| Day 430: Read today's devotional on Bible Gateway. The Antidote to SinMy grief is beyond healing; my heart is broken. Listen to the weeping of my people; it can be heard all across the land. "Has the Lord abandoned Jerusalem?" the people ask. "Is her King no longer there?" "Oh, why have they provoked my anger with their carved idols and their worthless foreign gods?" says the Lord. "The harvest is finished, and the summer is gone," the people cry, "yet we are not saved!" I hurt with the hurt of my people. I mourn and am overcome with grief. Is there no medicine in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why is there no healing for the wounds of my people? If only my head were a pool of water and my eyes a fountain of tears, I would weep day and night for all my people who have been slaughtered. Oh, that I could go away and forget my people and live in a travelers' shack in the desert. For they are all adulterers—a pack of treacherous liars.
(Jeremiah 8:18–9:2) ReflectThis passage vividly portrays Jeremiah's emotion as he watched his people reject God. He responded with anguish to a world dying in sin. Jeremiah felt conflicting emotions concerning his people. Lying, deceit, treachery, adultery, and idolatry had become common sins. He was angered by their sin, but he had compassion too. He was set apart from them by his mission, but he was also one of them. Jesus had similar feelings when he stood before Jerusalem, the city that would reject him (Matthew 23:37). Gilead was famous for its healing balm. "Is there no medicine in Gilead?" (Jeremiah 8:22) is a rhetorical question. The obvious answer is, "Yes—God," but Israel was not applying the "balm"; they were not obeying the Lord. Although the people's spiritual sickness was still very deep, it could be healed. But the people refused the medicine. God could heal their self-inflicted wounds, but he would not force his healing on them. RespondWe watch that same world still dying in sin, still rejecting God. But how often is our heart broken for our lost friends and neighbors, our lost world? Only when we have Jeremiah's kind of passionate concern will we be moved to help. We must begin by asking God to break our hearts for the world he loves. | 
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