Now is the Time for the Righteous to Flourish

Jeremiah 17:7 Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD And whose trust is the LORD. 8 For he will be like a tree planted by the water, That extends its roots by a stream And will not fear when the heat comes; But its leaves will be green, And it will not be anxious in a year of drought Nor cease to yield fruit.

The notion of "being blessed" in the Scriptures is tied to the idea of being fortunate. This "fortune" isn't due to luck or chance. Rather, it is a grace that is freely and richly lavished upon the man or woman who has found favor with God. Here, Jeremiah declares that it is the man who trusts in the Lord that is blessed.

If you notice, verse 7 repeats itself: "...the man who trusts in the LORD...whose trust is the LORD." This is no mere Sunday religion sort of trust. This is a radical sort trust and sense of dependency upon no other than LORD Himself. Here, lordship and trust go hand in hand. You trust Him because He is the Sovereign Lord of all the universe. All things are in His hands, and He is the One in control. Whatever happens, whether good or bad, He is Lord, all things are His, and all things are at the disposal of His will.

Therefore, as we submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and trust in Him, Jeremiah reminds us that even when times are tough, the blessing we have received enables us to flourish during difficult times. He compares the righteous to a tree planted by water that has dug its roots deep into the ground, so that even when times are dry and hot, the tree will not suffer the stress of such an environment, but that it will still remain green and continue to produce fruit. I believe such is a word for our time as well.

Then, like now, is the time for the righteous to flourish. The nation Jeremiah spoke to, like ours, was a nation under judgment. They, like us, were troubled by wars, a faltering economy, and other "natural" phenomenon. Times were tough then, but the LORD was bigger than all their tough times. And through it all, the LORD promised that even in the midst of judgment, the righteous would continue to flourish. No, then, like now, that doesn't mean the righteous would see great material prosperity. But what it does mean is that even through a fiery ordeal, the righteous can expect God to act on their behalf in whatever situation they go through. The righteous know that their afflictions will be many, the righteous know that the wind and the waves will assail even the homes they have built, but through it all, the righteous know that God is with them, and for that they are blessed.

So my brethren, trust in the Lord, dig down deep, and do not give up. The Lord says now is the time for the righteous to flourish. Even while living in the midst of a land under judgment, continue to sprout, continue to grow, continue to bear much fruit. Things are getting hot, and will continue to get hotter. But there is a river that flows, that makes happy the city of God.

Good words Kingjimmy.

Might I add, the door back to Egypt is closed. Nothing will be more pleasing to God, than for His own to trust Him in the desert.

For Those Who Hear His Voice

Between two doors is a defining place;
\tit tests what you believe.
What you had is gone for good,
\tyour future just conceived.

Will you trust in God alone,
\tyour course to now direct,
or will you cling to familiar things
\tand miss what He has next?

Unfortunate the one who does not look
\tto Him for what He’s planned;
he charts his course himself instead
\tand on his own he stands.

Better the one who looks to God
\tand hopes His open door;
he seeks Him hard in his time of need
\tfor what He has in store.

Still there is one who as he seeks
\tfor the door He has in mind,
discovers yet a better door;
\tthe Master he does find.

‘I am the door’, He tells His own,
\tHis own will hear His voice;
He goes ahead and prepares the way,
\tand they follow and trust His choice.

MJ

Well said, Jimmy!! Much like in the days of
Sodom and Gommorah; when Abraham interceded
if perhaps a few righteous could be found, then
maybe God would relent of His Judgment!! I
think God is still seeking those who thirst
for righteousness and satisfying them!

But there is a river that flows, that makes happy the city of God.

I enjoyed your poem/hymn MJ.

Hi Jimmy,

Haven't "talked" to you for ages. I don't post often nowadays, but I read and appreciated your words here.

I sometimes wonder if there is any deeper truth to be apprehended than this "trust" Jeremiah talks about.

"Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is..." (That's what the KJV has, 'hope,' but it seems 'trust' captures the Hebrew sense better; the two words are actually from the same Hebrew root.)

"...For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river..."

When I saw the title of your thread I anticipated you were going to bring up the following passage.

"The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like the cedar of Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God" (Ps. 92.12,l13).

So, in both these passages, the one from Jeremiah you quoted, and this one from the Psalms, the emphasis is on where a person is planted.

It doesn't have anything to do, really, with outward earthly circumstances. No mere earthly circumstance can have any bearing on spiritual fruitfulness, either to enhance it or to hinder it.

"Those that be planted in the house of the LORD..." It's the Son of God who is the House of the Lord. How important these days that we be planted in Him, and growing in Him. There's a Stream in that House...

Christ says, "Abide in Me, and I in you... He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without Me (that is, outside of Me, apart from Me) ye can do [u]nothing[/u]" (Jn. 15.4,5). Much fruit, He says. They are flourishing, then, and this when all around are withering in the heat of the day.

The Day at hand is going to tell on us. Are we "rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith"? (Col. 2.7).

AD

Amen AD. Good hearing from you again.

Reading your post, I was thinking further about the flourishing of the righteous tree. To the world, the fruitfulness of the tree simply must be incromprehensible. How can it flourish in spite of its oppressive environment? Everything else in such circumstances is shriveling up and dying. Yet the righteous lives.

To the visible eye, there must be some sort of secret to this tree's success. And indeed, there is a secret place where this tree draws from. It is that secret place we must draw from in such times as this. For so long as we have access to the secret place, we will experience "times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord." In such trying times, we are just as fruitful as we have ever been. However, in such trying times our glory is all the greater. For our fruitfulness becomes all the more evident in such times. Our "riches" are seen all the more in light of the poverty the rest of the world is abounding in. In such times, let us be sure not to lose our love, our joy, and our peace.