The World and The Word

UV 3512/10000 The World and The Word

Thus says the Lord, “Cursed is the man who trusts in and relies on mankind, making (weak, faulty human) flesh his strength, and whose mind and heart turn away from the Lord

Jeremiah 17 v 5


We are like streams that arise on the mountain of God and like rivers that empty into the ocean of God. If in between the source and our emptying into God, we rely on ourselves, on other limited humans like us, if we have any confidence in our own knowledge, wisdom, understanding, we are cursed. Instead, if our confidence is in the Lord and what He says, then we are blessed. Jeremiah draws the contrasting images of a shrub in a desert, in the wilderness, an uninhabited salt land and that of a flourishing tree planted by waters which spreads its roots till it reaches the river bank. The person who trusts God and relies on Him and His word is like an evergreen fruit-bearing tree.

The man of faith delights in what the Lord delights in. The joy of the Lord is our strength, not human knowledge or wisdom. We delight in Jesus just as the Father delighted in His own beloved Son. The river of eternal life flows through us and it never dries up. We begin and end our lives and our every day in the Lord. He is both the mountain of our source and the ocean into which we empty ourselves. The course of our lives is determined by the Lord. He renews our peace, our joy, our wisdom, our strength.

We do not turn our faces away from the Lord and curse ourselves to live limited lives. Like plants that grow in the direction of the sun, we raise our faces to seek the Lord and His word. In good times we do not forget the Lord and in bad times, we do not blame Him. We are steadfast in our faith. David while writing the first Psalm refers to this uni-verse in Jeremiah. The wicked, those who choose to ignore God, to rebel against the Lord are like the chaff that is blown away, like grass that is here today and gone tomorrow. The righteous by faith and grace in contrast meditate on the word of God day and night, when things are bright and when things are gloomy and dark. Their roots run both deep and wide to reach the river of God’s nourishing. Their hearts are soft and moist towards the Lord, repentant of their shortcomings and appreciative of the goodness and glory of God. They bear fruit right through the year.