My joy is gone; grief is upon me; my heart is sick within me. Behold, the cry of the daughter of my people from the length and breadth of the land: “Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King not in her?” “Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images and with their foreign idols?” “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” For the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart wounded; I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me.
Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored? Jeremiah 8:18-22 Many want to point at political problems to say "this is what is wrong with the world." Others want to point at racism, pornography, abortion, and so many other issues as being "what is wrong with the world." But if I want to be completely honest with myself, I need to be the one to admit, I am what is wrong with the world. As I read through Jeremiah in my own personal study, my heart is repeatedly broken, as I hear God's voice speak through the prophet. He is heartsick. He does not wish to punish, but the injustice done by the wickedness of His people cannot go unanswered. God is HURT by the wickedness and injustice of the people called by His name. I've heard many calling for justice on an economic, social, racial, and many other levels. If we look, however, at many calling for justice, we can see that they are just as lost as the rest of us. We can never have true Justice unless our hearts are right with God. We are the problem. All of us. We constantly and consistently break the heart of God, and point out the wickedness of our neighbor saying "at least I'm not as bad as him!" We need to repent. Individually, and collectively, we need to drop to our knees and say "Lord, I'm sorry. I've broken your heart, I've gone against you, I've set myself up on a throne I don't deserve. Have mercy on me, a Sinner." The woes of this world are not new. The right response has always been available, if we but swallow our pride, and plead with the Lord for forgiveness. Otherwise, we'll just go from bad to worse. Jesus can heal this land, but it has to begin in my heart, and yours.
Oh that my head were waters,
and my eyes a fountain of tears,
that I might weep day and night
for the slain of the daughter of my people!
Oh that I had in the desert
a travelers' lodging place,
that I might leave my people
and go away from them!
For they are all adulterers,
a company of treacherous men.
They bend their tongue like a bow;
falsehood and not truth has grown strong[c]in the land;
for they proceed from evil to evil,
and they do not know me, declares the Lord. Jeremiah 9:1-3
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