Jeremiah 17:5-8
*
If
someone wants to sell you a product, one way to get you interested in that
product is to get you to imagine what your life would be like without it, or
with a competing product. If the product is laundry soap, for example, an
advertiser might show scenes of children playing in the mud, or spilling red
juice on a white t-shirt. Then they might show you a split screen. On one side,
the competing product gets the t-shirt almost
white, but their product makes the t-shirt comes out as white as when it was
new. They show that contrast to get you to buy.
It encourages you to use their soap if you want clean clothes. They are
encouraging you by means of contrast.
The
prophet Jeremiah was no advertising executive, but in our text for today he
does something very similar. He uses a contrast
to encourage us. And when we look closely at this encouragement, we might
well wonder if perhaps he included this encouragement just for us, the people
here at
A Contrast for Encouragement
Because we are…
I.
Rooted
II.
Growing
Jeremiah
sets up a definite contrast between "the
one who trusts in man"(v.5) and "the man who trusts in the LORD."(v.7) We
should probably note, though, what Jeremiah is not contrasting. He is not
contrasting believers and unbelievers. The word here for trust is not the word
for saving faith. If it were, perhaps we could simply skip over these first two
verses because then it wouldn't be talking about us. But these words serve as a
mirror for us as well. They remind us
that even believers may in weakness, find themselves pictured here:
"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."(vv.5,6)
What
Jeremiah pictures here is utter foolishness. The word translated
"one" is the word for a strong man, and the word for "man"
reminds us that man was formed from the dust of the ground. To "trust" is to rely on something
sure and solid, firm and secure. How
foolish for this strong man to rely on what is dust. He says the same thing
when he says he "depends on flesh for his strength." That is, he
relies on something weak for strength. How foolish!
But
that's not the worst part. The worst part is that such a
reliance is sinful. Trust in God is something that he demands. In his
very first commandment, God demands total and perfect obedience, as well as
trust and reliance on him alone. "You
shall have no other gods,"(Ex 20:3) the LORD shouts from his law. You
shall not look to any other god for your strength, for your power, for your
prosperity. Therefore you also shall not
look to yourself for those things either.
God says "I am the LORD. Trust me."
And
Jeremiah spells out the dangers when he explains further, "and whose heart turns away from the LORD."(v.5)
Continually placing trust in man and the things that man does and produces
places a person in a dangerous position because it can lead a person to "turn his heart from the LORD",
that is, to reject the LORD and all his goodness. To reject the LORD is to
reject the life that he gives, both life now and life
eternal. The one who rejects the LORD is cursed to live in a place where there
is no life, like the wilderness, a dried up land of salt, to spend eternity in
hell.
"But blessed is the man who trusts in the
LORD, whose confidence is in him."(v.7) What
a contrast! He finds his strength in the
LORD. He knows that man is weak and sinful, but in the Lord, there is something
sure, something reliable and trustworthy.
If
it is foolish to trust in man, it just makes sense to trust in the LORD. But
the problem there is that even though it makes perfect sense, by nature we
cannot put our trust in the LORD any more than we can obey perfectly.
So
what kind of encouragement does this contrast provide? Not only do we recognize
that we're often like the first example, that's what we do by nature! In fact,
that's all we can do by nature!
The
encouragement comes when we read the following description of the man who
trusts in the LORD. "He will be
like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream."(v.
8) That man is described, again, like a plant. This time instead of being a bush, it is
tree, a strong, solid tree with deep roots.
It is not a tree, however, that happened to grow up here, or sprung up
here naturally. This tree was planted.
It was purposefully planted here.
Trees, as a rule, do not plant themselves. They are entirely passive in
the procedure.
Secondly,
we should note the placement of this tree. It was purposefully planted in a
place where it would be well fed--by streams of water. No one plants a tree in
a place where he knows the tree will get no nourishment.
It
can be a big temptation, especially in this day and age, to place our trust,
our hope and confidence in man. We may not do it intentionally, but it's very
easy to count on our own accomplishments and our own successes for our
happiness and security. It's very easy to contemplate how good life will be
when the tax refund comes, or you get the new job, or when you finally have the
degree you've been working for. This is not to say that we don't count on our
employer to give us a paycheck or we never rely on our physical strength or
mental abilities to provide for us and our families--after all, those are gifts
of God.
But
how foolish, sinful, and dangerous to consider them more sure,
firm, and certain than the promises God has given to provide for us, or to
consider all these things more important than the gift of salvation our God has
given.
Yet
we are encouraged with these words because we have been planted, we are Rooted--not because of something we did or decided, but
purely because of God's grace in Jesus Christ. By grace we received what we
neither earned nor deserved--the forgiveness of sins, eternal life, peace
between God and man. He planted us properly, also giving to us the means to
keep trusting in him. Through Word and Sacrament our faith is nourished, and
grows…
Not
only is this contrast encouraging for us because God has planted us, rooted
near the source of spiritual nourishment, but also because of the growth that
results.
Did
you notice something strange about the "bush in the wastelands"? What I find strange is that the bush
is still alive. Its location is terrible. It has no good source of water. It's
in a parched land, a salt land where no one lives. It's alive, but barely.
Compare
that again with the "tree planted
by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when the heat comes; its
leaves are always green. It has no worries
in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit."(v.8)
So
they're both live plants. What's the
difference? The second plant is growing.
It grows because it not only is planted by the water, but it taps into
the water. It uses the water. The wild
bush, however, "does not see when
prosperity comes." And so it lives, but barely.
These
bushes have something else in common.
Not only are they both alive, but they also both must face similar
dangers. Heat and drought threaten to
cause both plants to wither and die. Just because the tree gets plenty of water
doesn't mean the sun shines any less brightly.
It doesn't mean that a drought will never happen there. In fact, the
verse makes it clear that those things will happen. They are part of nature.
But
those same natural elements will not effect the
well-watered tree. The heat beats on the
tree, but it does not fear--it knows the heat will not kill it and so its
leaves remain fresh and green instead of wilting away.
And
"In a year of drought"--actually,
the word used here for drought pictures a year when a plant gets harvested, and
then someone comes along and picks off whatever fruit is left. In such a year
this tree doesn't worry about that. It
knows that it "never fails to bear
fruit." The next fruit-bearing season will come, and the plant will
then in that time produce fruit once more.
The
one who trusts in the Lord, who has been planted by the water and who uses that
source of water grows. We grow in our faith by using the source of nourishment
God has given to us. That's why the
means of grace, the gospel in Word and Sacrament is the very center of every
worship service we hold. That's why we take other opportunities to dig even
deeper into God's word by studying it. That's why four adults, after studying
that Word, have decided that this congregation is where they want to be. [They
will be confirmed in the faith on Sunday] They have been planted, rooted, and
this is where they would like to grow.
This is where they will grow, along with you.
We
grow through the Word. That's important
to remember, especially when we see that heat and drought come upon the bush as
well as the well-watered tree. Hardship
and trials come upon those who come to church and those who don't,
those who grow and those who don't. When
trouble comes, when sadness or loneliness comes, when the heat of life beats
down on you… Or when you feel like all your fruit, everything you have to offer
and give has been picked off, with nothing more to give, no more fruit, then it could be very easy to say "What's the
difference? Why keep growing. The tree that keeps growing just gets closer to
the hot sun."
But
the tree that is rooted and growing "does
not fear when the heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in
a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit." The one who has
planted you, the one who has provided nourishment for your soul also protects
and preserves you, not necessarily from
hardship, but in hardship. He keeps
you from the heat until the sun goes down.
He encourages you by reminding that after this year of drought will be
another year. He strengthens you to stay green and growing in the midst of all
this. And he does it using the very same means he uses to grow you--his Word
and Sacrament.