-- For the breach of the daughter of my people am I crushed; I go mourning; astonishment hath taken hold of me.
Jeremiah stands over a nation that is bleeding and does not know it, and their wound goes straight into him. What does a faithful person do when God judges His people and no one else feels it?
The people carrying the wound could not see it. They felt safe, they treated the prophet as a nuisance, and their false calm left him nothing to do but grieve.
The people did not know the time: they did not know His judgment; they were going on in self-security. They thought that things were perhaps not quite as good as they seemed, but not as bad as this troublesome man, Jeremiah, said. And so they were crying "Peace, peace," where there was no peace. They were not even ashamed when they had done detestable things. The prophet could only give himself up to sorrow over them.
Notice that Jeremiah does not say "their wound" but my people, and the hurt lands on his own heart. His love for the nation made their condition personal.
Like our Lord Jesus Christ, the prophet loved Israel and Jerusalem. He truly felt their sorrowful state. Jeremiah entered into it so deeply that we hear him cry out, "My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain! Oh the walls of my heart!" (Jer. 4:19). And as if their ruin were his own, he cries, "My joy is gone; grief is upon me; my heart is sick within me" (Jer. 8:18).
Should tears stop when God Himself sends the blow? A writer on Lamentations answers no: a deserved punishment does not make the loss less worth weeping over.
God might raise up a fresh testimony, as we know He has done. But even while bowing to His sovereign will, every devout, God-fearing Israelite rightly carried unceasing sorrow over the utter ruin of the old witness. That sorrow was no less "because the LORD has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions." Grief is not less over God's people because they have dishonoured God and are righteously chastised.
The dismay that took hold of Jeremiah did not stop at feeling. It sent him looking for a cure. Jeremiah's next words reach for Gilead, a region whose balm "was proverbial for its healing virtues" (Morrish Bible Dictionary). The search comes up empty.
The prophet, feeling all this, cries, "Dismay has taken hold on me! Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?" (Jer. 8:21-22). None could be found. There was no man. The coming of Christ is the only hope.
The unanswered question was not about Gilead running out of ointment. Nothing man had could touch this sickness. Healing had to wait for Someone who could give life, not just apply remedies.
Before Christ came, there was no healing for man. Abraham longed for the day of Christ. There were prophets who spoke of Christ as a healer, blessing was promised, but there was no physician. "Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?" There was none. No physician could heal man's condition until Christ came, and they put Him to death. In Him there was living power... Healing did not depend on the condition of the sick, but on the power of the healer. Physicians could apply remedy after remedy with no result, until One came who could give life. Then everything changed.
Jeremiah's tears point past himself. Centuries later Another wept over the same city, and He could do what Jeremiah could not.
Christ wept over Jerusalem as He looked at it, and spoke of its great suffering. Only Christ could enter fully into all that their sin had brought upon them. Jeremiah could not do that. The blessed Saviour could do so; and in grace, and infinite love, He did so perfectly. Yes, He Himself bore the judgment which their sins deserved, as well as ours, that we might be saved.
That is where the balm came from — at a cost:
Only the rod upon Another could bring healing to us. Without the cross and its stripes there could be no balm of Gilead for wounded men.
- Wound. The people cried "Peace, peace" and felt no shame. Only the prophet saw the injury, and it wounded him.
- Weeping. He loved them, so their ruin became his own. A deserved chastening never makes grief over God's people less fitting.
- Wanting. The wound drove him to look for balm and a physician. He found neither.
- Waiting. No cure existed until Christ came, because healing rests on the power of the Healer, not the state of the patient.
- Won. The rod fell on Another. The cross supplies the balm that Gilead never had, so bring your wound to the Physician who came.
Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there? Why then is there no dressing applied for the healing of the daughter of my people?
Jeremiah has watched his people ignore every warning. His grief breaks out here as a question, not a sermon. He is not asking about a shortage of medicine. He is asking why a people with the cure in reach stay sick.
Balm was a real medicine, and the region of Gilead was known for it. It also became a proverb.
The gum of the balsam bush, a medicine of great power. Gilead was famous for producing it. It is used as a proverb for the healing God had for His people if they really turned to Him. Jeremiah 8:22; Jeremiah 46:11; Jeremiah 51:8. Merchants carried it into Egypt and elsewhere. Genesis 37:25; Ezekiel 27:17. Jacob sent a little to Joseph. Genesis 43:11.
The second half of the question has an answer. Israel's healer was the Lord Himself, and that shapes how a believer meets illness today.
A Christian should certainly throw himself on the Lord when he is ill. He should ask why God sends or allows the illness. He may of course use ordinary remedies, but he must not trust in them apart from God's blessing on them. Jehovah Himself was the physician of His people Israel, ready at all times to heal and restore them. Jeremiah 8:22. Job, in the bitterness of his soul, found his friends to be physicians of no value. They did not understand his case, and only added to his misery. Job 13:4.
If the remedy was there and the healer willing, the problem lay with the patients. They felt safe, and they felt no shame.
The people did not know the time: they did not know His judgment; they were going on in self-security. They admitted things might not be quite as right as they looked. But they did not think things were as bad as this troublesome man Jeremiah said. And so they were crying "Peace, peace," when there was no peace. They were not even ashamed when they had committed abominations. The prophet could only give himself up to sorrow over them. "Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?"
Jeremiah asked, and the answer he received was silence. Writers point past his own day for the answer.
The prophet feeling all this cries, "Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?" None could be found. There was no man. The coming of Christ is the only hope.
The cure waited on a person, not a prescription. Cures depend on who is applying them.
Before Christ came, there was no healing for man. Abraham longed for the day of Christ. There were prophets who spoke of Christ as a healer, blessing was promised, but there was no physician. "Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?" There was none; for no physician could be found to heal man's condition until Christ came, and Him they put to death. In Him there was living power. When the crowd pressed around Him, a woman only touched the edge of His garment, and power went out of Him to heal her. Healing did not depend on the condition of the people who were healed, but on the power of the healer. Physicians might apply remedy after remedy, but nothing worked until One came who could give life. Then everything changed.
The balm came at a price, and Another paid it.
Alas, alas! only the rod upon Another could bring healing to us. Without the cross and its stripes there could be no balm of Gilead for wounded men.
The question can also be asked about yourself. Perhaps you cannot find in your own heart the love for Christ you long for. Then the verse becomes an invitation.
If you do not find that answer to His love which you long to find in yourself, go to the Father and tell Him you do not, and see what He will do. Calling sons was what He had in mind. Go to the great Physician, and you will find plenty of balm in Gilead.
- Wound — God's people were sick, and the sickness was moral. They felt safe, cried "Peace, peace," and were not ashamed of their sin.
- Balm — The gum of Gilead was a real and famous medicine. It pictures the healing God kept ready for His people if they really turned to Him.
- Physician — Jehovah Himself was Israel's healer, always ready to restore them. The tragedy is a sick nation standing next to a willing doctor.
- Silence — Jeremiah's question found no answer in his day. Commentators read that silence as pointing forward. No physician could heal man's condition until Christ came.
- Cross — The remedy is here now because the blows fell on Another. Without the cross there is no balm for wounded people. With it, you can go to the great Physician and find plenty of balm in Gilead.