Where Do You Find Life? (Jeremiah 17:5-8)

My conversion to Christ may be traced from October of 1986 while attending the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. It was my freshman year, known within the school as 4th class or "swab" year. It was a hard time for me. I was away from home for the first time in my life — approximately 1800 or so miles to be exact. As with so many other cadets, we got to the academy because we were high achievers. We worked hard at school, sports, and other activities. We stood out as leaders amongst our peers and had therefore earned the right to go to this the smallest — and some would argue the toughest — of the military academies. Given the strict routine and academic requirements, though, I questioned if I had made the right choice for my college education.

This new experience also caused me to go into a spiritual tailspin. While I had gone to church, I never understood my need for Christ. Only when all of my supports were knocked away — home, academic achievement, etc. — did I realize that I needed to place my faith in Christ for salvation. There was also a growing knowledge that I needed God every day for support. Over time, prayer, Bible reading, church attendance, and participation in the Body of Christ became a regular part of existence. When adversity came into my life, there was Someone outside of this sinful world that would sustain me, even though it may not have always felt so. One could say I made a choice to find life in the only One who could provide it — Our Triune God through Jesus Christ.

Scripture paints a contrast between the way of following man and following God. The former only leads to pain and death whereas the latter promises blessing and life. In Jeremiah 17:5-8, the prophet contrasts these two paths to urge his readers to trust in the Lord rather than man.

The first section of our reading, verses 5-6, describes the lot of the man who trusts in man to sustain him. Jeremiah says that such a man is cursed — he has fallen out of favor with God.

Such a man has turned to man's flesh as his strength. The thought here isn't that a person's body is evil, but that when a sinful person places faith in a world separated from God and broken by sin, nothing beneficial will come from it. The individual has rebelled against God by saying, in effect, "I don't need you." This is what is implied in every sinful action we commit — we can live life better trusting in our own methods rather than the Lord's. What parent hasn't felt anger and hurt when his or her children go against the house rules? We want them to obey us because we have knowledge of the world and how it works. If only they would trust us rather than their friends or the television for advice, they would see that parents aren't so stupid. Jesus, in weeping over Jerusalem, would have the same emotions over the Jews in that He desired them to follow Him, but they were unwilling.

The prophet then uses a metaphor to describe the rebellious man who turns away from God. This person is like a shrub in the desert. The picture is one of being abandoned and barely being able to exist. Life is so bad for the desert bush that it will not even see good when it comes. Going back to the Fall in Genesis 3, this description portrays what happened to Adam and Eve. They were thrown out of the garden into a hostile land which they had to live by the sweat of their brow in order to stay alive. Another interesting take on this description came from a counselor friend of mine who labeled this metaphor as a representation of depression. Life becomes so awful for such a person that even the good things in this world fail to cheer him.

This part of Jeremiah can be seen from two perspectives. Ultimately, people who do not trust Christ as Savior are cursed and will experience eternal death. Jesus tells his disciples in John 15:6 that those who do not abide in Him are thrown away like branches and wither. They are then gathered together and thrown into the fire and burned. Even though a person may enjoy life here on earth and appear to be blessed, apart from Christ they will only face eternal torment.

Even Christians can experience this cursing from God, too, though it may not have consequences in regards to their eternal destiny. The apostle Paul could not address the Corinthians as spiritual people but as people of the flesh because they weren't obedient to his teachings. Instead, they reverted to living according to this world's precepts rather than God's. When we read both 1st and 2nd Corinthians, we can see the mess that the Corinthian church had gotten itself into. Some members had even died because they dared take the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner (1 Cor 11:30).

Jeremiah will contrast the curse of following the ways of man with that of trusting in the Lord. Whereas placing faith in sinful man to make all things right brings nothing but heartache and death, trusting in the Lord brings blessing.

What exactly does it mean to trust in God? While this text doesn't go into details, we can deduce what Jeremiah was getting at as we look at the circumstances in which he was writing. His countrymen were following other gods, spurning the One who had brought His people out of bondage in Egypt. They failed to keep God's law, instead seeking to live the way they saw fit rather than the way God knew would be best for them. Such failure to keep God's law demonstrated a lack of love of God. Jesus would tell His disciples that if they truly loved Him, they would keep His commandments. We find, then, that obedience to God and loving Him go hand in hand. The one who trusts in the Lord not only loves Him but knows that His ways are the only way to live life.

A person who trusts in the Lord is compared to a tree planted by the waters. Its roots spread out to drink the water around it. The prophet writes that even when heat and drought come, the tree will not only survive but flourish. It produces fruit even during times of drought. Interestingly, the big difference between the tree and the bush is that the tree draws on a source outside of itself to live whereas the bush attempts to draw on something that can't give it life. The one who trusts in the Lord, then, understands that life isn't to be found in himself or what's around him, but rather in the Lord. Interestingly, John records Jesus as saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, .Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." John goes on to explain that Jesus was referring to the Holy Spirit. God the Spirit — the One who sustains life — enters into the life of the Christian at conversion as water into a tree and gives him life and gives it abundantly.

Jeremiah paints a stark picture in this passage in that one has two choices in how to ground his life. The one path is man's prescription for living and the other is God's. While the way of the flesh may allow us to live reasonably well in this life, ultimately it leads to death. Trusting in God, though, provides us with abundant life, allowing us to flourish even in times of adversity. Jeremiah exhorts us to trust in the Lord rather than the plans of sinful man to truly live.

The means by which we begin to do this is by trusting in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. He is God the Son, the one who died for the sin of the world and now lives and rules at the right hand of God the Father. It is He who said in John 15:5, "I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." Trusting in Christ for salvation means more than simply a one-time decision. While that is the important first step, Jesus states here that those who believe in Him must abide in Him. His people are placed in a vital union with Himself in which the effects are made evident in our lives. We change with time, sometimes slowly, sometimes more quickly, but we do change, day by day becoming conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29).

Trusting in the Lord also glorifies Him. Looking at John 15 again, Jesus says, "By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples." Abiding in Christ's Love by keeping His commandments not only blesses us, but we worship God thereby glorifying Him. Rather than becoming part of the world, we are lights of the world that point not to ourselves, but to God.

In a desperate attempt to find hope in this world, many people idolize the big names in our culture. We will hang on the words of actors, sports figures, or politicians because there is a need to place trust in someone who will rescue us. It never fails, though, that whoever we place our trust in turns out to be flawed. It may not even be a major flaw like a scandal but nevertheless we feel betrayed and hurt. Our idol has let us down. We become like the shrub in the desert — alone and gasping for life. That's because we have chosen to turn to someone that is just as broken and in need of life as we are. Our trust, as Christians, needs to be fixed on our Triune God. It is from Him alone that we find blessing and peace because only He created all things, sustains all things, and to whom all things owe their existence. Because of the Father's great love for the world He sent His only Begotten Son to die for our sins so that by grace through faith in Him we can be reconciled to God. Why would we want to place our trust in anyone or anything else? Trust in the Lord, abide in His love, and you will be truly blessed of Him, a tree among shrubs.

Amen.