“The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; with a point of diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of their altars, while their children remember their altars and their Asherim, beside every green tree and on the high hills, on the mountains in the open country. Your wealth and all your treasures I will give for spoil as the price of your high places for sin throughout all your territory. You shall loosen your hand from your heritage that I gave to you, and I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know, for in my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn forever.” 

Thus says the LORD: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.” 

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? “I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.” (Jeremiah 17:1–10)

Some time ago, we looked at Jeremiah 2:12-13, exposing the root of all sin as the desire to find independence and life apart from God (see Dying of Thirst, 9/16/2019). In this post, we are going to look at another part of Jeremiah that helps us understand why we need Jesus.

Many of us in the church are probably familiar with Jer. 17:9: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” I have been for a long time. When one reads it in context, however, the reason for the problem becomes clear. We’re first going to look at that diagnosis and then look at the underlying cause.

The Diagnosis

Jeremiah diagnoses the human condition in verse 9. He writes, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” The NIV translates this as, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure,” while the NET translates it as “incurably bad.” The idea in the original language is that 1) the human heart is deceitful to the core; and 2) this condition is incurable. 

Think about those statements; the human heart (in Jewish thinking, the center of being) is rotten to the core. It is self-centered and deceitful. This is the coup de grace of all viruses, illnesses, and diseases. Even worse than that is the fact that said condition is incurable. It is what we’d call a terminal disease. In today’s modern era, we will have diseases such as cancer for which we have no cure. Some of these diseases can cause death, hence the phrase terminal disease. 

Jeremiah’s diagnosis, though, is a terminal disease of staggering proportions. The disease of sin leads to spiritual death, or what the Bible calls eternal death–being eternally separated from God. And again, there is nothing we can do about it. Our best efforts simply aren’t good enough, because we aren’t good enough. Why is this? Now we turn to the cause.

The Root of the Problem

The root of this incurable problem is found in verses 1-3. The Lord, speaking through Jeremiah, tells us:

The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; with a point of diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of their altars, while their children remember their altars and their Asherim, beside every green tree and on the high hills, on the mountains in the open country. (vv:1–3)

To understand the significance of the mention of “the tablet of their heart,” we need to remember that the Law of Moses was written on tablets of stone (Exodus 31:18; cf. 20:1-17). Here the Lord is displaying irony at the fact that the hearts of His people are as hard as a stone tablet, on which not the law of God, but their sin was engraved. It was engraved with such firmness that it can never be erased. As it was with Judah and Israel, so it is with all of fallen humanity. 

Now, it’s not only that individual sins were written on the tablet of their hearts, but also that sin itself was inscribed on their hearts. This gives a picture that the heart itself has been corrupted, and this is seen in how the NET translates vv. 2-3a: “Their children are always thinking about their altars and their sacred poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah, set up beside the green trees on the high hills and on the mountains and in the fields.” Here, we see that the people always have idolatry on their mind. 

In our day, many don’t think of actual gods and goddesses; rather they simply think about themselves–how they can find life apart from the Lord. Fallen humanity either creates ‘gods’ in their own image, or (for the more intellectual who shun religion), simply make themselves the god of their own life.

Because the heart itself is corrupted, everything else about fallen humanity has been corrupted–reasoning, choosing, feeling. Even the body often does not work as it was intended. Sin has corrupted everything about us.   

The Results of the Diagnosis

In verses 3b-4, the Lord tells Judah of the judgment to come as a result of their idolatry. He promises to give both their wealth and their land to others, and make them servants of foreigners. Why? He gives a straightforward answer: For in my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn forever (v. 4).

Then, however, the Lord makes a general statement, which we can see is the result of the incurably bad heart. The Lord first says that a certain type of person is cursed. He says, “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord” (v. 5). Remember what we said about the root of all sin? It’s found in the foolish desire to find life and purpose independently of God. This verse describes such a person.

When one turns his heart away from the Lord, his only recourse is to turn to himself and others. He is trusting in flesh for what he needs and wants. The problem with this is that every fallen human being is primarily concerned with his or her own well-being. The Lord says that such a person is cursed. It’s not that the Lord is placing a curse on him or her. Rather, He is simply stating what will happen to this person.

In the next verse, the Lord says, “He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land” (v. 6). The Lord has drawn a picture of the fate of a person who trusts in himself. This person, the Lord says, will always be dry and unfulfilled. Now, wait, many people seem happy with wealth, power, status, etc. Right? They seem that way, but those things can never satisfy the deepest thirst of the human soul, and so they will always strive to seek after more. Those who have wealth, power, and status want more. They are truly never satisfied. Worse, the person described by the Lord uses whatever he or she can–including others–to get what he or she thinks will bring satisfaction (only to see it too lead to emptiness).

The Blessed Person

In contrast, the Lord says the one who trusts in Him will be blessed. Notice that He says what seems to be a repeating phrase: “. . . the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord” (v. 7). They really aren’t repeating phrases, though. There are two specific emphases here. The first phrase speaks of a person who “trusts in the Lord.” This is an active phrase, indicating that one intentionally places his or her trust in the Lord at specific times. The second phrase, “whose trust is the Lord,” indicates a state of being. This person has surrendered his or her life to the Lord, and so trust in the Lord is the default attitude of the heart.

This person, the Lord says, is like a tree by the river. Like the tree, the person has been rooted deeply and receives all he or she needs from the water. This is the inevitable result of trusting the Lord. Instead of constantly seeking satisfaction on his or her own terms, the blessed person has entrusted life itself to God and has found the true Satisfier. Notice that there is a further result:  Not only does this person receive all he or she needs, but is also said to “not cease to bear fruit [even in the year of drought].” In Scripture (particularly in the New Testament), the idea of fruit almost always has the idea of going forth and doing good to others. Because the blessed person has all he or she needs, attention can now be turned to others for their good.

But there’s a problem. Where do we find such a person? How can such a person exist since all have this incurable disease of sin, resulting in the foolish attempt to live independently of God? If sin itself is written on the tablet of the fallen heart, how can one be made to turn to God?

That is the beauty of the New Covenant…. which we will discuss in the next post.