Thought for February 12, 2024

• 1554: Lady Jane Grey executed
• 1733: Georgia founded by James Oglethorpe at Savannah
• 1865: Henry Garnet is the first African American to preach to the US House of Representatives
• 1879: First artificial ice rink in North America--Madison Square Garden
• 1909: NAACP forms
• 1924: George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" premiers
• 1938: First "Kindertransport" carrying Jewish refugee children arrives in Britain. For inspiration read the story of Winton Smith.
• 1964: Peggy Fleming wins US Figure Skating Cahmpionship
• 1994: "The Scream" by Edvard Munch is stolen
• 1999: Senate acquits Bill Clinton
• Born: Cotton Mather, Abraham Lincoln, Charles Darwin, Louis Renault, Omar Bradley, Ted Mack, Lorne Green, Joe Garagiola, Bill Russell, Joe Don Baker, Judy Blume, Arsenio Hall, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Josh Brolin, Christopher McCandless {"Into the Wild"], Robert Griffin III
• Died: Ethan Allen, Immanuel Kant, Grant Wood ["American Gothic"], James Cash Penney, Sal Mineo, Tom Landry, Charles Schulz

Thought:

Reading Jeremiah 8:19-22. This passage is part of Jeremiah's sermon at the Temple Gate that began in chapter 7 and extends through chapter 10. Jeremiah tells the people, this is what God says:    

• Amend your ways [7:3]
• Practice truth [7:5]
• Don't oppress widows and orphans [7:6]
• Don't walk after other gods [7:6]
• Don't trust deceptive words [7:6] Later God will say that the preachers don't tell the truth [8:8-10]
• Don't make God's house a den of robbers [7:11] Jesus uses this passage when He cleanses the Temple.

Jeremiah is sad and contrite and wants to pray for the people, but God tells him not to pray. [7:16] Why?They will not listen. [7:27] Their ears had become dulled and their hearts hardened with disobedience. God points out that they have defiled the Temple [7:30], sacrificed their children [7:31], sought other gods [[7:31], yet they are not ashamed [8:12]. This breaks my heart because it sounds like us today. We sacrifice our children--not on the altar in the valley near Jerusalem, but to secular minds and cultural conformity. We want them to have all these experiences, so Sunday becomes a day for sports and travel. Then we wonder why they don't place a priority on worship. We want them to conform to Tik Tok and magazines so they will be popular; then wonder why they follow the world and not the Lord. We allow them to have heroes who live lives of disobedience and have no shame. 

Jeremiah's preaching leads to a dialogue. The people cry from a distant land [Babylon], "Is the Lord not in Zion." Or where is God? God responds, "why have you provoked Me with graven images and foreign idols?" The people do not answer but instead say, time has passed and God has not responded. [8:19-20] Then Jeremiah asks the question, "is there no balm in Gilead?" [8:22] 

Gilead [the eastern side of the Jordan from the Dead Sea to the Sea of Galilee] was famous for its balm/salve. If you read the story of Joseph you recall that the Ismaelites who carried Joseph to Egypt were carrying balm from Gilead. I have always thought how marvelous it was that the traders thought they were taken some medicinal balm from plants, but in reality they were carrying God's balm in the person of Joseph.

This verse is the basis for the great Negro spiritual, "There is a Balm in Gilead" sung by slaves as they toiled. You might sing that song of hope and promise today:

Sometimes I feel discouraged and think my work's in vain,

But then the Holy spirit revives my soul again.

If you can't preach like Peter, if you can't pray like Paul

Just tell the love of Jesus, and say He died for all.

There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole

There is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul. 

The answer for the captives in Babylon and the answer for those enslaved today is Jesus, the balm of Gilead. And the song is right, even if we cannot preach or pray like the Apostles, we can simply tell the love of Jesus.  

Blessings

Larry