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Curses! Jeremiah comes down laborious on these whose belief lies wholly in human energy, who’ve turned their backs on the Lord. The prospects for such a life are usually not promising. Isolation and depletion at finest.
Abruptly the tone softens, and prophetic warning shifts gears to the supply of knowledge drawn from the shut statement of nature. Curse provides option to blessing. We don’t need to wind up like a lonely, parched shrub out in the midst of the desert. We are able to select another path that’s nourishing for us and fruitful for others. Who can train us this wiser lifestyle? A tree.
I consider Jeremiah as a harsh messenger for God, however he appears to have had a tender spot for bushes. And right here’s a lesson from a tree about belief: Keep near sources of nourishment that make us fruitful. Upon these relationships all the things relies upon. And if making such a connection means relocation, so be it.
In his Hermeneia commentary on Jeremiah, William Holladay means that the phrase “planted by water” might imply “transplanted by water.” So this tree that Jeremiah has in thoughts maybe has been moved—or discovered a option to transfer—in order that it’s near the water that offers it life. It didn’t begin out in a properly hydrated neighborhood; it moved there.
The place do we have to go, or what do we have to do, to soak within the goodness of God? Not simply to relaxation from our work, however to be stuffed to overflowing with vitality for it? What wouldn’t it really feel wish to be as nourished by God as a knowledge tree is nourished by good previous H2O?
In recent times I’ve been spiritually hydrated by curiosity conversations. That phrase can also be the title of a e book by film producer Brian Grazer. For a few years he has put aside time to speak with individuals who intrigue or encourage him. The ensuing curiosity conversations have turn out to be a supply of pleasure, friendship, and studying. Following his lead, I preserve a listing of individuals I need to study from, and I attain out to them for conversations. I transplant myself from a spot of weariness to a spot the place I can discover recent religion. And it really works! The enjoyment and studying that develop out of those dialogues linger with me lengthy after the speaking is finished.
One other lesson from Jeremiah’s instructing tree: It’s defiant. Though this textual content reads like a cousin to Psalm 1, Holladay factors out a big distinction: “Psalm 1:3 . . . describes a tree that’s watered, however Jeremiah is describing a tree that expects water, doesn’t get it, but due to deep rootage manages some leaves and fruit even when water is missing.”
Jeremiah’s tree doesn’t wait passively to be watered. It sends out roots like search events, on the lookout for life-giving water. And when the warmth is on, and drought takes over the land, the defiant tree isn’t anxious. It defiantly bears fruit for these needing meals. It’s inexperienced in all seasons, drought be damned.
Jeremiah may have wrapped issues up right here, with a pleasant picture of trusting folks savoring fruit subsequent to the knowledge tree. However having began with a warning, he ends with one. He alters the topic from the tree to the center, that fickle organ that may lead us towards the great life or away from it. Jeremiah knew that we could be stubbornly proof against knowledge. We might not need to transplant ourselves close to new concepts, new methods of being extra beneficiant with sources and love. So he provides us a heads up. Don’t underestimate the center: It would lead us to water, it’d lead us to a eating regimen soda.
Thanks, Jeremiah, for the dose of actuality. However primarily for the encouragement to transplant ourselves nearer to the waters that fill us with life, in order that we will carry life to others.
