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Jeremiah 8:22 Amplified Version
Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people restored? (Because Zion no longer enjoyed the presence of the Great Physician!)
Zion no longer enjoyed the presence of the Great Physician. Do we? I know He is here for us. I know He heals today. I know He paid for my healing. Knowing isn’t enough. Am I walking in this knowledge? Do I live in expectation of the presence of the Great Physician?
Exodus 15:26
Saying, If you will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord your God, and will do what is right in His sight, and will listen to and obey His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases upon you which I brought upon the Egyptians, for I am the Lord Who heals you.
I love that verse because there is a beautiful promise that God will not put any of the diseases upon us that He brought upon the Egyptians, but there is a condition. First, we must diligently (not casually) hearken to the voice of the Lord our God, do what is right in His sight (whose sight?), and listen to and obey His commandments, and keep all His statutes.. Friends, we must live according to what is good in God’s sight. What we believe to be right and correct doesn’t matter.
Jeremiah 46:1 & 11
The Word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning and against the (Gentile) nations.
Go up into Gilead and take (healing) balm, O Virgin Daughter of Egypt! In vain do you use many medicines; for you there is no healing or remedy.
The Great Physician is the only cure. I am no against seeking medical treatment, but it should not be in place of divine healing. God has guided the hands of many natural doctors. However, if there is a spiritual cause to our illness, we would be wise to address the spiritual root alongside any natural treatments we might pursue.
According to www.nrs.fed.us, resin from the beds of the balsam poplar which is used to create the balm of Gilead, is antibacterial, antifungal, and mildly analgesic. Balm of Gilead resin is an ingredient in cough syrups, first-aid salves, and used to heal small wounds, cuts, and scrapes.
Interestingly, according to Numbers 32, Gilead is the region where the sons of Reuban and Gad chose to raise cattle rather than settling into the Promise Land. Divine healing from the Great Physician is the Promised Land. Like Gilead, natural medicine looks easier. It is easier to kill our liver with acetaminophen than to take authority over our aches and pains… or maybe only require as much work from our bodies as the Lord has commanded. Sometimes, we place all kinds of demands on ourselves that God never told us to do, and we can’t figure out why that doesn’t work.
Genesis 37:25
Then they (Joseph’s brothers) sat down to eat their lunch. When they looked up, behold, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites (mixed Arabians) coming from Gilead with the camels bearing gum (of the styrax tree), balm (balsam), and myrrh or ladanum, going on their way to carry them down to Egypt.
The Ishmaelites were the first pharmaceutical sales representatives, pharmacists, drug cartel, drug dealers, or even oily boss babe. I joke, of course.
The gum, nekot, is related to naka which means smitten, afflicted, stricken, and wounded. The balm, tzeree or tzoree, is from a root word meaning to crack as by pressure. The myrrh is an anointing or embalming oil which is sometimes used as a perfume.
In Exodus 20:23, myrrh is a holy anointing oil. In Esther 2:12, myrrh is used as a perfume. In John 19, myrrh is an embalming oil. The Magi presented myrrh at Jesus’s birth. Myrrh was mixed with wine and offered to Jesus as He hung on the cross. Then the myrrh was used to embalm Him.
The Ishmaelites carried three items with them in addition to Joseph who was purchased as a slave and taken to Egypt. All three items point to Jesus which is appropriate since Joseph is a type and shadow Jesus.
The gum was used to heal those who were broken or afflicted. The balm was used to heal topically or through touch so the balm touched those who are hurting. The myrrh is used to anoint and embalm symbolic of Jesus’s ministry and sacrifice for us.
Joseph is called a suffering savior prototype or foreshadowing of the Messiah, but specifically, Joseph is a foreshadowing of Jesus’s first coming. Each of the items that the Ishmaelites carried along with Joseph was also very pointedly a foreshadowing of Jesus’s first coming. Just as Joseph was the savior for both Egypt and the Hebrews, Jesus came to save both the Christians and the Jews.
If you enjoyed this post, you might also like my post on Isaiah 47.