HF123 - The Heavenly Balm
To: Hebraic-Foundations@yahoogroups.com
From: "Pastor Buddy Martin" <Bro.Buddy@ChristianChallenge.org>
Date: Wed, June 16, 2004
Subject: Bible Study HF123 - The Heavenly Balm
Hebraics,
You can almost feel the anguish of God's heart when He
says, "My people are bent on turning from Me ... How can
I give you up O Ephraim. My heart is turned over within Me,
all My compassions are kindled." (Cf. Hosea
11:8,9)
We hear it again through Jeremiah the prophet, when the
Lord says, "For the brokenness of the daughter of my
people I am broken; I mourn, dismay has taken a hold of me. Is
there no balm in Gilead?" (Jeremiah
8:20-22)
When God decided to walk among men, we again hear the same
anguish of heart. Listen: "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)
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 want to look at in our study. Actually there
is a healing balm available to every human on this planet.
Let's talk about it.
This is Bible Study HF123 - The Heavenly Balm.
First the natural side --- 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 was
soon 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.
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, "The tongue of the wise brings
healing." (Pro12:18)
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 living. In a
daily walk, repentance was simply making minor adjustments in
keeping on a righteous course of life. There were also times
for major adjustments and this is when 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; therefore they shall fall." (Jer8:12)
"...the Lord our God has doomed us and given us
poisoned water to drink, for we have sinned (continuously)
against the Lord." (v14)
"Harvest is past, summer is ended, and we are not
saved." (v20)
Now let's bring this over into the new covenant. The blood
of Jesus is the balm of heaven. His blood alone can bring
heaven's healing to the sin damaged soul. The Holy Spirit
effects the healing, but yet it is the tongue of the righteous
through whom the healing flows. Thus we hear Jesus say of the
born-from-above people of God, "He who believes in Me, as
the Scripture says, from your innermost being shall flow
rivers of living waters." (John
7:38)
Every believer has a capacity for bringing living, healing
waters, or, if you prefer, 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.
This reminds me of a 'signature' dream I had many years
ago. I was walking through a large open field. The grass was
dead. When I looked over my shoulder I saw a group of people
at a distance, looking down at the ground. They would then
look towards me. I wondered why they were looking at me. When
I looked down where I had walked, each footstep had green
grass in it. (A signature dream is given by the Holy Spirit.
It has God's seal/signature on it.)
The next morning I pondered on the dream. I felt in my
spirit that the dream wasn't simply about me. It had to do
with God's people bringing life wherever they go. I was simply
one of the God's life bringers. The truth is that believers
are to be God's spiritual 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. (Such as were the prophets of old.)
What then of God's weeping, and God's compassions, and
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, but I also believe that many
Christians are being pulled aside by 'another' message. How
often do folk turn to the television today only to hear and
see another peacock prancing around the stage, glorifying
himself, and spouting out some strange message about
prosperity, prosperity, prosperity.
What is so strange about these 'other' messages is that
according to the Scriptures, this is usually one of the
defining messages of a false prophet and a false teacher. Is
it possible that many of God's people are being pulled aside
by messages that are not from heaven? Each believer must judge
this for himself. (With the help of the Holy Spirit.)
Could it be that the Lord weeps over the church itself? 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." (Rev3:17)
But also notice that the Lord is on the outside of this
church. He is knocking on the door asking to be let in. Seems
the Laodicean Church had reached a place where they had
"need of nothing," and the nothing even included the
Lord, even if they did not realize it. (Could it be that this
church was into godhood teachings?)
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. Those whom I love, I
reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent."
(vv17-19.
Caps for emphasis.)
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.
The balm is the blood of Jesus bringing its spiritual
miracle medicinal powers to the soul. John said something very
similar in 1
John 1:6,7; "If we say that we have fellowship with
Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice
the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the
Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of
Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin."
If we take these two portions of Scriptures together, then
we have a church declaring itself in fellowship with the Lord,
but that was simply a confession being made. It was not real.
Can it happen in a believer's life today? Sure it can, and it
does.
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 is 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.
Since there is much more to be said, I'll leave off my part
of the study for now. Feel free to make a contribution or ask
questions.
The Lord bless you,
Buddy
Lawrence E. (Buddy) Martin, HF Host
email: Bro.Buddy@ChristianChallenge.org
Web:
http://www.christianchallenge.org/
"See to it that no one comes short of the grace
of God; that no root of bitterness springing up
causes trouble, and by it many be defiled." (Heb12:15)
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