The Bush and the Tree

Jeremiah 17:5-8: "This is what the LORD says: 'Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD. He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives. But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. He 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."


God is the Master of analogy. He loves to use imagery (metaphors, similes, and personification) to teach us invaluable lessons from His Word; and in the citation above, He contrasts a bush in the wastelands with a tree growing by a stream of water to teach us of the importance of trusting not in ourselves but in Him alone.


As we reflect upon these teaching illustrations, we learn several key points:


First for the bush (i.e. the person who sets his heart toward his own strength and turns away from the LORD):


The bush finds itself in a barren wasteland. Wastelands in the land of Israel were arid, infertile places that few plants and animals could grow let alone thrive. As one thinks about this imagery, one pictures a bush standing isolated in the desert. The unimpressive bush fails to fulfill its God-given purpose to produce fruit, because it is planted in soil that lacks the vital nutrients for prosperous growth and it lacks the much needed water that provides and sustains life. It is of no benefit for those passing by; in fact, people will look upon the plant with disdain, for it is such a disappointment in not producing the anticipated fruit for which it was designed.

Whereas the warmth of the climate may have been attractive at first, the bush now finds that the scorching heat and lack of substantive water supplies are starving it of much needed nourishment. Even if an occasional rain shower passes by, its positive benefits are quickly lost as the conditions of the land quickly evaporate the much needed rain, leaving the bush without any relief. Whereas the bush may have thought the setting to be a great place for cultivating itself, it now finds itself secluded and starved. Not only does it lack water and nutrients, but it also lacks the support of other vegetation to help shade it from the ill effects of the arid climate. In the end, the bush withers away, for it is not connected to the perpetual stream that would bring it life and vitality.

In thinking of a plant lacking a harvest of fruit, one is reminded of Jesus' encounter with the fig tree in Mark 11:12f. Jesus had become hungry and looked to a certain fig tree for fruit but found none. From a distance, the tree had green leaves and appeared to Jesus as if it should have fruit; but upon closer inspection, the tree was a major disappointment . . . a lot of show with not much substance. Jesus responded by cursing the tree, so that it would never produce fruit again. When the disciples returned to the tree later, they noticed that it had withered all the way to its roots. Since it was of no use to the Master, it was destroyed.




In contrast, the tree by the stream (i.e. the one who puts his faith and trust in the LORD) has a very different outcome:


The tree is planted next to a perpetually flowing stream, that brings health to the plant no matter the circumstances. Even if the tree finds itself in the same dry, abysmal terrain of the bush, the difference is found in the tree's connectivity to the stream . . . the true source of life. The tree has no fear WHEN (NOT IF) the heat comes. This tree knows that the stressful circumstances of its climate will come each day; still, there is no worry about its condition, for the tree has its life sustenance close by. Its leaves continue to thrive, and it produces fruit to be a blessing to any person passing by. Even in the year of exceptionally impressive drought, the tree continues to grow and produce with noticeable distinction.


And because the stream provides the adjacent soil with the nutrients for vegetation to thrive, the tree is likely to find other productive plants nearby. This tree is not isolated, but enjoys the association with other trees and plants that are connected to the same water source. As the tree enjoys its sense of community, it benefits from the adjacent trees which help to shade each others roots from the damaging rays of the sun.

This is a great story which is analogous to our connectivity to the Lord. It is of vital importance for us to be connected to the Lord, for only He can provide us with the spiritual nourishment for us to fulfill our purpose of producing fruit for His glory. Therefore, we must stay close to the Stream of Life (i.e. the Lord) in order that we might weather the storms of life, and continue to thrive for the Lord in all circumstances.

When we are connected to the Lord, we also receive the blessing of fellowship with other followers of Christ. We are able to mutually encourage and support each other along the path of life, until the day of our glorification, when we forever will enjoy the Lord and each other in a state of eternal perfection and wholeness.

Let us learn from this simile of the Lord that we must never put our allegiances in our own accomplishments and abilities; rather, let us surrender ourselves to the Lord and savor the blessed benefits of His grace and provision for our souls. We then will thrive in our lives, producing a wonderful display of spiritual fruit that glorifies the Lord and contributes to the furtherance of His beautiful Kingdom!

Don't Misuse God's Word

Jeremiah 23:29f: "'Is not my word like fire,' declares the LORD, 'I am against the prophets who steal from one another words supposedly from me. Yes,' declares the LORD, 'I am against the prophets who wag their own tongues and yet declare, 'The LORD declares.' Indeed, I am against those who prophesy false dreams,' declares the LORD. 'They tell them and lead my people astray with their reckless lies, yet I did not send or appoint them. They do not benefit these people in the least,' declares the LORD . . . . 'If a prophet or a priest or anyone else claims, 'This is the oracle of the LORD,' I will punish that man and his household . . . . every man's own word becomes his oracle and so you distort the words of the living God, the LORD Almighty, our God . . . . I will surely forget you and cast you out of my presence along with the city I gave to you and your fathers. I will bring upon you everlasting disgrace-everlasting shame that will not be forgotten.'"

If there is one thing that we learn from the above citation, it is the sacredness of the Word of the Lord. Our Great God has given to us His choice morsels of truth that we are not to distort to satisfy our own wanton lusts; rather we are to revere and obey these Words for they are the timeless, directive proclamations given to us that we might know His ultimate Will for our lives! The problem with the people of Judah during the days of Jeremiah was that their religious leaders were distorting the words of the Lord to condone their wicked ways. They adjusted their interpretation of Scripture into one that justified their defiance of God's propositional truths that had been given to the Israelites 1000 years before (see Deuteronomy 28).

God was very direct with these wayward leaders. He proclaimed that He would severely punish all those who would distort His Word; these religious figureheads would not escape the eternal punishment of the Lord for propagating their wickedness as something encouraged from the Word of the Lord.

This is a good word for us today. We regularly find in our culture many different groups that attempt to purport their sinful ideologies by manipulating Scripture to say something that it has never said or by attempting to discredit the Word of the Lord to a place of insignificance to their contemporary experiences.

Just as God would not hold the person in Jeremiah's day guiltless for distorting the truths of God's Word to meet his selfish desires, so too we will find that our Lord will punish the man today who treats the Scriptures with such contempt. We are not to manipulate the eternal Words of God to satisfy our longings, rather we are to surrender ourselves to the Righteous, Holy Words of the LORD and let them saturate our souls with conviction (leading to repentance) and inspiration (leading to obedience and worship of the One True God).

May we ever treat the Holy Bible as just that . . . HOLY . . . that is "Set Apart" and worthy of our focused attention, reverential fear, and determined obedience. It is only then that the blessings of Our Sovereign Lord will flow to us as we follow His will for our lives.

Looking For Relief From God When It's Too Late

Jeremiah 21:1-5: "The word came to Jeremiah from the LORD when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur son of Malkijah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah. They said: 'Inquire now of the LORD for us because Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is attacking us. Perhaps the LORD will perform wonders for us as in times past so that he will withdraw from us.' But Jeremiah answered them, 'Tell Zedekiah, this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I am about to turn against you the weapons of war that are in you hands, which you are using to fight the king of Babylon and the Babylonians who are outside the wall besieging you. And I will gather them inside this city. I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm in anger and fury and great wrath.'"



We can only imagine the setting in which this episode occurs in the life of the people of Judah as recorded in Jeremiah. The mighty Babylonians had encircled the city of Jerusalem and had begun their 18-month siege against it. These warriors would cut off the food supply such that the people inside Jerusalem's walls would eventually resort to most horrid measures for survival (see Lamentations 4:10). When the heat of God's judgment befell Jerusalem, these once wicked people of Judah, who had mocked the warnings of the LORD and had persecuted His prophets, were now sending their religious leaders to Jeremiah in hopes that God's wrath might be averted. Whereas God had been quite longsuffering with these people, desiring that they repent, eventually a point was reached when the day of salvation was past and only the judgment of God remained. Rather than being their Protector and Defender, now the LORD had become their Enemy who would inflict the severest of penalties for their treason against His Holiness and Lordship. God had not forgotten that these people just recently had professed, "Who can come against us? Who can enter our refuge?" (21:13). These people of Judah thought themselves impervious to attack, as their city was fortified with expansive walls for its protection; their fortifications falsely reinforced their belief that their wicked ways were beyond any judgments from the LORD. And though the LORD sent them the prophets to warn them of coming disaster, they only ridiculed such perceived nonsense. Oh how wrong these people were . . . for the Babylonian invasion was a most horrific sight!


Still, God would give these people an opportunity to find remedy from their miserable condition, if only they would respond to His instruction to surrender to the Babylonians and be subject to them for a period of time. God would have His people suffer for their sins, but the severity of their suffering could be abated if they would only listen to His counsel. Sadly, these people would attempt to do just the opposite. They determined to hold out as long as they could; and all that they did was worsen the effects of the siege. Even in the midst of suffering, these Israelites would not listen to the LORD.



There is a good word for us here. Do we believe ourselves impervious to the judgments of the LORD? Do we think that we are beyond any culpability for our sinful ways? Let us renounce such foolishness while the day of God's salvation is upon us. Just as with the people of Judah during the days of Jeremiah, so too do we have a limited time to respond to God's offering of grace. When the fullness of time for His grace has past, nothing remains "but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God" (Hebrews 10:27).

God Sees Everything

Jeremiah 16:17: "My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from me, nor is their sin concealed from my eyes. I will repay them double for their wickedness and their sin, because they have defiled my land with the lifeless forms of their vile images and have filled my inheritance with their detestable idols."


It is amazing to think that a person might believe that his sin could go undetected by God. This certainly was the case with the people of Judah during the days of Jeremiah. These descendants of Abraham apparently believed that they were getting away with their evil ways; in fact, one can almost see their shrugged shoulders and puzzled looks at Jeremiah when they asked in 16:10, "Why has the LORD decreed such a great disaster against us? What wrong have we done? What sin have we committed against the LORD our God?"

This wicked disposition of the covenant people was further evidenced by the Jewish religious leaders in Ezekiel 8. Specifically the seventy elders, whose positions of leadership had been appointed by the Lord nearly a millennium before (see Numbers 11:16-17), were practicing an impressive external worship display outside the Temple, but within the dark corners inside the Temple walls, these religious leaders had set up shrines to pagan deities with drawings of "crawling things and detestable animals and all the idols of the house of Israel" (Ezekiel 8:10). These leaders smugly convinced themselves that the LORD did not see them, and thus they were able to perpetrate whatever their wicked hearts desired. (Ezek. 8:12). Sadly, these leaders could not have been further from the truth!


God told Jeremiah that the people's wicked ways were NOT going undetected; He was seeing all of the sins that they were committing against His Holiness, and He determined to repay them doubly for their wickedness. God would bring harsher judgment, for He previously had given to His covenant people the blessing of the Promised Land; and the Lord had chosen these people from all peoples of the earth with which to dwell. God's very glory was present in the Temple that had been constructed, and He had demonstrated His power, glory, and will with such regularity that the people should have known better. Instead, they chose to treat His love and exclusive devotion with contempt by filling the land and the Temple of worship with the vile, pagan idols that would deflect focused devotion from the One True Lord of Hosts.

This is a good word for us today. We ever must remember that the Lord sees all that we do, and will hold us account for our loyalties, wherever they might be directed. The following passages affirm this conclusion:

1. Hebrews 4:13: "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account."

2. 2 Chronicles 16:9: "For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him."

If we find ourselves worshipping vain substitutes for the Lord, now is the time for us to repent (i.e. turn) from such wickedness and worship the Lord passionately and exclusively. Just as the people of Judah had been given so much by the Lord (and for this reason would be held in greater judgment for their rebellion), so too we must understand that the blessings that the Lord has given this nation will bring a fiercer day of reckoning if we do not repent and surrender ourselves to the Lord.

Let us remember the 2 Chronicles 16:9 passage above as well, namely that the Lord has promised to strengthen those "whose hearts are fully committed to Him." This is the way to go! Let's by faith give ourselves fully to the Lord and then watch in excited anticipation what He will do through us for the furtherance of His glory and His kingdom!

Trying to "Pull One Over" on God

Jeremiah 14:11; 15:6: "Then the LORD said to me, 'Do not pray for the well-being of this people. Although they fast, I will not listen to their cry; though they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Instead, I will destroy them with the sword, famine and plague . . . . You have rejected me . . . You keep on backsliding. So I will lay hands on you and destroy you; I can no longer show compassion.'"

When God turned up the heat of His judgment upon the people of Judah for their chronic rebellion against Him as Lord, the people hastened to the formality of worship and ritual in the hopes of "impressing" God to bring them relief. These Israelites for so long had been the perpetrators of all types of evil, flagrantly displaying their wickedness openly (see Jeremiah 3:6); and instead of fearing the holiness of the Lord, these people had no regard for His Sovereignty. They only saw the Lord as one of many deities that could be summoned for their needs, only to be shuffled back to the periphery of their lives once He had blessed them. Any Word of truth given by the Lord that was indicting of their sin was received with offense . . . they found no pleasure in it whatsoever (see Jeremiah 6:10). They thought themselves so wise that they were not in need of any council that would address their wrongdoings, for they did not see the pursuit of their selfish desires as inherently bad (Jer. 8:8).

Now that these people were suffering for their sin, they soon made their way to the temple to make their burnt offerings and grain offerings to the Lord and to follow up their religious display by committing themselves to fasting. These people thought that if they could impress God enough, He would relent from His judgment and bring relief from their misery. The telling evidence of their spiritual condition, however, was in their willingness to backslide. As evidenced by these people's behavior, they did not want to change their evil ways (which is the Biblical definition of repentance); rather, they wanted to get out of their predicament. Had God relented from His wrath, these people would have reverted back to their detestable ways and mocked the Lord as One who could be fooled by superficial spiritual display. Had the Lord brought a reprieve to the Judeans, they in turn would have smugly concluded that only a few "hoop jumping" acts of spirituality were necessary to appease God. Then they could return to the true wicked desires of their hearts.

Of course, God would not be fooled by such deceptive practices. He knew what was in their hearts; and for this reason, the Lord would not relent from His judgment.

This is a good word for us today. If we expect the blessing of the Lord, we must move beyond pretentious spiritual rituals with the hope of impressing God; for these acts, without a heart inclined toward the Lord in a spirit of repentance and surrender will accomplish nothing. Instead, we must submit ourselves to the authority of the One True God and approach Him in a spirit of humility and contrition. It will only be then that His Divine favor will be poured out upon us . . . and we will experience relief from His judgments.

The "Why?" Question

Jeremiah 13:22a, 25: "And if you ask yourself, 'Why has this happened to me?' - it is because of your many sins . . . . This is your lot, the portion I have decreed for you,' declares the LORD."


In over a decade of ministry experience, I have heard the "Why?" question asked many times. Distraught people have sat in my office, crying out "Why has this happened to me? . . . Why has God let this happen? . . ." Whereas we must be slow to ascribe causality to misfortune (for in a fallen world, even those who have lived in obedience to Christ will experience tribulation), there are those times when one's misery is directly related to sinful choices made in life. And whether these sinful choices involve poor relational decisions, compromises associated with such relationships, unethical choices in business or at church or in school . . . we know that the list of painful consequences for sinful behavior seems limitless.


I guess what fascinates me is the perceived naivete of those who have disobeyed the precepts of the Lord and question why they are suffering the consequences of such miscreant behavior. Many will feel as if they are victims undeserving of such painful experiences. With eyes of bewilderment, they look across my desk and wonder in astonishment that God would allow such results to befall them.


Again, I must reiterate that sensitivity is warranted in all such circumstances, for every person anguishing over tribulation is deserving of love and compassion; still, these times can be very instructional for those who would incline their ear to hear wisdom. We all have felt the pangs of misfortune that have arisen from our sinful choices, and we know that some of these consequences will live with us for the entirety of our lives. What we must do is be open to God's Word of correction, and reorient our lives to faithful obedience to Him. We may not be able to remedy the consequences of past sins; however, we can permit God to work redemptively in us through our contrition, confession, and re-commitment to Him as LORD. God is loving and able to restore us to right fellowship with Him. If we determine to seek Him above all persons and things, the Lord will turn our tragedies not only into triumphs but opportunities of ministry for others who are traversing similar paths.


What we must first do is get beyond the shock and presumed innocence that we think we have. Let us look introspectively at ourselves to see if any sin has brought us to the place where we find ourselves. And if God's convicting presence brings such awareness, let us repent (i.e. turn) from our wickedness and seek the Lord. He will work redemptively and restoratively to draw us from the pit of despair into a place of blessing (see Psalm 84:5-7).

What Makes God Hearing Impaired (2)

Jeremiah 11:11: "Therefore this is what the LORD says: 'I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape. Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them.'"

Seldom do we find in Scripture any mention of God refusing to hear the petitions of a people who are in distress and in need of deliverance. But in the account of the people in Judah during the days of Jeremiah we find just that.

As we have addressed in previous devotions, the Judeans during the days of Jeremiah were a wayward people who were unwilling to repent of their sin of rebellion against the LORD. So brazen had they become in their wickedness, that when God sent to them the prophet Jeremiah to proclaim judgment for their sinful ways, these people determined to kill Jeremiah and his descendants (11:19f).

Now that God was leading the Babylonians to invade Palestine, the people would cry out for relief, but God would refuse to listen. God even instructed Jeremiah not to pray for the people, for it would be to no avail. Whereas we might think this to be heartless of the Lord not to respond to the petitions of His covenant people, we need only to look at the verses immediately following the quoted verse above. After praying to the One True Lord of Hosts, these people of Judah then turned to their false gods and prayed to them asking for deliverance as well. This response of the people leads us to conclude that they were not sincere in their repentance to the Lord; rather, they were looking for relief from their misery. These people were unwilling to turn away from their idolatry which to them justified their sinful behavior; they simply were looking for a reprieve from their persecution so that they could return to their reckless ways. These people were not sorry for what they had done . . . they were sorry that they had gotten caught and were suffering for their wickedness. Were these wicked people to receive relief from their judgment, they would have gone back to the false gods to whom they had petitioned and worshipped them for granting deliverance. These people would not have repented and turned from their sinfulness; instead, they would have intensified their sacrifices to the false gods.

This is a good word for us today. We must remember that the Lord is "compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in love and faithfulness" (Exodus 33:6). Still, He is unwilling to listen to our pleas for deliverance, when we are unwilling to confess our sin and turn from our wicked ways. For God to grant our petitions under such circumstances would perpetuate sinfulness in our lives, for we would be apt to conclude our invincibility to any judgment that may come our way when we perpetrate rebellion against the Lord. God will not be mocked by our sin (Galatians 6:7-8); He will not respond to us when we cry out to Him and yet are unwilling to surrender to Him as our Lord and follow Him in obedience.

Let us forsake our rebellious ways and turn back to the Lord. We then will find that He will incline His ear to us and answer our prayers for healing.