“‘The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.’
‘A glorious throne, exulted from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary. O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the Lord, the spring of living water.’
‘Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me and I shall be saved, for you are the one I praise. They keep saying to me, “Where is the word of the Lord? Let it now be fulfilled!” I have not run away from being your shepherd; you know I have not desired the day of despair. What passes my lips is open before you.’” (Jeremiah 17:9-16)
We all know that Baruch took dictation from Jeremiah, copying down his prophecies, and on the occasion when the king burnt a scroll of Jeremiah’s words, Baruch was instructed to write them all again. The little collection of sayings that we are considering today from chapter 17 do not appear to follow any particular theme. Maybe Baruch kept a special scroll which he headed ‘Miscellaneous’ and these are some of the sayings on that scroll! Some of them sound more like wisdom literature than prophetic words from Jeremiah.
Deceitful Humans
The saying that the heart is deceitful above all things is a simple statement about the fickleness of human beings. The Hebrew word translated by the NIV and the RSV as ‘deceitful’ is ‘aqobh or ‘Jacob’. Jacob was an inveterate deceiver who deceived his father-in-law and even deceived his brother Esau out of his rightful inheritance as the elder son (Gen 27:36). Jacob’s name became a byword for deception, as when Jehu deceived (‘aqobh) the priests of Baal, as recorded in 2 Kings 10:19.
By contrast to the inability of human beings to penetrate the deception in the minds of other humans, nothing is hidden from God. He searches the heart and examines the minds of everyone. We are totally unable to deceive God, who not only knows our unspoken thoughts, but acts justly in dealing with each one in accordance to the demands of his righteous standards.
Human beings cannot penetrate the deception in the minds of other humans, but nothing is hidden from God.
Broken Cisterns
The next little saying about the Temple was no doubt meant to combat the charge against Jeremiah that he hated the Temple. Quite the reverse was true: he saw it as the sanctuary of the Lord God of Israel and a holy place. This was why he was so dismayed that the nation of Israel that had been so wonderfully chosen by God to be his servant in taking his words to the world, could be so fickle and unfaithful.
Early in his ministry he had said “They have forsaken me, the spring of living water and dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water” (Jer 2:13). This was still the message that he was bringing many years later, that those who rejected the spring of living water would be lost in the dust of history.
‘Springs of living water’ was one of the central themes of the ministry of Jesus. His teachings given to his disciples at Caesarea Philippi – the springs of the river Jordan - were similar to that of Jeremiah. They both saw the flowing of living water as symbolising the Spirit of God. Jeremiah saw the women going home with empty jars from the wells in Jerusalem during the drought. Jesus sat at a well in a Samaritan village comparing the water in a woman’s jar with the water of life that he had come to bring. Only God could satisfy the spiritual thirst in human beings.
Hurtful Accusations
The final word in this little collection of sayings is a prayer for help. On the surface it looks like a prayer for physical healing; but in the context of the whole paragraph it sounds as though Jeremiah had been deeply hurt by the constant criticism of those around him who kept mocking him that his prophecies were not being fulfilled. They were saying that he was a false prophet and that all his warnings of disaster simply came from his own morbid imagination.
From the beginning of his ministry, Jeremiah had foreseen disaster coming upon Jerusalem from a Babylonian invasion. It was symbolised in the boiling pot tilting away from the North (Jer 1:13). The Lord had responded to him confirming that he was hearing rightly. But his warnings all fell upon deaf ears and the constant scoffing of his opponents was deeply troubling him – especially the mocking of the priests and prophets based at the Temple in Jerusalem, who were telling the people that there was no danger because God would never allow foreigners to enter the holy city.
Only God can satisfy the spiritual thirst in human beings.
Jeremiah knew this to be a disastrous lie which encouraged the people to go on with their idolatry, their immorality, their lies and deception, and their squabbling with their neighbours.
In this little prayer it appears that Jeremiah had lost his peace. He was having a day of depression bordering upon despair, that could affect his ministry. So, he called out to God for help, reminding the Lord that he found no pleasure in the word that he had been given to proclaim. He did not desire the ‘day of disaster’, as many people were accusing him. God, who was able to search the heart and examine the mind of every human being, surely knew that he was being a faithful shepherd in declaring the message that he had been given by God.
Jeremiah’s prayer for healing was for quietness of mind and reassurance that his life and ministry were in the very centre of God’s purposes for him. It was this knowledge that would save him from anxiety, so that he could live his life praising the Lord whom he served.
This is the assurance that we all need – that our lives are in the very centre of God’s will for us. It is this assurance that brings the peace that passes all understanding. And for us, that reassurance only comes through the presence of the Lord Jesus our Saviour.
This article is part of a series on the life and ministry of the Prophet Jeremiah. Click here to read previous instalments.
