The harvest is past,
the summer has ended,
and we are not saved.
Jeremiah 8:20
In the days of Jeremiah the prophet, the people of Judah, God’s people, were stubborn and unrepentant. Everyone pursued their own desires and road to travel. They ignored the Lord and his requirements for living.
Scribes who handled it falsely handled the law of the Lord. They twisted it and turned it to suit their own deceitful motives. They spurned the wisdom of the Lord.
As a result, God would strip them of their families, their fields, and he would put them to shame.
The wounds of God’s people remained ignored and not given serious consideration. The priests and prophets called for “peace, peace” when there was no peace. And all God’s people listened.
No one was ashamed of their conduct. No one even thought to blush over their detestable deeds, and certainly no one was called to repentance for their sin.
God took away their harvest. There were no grapes on the vine, figs on the trees, and no grain in the fields. One day soon they would be in captivity for 70 years because of their stubborn refusal to bow the knee to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
The people chose idols and images instead of the only true God.
The harvest passed, the summer ended. What should have been a time of plenty ended in being a time of starvation. The fields and fruit trees lay barren in the land that God had given them. The winter would be bleak and lifeless.
Is there no balm in Gilead?
The lamenting prophet Jeremiah hurt for God’s people.
Jeremiah was one of the few who refused to say “peace, peace” when there was no peace.
Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people?
The prophet was sorrowful for the sufferings and hurt of God’s people living in bondage and exile.
The balm made in Gilead was soothing, healing, a sweet aroma to the soul.
God’s people could have found healing with the soothing balm of His Word, sweet to the soul, but they spurned it. They filled their souls instead with what would only harm them.
How much are we similar to the people of Judah? What do we fill our souls with?
Perhaps movies or videos that are vulgar and not meant for anyone’s eyes. Or maybe it is greed for gain in business, with money or false scales? Could it be that we feed on fat foods while others live in poverty, and we care nothing about it? Maybe our materialism oozes from us as we travel, eat, and live a life of plenty while others around us live in poverty?
The list could go on.
This Devotional Blog is uplifting and encouraging most days. However, as I have selected scriptures about harvest and abundance, I could not neglect to write about this one.
We all must be careful to live a life of leaning on God’s understanding and not our own wills and ways.
We must share our harvest and abundance with others. And we must never follow a preacher that calls for peace when God’s people are living rebelliously and against God’s Word. If the Word of God is not being held as a lamp for your feet, look for another Church to go to.
There are many who would go along with what society says is right and true.
If God’s people allow the people to dictate right and wrong over God’s Word, we are a doomed nation.
And that is happening in our country today. We are not a Christian nation anymore.
Are we doomed?
Perhaps we would do well to ask ourselves that question. Only God knows the future. But we, as God’s people, know what God’s Word teaches.
Will we hold to that regardless of what anyone says that conflicts grossly with God’s Word?
Let us pray for the Balm of Gilead to heal the land. May it also heal God’s people and bring us all to a place of repentance and sorrow for our sin.
May it be that God will yet heal our land, and grant a bountiful harvest of repentant souls.