What is the balm of Gilead?

tseri. The gum of the balsam bush, of great medicinal virtue. Gilead was noted for its production. It is used as a proverb to set forth the healing God had for His people if they really turned to Him. Jer. 8:22; Jer. 46:11; Jer. 51:8. It was carried by the merchants into Egypt and elsewhere. Gen. 37:25; Ezek. 27:17. Jacob sent a little to Joseph. Gen. 43:11.

The district on the east of the Jordan, extending from the river Yarmouk, a little south of the Sea of Galilee, to the north corner of the Dead Sea. It fell to the lot of Gad, except its northern part, which, where it joined Bashan, was possessed by Manasseh. It is a mountainous district, which accounts for some part of it being called 'the mount of Gilead' in Gen. 31:21-25. Some of the mountains are 2,000 to 3,500 feet high, but from the west they look much higher because of the depression of the Jordan valley. Pasturage abounds in Gilead, and accounts for Gad and the others choosing it for their cattle. The district is divided into north and south by the river Jabbok (Zerka). The northern part is cultivated and has numerous villages; but the southern is mostly held by nomadic tribes, with but little cultivation, and having but one inhabited town now, called es Salt, 32 2' N, 35 42' E.

In the days of Ahab Ramoth-gilead was in possession of the Syrians, which was followed by all Gilead and Moab falling into their hands. 1 Kings 22:3; 2 Kings 10:32-33. This was followed by Tiglath-pileser conquering the region, and carrying the Israelites into captivity. 2 Kings 15:29; 1 Chr. 5:26. In the restoration of Israel their border eastward will extend to Damascus and Gilead. Ezek. 47:18. This ancient possession will thus be brought into blessing. The Ishmaelites who bought Joseph were travelling with balm and myrrh from Gilead. Gen. 37:25. The balm of Gilead was proverbial for its healing virtues. Jer. 8:22; Jer. 46:11.

Jeremiah warns them against “lying words” in verses 4 and 8. “Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, are these.” This might sound very pious and religious, but they themselves were given to oppression and idolatry (Jer. 7:6, 9, 18), and wicked trafficking was practised in His house (vv. 10-11 and 30). Therefore His anger and His fury should be poured out upon this place (v. 20). They went backward and not forward; truth had perished from their mouth; they had become the generation of His wrath; their evil practices caused the voice of gladness to cease; judgment from the Lord, who had called so often to them, must fall upon them (vv. 21-34). “This evil family” should spread out the bones of the departed before the host of heaven, and even desire death themselves; yet they knew no shame, “neither could blush”; and no man repented him of his wickedness. The prophet feeling all this cries, “Astonishment has taken hold upon 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 people did not know the time: they did not know His judgment; they were going on in self-security. They thought that perhaps things were not quite as right as they appeared to be, but were not so 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 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 is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?"

Jairus' daughter "lay a-dying." Man was not pronounced to be dead until Christ was killed. 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, for when the people thronged Him, a woman does but touch the border of His garment, and virtue goes out of Him to heal her. Healing depended not on the condition of those who were healed, but in the power of the healer. Physicians might apply remedy after remedy, but it is of no avail, until One came who could impart life; then the case was changed.

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. It was when the Golgotha tree of cursing was cut down and cast into the Marah waters of judgment, that those waters were made sweet and pleasant to quench the thirst of penitent sinners and to refresh the weary hearts of burdened saints.

With this meaning, also, it is in striking correspondence that Joab is the son of Zeruiah, and that this last word means "balmy"; or rather, one would say, "the balm of Jah." The exact substance to which the word was applied in Scripture is still disputed, but its use as a sovereign remedy for wounds, itself being obtained by a wound in the tree from which then the precious sap flowed out, is not disputed. Nor can we fail to find here once more the image of the Cross. That for us, or for any, Jehovah is Father, is, as we own adoringly, the fruit of the Cross, — of which how constant are the memorials in these precious types

Christ's glory as the end in view. Could any who had been watching me the last 30 years, say the same of me? Not like Paul indeed; but whether it were the bell-bearer of the flock, or the feeblest lamb in it, the life ought to have the same character. If it is true that I have that life, am I walking in accordance with it? Are you? Do you say that I want to put you in bondage? I wish I could put you into bondage by binding your heart so close to Christ that all which is in Him should flow out of you. Let each one ask himself, "Can I say I am a member of Christ and He looks down on me and sees the life I have in Him flowing out through me? Is all the responsibility I am under that of pleasing the Christ who has loved me, and who, notwithstanding all that I am, is not ashamed to confess me?" 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 His thought. Go to the great Physician, and you will find plenty of balm in Gilead.

God's intervention was to be entirely of Himself: men were to have no part in it at all, except to receive the good that would result from it. Men cried out for a man, and still cry out for a man, and God replied, I will give you a Man, but He shall be one who owes nothing to man, whose very presence in the world shall be independent of man, for "a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son." This was the sign. It was the sign of man's utter impotency for his own redemption; it was the sign that there was no balm in Gilead, and no physician there. It was the sign that when there was no hope for men in themselves then God would undertake their cause; but it was also the sign that this should proceed from Himself alone and not from men — "a virgin shall conceive." Impossible! cries the critic of God's ways, and the poor blind infidel, wise in his own sight. Yes, it is impossible with men; that is the very lesson that God would teach by the manner of His intervention. It is impossible that men should devise or evolve any scheme or system of redemption, or deliver and uplift themselves from the damning effects of sin, or make themselves what they ought to be before the God who justly claims their fear. Their young men might see visions and their old men dream dreams, but dreams and visions cannot help them; they cannot set themselves free from the law of sin and death. With men it is impossible, but not with God.

If John 8 has introduced the national charge of Israel's departure and estrangement from Him who had espoused her to Himself, and come after her as we have supposed, John 9 is equally significant as showing their individual state and national blindness. As the former could only be portrayed by the woman taken in adultery, so in this it is by "a man which was blind from his birth." The state of the nation was not in either case beyond the typical virtue of the balm of Gilead, or the skill of the great Physician; and this instance only calls forth the power and grace of Him whose prerogative it is to give sight to the blind. It is remarkable that Jesus refuses to take up this case, in the form in which the disciples view it, when they asked, "Master, who did sin; this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" He will not look at it in this light any more than judge the treacherousness of the nation by the woman. In the governmental ways and dealings of God with men upon the earth such a question might fairly arise as this, for He did "visit the sins of the fathers upon the children, to the third and fourth generation;" but taken outside the responsibility of man, and viewed in connection with the counsels of the Father and the Son, "Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents; but that the works of God should be made manifest in him."