Rotting From the Inside Out

Friday night a week ago, I came home to my neighbor's hundred year old oak tree lying on top of my car. The men attempting to try and clean up the carnage said the tree had rotted from the inside out. So, while it still looked leafy and green- it split into three different sections and fell down- taking out my car, shrubbery, the power lines across the street and sending the tree-removal men running for their lives. Thankfully no one was hurt.

As we read Jeremiah today, we learn that the people of Judah have literally rotted from the inside out, and God has determined that to prevent the inevitable "mess"- the nation as a whole is going to have to come down. Do you remember reading in 2 Kings about one unfaithful king after another, the horrible idol worship and the wayward lifestyle of the nations? Do you remember just being discouraged? Well, here today we are reading how God felt about it all. Kind of puts things into perspective. Manassah led the people into idol worship, desecrated the temple and even sacrificed his own infant son! Even the faithful leading of Josiah after him wasn't enough to correct the hearts of the people. While the nation still looked healthy on the outside- it was rotted from the inside and just waiting to fall and leave carnage behind.

As we end Chapter 15 we glimpse a little of Jeremiah's frustration. He has been standing alone- braving social ostracism, and even at times I'm sure the rage of the people. They flocked to the "false prophets" who told them what they wanted to hear, while they mocked and hurled insults at him. He was hurt, angry and afraid. In Chapter 15 he is pouring it all out before God. It isn't pious prayers- it's the earnest cries of a hurting heart. We see that instead of rebuking Jeremiah, God gently rearranges his priorities. God wants us to come to Him with our hurting, angry and afraid hearts. As we serve God and seek to do His will, it is so easy to get distracted and worn down by the culture we are trying to reach; to let them influence us instead of the other way around. Like Jeremiah, we need prayer time with God to realign our priorities. We need to be reminded that we are to trust God no matter what, and that our purpose as believers on earth is to influence others for God.

Therefore, this is what the Lord says:

"If you repent, I will restore you

that you may serve me;

if you utter worthy, not worthless, words,

you will be my spokesman.

Let this people turn to you,

but you must not turn to them.

I will make you a wall to this people,

a fortified wall of bronze;

they will fight against you

but will not overcome you,

for I am with you

to rescue and save you, "

declares the Lord.

Jeremiah 15:19-21

Jeremiah was commanded by God to take drastic steps to set himself apart. He could not marry or have children. He wasn't allowed to take part in festivals or funerals. As believers, sometimes we have to remove ourselves from what we view as the "fun" of life. We have to make the hard choices about what we are and are not going to participate in. Sometimes this leads to us feeling lonely or outcast.

Oh Lord, my strength and my fortress

my refuge in time of distress,

Jeremiah 16:19

God will be our strength when we feel weak. Our fortress when our enemies come against us, and our refuge when we feel like we need a place to retreat from the pressures of life. As it says in Chapter 17,

Cursed in 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 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.

Are we like my neighbors tree? Rotting from the inside out? Waiting to fall and create a terrible mess? Trusting in our own flesh and strength? (The heart is deceitful above all things, and beyond cure. Jeremiah 17:9) and just trying to find joy in the temporal things of this life like the Israelites? Or, are we like the tree planted by the water- whose roots get water from the deep stream that comes from trusting in our heavenly father? Our pastor preached this Sunday on not worrying. Here we see again, the man (or woman!) who trusts in God does not worry no matter what is going on in the world around them. They don't fear the inevitable changes and trials that come our way in this life, because their hope is in something far greater. We can be like Jeremiah and turn to God with our struggling hearts and find healing in prayer. We can find strength to make the touch decisions, and peace for a troubled heart. We can always have green leaves and bear fruit!