SO, JUST WHY IS THERE NO BALM IN GILEAD ANYWAY?

There has been a video circulating on the internet from the Gamaliel Foundation of a bunch of community organizers that are apparently praying to Barack Obama.  I’ll admit, when I first watched it, I was shocked that the people were in a church chanting, “Save us Obama!” and “Deliver us Obama!”  Then, after watching it again, I noticed that only a few of them were saying, “Obama.”  Most were saying, “Save us oh God.”

This was pointed out to me by a liberal who was calling me out for posting this on my Facebook page.  Well, I had to agree with him.  But, after watching it again, listening a little closer, I picked out a verse that the priestess was using.  In order to bring validity to this abominable healthcare plan she quoted Jeremiah 8:22, from the New Revised Standard Version, which says, “Is there no balm in Gilead?  Is there no physician here?  Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored?” I couldn’t believe that she would use this, of all scriptures to validate universal healthcare.  It was obvious that she could care less about the context of that verse.  And I felt that this was just as grievous a sin as chanting, “Deliver us Obama,” which some really did do, by the way.

So, why was there no balm in Gilead anyway?  Was it because the government of the day was not doing their job of providing affordable healthcare to all the people of Judah? (Not that that is the government’s job in the first place.)  To answer that question, you need to, first, go back to Jeremiah chapter seven.  This is where Jeremiah first gets called to deliver a sermon right at the gate of the Lord’s house.  What was his message?  Verse three says, “This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place.” His message to those who entered into the temple of the Lord was to repent.  And, by the way, the message needs to be the same thing today.

In verse four, we find the prophet warning them not to trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD!” You see, the priests and prophets were telling the people not to worry, because God would never let anything happen to this temple or to his chosen people.  But those were deceptive words.  Unfortunately, the people gobbled it up.  And people are gobbling up the same nonsense today, believing that they can live in blatant sin and trust that a prayer they once prayed will save them on the Day of Judgment.

Jeremiah, then, spends a few verses naming specific sins; one of which was the shedding of innocent blood.  How fitting that this priestess was quoting from this sermon of Jeremiah, while she supports a man who vehemently advocates the shedding of innocent blood, through the abominable practice of abortion?  Then he says again, in verse eight, “But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless.” Isn’t it ironic that we have the same problem today; deceptive words from the prophets and priests?  Look at the the response TD Jakes gave when he was asked to talk about the politics of the day.  “Tragically, this generation has limited its definition of morality to two issues, same sex marriages and abortion. Morality goes far beyond those two issues. Racism is immoral. I think racial profiling is immoral. I think not providing health care is immoral. To let someone die in a country that is as progressive as ours for the lack of something that is within our power to give them is immoral. It is virtually murder.” Then he went on to congratulate Barack Obama when he won the Democratic Primary in June of 2008.  You see, the problem today starts in the pulpit.  What we have, as Isaiah would say, are “dumb dogs, they cannot bark.”

In verses nine through eleven, Jeremiah busts the people in the temple up real good.  ” ‘Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known,  and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe”-safe to do all these detestable things? Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the LORD.” A den of robbers is the place where criminals would go to hide after they had committed their crimes.  That’s exactly what God’s people had become: criminals.  And they were falsely hoping that because they were children of Abraham; because they had the temple; they would be safe to continue in their wicked practices.

Is that not exactly where we are today?  Week in and week out, we meet women at the abortion clinic, going in to murder their own children. Many have Bibles in their cars and fish bumper stickers.  And what do they say when told that Jesus would never want them to kill their own children?  “Yes, but He will forgive me.” They are just like those who Jeremiah was confronting at the temple.  And the problem is, they are just repeating what they have heard from pulpits all over this land.  Many pastors are teaching that you can, “sin all the more and grace will cover.”

As I have been reading Jeremiah this year, two things have stuck out to me more than any others: God’s issue with hypocritical believers and false prophets.  And here’s the thing, he pins the blame of the believers’ hypocrisy to the deceptive words of the false prophets.  Of course, Jeremiah is not the only prophet of the Old Testament to deal with this.  Actually, they probably all address this at some point.  I know Isaiah and Ezekiel do.  But Jeremiah is chock full of it.

But to get around to answering the question posed in 8:22, let’s finish going through chapters seven and eight.  You see, in verses twelve through fifteen, Jeremiah proclaiming what will happen to the temple, giving an example of what God did in Shiloh.  This is where the evil sons of Eli (Hophni and Phinehas) thought they could take the ark into battle and that God would rout the enemy, even though they were living such evil lives.  But of course, they were slain by the Philistines, the ark was captured and Ichabod (the glory had departed) was written over the Tabernacle.  And now, the people of Judah could expect the same judgment to fall on them.

Then, we see something strange in verse sixteen.  God tells Jeremiah not to even pray for this people.  You see him saying this a total of three times in the book of Jeremiah (7:6, 11:14, 14:11).  This was because they had hardened their hearts to God and were not going to repent.  God’s call for Jeremiah was to preach to these people, not to pray for them.

In verses seventeen through nineteen we see something that has to break the heart of God.  “Do you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough and make cakes of bread for the Queen of Heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to provoke me to anger. But am I the one they are provoking? declares the LORD. Are they not rather harming themselves, to their own shame?” Instead of the families teaching their children the fear of God, they were teaching them how to worship false gods.  Are we not doing the same thing today?  In many Christian homes the altar of sports, entertainment and fashion is much more prevalent than any family devotion time.  And I am sure that this is just as upsetting to God as it was in the days of Jeremiah.

In verse twenty, Jeremiah lets them know that God has had enough.  He said, “My anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground, and it will burn and not be quenched”

Then, in verses twenty-one through twenty-six God confronts them for their hypocritical sacrifices.  They were hypocritical because they were only following part of what God required of them.  They were offering up sacrifices yet ignoring God’s desire for obedience.  He goes back from the time he brought their forefathers out of Egypt until the moment Jeremiah was confronting them.  Throughout that time they refused to obey the Lord and they refused to listen to his servants the prophets.

Therefore, in verse twenty-seven, God lets Jeremiah in on a little secret.  Basically, he told him that when he delivered this message they were not going to listen.  They were a stiff-necked people, who rejected anything resembling truth.  All Jeremiah could do was continue to preach God’s word and take up a lament, because God was going to take them out.  I wonder how far God is from saying this very same thing today.

In verses Jeremiah 7:30-8:3, God again deals with the sins of the people and lets them know what’s coming.  This time, he specifically calls out child sacrifice (7:31).  It was such a horrific practice that God had never even allowed such a thought to enter his mind.  Yet it still goes on today.  And now we have the most pro-abortion president ever.  Do you think that God has had just about enough?  Is this nation about to become like the Valley of Slaughter?

In verses four through twelve of chapter eight, you find that God is dealing with the hearts of the people.  To sum it up, the people basically did whatever they pleased and, when confronted, would never repent of their wickedness (v 6b).  They had no idea what God required of them (v 7b).  Why?  Well, not only had they lost the law in the temple, but the prophets and priests were giving them a different law (kind of like the prophets of today are preaching a different gospel.)  But they didn’t have a problem with that.  After all, they had a chance to hear the true word of God when he sent them true prophets, but they would have none of it.  Like today, they just wanted to have their ears tickled.

The false priests and prophets were all alike.  They all practiced deceit and were greedy for gain.  They dressed the wound of God’s people as though it were not serious.  Though Jerusalem was surrounded by the judgment of God, the cry of the prophets was uniformly, “Peace, peace,” when there was no peace.

In verses thirteen through twenty-two God goes on to explain, in detail, how he was going to judge his people.  He showed them that their harvest would be removed, their cities would crumble, and they themselves would either be brutally slain or taken captive.  In spite of this, they still did not repent.  No.  They fled to their fortified cities!  Their cry in verses fourteen and fifteen went something like this, “Oh poor us.  Look what has happened.  How could a loving God have allowed such a thing.” Sound familiar (9/11, Katrina, etc.)?  Well, it happened because of their unfaithfulness and disobedience to the one true God (See Isaiah 59:1-2).

In verse twenty, the people quote the proverb, “The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved.” The people have finally realized that they had the opportunity to repent and be delivered, but they missed it.  It was now too late for deliverance.

That leads us to verse twenty-two; the same verse that the priestess was reciting in the house of God, using it as a cry for deliverance.  Yet she had no idea what she was actually saying.  “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people?” So, why is there no balm in Gilead?  Why is there no physician there?  Why was there no healing for the wound of God’s people?  If you can’t already clearly see the answer, please turn to Jeremiah 30:12-15. (Well, turn there anyway)

12 “This is what the LORD says: ” ‘Your wound is incurable, your injury beyond healing. 13 There is no one to plead your cause, no remedy for your sore, no healing for you. 14 All your allies have forgotten you; they care nothing for you. I have struck you as an enemy would and punished you as would the cruel, because your guilt is so great and your sins so many. 15 Why do you cry out over your wound, your pain that has no cure? Because of your great guilt and many sins I have done these things to you.”

We see here that there was no balm in Gilead, there was no physician and no healing, not because the government had not been doing their job, but because the people of Judah had spurned the only cure.  Isaiah went before Jeremiah and preached for years that the people no longer trust in themselves and the government, but to turn to the Lord.  Yet, now, even in the midst of disaster, they still refused to repent and turn to him.  The Lord was their only hope and they had completely rejected him, making him their enemy.

So, does this apply to us today?  Over and over, God sends true prophets of God to proclaim these truths, not only to the wicked culture, but to the church.  What is the overwhelming response?  “What gives you the right to judge?” or, “You intolerant bigot!” The true message from God is being rejected and replaced by a lukewarm, seeker-sensitive, false gospel, which dresses the wound of God’s people as if it weren’t serious.  The popular message today is “Peace, peace” when there is no peace.

So what do we do?  Should we sit around and try to come up with a better healthcare plan to counter the liberals?  Or should we try to reach across the isle so we can work something out that everybody agrees on?  No.  Our only answer lies in us realizing that healthcare is not the issue.  Liberalism vs. Conservatism is not the issue.  No.  The issue is sin.  We need to repent.  And we need to preach repentance, not only at the gates of Hell, but also at the gates of the Lord’s house.

Only then will the people find balm in Gilead.

—
For His Glory,
Adam Tennant

THE GIFT OF BIBLICAL FEMININITY

“Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”  (Matthew 19:4-6)

This article is all about a precious gift that God has given women; the gift of authentic biblical femininity.  So, why did I begin with this verse about marriage?  This verse probably means more to me than any other verse.  Let me explain.

I, like many others, was raised in the home stricken by divorce.  After years of trying to find that special someone, I was left with the idea that I just wasn’t meant to be married.  And I felt very strongly about that.  To me, love was something that didn’t last.  I believed that love was something that you “fall into.”  Therefore, I reasoned that it was something that you could also “fall out of.”  And, unfortunately, this was not just my perception; it was my experience.

I praise God that He changed my heart on this matter.  In February of 2005, I surrendered my life to Christ.  Not long after that, I met Paige (my wife).  I had never met a woman of such purity.  Over the next few months, God took me to the cleaners.  He took me to a place where I realized that my relationship with Christ was the most important relationship I could have.  I decided that, if it was God’s will that I live a life of celibacy, I was fine with that.  Thankfully, not long after that, He clearly showed me that this was not His will; that He had set someone apart just for me.

Paige and I began courting in January of 2006.  Neither of us knew all that we know now about biblical courtship, but we definitely did things differently than the cultural norm.  And as we went along together, and learned more about this, we changed some things.  We didn’t do everything perfectly, but our hearts were following Christ, and by His grace, we kept ourselves pure.

Early on in our relationship, I had to come clean about something.  I knew that I loved her and that I wanted to marry her, but I was scared to make any kind of commitment because, to me, love was something that could dissolve at the drop of a hat.  I told her about this.  I told her that I was scared to love her.  I feared that her love for me might wear off one day.  We committed ourselves to praying about it.

The next morning, I woke up humming a familiar tune.  I wasn’t sure where it had come from.  I was humming a verse from a Jason Upton song, which said, “What God has joined together, let no one separate it.”  That verse continued in my head all morning.  Then it hit me.  That’s not just a song!  That’s a Bible verse!  It was incredible.  God was showing me, through His Word, that He would not let anyone tear our love apart, as long as we made Him the center of our marriage.

So, now that you understand that godly marriages don’t just happen, let me talk to you about biblical femininity.  After all, Jesus Christ has been the most instrumental in changing my life.  And of course, He set for us the example of ultimate purity.  But, other than Christ himself, I can think of no better example of purity than my precious wife.  And, as I love her as Christ loved the church, my daughter(s) will see how precious a gift it is to become a woman that embraces the gift of biblical femininity.  And, by the grace of God, my daughter(s) will grow up to be like my wife.

I’ve showed you that a virtuous woman is far more valuable than all the riches in the world.  But unfortunately, this is foreign to most parents in our culture today.

I don’t know if you went to any of the county fairs this year.  But if you did, I am sure you noticed how the young (and I mean young) girls dress when they go out.  Many of them resemble the hookers you see on the corner of Trade and Tryon.  You wanna know what is really sad about that?  These girls get out of minivans that their parents drop them off in!  Those parents are the ones I really want to strangle.  How could a loving mom or dad allow their precious little girl to go out dressed like that?  I don’t have to get descriptive.  You know exactly what I’m talking about.

It doesn’t have to be like this mom and dad.  It really doesn’t.  Did you know that there was a time in this nation when modesty was taught?  That’s right.  And there was a time that innocent little girls were taught that embracing biblical femininity was far more important than becoming a successful business woman.

I’ve been off work all week and have been able to spend alot more time with my precious daughter, Olivia.  I get to take her on dates.  I get to tuck her in at night.  I get to do many things that I’m not able to do when working all day.  After putting her to bed the other night, I went to exercise when I heard her crying.  By her cry, I knew she was not gonna go back to sleep, so I went in to rock her.  In the still of the night, as I was rocking her to sleep, she started patting the back of my neck.  I could tell that she felt so secure in my arms.  Things like that are so special to me.

I started to think of things like, “Will she ever have to experience a broken heart?”  I’m not sure why that popped in my head.  But, do you know the answer to that?  She, in no way, will ever have to experience that.  Many would probably think I’m crazy to say something like that.  But why does that sound so crazy?  Is it because what I said is untrue, or is it because our culture has trained us into thinking this way?  We think that a broken heart is something that children just have to go through.  We think that dating is just part of growing up.  That is a lie from the pit of hell.  You know why they have to go through that?  Because we think it’s cute when they have a boyfriend or girlfriend in elementary school.  We think it’s cute when they talk about their first kiss, that they experienced on the playground.  Well, you wanna hear something a whole lot cuter.  My wife experienced her first kiss on the altar.  You wanna know why?  Because she was not raised according to the standards set down by our culture.  She was raised according to the standards of Jesus Christ; the Word of Almighty God!

Anytime someone finds out that my wife and I experienced our first kiss on the altar, that person can hardly believe it.  That really bugs me.  Yes, I am grateful of this, but this should not be a freak thing.  This should be the norm.  And at one point in time, this was the norm.  Purity was held in high esteem.  Women were treasured far above rubies.  Now, it is the other way around.  If only we would once again begin to teach our girls that biblical femininity is a gift from God; that it is far better to be godly than it is to be wealthy or “successful.”  When little girls start to realize the value of this gift, we won’t have to worry about them just giving it away to any little boy that comes along.  No.  They will cherish it.

But this will only happen, dad, when you cherish it.  That’s right, I said, “dad”, because dad is far more responsible than mom.  Dad, you need to be the man that God has called you to be.  You need to set an example to your little girl(s).  Show her what a real man is like.  Open doors for her.  Take her on dates.  Kiss her on the hand.  And don’t stop hugging and kissing her, just because she starts growing up.  Let her know that her daddy loves her.  Let her know how much you love her mother.  But also let her know that you love Jesus Christ more than anything or anyone.  And let her know that she should never marry anyone that is not as godly as you are.  And Dad, it’s your responsibility to make sure that never happens.

Let her know that biblical femininity is a gift from God; that becoming a godly wife and mother is far more important than becoming “successful.”  And when I say, “successful”, I mean it the way our culture defines it.  Dad, if you do that, you won’t have to worry about her wanting to date.  Dating is nothing more than practice for divorce.  And, when she becomes a woman of virtue; a woman of God; she will glory in God’s wonderful gift of biblical femininity.  And God will give her to a man that He has raised up to lead her in love and righteousness.

And when this happens, living happily ever after, is no longer a fairy tale.  Will it be a bumpy ride at times?  Of course.  But when a husband and wife make Christ the center Thread in their marriage, there aren’t enough minions of Hell to tear them apart.

I hope that you will not just let this message fade away.  Training our children in the fear of God is the answer to overcoming this culture in which we live.  Don’t beat yourself up if this message sounds completely radical to you.  This type of message is as rare as a comet these days.  I would encourage you to read an article I wrote on biblical manhood.  Also, let me know if Paige or I can help you in anyway.  I have written other articles on this subject and have many resources that can prepare you to raise your children God’s way.

IS THERE A SCRIPTURAL BASIS FOR COURTSHIP?

In Christian love,
Adam Tennant