We are in a series called Flourish where we are looking what was preventing God’s people from having a flourishing, blessed relationship with their God. In this series we have seen that the people have ruined themselves because they have refused to listen to God, making them useless for God’s purpose (Jeremiah 13). The people had listened to false teachers and false prophets who lied to them about how good their relationship was with God (Jeremiah 14). They had followed a legacy of sin, going even further in their sinning than prior generations (Jeremiah 15). Despite God’s grace toward them, they used God’s grace to continue their stubborn sinning (Jeremiah 16). We now come to Jeremiah 17 where God wants to talk to the problem of the heart. The reason the relationship with God has failed is because of the hearts of the people.
The Heart’s Condition (Jeremiah 17:1-4)
Listen to the description of the people’s hearts found in the first verse of chapter 17. In verse 1 we read that Judah’s sin is inscribed on their tablets of their hearts with an iron pen. Their sin is also engraved on the horns of their altars. Jeremiah describes that this is an inside-out problem. Their sin is engraved on their hearts and in their actions. It is in the way their think and how they worship. Now I want us to think about the power of this picture. We do not consider the effect that sin has on us. We do not consider how sins affect our thinking. We do not consider how sins affect our families. Their sins are chiseled into their hearts. This is not what God wanted etched into their hearts. God declared that his words were to be on their hearts (cf. Deuteronomy 6:6; 11:18). Steadfast love and faithfulness were supposed to be written on their hearts (cf. Proverbs 3:3). But sin has been chiseled into their hearts instead.
This is the nature of sin that we often do not think about. Sin is addictive and habitual. Sin leads to more sin. Sin grooves itself into our hearts and change who we are and how we think. There is a reason that the Proverbs teach us the need to guard our hearts above all else because it is the source of life. But the people have not done this and now the sin is engraved. It is habitual. It controls them. They submit to their sinning rather than maintaining control over their desires. This is why judgment is coming upon them (cf. Jeremiah 17:3-4). So what turns the heart in this direction? Listen to God’s explanation in verses 5-8.
The Heart’s Direction (Jeremiah 17:5-8)
God begins by pronouncing the curse in verses 5-6. Cursed is the person who trusts in people and think human strength is their strength. Now I want us to slow down and think about these words. I find these words absolutely striking because this is what we do. This is our natural default. We trust in people. We try to find our strength in our own strength and in the strength of others. We put our life hope in people. We place the weight of our joy and happiness on our marriages. We try make our strength our family or our friends. We try to put our strength in our spiritual leaders or our brothers and sisters in Christ. We will also go to the opposite extreme and try depend on ourselves. We act like we do not need anyone. So we stop going to worship. We stop having relationships with others because we will just trust in ourselves.
I want us to notice the results of trusting in human strength. Notice what happens when we put the weight of our needs on others or on ourselves. Look at the rest of verse 5. “…whose heart turns away from the Lord.” This is how our hearts turn from the Lord. This is how sin begins to engrave itself into our hearts. We trust in human strength. We look to people rather than to God. We expect people to be our rescue rather than God. We put our hope in others rather than in our Savior. This is the turning of our hearts. Notice further the outcome in verse 6. The person who does this will be like a shrub in the desert and will not see any good come. Your life is pictured as living in a desert and being unable to enjoy any good. Do we feel the weight of these words? When we put our hope and confidence in this life and in people we are planting ourselves the parched places of the wilderness or in an uninhabited salt land (17:6). We are literally removing ourselves from the blessings and goodness of God.
Now listen to the other option in verses 7-8. The person who trusts in the Lord, who puts their hope and joy in him, will have an entirely different outcome. This person is like a tree planted by the water and has no need to fear when the heat comes. You see God showing us that trouble will always come. The heat is always going to come. The question is if we are planted in the desert when the heat comes or if we are planted in by the water. If we are planted properly, then the leaves remain green and there is no need for worry in the time of drought. When the heat comes these people are going to continue to bear fruit. This is the security we want from life. We try to secure our lives by trusting in ourselves which will never work.
Which life do you want? What outcome do you want? You can trust in yourself and put your hope in people and watch your life dry up under the heat of this life. You can trust in the Lord and put your hope in him and watch your life flourish even when the heat comes. You will not be anxious and you will still bear fruit when the drought of life comes. To put this another way, if we wilt when the heat and drought come, then it shows where our trust was.
The Heart’s Deceitfulness (Jeremiah 17:9-13)
Here is the sad condition: we are deceived by our hearts. Our thoughts lie to us. We trick ourselves into thinking that we are trusting in the Lord. We do not believe that we are trusting in our own strength. We do not think that we are placing our hope on others. We lie to ourselves believing that we are trusting in the Lord when in fact we have firmly planted ourselves in the desert. We are desperately sick and cannot rely upon our own way of thinking. This is why Isaiah proclaimed for people to forsake their thoughts and ways if they were to return to the Lord (cf. Isaiah 55). Sin breaks our thinking so that we are self-deceived. The apostle Paul declared that our minds are futile and we are darkened in our understanding (cf. Ephesians 4:17-18). We cannot trust our hearts or minds to be the diagnostic for our faith and spirituality. Do not trust your emotions. Do not trust your feelings. Do not trust your thinking. Do not trust your evaluations. So what can be done since our hearts are desperately sick? The answer is in verse 10.
The Lord searches the heart and tests the mind. We cannot properly evaluate ourselves because of the deceitfulness of our hearts. But God can. God is able to examine our hearts and minds. God will do the testing and he will repay to each of us according to our ways. So God must be the heart diagnostic. How is that going to happen? Listen to how the writer of Hebrews proclaims this diagnostic truth.
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (Hebrews 4:12-13 ESV)
Our hearts and minds cannot do the work. But the word of God is able to show us what is true and false. The word of God is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart. We need to let the word of God to do the work to keep us from being put to shame. Look at Jeremiah 17:13. Those who abandon the Lord will be put to shame. All who turn away from the Lord will be written in the dust of the earth because they have forsaken the fountain of living water. The reason you cannot flourish is because God is the living water. No plant can flourish without constant water and you cannot flourish without the living waters of Christ (cf. John 7:37-39).
The Heart’s Healing (Jeremiah 17:14-18)
The only way for our hearts to experience healing is to fully come to the Lord. You see Jeremiah confess this in Jeremiah 17:14-18. He prays for the Lord to heal him so that he will be healed. He prays for the Lord to save him so that he will be saved from his wicked heart. Friends, God is our only hope. Until we see this, we will never flourish. Until we see that God is our only hope then we will continue to live in the desert of life without the water we need to be able to be strong. We must see the Lord as our refuge in the day of disaster (cf. Jeremiah 17:17).
But notice that Jeremiah experience ridicule and persecution for putting his hope in God. What is shocking is that it is not the world that is resisting Jeremiah for his trust in the Lord. It is the supposed people of God. The people who are supposed to have a relationship with God are the ones mocking Jeremiah for his trust in God. But Jeremiah knows the healing can only come from seeking the Lord.
The Heart’s Fruit (Jeremiah 17:19-27)
Now it might seem that the end of Jeremiah 17 is out of place. God comes to Jeremiah in verse 19 and tells him to go preach at the gates of Jerusalem and tell everyone this news when they come through the gates. What is the message? The message is to keep the Sabbath. The message is to stop doing work on the Sabbath. God says that if the people would keep the Sabbath then the promises of God would flow through them. Princes will sit on David’s throne and the city will be inhabited forever. But if they do not listen then fire will come on the city that will not be quenched.
Why is the Sabbath the test? Of all the things God could have asked for the people to do, why does God hang everything on the people keeping the Sabbath? Keeping the Sabbath showed the willingness to give a day to God. Keeping the Sabbath shows the heart that wants to honor God and remember what he has done for his people. Please think about how what God was asking the people to do was to show their heart is doing the simplest act. Rest for your work and give God the day to remember. If the people would trust God and give him his due on his day, then God would take care of them. Show God that he is first. Show God that you trust in him. Show God that he is your glory and your praise. Show God that he is worthy of your worship. Worship is the fruit of the changed heart. Show God that your heart has changed by giving him a day where you are focused on him and not on your work.
Purer In Heart
We have a song that says, “Purer in heart, O God, help me to be.” Is your heart right with God? God tells us that our hearts are deceitful above all things. Are we listening to our hearts or letting the word of God change our hearts? We are only cursing our own lives by trusting in ourselves and in the strength of others. Do not hang your joy and hope on others or on yourself. Hope in God. Trust him no matter what so that when the heat of life comes, you will not worry and you will continue to bear fruit because you have confidence in your God who will bring you through.