Jeremiah 30:12-13 – The Cure of Sin Sickness Found Only in Christ

12 “For thus says the Lord:

‘Your affliction is incurable,
Your wound is severe.
13
There is no one to plead your cause,
That you may be bound up;
You have no healing medicines. Jeremiah 30:12-13, New King James Version

"There in the Sahara winds," Rich Mullins sings in his song, "My Deliverer Is Coming," Jesus heard the whole world cry for the healing that would flow from his own scars."

Likewise, His hearing proved acute and discerning in Jeremiah 30:12-13. As much as His remnant, being corrected in exile, fears His wrath and exposure that they cannot bring about their redemption in themselves, God says in these verses that their sickness is already within them. It isn't His chastisement by which they suffer. It is the impact of their sin.

As Anthony Lane says in The New Yorker, "Every human being is a puzzle of need." Forlorn, we don't have it within ourselves to plead for help. Like Job, they need a Mediator. Medicines may address symptoms, but we need a core cure for such a basic issue as our disposition to search for salvation other than in God. Only He can provide it. Only, looking forward to Christ's cross and Resurrection as the firstborn of many righteous brethren, is there any hope.

Humans need to linger on the predicament of Jeremiah 30:12-13 before we forsake our ongoing search for sufficiency in ourselves. To our flesh, there is a scandal in Christ's comprehensiveness, and our need for it. We want to help. We want a remedy named for us, and not for Him on Whom we must rely. We must reach the point where our mouths are shut, where only He can speak for us and effect our relief.

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