry that Judah clung to, which would never produce a good, fruitful life, was anchored in the heart rejection of the LORD and their self-reliance.

But there is another way to live: “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD” (Jeremiah 17:7). Instead of self-reliance, life can be lived in faithful dependence upon the LORD. The fruit or outcome of a life lived reliance upon the LORD is displayed for all to observe: “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” (Jeremiah 17:8). A heart turned toward the LORD can weather the heat of life. Life’s external difficulties do not determine the outward responses of the heart; but the external difficulties do become the stage on which the posture of the heart is detected. The pressing heat draws out what is in the heart; but the heat does not create the heart’s responses. Heat even coupled with drought does not thwart the heart to show itself contrary to its true condition. The heart is nourished by the streams that nourish the roots of the heart.

The language expressed to explain the life supplied to the heart that trusts in the LORD has correlation to Psalm 1 when it states: “He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers” (Psalm 1:3). The blessed man who has a heart that trusts in the LORD is the blessed man who meditates on the Scriptures: "Blessed is the man…his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night” (Psalm 1a-2). The nourishment of the Word, strengthens the heart’s reliance upon the LORD. A nourished heart is detected in its responses to the difficulties of life: “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16). While not exempt from troubles, a heart reliant upon the LORD weathers the heat of life differently: “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9). In fact, the difficulties of life drive us to even greater dependence upon Jesus: “For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced…we despaired of life itself…we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead” (2 Corinthians 1:8-9).

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe