Jeremiah 17:5-8

5 This is what the Lord says: “Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the Lord. 6 They are like stunted shrubs in the desert, with no hope for the future. They will live in the barren wilderness, in an uninhabited salty land. 7 “But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. 8 They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.

Jeremiah was called by God to pronounce God’s judgment on the southern kingdom of Judah for their sins of idolatry. Jeremiah starts by reminding us that he is just a mouth piece for God and that this is what the Lord says so we would be wise to listen. Through Jeremiah the Lord reminds us that the beginning of this sin of idolatry is found where Jesus said all sin begins, in the heart. The people of Israel had turned their hearts away from the Lord into idolatry which is not limited to just idols of wood and stone. Idolatry comes in many forms; the children of Israel had become confident and comfortable with their own accomplishments.

Jeremiah had told them that destruction was going to come from the north but the people ignored him because their kings since the time of Solomon had made political alliances with these nations. Their confidence and trust was in themselves and what they had accomplished, so instead of relying on God they tried to secure their own safety through trusting in their own works. At this time their idolatry focused on a political alliance with Egypt which they were trusting in to be their protector from Babylon. In Jeremiah 2:18, 36 God asks them “Now why go to Egypt to drink water from the Nile and why go to Assyria to drink water from the Euphrates? Why do you go about so much, changing your ways? You will be disappointed by Egypt as you were by Assyria” Judah’s attempt to enlist the help of Egypt was just one more example of their trust and confidence in others to fix their problems instead of God’s promise. How about us are we focused on our problems and how we can fix them or are we focused on His promise? Will we rely and rest in God’s promise? Psalm 50:15 “call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me”.  Are we really any different from Israel, sinning against God in the idolatry of our self-sufficiency, trying to be the masters of our own fate. How many times do we shake a defiant fist in God’s face telling Him we know better than He does? How long will we blatantly disregard His word because it does not fit with our way of thinking or our plan?

When God speaks to us through His Word will we be like Samuel and say, “Speak Lord, your servant is listening.” Not if we are lost in the sinfulness of our flesh, deceived through our misplaced trust and confidence. No, when our trust is not in God instead we will say, “Listen God, your servant is speaking!” Don’t miss the grace of God here, He was still willing to send His servant Jeremiah to warn them of the consequences of turning their hearts away from Him and trusting in themselves. The results of self sufficiency are always the same, isolation, deprivation and condemnation, it’s the best we can hope for. We say a picture paints a thousand words and its true God paints them a painful and pitiful picture of self-trust. A small bush in the desert, its growth stunted because it is cut off from the life giving rains.   Without God and His Word, the well of living water, we also will become like the dry lifeless bush trying to survive in a parched wasteland. Yet this is not the only picture, when we trust in God for all things, we experience a very different picture. After the revealed picture of rebellion, we are shown the real picture of relying on God, and in every way it is the exact opposite of a barren wasteland. Jeremiah writes, “But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.  They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.”  (Jeremiah 17:7-8).

The incredible grace is that even though they had sinned against God and turned away from Him, those who repented and turned back to the Lord would find peace, security, and life. The contrast between plants is the difference between a shrub and a tree, brown and green, withered and fruitful but what is it that creates such a difference? It is where they are growing, the ground they are rooted in, self or the Savior. So, where is your trust and confidence placed? Is it in the sinful flesh, which brings harsh desert living or the Lord, who brings life? God’s grace to us is that He not only recorded this for us so we wouldn’t have to live in the desert of self-reliance but that He also sent Jesus to save us. Yet still today we turn away from fully trusting in Jesus. We want His salvation so that we can live with Him in eternity but we want self-reliance so we can live for ourselves in the present. How deep is your trust, where are you really planted? How deep is the soil that your roots are relying on? Is it time to trust fully to go deeper to wait on the refreshing rains of God’s promises, to experience the water of His word? Put another way, what kind of plant do you want to be, a shriveled shrub or a fruitful tree?

Isaiah 12:2

 2 Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.”

Often in the midst of the difficult circumstances of this life we are tempted to turn from the truth and cast hope aside. Yet in the worry and the fear Isaiah 12 reminds us of 3 great things:

• Truth.

There is no greater or more exciting truth that to know that Salvation is available to all. Isaiah says: “God is my salvation”. Notice that this is personal “my”, which begs the question, where is God your salvation? Acts 4:12 says that salvation is only found in Jesus Christ; sadly many think that this is exclusive yet it is really inclusive. If there was only one way to get somewhere and you didn’t tell people many would never find it and thus be excluded. God wants you to be included and He is not only the originator of salvation but also the orchestrator of Salvation. God is the great architect behind the plan of salvation, He is both the originator and designer. There have been times when man has tried to create his own plan of salvation or add to God’s plan with meaningless and cumbersome works. Yet scripture tells us that God is the originator and designer. God is also the orchestrator of Salvation, man would never come to God on his own, Romans 3:11 says “There is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.” Not only did God come up with the plan but through Christ God calls us to Himself for without Him there would be no salvation. Do you know the truth that through Christ you can have salvation? Have you accepted the truth?

• Trust.

“…I will trust, and not be afraid…” Notice that trust flows out of truth, because of the truth of God’s salvation we can trust in His plan.  Our willingness to trust is not based on our circumstances but on the steady and unchangeable truth of God. I love Isaiah’s claim of trust “…I Will…” he does not say, “I might” but “I will”. The question is will we trust? Will we put our trust in the truth regardless of how dark the night becomes or how stormy the sea? What will be your claim, will it be I WILL trust or are you stuck in the may be? Trusting God is both trusting in everything and every day, because there will always be the temptation to trust sometimes in something’s. Trust is the antidote to fear “…and not be afraid…” because the reality of trust is that we can rest in God’s results. When we trust then fear is dispelled, unfortunately many live their lives in fear putting their trust in the unsecure.

• Triumph.

“The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song”

Do you want to live a triumphant or a tragic life? Seems like a silly question but Isaiah reminds us that the outcome is based on who we put our trust in.  Isaiah states two facts about our triumph, first the triumphant life is built on the strength of the Lord. Many of us start the Christian life trusting in God’s salvation but then we try to do life in our own strength. Isaiah says that “the LORD, is my strength.” Do you remember the children’s song “Jesus Loves Me”? The First line says, “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong, they are weak but He is strong.” Sometimes it is good for us to be reminded of the simple facts, we are weak, but He is strong. Triumph will never be out of reach as long as “The Lord is our strength”. Are you trying to experience the triumphant life in your own strength or His? The second fact is that the Lord is not only our strength but He is our song, we are called to celebrate our salvation. As people we love to sing about our success and our victories. Most countries have a national anthem, most sports teams have a song designed to fire us up. As you wake in the morning and go through the day is God the subject of your song? Is the song of your salvation the tune of truth that you sing?