Jeremiah 8: 22 Is there no balm in Gilead, is there no physician there? Why then is there no recovery for the health of the daughter of my people?
A balm is an aromatic, medicinal substance derived from plants. Gilead was an area east of the Jordan River, well known for its spices and ointments. The “balm of Gilead” was, therefore, a high-quality ointment with healing properties. The balm was made from resin taken from a flowering plant in the Middle East, although the exact species is unknown. It was also called the “balsam of Mecca.” Myrrh is taken from a similar plant. The Bible, therefore, uses the term “balm of Gilead” metaphorically as an example of something with healing or soothing powers.
In a context when regarding the above Scripture, when Jeremiah hears about how Babylon will lay siege to Israel, Jeremiah weeps and asks if there is a balm in Gilead. In other words, he asks, “God, is there any way you can heal us?” Once again, in Jeremiah 46:11, God tells the Israelites to get a balm in Gilead, because they’ve wounded themselves beyond repair. He doesn’t literally mean get a physical balm to fix your problems. But they would’ve understood the imagery. At the time, the Israelites had turned to a temporary solution, and God makes that clear in Jeremiah 46. They’d consulted other nations, other gods, and other methods to heal their sin problem. Babylon represented the consequences of that sin, but even after the Babylonian nation crumbled, and Israel returned after 70 years, they still had festering wounds from sin. They still needed an ultimate balm that could heal them.
Jesus is the true healer and physician. He is the Balm of Gilead who binds our wounds and restores us. We may attempt to turn to temporary solutions and balms, but ultimately, we need the true balm of Gilead to heal our souls. As with Israel who had turned to temporary healing solutions, so many in this world have turned to other ‘solutions’ to find their healing, be it drugs, sex, alcohol, or the pursuit of fame or fortune. Whatever the ‘healing potion’, the reality is that only the true Balm of Gilead – Jesus – can heal us and bring us into a place of rest and peace. Only Jesus can cure the deeper spiritual cuts that needed ultimate healing.
Just as Israel realised that temporary solutions only fails, as when they made a golden calf in the wilderness, just so we need to be spiritual awakened and revived to the truth that only God presents lasting and real healing for the spirit, soul and body. Do we trust in temporary balms? Do we apply them to festering spiritual wounds? Or have we turned to the ultimate healing physician, who can truly cure our ailments?
Jesus is the Balm of Gideon, therefore, the cure for all mankind. God wants us to be revived and awakened to this awesome reality. Consider that treatment is something that health care providers do for their patients to control a health problem, lessen its symptoms, or clear it up. A cure, however, helps to take a health problem away for good. Jesus is, therefore, the cure, not the treatment for sin, oppression, and affliction. By His Blood, we are cured of the afflictions and maladies of the spirit, soul and body. What does a cure do? To heal or restore health. Restoration flows from revival. Through revival, people are introduced to the cure, Jesus, who is the Balm of Gilead.
The word cure came to English through French after the Norman Conquest, and ultimately derives from the Latin word cūra, meaning “care.” This “care” could be divided into the physical and the spiritual since the cure was used to mean “spiritual care” or “pastoral charge of a parish” (connected to curate and curé) as well as “recovery from a disease.” A cure can also be preventative so that people do not become sick. Leading people to Christ is the prevention of affliction for only Jesus truly cares about our afflictions and troubles. Did you know, curing is also a method of preserving food to prevent spoilage? With Jesus being our cure, then by His blood, we also undergo the process of curing where we are preserved from judgement and being corrupted by the world and the devil. In Christ, we are the light and the salt, with salt also being a means of preserving food.
So many are afflicted, lost, forgotten, and devoured for they have chosen to forsake the Physician. So many have chosen to turn their backs on Him. So many have turned to other things in this world to heal their pain and hurt. But the good news is that such an ointment exists, for as Jesus cured leprosy, so shall the Lord cure the greatest of afflictions and torments. Isaiah 53 says, “3 He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. 4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.” Jesus died so that we are healed and cured from our suffering and all ailments and nightmares that afflict us!