The Balm of Gilead

Jere 8:22 Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people?

These were rhetorical questions. Gilead, on the east bank of the Jordan, was known for the soothing, medicinal balms it produced, and God was the physician in Israel. But the people were not being healed because they were not returning to the only One who could heal them. The “wound” of the people was their “sin-sick” idolatrous soul. If anyone could apply a “balm” to heal the people it was God, but instead of seeking this physician, the people turned to false gods. Speaking through the prophet, God says, “My people do not know the requirements of the Lord” (8:7). But this lack of knowledge was a culpable ignorance, because God also says that they “cling to deceit; they refuse to return”(8:5). Rather than repenting of their sin, the people preferred the lies of their spiritual leaders – the priests, prophets, and scribes – who rejected the word of the Lord and worshipped other gods. God says “They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.” Theirs was the deadly congenital disease of sin, which I have written about in earlier meditations, and the remedy being prescribed by their false prophets was only a soothing balm that made them feel better about themselves, while the root cause of the disease raged on.

When Jesus told Nicodemus, “You must be born again,” he gave the only remedy that would “take away the sins of the world,” not just for a while but for all eternity. As Tom Coughlin said in his comment on my Feb. 6 meditation, “A brand new creature must come to life, even as the old terminally diseased nature must be counted dead, and put to death.” Jesus and His Word the Bible is the balm of Gilead, the only remedy for our sin-sick world. God is the invisible wind that blows where it wishes and causes a person to be born again. The visible effects of this invisible transformation within a person are a supernatural love for God and other people. Only God can administer this balm, bringing about the new birth by faith in His word the Bible, but God’s people are His chosen instruments for bringing this good news to our lost and dying world. Telling someone the gospel is the most loving thing any born again person can do.