8 They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream.

 I am writing this blog in a day much like the world Jeremiah was speaking to.

A world, a people, in transition.

A world facing some major transitions.

Jerusalem had been destroyed by the Babylonians.  

It was a time for a new normal for a people of cherished traditions and manner of faith as security.

Today, in many way, we find ourselves in parallels positions. Our personal and national lives have been scrambled; and our normal is no more.

And like the Hebrew people, of those early centuries, we wonder where God is in all of the mess and confusion.  Confusion not only our personal live; but our political, economic, social and precious institutions as well.

Both Jeremiah and Jesus are encouraging people to adjust their habits and customs in positive and less defeated ways.

Like the trees, not rootless scrubs, whose roots would grow deep in the earths abundance of water drawn from the river.

Thus staying rooted in God’s promise of provisions and presence.

Unfortunately what we see and hear, in this very physical world, invalidates what Jesus and Jeremiah know as truth.

The message is clear.  Trust in the LORD.

⁷ Blessed are those who trust in the Lord,
   whose trust is the Lord.

At the very end of Jeremiah’s speech he says something quite profound. Something not to be missed:

 
¹⁰ I the Lord test the mind
   and search the heart,
to give to all according to their ways,
   according to the fruit of their doings.

No one want to miss the truth of Jeremiah’s words here.

The truth that ones heart -- not the mind -- is the place where faith is to enable those who trust.

The heart is the place of great strength; because is grows as deep as the roots of the tree that survives the droughts of life.

⁵ Thus says the Lord:
Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals
   and make mere flesh their strength,
   whose hearts turn away from the Lord. 
⁶ They shall be like a shrub in the desert,
   and shall not see when relief comes.
They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness,
   in an uninhabited salt land. 

⁷ Blessed are those who trust in the Lord,
   whose trust is the Lord. 
⁸ They shall be like a tree planted by water,
   sending out its roots by the stream.
It shall not fear when heat comes,
   and its leaves shall stay green;
in the year of drought it is not anxious,
   and it does not cease to bear fruit. 

⁹ The heart is devious above all else;
   it is perverse—
   who can understand it? 
¹⁰ I the Lord test the mind
   and search the heart,
to give to all according to their ways,
   according to the fruit of their doings.  (Jeremiah17)