Read Jeremiah 8:4-22
When people fall down or realize that they are headed in the wrong direction, it only makes sense for them to get up or change directions. But as God watched the nation, He saw people living sinful lives by choice, deceiving themselves that there would be no consequences. They had lost perspective concerning God’s will for their lives and were trying to minimize their sin. Are there some indicators that you have fallen down or are heading the wrong way? What are you doing to get back onto the right path?
Jeremiah wept and pleaded with God to save his people as he watched them reject God. He responded with anguish to a world dying in sin. We watch that same world dying in sin, still rejecting God. But how often is our heart broken for our lost friends and neighbors, our lost world? Only when we have Jeremiah’s kind of passionate concern will we be moved to help. We must begin by asking God to break our heart for the world He loves.
Gilead was famous for its healing medicine. Verse 22 is a rhetorical question. The obvious answer is, “Yes, God is the answer,” but Israel was not applying the medicine; they were not obeying the Lord. Although the people’s spiritual sickness was very deep, it could be healed. But the people refused the medicine. God could heal their self-inflicted wounds, but He would not force His healing on them.