Is There No Balm in Gilead

“Harvest is past, summer is ended, and we are not saved.

“For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am broken; I mourn, dismay has taken hold of me.

“Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has not the health of the daughter of my people been restored?” (Jer 8:20-22)

Journal,

You can almost feel the anguish of God’s heart when He asks, “Is there no balm in Gilead?”

Then we hear this from the prophet Hosea:

“So My people are bent on turning from Me. Though they call them to the One on high, none at all exalts Him. … My heart is turned over within Me, all My compassions are kindled.” (Hos 11:7-8)

Then again as Jesus weeps over Jerusalem:

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather you together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold your house is being left to you desolate! For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He [Jesus] who comes in the name of the Lord.'” (Matt23:37-39)

Is it possible that we are seeing a repeat of this in the visible church today? Did not the apostles warn us of a falling away in the last days of the church age as we know it.

This brings me to the background for…

The Balm of Gilead

What did the prophet Jeremiah mean in asking if there was no balm in Gilead? There is a spiritual implication in this statement that we need to look at carefully. 

Josephus said that “balm” was first introduced to Israel when the Queen of Sheba gave it as a gift to Solomon. Thereafter the Balsam tree came to be cultivated on Mount Gilead. Gilead region became noted for its physicians and its curative balm.

The balm of Gilead was used both as a perfume base and as a curative anointing oil. People believed it had miracle medicinal powers. After Christ, a curse was placed on any Hebrew who gave the balm recipe to a Gentile. (According to Rabbinic Judaism.)

And so we have a costly and precious anointing oil whose fragrance was wonderful to the smell and whose curative powers was known all over the Roman Empire. It was so costly that rarely did any common person own any of it.

But there is a spiritual lesson to be had.

Let’s talk about…

Heaven’s Curative Balm

It is here that we need to go to the deeper spiritual significance of the balm of Gilead. In ancient time the prophets were seen as spiritual physicians. They often brought God’s healing Word and wisdom to the sin-sick souls of men. Thus the sage said,

“There is one who speaks rashly like the thrusts of a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.” (Pro 12:18)

The prophet’s message normally included an admonishment for repentance. The ancients were taught that repentance was actually a form of worship when it came to daily life. Repentance was a continual making of minor adjustments and sometimes major adjustments, in keeping on a righteous course of life.

It was in times for major adjustments that the prophet-physician could be found bringing healing “balm” to those who would repent.

And so we have the statement, “Is there no balm in Gilead?”

But Gilead had gone too far. The balm had been rejected. The inhabitants were steeped in idolatry. They cared nothing for the prophet’s message of repentance. Listen to the preceding statements made about the Gileads:

“Were they ashamed because of the abomination they had done? They certainly were not ashamed, and they did not know how to blush…

” ‘At the time of their punishment they shall be brought down,’ Says the LORD. ‘I will surely snatch them away,’ declares the LORD…

“‘Why have they provoked Me with their graven images, with foreign idols?’

“Harvest is past, summer is ended, and we are not saved.” (Jer 8:12-20)

All this brings us to…

The Healing Balm of the Covenant of Christ

The Spirit of Jesus gives to us the healing balm of heaven. His blood alone can bring heaven’s healing to the sin damaged soul. The Holy Spirit effects the healing, yet it is the tongue of the righteous through whom the healing often flows.

Thus we hear Jesus say of the born-from-above people of God,

“Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'” (Joh 7:37-38)

Every spiritually-minded believer has a capacity to bringing living, healing waters, or, as you will, God’s heavenly balm, into the life of a sinner, or into the life of a believer who has suffered a relapse into sin. The balm of heaven is designed to bring life wherever death is at work.

With this in mind let me share a prophetic dream that the Lord gave me many years ago.

A Signature Dream

A signature dream is a dream given by God. It always has His seal and signature on it. These kinds of dreams can be both instructive and prophetic.

The dream – I was walking across a large open field. It was dry. The grass was dead.

As I reached the other side of the field, I looked back over my shoulder. There I saw a group of people at a distance. They were looking down at where I had walked, then they would look up at me.

I wondered why they were looking at me. When I looked at where I had walked, every one of my footsteps had green grass springing up in it.

The next morning I pondered on the dream. The meaning seemed fairly obvious, but I felt totally undeserving. After all, who was I?

But I remember something the apostle said.

“Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” (2Co 3:5-6)

Living as a Life Giver

Yes, I am a life bringer.

Yet the truth is that all believers are to be God’s spiritual life-healers on planet earth. The water of life and the healing balm of heaven are simply two ways of saying the same thing. We are to bring the balm of heaven to tortured souls. In this sense all believers can be considered spiritual physicians. (Much as were the prophets of old.)

What then of God’s weeping, and God’s compassion, and of God’s dismay? I believe that deep within the heart of every child of God are those same feelings for the lost man and for the relapsed Christian.

Could it be that the Lord weeps over the church today?

Do you recall the confession of the Laodicean church? O yes, it was heavy into the confession message. Laodicea said,

“I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing.” 

How did the Lord respond? He said,

“Because you say, ‘I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,’ and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.” (Rev 3:17-18)

Isn’t this odd? Here you have a church that is blind to its own condition – not only blind, but naked – and the eye salve could well represent that heavenly balm that is given to a repentant believer.

Back to the balm —

There is no sin so deep that the blood of Jesus cannot cleanse and purify it away. The result of the blood of the Lamb being applied results in a soul filled with a wellness and a sense of holiness. The consciousness of the sin(s) no longer remains. The sin is as though it never happened.

Such is the purified soul, and once again the restored believer begins to feel the passions of Christ for the lost man.

Are you struggling in your life? Do you need the Balm of Heaven applied?

Think about these things.

In the meantime, listen to this wonderful African-American spiritual by Mahalia Jackson, titled, “There is Balm in Gilead.” — To appreciate spiritual songs, you need to identify somehow with the slavery days of yesteryear —

In Christ always,

Buddy

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