Consider the following:
Thus says the LORD:
“Cursed is the man who trusts in man
and makes flesh his strength,
whose heart turns away from the LORD.
He is like a shrub in the desert,
and shall not see any good come.
He shall dwell in the parched placed of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land.“Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose trust is the LORD.
He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit.”“The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick (or wicked);
who can understand it?“I the LORD search the heart
and test the mind,
to give every man according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his deeds”
(Jeremiah 17:5-10; ESV)
Notice that in the first stanza this man is cursed. The man is one who “turns away from the LORD.” Thus, he is one who was once with the LORD. This man is consigned to dwell in Death Valley (or the Dead Sea–”an uninhabited salt land”).
Now notice the man in the second stanza. He is like one planted by ever-flowing water. Yet, the heat and drought still come. This man bears fruit, as if he were planted in ideal conditions, though he may be surrounded by conditions similar in feel to the man in the first stanza.
It could be said that once the cursed dwell in Death Valley, it is no longer uninhabited. But is it possible that even though the cursed dwell there, it will be as though it were uninhabited–continually? The cursed is a mere shade, flitting about in unrelenting unshaded aridity–unrelenting emptiness. He becomes simply one more naturally occurring feature in a naturally inhospitable conditions, impossible to distinguish from the other inanimate objects. It is as though he doesn’t exist. Yet, for the one in this category, who trusts in his own “flesh,” life was the reason for uprooting from the LORD and re-rooting in something else. Pleasure has become the instinctual drive. He is not even an animal–who can at least be trained to endure pain for deferred pleasure. His soul is becoming an inanimate object–lifeless.
Yet, when the promised parched wilderness flits about the blessed, he produces fruit, he produces life. Seeking his own life, as a lifestyle, the cursed become indistinguishable from inanimate objects in the desert. Seeking the LORD, as a lifestyle, life finds the blessed and is produced through him.
Notice that the two men are distinguished not by their own righteousness or the lack thereof. Rather they are distinguished by their soil in which their roots of trust are planted. The man in the first stanza has turned away from the LORD, while the man in the second stanza continues to trust in the LORD, despite the external conditions. Yet, the third stanza is an indictment on both men–the cursed and the blessed:
“The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick (or wicked).”
Neither man in either stanza are blessed or cursed because of their inherent states of righteousness. Either man is blessed or cursed because of where he has chosen to embed his roots. The LORD tests hearts and minds, giving “according to the fruit of his deeds.” The cursed is given a perpetual desert, though he may live in luxury, and he produces nothing but dusty mirages. The blessed is given the LORD, though he may live in the desert, and he produces the life of God.
I am certainly not among those who “have no need of a physician” (cf. Matt 9:9-12; ESV). It is tempting to read “is not anxious” concerning the blessed as a barbed wire fence keeping me out of this group, preventing me access to the Great Physician. Yet, I think this is a progression of growth that is but one more fruit that is developed in the blessed, which in turn is fertilizer for other important life-giving fruit. Like most natural fertilizer, developing into one who trusts rather than is anxious, does not have the best of smells. However, isn’t in keeping with the goodness and wisdom of God, that He uses the refuse that life throws at us, who trust in Him, to make us into His natural fertilizer for growing His life in the most lifeless places of the wilderness?!
He is the Lord of Life and desires to heal all human hearts of “desperate sickness.” It requires that we root our-selves in the Great Physician and not in our own flesh, which has gangrene. Can we endure His medicine?
