Dear friends in Christ.
If you were to find yourself on trial for one reason
or another, I’m sure you would want to have the best legal defense team you
could find. You would want an attorney
who would calmly, confidently, and persuasively argue your case before a jury
of your peers. You would want a jury
that would carefully weigh all the testimony made in that courtroom and come to
the verdict which the evidence clearly showed. You would want a judge who would make just and
right judgment based on the verdict rendered by the jury. Well, as Christians, this is what we have. For we have a just and righteous God in
heaven who has never in his life made a snap judgment based on a whim or other
emotional factor. Rather, it is our God
in heaven who has provided the world with the documentation of his law, and now
judges the world on the basis of that law.
Because of this, we know that when the Lord makes his judgments they are
both just and righteous. This is
something that we will see more clearly as we study the text before us today.
For through this lesson recorded in Jeremiah 17 we will see that even though
those who turn from the Lord are cursed, those who trust in him are blessed,
because the Lord’s judgments are truly just and righteous!
Take a look at what Jeremiah has to tell us in the
first two verse of our lesson today:
“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. 6
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." (Jeremiah 17:5–6, NIV84)
Now, when Jeremiah first spoke these words to the
Israelites living in the Southern kingdom of Judah, he spoke them as the Lord’s
judgment against all who had turned their backs on him. For in the days of Jeremiah, the people of
Israel had all but forgotten about the Lord their God. They had turned to the worship of idols made
of wood and stone. They had forsaken the
Lord’s temple, and they had killed many of the Lord’s prophets rather than
listening to them. Though they were
still one of the most prosperous nations at the time, they were not living
under the Lord’s blessing, but under his curse.
Though to an outside observer they looked like a strong and healthy
nation, spiritually they were nothing more than a dead and dried up old bush in
the middle of a burning desert wasteland.
And because of this, all those who had turned their backs on the Lord
had nothing to look forward to but the curse of eternal death and damnation
forever in the fires of hell.
The same thing is true today! We are living in a land that is quickly
turning its back on the Lord. So many of
our leaders in every level of government are turning their backs on our
Nation’s God fearing roots, and encouraging us as a people to do whatever they
want and believe whatever they want to believe.
Though as a nation, we may be the wealthiest, most prosperous people on
the face of the earth, spiritually our nation is quickly becoming a scorched
and burning desert wasteland. Though our
country may have been founded on Christian morals back in the 1700’s, those
morals are constantly be challenged, cut down, and tossed aside. For example: 30 years ago, when the Rowe v.
Wade decision made abortion legal, murder was suddenly made convenient, abstinence
was no longer an issue, sexual immorality was given an open door, and human
life was no longer regarded as sacred.
Now today, our nation is quickly sliding down the path, which leads only
to the Lord’s righteous judgment and destruction.
How long will it be until we are overrun like the
Israelites, who were overrun by the Babylonians? How long will it be until the Lord says,
“Enough!” and simply allows our nation to collapse from within? I do not know. But I do know that if our
nation continues on the course it is following now, turning its back on the
Lord and relying on its own ingenuity, all that will be left for it will be the
Lord’s curse and his righteous judgment of destruction. Though this might be a
disturbing picture for us as Americans, this is the warning that the Lord is
directing not only toward our great nation, but it is also the warning which he
is directing toward you and me as Christians.
Yes, this is the warning which the Lord is directing
even toward us as Christians! For with these
words our Lord is telling us that if we turn our backs on him we will face his
fierce and righteous judgment. If we
grow weary of drinking the water of life found in his word, we will be
surprised at how parched we will quickly become and how none of the world’s
beverages will be able to slake that thirst.
If we find ourselves wandering away from him, growing lazy in worship,
or simply giving up to embrace our sins, we know that we could be facing the
double barreled curse of eternal death and damnation forever in the fires of
hell. This is why the Lord is so fervently warning us with the consequences of
turning our backs on him. For if we, who
know the truth of God’s salvation, turn our backs on that salvation there will
be nothing left for us except eternal suffering in the burning wasteland of
eternal damnation; burning under the scorching heat of the Lord’s justice and
punishment for all who turn their backs on him.
Which is the heart of God’s Righteous Judgments!
But this is not the end of the story, for if it
were, we would have nothing to look forward to.
We would find no joy in the service of the Lord our God because we would
see him as nothing more than an angry and vengeful God. But this is not the way we see him, and this
is not the way we know him. For we know
the Lord as the God who has told us: “all who trust in him will be
blessed.” This is the other side of our
Lord’s just and righteous judgments! For
though he will truly curse all those who forsake him, we know that he will indeed
bless all who trust in him.
This was the message, which Jeremiah also carried to
the people of Israel. For even though
nearly the entire nation of Israel had turned their backs on the Lord there
were still those who had remained faithful to him, and it was to those people
that Jeremiah said: “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose
confidence is in him. 8 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.” (Jeremiah 17:7–8, NIV84)
With these words, not only was the Lord assuring his
faithful people that they would be blessed if they trusted in him, he is also
assuring us that by trusting in him, we will truly be blessed no matter what we
might face in this life. For when we
trust in the Lord we are those who listen to the Lord’s Prophet. We are like trees planted by streams of
water. When our trust is in the Lord we
are able to sink our roots down deep into water of his word. We are able to grow tall and strong because
we are constantly receiving all the nutrition that we could possibly need. We are able to spread our branches high and
wide so that we might provide shade and comfort to those who need it most. Even though we might face the severe heat of
trials and hardships in this life, though we often face the blistering sun of
temptation, when we are rooted in the word, trusting in the Lord our God, our
leaves will not wither or fall. For when
we place our trust in the Lord, it is the Lord who sees us through every
trouble. When we place our trust in the
Lord we have the ability to let go of our worries and simply follow where he
leads. When we trust in the Lord, we are
able to accept whatever challenges or hardships he might place on us, and wear
them with joy, knowing that if he asks us to bear them he will also give us
more than enough strength to stand up under them. We will be able to stand up as his children
under his just and righteous judgments.
This was the very privilege that the Lord gave to a
family in my neighborhood while I was still in grade school. For when I was in seventh grade, the smith
family down the street lost their 18-year-old son in a car accident. The son, who had been out deer hunting, was
returning home when a deer jumped out in front of his car, it crashed through
the windshield, broke the son’s neck, and he died that night even before he
reached the hospital. On top of that, a
few short months after his funeral, his mother was diagnosed with cancer, and
even though the doctors did everything they could to fight it, she died less
than four years later. Though I don’t
remember much from the son’s funeral, I remember clearly the events of the
wife’s. I remember standing in the
receiving line at the funeral home. I
remember countless friends talking with the husband and crying with him. I remember even more people hugging him and
offering their words of sympathy. I
remember wondering how someone could ever endure the death of his son and wife
within a few short years of each other.
But the most amazing thing I remember is the solid rock of faith that
this man was when it was our turn to talk to him. I remember his unwavering trust in the Lord
his God. I remember how he accepted this
new tragedy, confidently assured that the Lord had not forsaken him, and
knowing that he would see both his wife and his son again when the Lord called
him from this life to eternal life in heaven.
This is the justice and the righteousness of the
Lord’s judgments. These are the kinds of
blessings that we also receive here on this earth when we trust in the
Lord. Though we may not have a stress
free life, though we may not have all the money or possessions we might want,
though our eyesight may not be the best, or our hearing might be failing,
though our heart might not work the way we want or we find ourselves living
away from family and friends, when we trust in the Lord we can still find joy
and fulfillment in all these situations through faith in Jesus Christ our
Savior! When we trust in the Lord our
God, we find his blessings in every aspect of our day to day lives. When we trust in the Lord our God, our
greatest blessing is the forgiveness of sins that his Son won for us through
his death and resurrection. This is the
just and righteous judgment that the Lord has for you and me as his children,
and this is the judgment with which he longs to bless the world.
Though our world may have turned its back on the
Lord, sliding ever closer to the curse of damnation there is still hope for
each and every person who trusts in the Lord.
For just as those in Israel who trusted in the Lord were saved when the
Babylonians came, those in our world today who trust in the Lord will be saved
by their faith. This is the message that
we as Christians now bring to the world at large. Though we may not be able to lead all the
people of the world to turn their trust to the Lord, through the working of the
Lord, and the power of his word, we will be able to lead some to place their
trust in him as their God. Those who do
will no longer face the Lord’s curse, but will look forward to the Lord’s
righteous judgment, which will shower his blessings upon them. These are the
Lord’s just and righteous judgments!
Though they are different than the judgments handed down in a courtroom,
they are based on the law of the Lord our God.
May we never be found among those who turn their backs on him and look
forward to nothing but his curse, but rather let us always be found among those
who trust in him and live in his blessings.
Amen.
Pastor
David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN
