October 20, 1999
GREAT QUESTIONS OF THE BIBLE:
"The heart is deceitful; ...who can understand it?"
Jeremiah 17:9
___"In the midst of great national calamity, the prophet Jeremiah pens a powerful answer to the unstated question of "What caused such moral downfall?" Judah had been forced into exile because of sinful rebellion against God, and now the nation cries out in despair. How can these things be? Jeremiah writes: "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?"
___Judah's exile involved more than being torn physically from the land of promise—there
was spiritual separation from God. Jeremiah gives the cause of their malady, their rebellious hearts! The fault was not to be placed on God. His character was not in question.
LARRY ASHLOCK
Pastor, crestview Baptist Church, Midland
___We think of the heart as being the seat of the will or emotions, but the Old Testament prophet uses the word to mean a person's inner personality or the totality of the inner nature. Jeremiah writes that the heart was exceedingly deceitful and wicked. "Deceitful" comes from the word that comprises the name of Jacob, Esau's deceitful twin and the father of the nation of Israel. More than a play on words, Jeremiah writes of the long-standing spiritual nature of the nation of Israel. Jeremiah states that their hearts are wicked or woefully sick. He uses the metaphor of illness to describe the spiritual illness caused by their personal sin.
___America has been shocked into realizing that something has gone terribly wrong within our hearts as a nation. In the aftermath of the shooting of the innocents at Columbine High School and at Wedgwood Baptist Church, our nation is asking, indeed crying out, "What causes such moral downfall?" God's word speaks powerfully to the situation when it says, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure." No amount of social programming or man-made laws can cure what ails us most. Our situation now, like Judah's situation then, is hopeless unless someone rescues us from our helpless state.
___In 1963, having been cast into a narrow, windowless jail cell in solitary confinement, Martin Luther King Jr. experienced isolation from family and friends but also from Christians who opposed his civil disobedience. Yet upon leaving the jail and reflecting on his experience there, he said he had never truly been in solitary confinement because God's companionship did not stop at the door of a jail cell. He in that dark, dismal place did not know if the sun were shining at any given moment, but he discovered he could see the Light no matter the circumstance.
___God's light of truth comforted Martin Luther King Jr. and will comfort us in these dark, dismal times of national imprisonment to violence. Jeremiah asks, "Who can understand" man's heart? The answer is found in John 3:5. God can. God can also change our hearts and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. For this great question, God has given a complete answer in his Son, Jesus Christ. Christ is the answer to all that ails us nationally and individually.
Previous Columns: 7/14, 7/21, 7/28, 8/4, 8/11, 8/18, 8/25, 9/1, 9/8, 9/15, 9/22, 9/29, 10/6, 10/13.
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