Imagine you're writing a letter... to the one you love. You've made sure it has all the necessary elements; sincerity, compassion, inside jokes relating only to experiences between the two of you, some mushy embarrassing language that you wouldn't say in public... and you're wondering how to end this... epistle of love. A poem! Yes, a poem! Perfect!
We love poems, don't we? They make us laugh, make us cry, help us push ahead through trying times. They put into words the feelings we never can. When we use poems though they're usually designed to inspire or romanticize. Today God has written a poem to us found in one of the most unlikely of places... amidst the words of a prophet. Prophets aren't known for saying things designed to make us feel warm and fuzzy inside. They are heralds of truth. Truth reaches into the backyard of our minds and begins pulling weeds that we hoped would take care of themselves. It rises above the wasteland of opinions, feelings, and hearsay to command our attention saying, "whether you accept me or reject me... I won't go away."
*Has there ever been a time where you find yourself in a desert... praying for rain? (PAUSE) You wonder why you're not as close to the Lord as you've been before. You say things like, "I'm spiritually dry, stagnant, distant from God, I'm not growing in my walk." Loneliness becomes your only friend. "Where's God?" "What happened?" you ask. You begin looking at your Bible reading. You look at your prayer life. You talk with your pastors and mentors. But you've heard it all before. You take a hopeful pilgrimage through the Lifeway Christian Life section... searching for the answer to perhaps THE nagging dilemma of your walk with God.
Our poem brings us 2 portraits. Through those portraits we have a dichotomy between two realities and an implied question is asked of us, "Who am I trusting?" (REPEAT) As I say that you are arguing with me. You're saying, "No, that's too simple." You're right. It is. This is so simple it can be offensive to us because we want answers that are complicated. We believe we are complicated people. I submit to you today that the root of this problem and most everything else we struggle with begins with this question, "Who am I trusting?"
Turn with me if you would to Jeremiah 17:5-8.
V. 5 begins with a cursed man. He's cursed because he's a man who trusts in fallible human beings. When bad things happen to us where do we usually turn first? We look to our own ingenuity. We turn to ourselves. We analyze all the possible scenarios until we can confidently take a course of action... if that time ever comes. We pool all our life experiences, all we've heard, and all we've read yet it avails nothing. We are cursed. If that doesn't work we go to other fallible human beings. At some point we believe their set of life experiences (being different than ours) will have the answer to our dilemma. Augustine said, "trusting in others is the wrong humility. Trusting in yourself is dangerous pride."
Am I saying it's impossible for God to use the counsel of others? Am I saying we should never consult the wiser among us? No. We certainly shouldn't walk in the counsel of the wicked. The world begins and end with a frame of reference that always trusts in self and God is not considered. But Scripture also says, "for lack of counsel many plans fail." We are to go to others, but the question is who are you trusting? Who is your strength? Here in v.5 this word strength in Hebrew is literally "ARM" Who is your strong arm? Who do you rely upon? Seek counsel. But do so knowing that this book (Bible) is wiser than any man. Know that God is bigger than your human counsel and bigger than you.
Cursed is the man who...
-trusts in mankind
-makes flesh his strength
-and... whose heart turns away from the Lord
These 3 lines are a package deal. To trust in mankind is the same thing as turning away from God. God is saying we can't have it both ways. We can't put confidence in men and Him at the same time. It's one or the other. To trust in mankind at all is to turn away from the Lord. He knows every corner of our heart. If there is even the smallest seed of false trust in our motives and our decisions... we are cursed.
What does it mean to be cursed? In v.6 we're given an image, a portrait of the curse. Look at v.6...
Jews debate about what kind of shrub this is, but the point is it's a plant that has the mere appearance of life. Is a desert shrub a beautiful creature? Does it give the aroma of fresh roses? Not at all. The NASB translates "bush." This isn't a fluffy bush, it's a shriveled shrub. When we're trusting in anyone but God we can hold an exterior that seems alive to others. We can take a deep breath and hold up our little branches, hoping the wind will carry them to an appealing height and keep them there until the day is over, but God knows we are dying inside.
This is also a shrub that doesn't see any good come. We assume that once either we or our someone else gives us the answer that we'll then see good results. This is so indicative of how we often approach situations too... at least at first. But you won't get a flower garden by planting in a sewer of man's invention. We operate on the horizontal level of what we perceive to be reality (what our senses fool us into thinking is the extent of our reality). Because we live in this world we often forget that we are not of this world. It's not our home. We are children of the King! He's not called Father for nothing! When children have a problem do they go to other children to fix it? No, they go to their parents. They recognize on some level that their parents have a wisdom they don't. I think we often get old enough that we grow out of our childlike dependence only to place it in ourselves. The truth is (after salvation) we merely shift that dependence to a Father that is wiser than the one we had before.
He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness. These are driest spots in the desert. We have deserts today with patches of land that haven't seen rain in over 400 years. These places are where the cursed man lives. He's also... in an uninhabited salt land. He's all alone. How many times do we pray and pray and pray and wonder if our prayers are bouncing off the ceiling. We wonder if God has abandoned us to this harsh climate of our experience to be stuck in a state of stammering confusion. We've all been there.
But, what does it mean to be cursed?
Notice with me, he is like a shrub that lives...
-in parched places
-in the desert
-in a land of salt
-in a land that is uninhabited
This is his condition, his location, his state... his curse.
(1st Main Point) When we trust in mankind a desert is our curse. We cry out to God wondering what this desert is and why the rain has yet to fall and the answer is it is our curse for trusting in mankind.
TRANSITION: Yet our poem doesn't merely point to our condition, leaving us drowning in the quicksand of our making. We have a choice. We have an antonym. Look at v.7...
The Blessed Man is blessed because his heart is turned toward the Lord and not toward mankind. This isn't easy. This takes a concerted effort by the power of the Spirit. We usually have to learn the hard way too don't we? We trust in ourselves, then in others, and then we fall on our face to finally be in a position to learn the lesson of trusting God. If we don't learn that lesson we'll see the same set of tests over and over again. They may be packaged differently but they're all designed to bring us to place God wants us to be.
-How many times does He have to show Himself sovereign in our circumstances before we believe that He's worthy of our faith?
-How many times does He have to part the Red Sea?
-How many times does God have to bring us manna in wilderness?
-How many times do we have to see the water come from the rock?
If He has done those things and we really believe them, why don't we think He can do miracles in the lives of us who only feel like we have the Egyptian army chasing us? Did God get smaller between the events of our Bible and now? We can trust Him and if we do we will be blessed.
What does it mean to be blessed? V.8 shows us with another image...
Trees are some of the world's longest living organisms and the blessed man is like a tree. He is like a tree planted by water. Do you know how shrubs are born? The wind blows their seeds along the desert and eventually they take root, but their roots are shallow. They struggle to stay alive in dry earth. They try to reach for something of nourishment just as we reach for help in mankind. We are often like one who dives into a pit of endless sand in search for a swimming pool. But a tree! A tree is born with purpose. A tree is planted... planted by water. It extends its roots by a stream.
v.8 continues...
This is a tree that stands in season and out of season. When the heat of circumstance bears upon us, when we grow thirsty in our relationship with the Lord... we sweat, we lose control, and we're terrified because we begin to wonder if we can handle it. But that's where the problem starts! The issue is not if we can handle our problems, but if God can handle them. We need to let our fear work for us to help us go ahead and decide that we can't solve the problem. We should be worried because our strength is futile. Instead of wondering IF we can and trying to figure out HOW we can, we need to admit up front that we are desperately inadequate and need the help of God! We need to acknowledge Him first! Those moments should drive us to talk to God first, not to ourselves or our friends.
We also read its leaves remain green. This is the outward verifiable perseverance of the blessed man. His joy remains. He rejoices at trials of many kinds. When other plants are dying with the changing seasons, their leaves falling off and crumbling beneath the feet of passers by, the one who trusts in the Lord will have leaves that remain green. Today's culture is so concerned with "going green" but green only comes from chlorophyll that God made! And He says He... is... our... trust! He also is not anxious in the year of drought and will not cease to bear fruit. You don't find two kinds of fruit on one tree and fruit is seasonal. You won't see peaches growing in the winter. They are a summer fruit. The blessed man here however has fruit that always grows. There's a difference between simply persevering through hard times and growing while you persevere. The blessed man trusts in God and His trust endures and brings growth.
So what does it mean to be blessed?
He is like a tree that...
-does not fear when heat comes
-its' leaves remain green
-not anxious in drought
-continues bearing fruit
This is stability, a firm foundation, steadfast and immovable... blessed.
(2nd Main Point: When we trust in God, stability is our blessing.)
So I ask you once again... who are you trusting? Who will you trust?
Big Idea: God gives us this poem to teach us the simple truth that human trust leaves us alone in the desert, but divine trust brings us leaves of Green.
We've all seen the dry times in our walk with God. We say we need to try to "work on" our prayer life and "work on" our Bible reading and our devotional life. Very often we have motivation to start but it doesn't last. It's like buying a treadmill only to eventually begin hanging your clothes on it. Who are we trusting? You see if we see no results and blame our diligence thinking about what we can or can't do. We are trusting in our flesh. How can we trust in Christ for salvation and then trust in ourselves for sanctification? A pastor or someone you respect stands up to say how this Bible reading program or some other thing that promised to be the next best thing your Christian life.
If those things ever work for anyone else it's because they were trusting in God. If we ever want them to work in our lives we also need to trust the God in whom they trusted. We can't expect to rely on God any less in our walk as we do to get to heaven. If this is you today... you are like a shrub. ***God is saying to you today, "Look at where you are. Look where your false trust has brought you. You're in a desert because you're ignoring the water only I can provide! You're stagnant because you're forgetting Who alone brings progress!"
BUT you can be like a tree. If you're like the rest of us there are times when you're a shrub and times when you're a tree. ***But as you trust the Lord, God says to you, "Look where your trust will bring you! Keep trusting in in Me! Look at the things you can accomplish when I am supreme in your efforts! Look at the growth that will come when I am your trust!"
Some of you only think you're a tree. Be careful. You may be a King Nebuchadnezzar, who in Daniel 4:30 said, "Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?" He made his own flesh his strength. Worse than that he said this after Daniel interpreted his second dream. His dream described the King as a strong tree that reached up to the heavens and "whose leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant" but because of his false trust he was to be chopped down and destroyed. If need be, God will chop us down and humble us. Jesus said, "every plant, which my heavenly Father has not planted, shall be rooted up."
Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord because when all those around him have leaves that are dying and scattering in the wind, his leaves will be green!
