Tawa Baptist

The Cedar Tree

Scriptures: Leviticus 14, 1 Kings 6, Psalm 92, Ezekiel 17

Video Link: https://youtu.be/PAZlUkTL934

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Health (purification)
  • Holiness (presence)
  • Hope (purpose)
  • Conclusion

Good morning everyone.

There are five countries in the world who have a tree on their flag, one of which is Lebanon. Would anyone like to guess what tree we find on the Lebanese flag? [Wait] That’s right, the cedar tree. 

Today we continue our testimony of trees series by focusing on the cedar tree. The Cedar of Lebanon (scientific name: Cedrus libani) is mentioned many times in the Old Testament. The cedar is a majestic tree, reaching a height of 20-30 metres. It grows in the mountains of Lebanon where the temperature is cooler and it gets plenty of water. 

Our message this morning draws on a variety of Scripture references. Essentially though the cedar is associated with health, holiness and hope.

Or, if you prefer the three points of a sermon to start with a P, then purification, presence and purpose. Let us begin then with purification and health. From Leviticus 14, we read…

Health – Leviticus 14

The Lord said to Moses, 2 “These are the regulations for any diseased person at the time of their ceremonial cleansing, when they are brought to the priest: 3 The priest is to go outside the camp and examine them. If they have been healed of their defiling skin disease, 4 the priest shall order that two live clean birds and some cedar wood, scarlet yarn and hyssop be brought for the person to be cleansed. 5 Then the priest shall order that one of the birds be killed over fresh water in a clay pot. 6 He is then to take the live bird and dip it, together with the cedar wood, the scarlet yarn and the hyssop, into the blood of the bird that was killed over the fresh water. 7 Seven times he shall sprinkle the one to be cleansed of the defiling disease, and then pronounce them clean. After that, he is to release the live bird in the open fields.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

How many of you say grace before eating a meal? To my mind, a meal isn’t ready to eat until we have said a prayer to thank God and bless the food.

The spiritual ritual of saying grace is as important as the physical ritual of cooking the food properly.

We are not just bags of skin, bone and flesh. We are spiritual beings, inhabiting a physical body. There is a relationship between the physical and the spiritual. Saying grace before eating, acknowledges the reality of God’s provision for our lives.

In ancient Israel, people with skin diseases were excluded from community life. Although they may have done no moral wrong, they were considered ceremonially unclean and therefore not allowed to participate in religious events.

If a person recovered from their skin disease, then the priest (who was also the public health officer) checked the disease was gone and performed the purification ritual described in Leviticus 14 to declare the person fit to return to community life.

This ritual involved the use of cedar wood. It’s not that the cedar tree was used to heal skin diseases. Rather, once a person had been healed of a skin disease, cedar was used in the purification rite declaring them clean.

This ritual probably seems strange or unnecessary to us but, to someone with an ancient mindset, who believed in spiritual reality as much as material reality, the healing wasn’t complete until the priest had carried out the ritual.

We might think of this ritual like saying grace before eating a meal. The ritual acknowledges the reality of God in our lives. It is God who heals and purifies us, just as it is God who feeds and sustains us.

One of the distinctive features of the cedar tree is its natural resistance to insects and rot. The cedar tree contains certain oils which make it smell nice and repel insects, while also preserving the wood. It may be for this reason that the cedar tree was used by Jewish priests in purification rituals. Cedar wood symbolises restored strength and good health.

One of the interesting things about the ritual in Leviticus 14, is that two birds are used. One bird is offered to God as a sacrifice, while the other bird is set free, signifying that the person who was healed is now free to rejoin the worshipping community. 

As Christians, we don’t need to perform the rituals prescribed in Leviticus every time we recover from shingles or boils or scabies or whatever. But we do need to give thanks to God for restoring our health and purifying us. What rituals do you observe that acknowledge the reality of God in your life?

Alongside health and purification, the cedar tree is also associated with holiness. In particular, the beauty of God’s holy presence represented by the temple.

Holiness – 1 Kings 5 & 6

In First Kings chapters 5 and 6, we read how Solomon used cedar in the building of the Jerusalem temple. The external structure of the temple was mostly made from stone, but a lot of cedar wood was used inside the temple.

Cedar trees grew abundantly in the mountains of ancient Tyre. The region of Tyre lay north of Israel in the land we know today as Lebanon. Solomon made a deal with Hiram, the king of Tyre, to obtain the cedar.

Solomon conscripted 30,000 labourers to cut down the cedar trees. The trees were then brought to Jerusalem where they were used in the construction of the temple. Let me read you a selection of verses from First Kings chapter 6, which describe how the cedar tree was used…

14 So Solomon built the temple and completed it. 15 He lined its interior walls with cedar boards, panelling them from the floor of the temple to the ceiling and covered the floor of the temple with planks of juniper. 16 He partitioned off twenty cubits at the rear of the temple with cedar boards from floor to ceiling to form within the temple an inner sanctuary, the Most Holy Place. 20 The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty wide and twenty high. He overlaid the inside with pure gold, and he also overlaid the altar of cedar.

These verses tell us cedar was used extensively in the temple, including in the most holy place and for the construction of the altar.

Most likely cedar was used for both practical and aesthetic reasons. As already mentioned, cedar is a strong, durable wood that smells nice, repels insects and is resistant to rot, making it an excellent building material.

Aesthetically, cedar wood has a beautiful grain, without knots. It is pleasant to look at. Cedar is beautiful inside and out.

A temple is a holy place, a place of God’s presence, where prayers and worship are offered. Ideally, a place of reconciliation that brings people closer to God and closer to one another. Because of its use in the temple, cedar is associated with the beauty of holiness.  

We don’t often think of holiness as a beautiful thing. Holiness in our society seems more weird than attractive. Not so in ancient Hebrew society.

In Psalms 29 and 96, we are told to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

The kind of beauty in view here is that of splendour or majesty. God’s holiness is like the beauty of a mountain range or the beauty of a cedar forest. God’s holiness is evergreen, its beauty does not fade.

To worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness is to worship God with clean hands, a clean heart and a clean conscience, without pretense or hypocrisy.

Worship the Lord like no one is looking.

Solomon cut down thousands of cedar trees, both for the temple and for his own palace. His carbon footprint was enormous.

Does this mean we (today) need to use cedar in the construction of our church buildings? Well, no. For Christians, God’s holy presence does not rest in a building. God’s presence is found in Jesus and among his people. We are the new temple, a temple not made by hands. The church is like a forest of living souls, made pure and holy by Christ.

The cedar tree is associated with health and purification, together with the beauty of God’s holy presence. The cedar tree is also pregnant with hope and purpose.

Hope – Psalm 92 & Ezekiel 17

Because of their strength and beauty and usefulness, the cedar forests of Lebanon have been depleted down through the centuries. Consequently, the Lebanese authorities have established special reserves to protect and regenerate cedar trees.

Despite humanity’s greed, some cedars have survived for more than 2000 years. One of the keys to the cedar’s longevity is its root system. The roots of the cedar tree grow deep to find water and give the tree stability. Once the tree is established, it will generally last a long time if left undisturbed.   

In Psalm 92 we read…

12 The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; 13 planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. 14 They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, 15 proclaiming, “The Lord is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.”

Psalm 92 is a worship song for the Sabbath day. Being a song for the Sabbath, Psalm 92 looks forward (in hope) to that day of eternal rest, when there will be no more evil or suffering or death, when every day will be a perfect day, an everlasting Sabbath fulfilling God’s purpose for creation.

Cedars don’t grow as quickly as some plants, but they do grow tall and last a long time. The poetry of Psalm 92 is saying the righteous have hope for a good and lasting future. Their purpose is to serve and worship God.      

Righteousness in the Bible simply means right relationship. The righteous relate with God and their neighbours in a right way, in a way that is gracious and true, fair and kind.

You don’t have to be perfect to be righteous. Righteous people sometimes mess up. But if a righteous person does make a mistake, they do everything in their power to put it right.

Faith is the foundation of righteousness. Or to use the metaphor of the cedar, faith is the root system of the tree. Faith in God finds the water of life and lends stability to the tree.

Notice the underlying tone of humility in these verses. Just as the cedar grows best at altitude (in the mountains of Lebanon), so too the righteous grow best in the courts of our God. That is, in close relationship with the Lord and his people. The righteous owe their vitality and fruitfulness to the Lord, not their own righteousness. It is by God’s grace that the cedar tree enjoys long life.

The point is, the righteous are like cedars, they have hope of an evergreen future. The worship and service of the righteous is purposeful and lasting.

We are talking about the cedar tree and its connection with hope and purpose in the Bible.

In Ezekiel 17 we read… 

22 “‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will take a shoot from the very top of a cedar and plant it; I will break off a tender sprig from its topmost shoots and plant it on a high and lofty mountain. 23 On the mountain heights of Israel I will plant it; it will produce branches and bear fruit and become a splendid cedar. Birds of every kind will nest in it; they will find shelter in the shade of its branches. 24 All the trees of the forest will know that I the Lord bring down the tall tree and make the low tree grow tall. I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish.

You all know the story of Cinderella. The girl who was loved by her father but hated by her stepmother and stepsisters. When her father died, Cinderella experienced a reversal of fortunes. She became a servant to her stepmother and stepsisters and was mistreated by them.

When the prince of the realm decided to hold a ball, Cinderella was made to stay home, until her fairy godmother intervened. Cinderella goes to the ball and dances with the prince but has to leave in a hurry at midnight. In her rush she leaves behind a glass slipper.

In his search for the mysterious woman who left so quickly, the prince goes through the land trying to find the one who fits the glass slipper. Eventually, after a few twists and turns, the prince is reunited with Cinderella and they are married.

Once again Cinderella experiences a dramatic reversal of fortunes, this time from being a lowly servant girl to becoming a princess.         

The Bible is full of Cinderella stories. In fact, the fairy tale of Cinderella is inspired by the true stories of the Bible. The stories of Jacob and Joseph are packed with reversals. As is the story of Ruth and Naomi. To say nothing of the history of Israel; from slavery in Egypt to exodus in the wilderness to a fresh start in the promised land of Canaan to exile in Babylon and return from exile. 

Why does the Bible contain so many stories of reversal? Two reasons mainly. Firstly, because these stories literally happened in history. And secondly, because stories of reversal inspire hope and humility.

If you are down on your luck, bullied by your enemies, poor in spirit and unable to see a way forward, you can remember how God reversed his people’s fortunes to give them a good future.

God did it for Joseph and Ruth and Naomi and Hannah and Israel and many others. Perhaps he will do it for you too. These true stories of reversal inspire hope and give purpose to our struggles.

At the same time, if life is going well and you feel like you are on top, healthy, wealthy and wise, remember how God reversed the fortunes of people like Nebuchadnezzar, Pharaoh and Saul, to humble them. Then any pride you might feel at your accomplishments will be diminished. Stories of reversal let the air out of an over inflated ego. No one wants to be the ugly stepsister.   

God has the power to reverse our fortunes. In verse 24 of Ezekiel 17, the Lord says: All the trees of the forest will know that I, the Lord, bring down the tall tree and make the low tree grow tall. I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish.

That is a picture of reversal, inspiring both hope and humility at the same time.

In verses 22-23 of Ezekiel 17, the Lord says that he will take a shoot from the top of a cedar tree and plant it on the mountain heights of Israel, where it will become a splendid cedar tree.

To the ancient mind the image of a majestic tree (like a cedar) stands as a metaphor for a mighty king and his kingdom.

For Christians, the shoot that God takes from the top of a cedar tree to replant, is a picture of Jesus, the Messiah. Jesus is the King who embodies the tree of God’s kingdom on earth.

God’s kingdom, established through Jesus, is strong and enduring like the cedar tree. God’s kingdom is healthy and holy, with a purifying presence resistant to rot. God’s kingdom bears good fruit and provides shelter for every kind of bird. The birds here probably represent the different peoples of the world. God’s kingdom is for all nations.

We are reminded of Jesus’ parable of the mustard seed. The kingdom of heaven starts small like a mustard seed but grows to be a large garden plant providing shelter for the birds of the air. Transformation from small to large; sounds like a story of reversal, inspiring hope, giving purpose.

Conclusion:

Most of you will see where this sermon is headed. Jesus, the prince of heaven, born into humble circumstances. Raised in obscurity, the son of a carpenter. Homeless and relying on the kindness of strangers for the three years of his public ministry.

Condemned for a crime he did not commit. Sentenced to a humiliating, agonizing death on a cross. Dead and buried, then raised to eternal life on the third day. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus is God’s ultimate reversal story and the foundation of our hope.

Let us pray…

Lord Jesus Christ, you are the priest who purifies us and sets us free. You are our holiness, the root of all righteousness. Your resurrection is the ground of our hope. We thank you for your faithfulness to God and to us. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
  2. What are some of the distinctive characteristics of the cedar tree? What is the cedar tree associated with in the Bible?
  3. Why did God provide rituals of purification for people who had recovered from a skin disease? What rituals do you observe that acknowledge the reality of God in your life?  
  4. Why was cedar wood used in the construction of the Jerusalem temple? What does it mean to worship God in the beauty of holiness? How do we do this?
  5. Why does the Bible contain so many stories of reversal? What purpose do these stories serve? Do you have a personal story of reversal? If so, what happened?
  6. How does the parable of the cedar shoot (in Ezekeil 17:22-24) point to Jesus?
Tawa Baptist

Riparian Planting

Scripture: Psalm 1 and Jeremiah 17:5-10

Video Link: https://youtu.be/PjnEYSNxYsQ

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Psalm 1
  • Jeremiah 17:5-10
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

If you watch Country Calendar then you will have heard of riparian planting. Riparian planting is the practice of planting trees and shrubs alongside the edge of rivers, streams and lakes.

There are many advantages to riparian planting. The tree roots give stability to the soil, preventing erosion, and the plants act as filters keeping the water clean by inhibiting effluent and fertiliser run off.

Trees along the water’s edge also provide shade, maintaining cooler more stable water temperatures. This prevents the growth of excess algae and weed as well as protecting marine life. Many fish in New Zealand cannot survive when the water temperature is above 25 degrees.

Riparian planting has a lot of benefits for the environment. And, as God designed it, these benefits do not come at the expense of the tree. Shrubs planted near water ways tend to thrive because they have a reliable source of moisture and nutrients. Life is connection.

Today we begin a new sermon series which I’m calling, The Testimony of Trees. The Bible has a lot to say about trees and what they have to teach us. We start our series this morning by thinking about two passages of Scripture which use riparian planting as a metaphor for a life well lived. Psalm 1 and Jeremiah 17.

Psalm 1 and Jeremiah 17 are similar in a number of ways. We are not sure which passage was written first, but we will start with Psalm 1 because that is the more familiar reading…

Psalm 1 

1 Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of mockers, 2 but their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night. 3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers. 4 Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. 6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

Robert Frost wrote a poem called The Road Not Taken. The famous last verse goes like this…

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –

I took the one less travelled by,

And that has made all the difference.     

Perhaps one of the things Robert Frost is saying here is that life is full of choices. We are not governed by fate. We get to make a difference in our own lives by the path we choose.

Not everything that happens in life is down to the choices we make of course, but our choices can and do have a significant influence on the outcome. Which means that human life is not a joke. Human life is charged with responsibility, fused with purpose and invigorated by hope.   

Psalm 1 sets before us two contrasting ways of living, each with very different outcomes. The way of the righteous and the way of the wicked. The way of the righteous leads to fruitfulness and abundant life, while the way of the wicked leads to emptiness and destruction.

Psalm 1 begins with the word ‘Happy’ or ‘Blessed’. Think about that for a moment. The whole collection of 150 psalms begins with happiness. Apparently, God wants us to be happy. The Lord wants us to find abundant life.

But the road to happiness is not the path of least resistance. Verse 1 is a statement of what not to do if you want to be happy.  

Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of mockers,

As Derek Kidner notes, following advice has to do with thinking. Taking a path has to do with behaving and sitting in a seat has to do with belonging. Thinking, behaving and belonging, this is how a person chooses their allegiance.

Maybe there is a kind of progression with these three things. It all starts with the mind, what we think about. What we think about tends to inform our behaviour. If we think about doing good, then we are more inclined to do it. And if we think about doing bad then we are more inclined to do that.

The path we take represents our routine way of doing things. Our daily habits. Do we make room in each day for prayer. Is our conversation filled with words of truth and grace. Do we deal with people fairly and kindly.  

Of course, how we behave invariably determines who we end up sitting with. That is, who we belong with. For example, if we choose to steal, we will end up hanging out with thieves. But if we choose to work and worship honestly, we will end up in the company of honest God loving people. 

In the Bible a ‘scoffer’ or a ‘mocker’ is one of the worst kinds of sinners because they are the furthest from repentance. [1] A ‘mocker’ is so far down the wide and easy road that they not only can’t see anything wrong in what they are doing, they also ridicule others who are living right and doing it hard on the narrow road.

Having said what the happy do not do (in verse 1), verse 2 then goes on to describe how happy, righteous people do behave…  

…but their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night.2   

Meditating has to do with what we think about, what we chew over in our minds. So the secret to happiness is not thinking all day and all night about what I can do to satisfy my every desire. The secret to happiness is found by thinking about what God wants.  

As Jesus says in Matthew 7: ‘In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.’

Delighting in the law of the Lord is not about feverishly following a list of rules and regulations. It’s about realising the freedom we have to love God and love our neighbour as we love ourselves.

We delight in the law of the Lord (his Word) because through it God shapes our thinking, heals our hearts and reforms our behaviour so that we are set free to do what is right and stand with God’s people.

So, who then is righteous and who is wicked? I mean, most people appear to be a bit of a mixture.

Well, it’s like Jesus said in Matthew 7: ‘You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit…’

Perhaps Jesus is saying here, you can’t really judge a person by first impressions. You have to look at the fruit of a person’s life. You have to look at what outcomes their actions produce. Do their actions reveal God’s good character and bless others, or not?

Verse 3 of Psalm 1 goes on to describe the outcome (or the fruit) of those happy ones who meditate on God’s law…

3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers.

Here we have the image of riparian planting. A well-established tree, planted by a waterway, doing good for the environment it is in.  

Fruit of course is not enjoyed by the tree itself; it is enjoyed by others. The fruit is anything that blesses others – anything that is good for others. What’s more the fruit arrives in its season – that is, in a timely way.

The fruit could be an act of justice, a gift of mercy, a helping hand, some wise listening or a kind word, just when it is needed.  

The reference to the leaf not withering is a poetic way of saying that the tree is not adversely affected by drought. It is not that the tree never experiences difficult circumstances, it does. The point is the tree (or the righteous person) is able to withstand the dry and difficult times because they are nourished at their roots by the water of God’s Word and Spirit.

When it says, whatever they do prospers, it doesn’t necessarily mean that good people get rich and stay healthy. It means the good work they do prospers. God sees to it that the lives of the righteous have meaning and are not wasted, even if they do happen to suffer in some way.

If the righteous are like fruitful trees planted by a stream, then the wicked are like chaff that the wind blows away. You couldn’t get a greater contrast.

Chaff (in the Bible) is the ultimate example of what is rootless, weightless and useless. Chaff is the complete opposite of a fruitful tree. Fruit has seeds, it perpetuates itself. But chaff doesn’t. Chaff is dead, it comes to nothing.  

At the final judgement, the wicked won’t have a leg to stand on. In the end, they are separated from the righteous in much the same way that chaff is separated from grain.

Psalm 1 concludes with a kind of summary statement in verse 6…6

For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.

Psalm 1 is saying, when you boil it all down there are basically two ways you can live your life, each with a very different outcome. You can choose happiness or emptiness. You can live as if God’s instructions matter, or you can live as if they don’t. You can be a riparian planting of the Lord, or you can be chaff.

Jeremiah 17

Jeremiah 17 gives virtually the same message as Psalm 1. From Jeremiah 17, verses 5-10 we read…

5 This is what the Lord says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the Lord. 6 That person will be like a bush in the wastelands; they will not see prosperity when it comes. They will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives. 7 “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. 8 They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” 9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? 10 “I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.”

Fashions change. These days tanned skin is considered attractive but prior to the 20th century white skin was the desired look. To achieve this white complexion, wealthy people would apply a pale lead-based makeup to their face.

Lead is toxic of course and the makeup had a detrimental effect on people’s health. Some even died from lead poisoning while others did damage to their skin, which they only made worse by applying more lead makeup.  

Not that we are much better today. Over exposure to the sun in pursuit of the perfect tan puts you at risk of skin cancer.

Similar to Psalm 1, Jeremiah 17 contrasts two very different types of people. Those who put their trust in God and those who don’t. Jeremiah thinks of righteousness in terms of trust in the Lord.

Those who turn away from the Lord in their heart are likened to a bush in the wastelands. They will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives. In other words, they will end up thirsty, fruitless and isolated.

In the eyes of the world the bush may appear to be doing well. But just because someone appears successful and attractive at first doesn’t mean they will flourish and be fruitful in the end. Sometimes people cover over a sad reality with a lead-based makeup, more concerned with how things look than how things really are.

In contrast, those who trust in the Lord are like a riparian planting. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream.

They are not anxious or afraid of hard times. Nor do they need to pretend to be something they are not. They flourish and remain fruitful, whatever the climate, because they depend on the Lord.

It is worth noting that the tree of verse 8 is the person as heaven sees them.[2] The values of heaven are different from the values of this world. The person of verse 8 may not always appear successful from a worldly point of view. And they might not always feel like they are flourishing. But ultimately, the person of verse 8 is like the proverbial tortoise who wins the race in the end. Only heaven sees us as we really are.

When Jesus gave the beatitudes in Matthew 5, he was describing those who are truly flourishing from the perspective of heaven. For example, blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness and so on.  

In the eyes of the world, the poor, the meek and those who grieve do not look like they are doing well, nor do they feel great. But from heaven’s perspective they are the lucky ones because they are depending on God. They rely on the Word and Spirit of the Lord from the roots of their being.   

The key to a tree’s fruitfulness and resilience is its roots. The roots are the unseen foundation. The roots are what connects the tree to life giving water and nutrients. The roots feed the tree.

The roots of the human soul are our heart and mind, our inner life. What we feed our mind on, tends to shape our conduct and our character.

Jeremiah draws a connection between the roots of a tree and the human heart and mind in verse 9 where he says: The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

In this context the heart is not the physical blood pump in your chest. It’s the heart in a spiritual sense. What we today would think of as the mind, emotions and will, our inner life where decisions are made. 

Jeremiah is putting his finger on the root cause of the problem. It’s a Catch 22 situation. There is no way we can cure our minds. The only instrument we have for understanding our minds is our own minds. [3] But because our mind is desperately sick, we can’t accurately diagnose the sickness, let alone treat it.

We might think we are being honest with ourselves, but our mind deceives us. Our conscious mind is blind to what’s going on in our unconscious. We don’t know what we don’t know.

Like the people of centuries past who covered over the problem with lead-based makeup, the very things we think will help become the very things that make matters worse. We have no way out of the vicious cycle, at least not on our own.

Knowing that the Lord is able to search our heart and examine our mind and reward each person according to their deeds, is a fearful thought. It means there is no hiding from God. There is no makeup (lead based or otherwise) that can disguise the truth of what we are from God. The Lord sees the whole person from root to fruit and he holds us to account. 

And so we find ourselves praying with Jeremiah, in verse 14: Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise.

We need God to heal our heart and mind if we are to bear good fruit. 

Conclusion:

Jesus is the answer to Jeremiah’s prayer. Jesus is the one God sent to heal us. Jesus is the source of living water we need to be planted beside. Or to say it more plainly, Jesus is the Word of God and the giver of God’s Spirit. Jesus is our righteousness. Our life and fruitfulness depend on Christ.

As we read in the gospel of John, chapter 7… 

37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive… 

Let us pray…

Merciful God, grant us the grace to put our roots down deep into the soil of your marvellous love. Nourish our souls with the water of your Word and Spirit, that we would be fruitful to the praise of your glory. Through Jesus we pray. Amen.  

 

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. What stands out for you in reading these Scriptures and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
  2. What are the benefits of riparian planting?
  3. According to Psalm 1, what must we do (and not do) to be happy / blessed?
  4. Compare and contrast Psalm 1 with Jeremiah 17:5-10. How are they similar? How are they different? E.g. What word pictures do Psalm 1 and Jeremiah 17 use to describe a righteous person? What words pictures do Psalm 1 and Jeremiah 17 use to describe a wicked person?
  5. Why is our thought life so important? What sorts of thoughts normally occupy your mind? What practices support you to meditate on God’s Word in the Bible?
  6. How might we discern whether we are truly a riparian planting of the Lord, from heaven’s perspective?
  7. What (or who) is God’s answer to the sickness of the human heart and mind?

 

[1] Refer Derek Kidner’s commentary on the Psalms, page 64.

[2] Refer Derek Kidner’s commentary on Jeremiah, page 73.

[3] Refer John Goldingay’s commentary on Jeremiah, page 95.