‘Your wound is incurable
And your injury is serious.
‘There is no one to plead your cause;
No healing for your sore,
No recovery for you.
...I will restore you to health
And I will heal you of your wounds,’ declares the Lord"
Jeremiah 30:12-13, 17a
Does this seem to make no sense?
I believe the mystery is resolved at the end of the chapter. As well as being a picture for Israel, it's also a story about all of us. In our fallen state we too are far away from Him and cannot come near -- "who would dare to risk his life to approach Me?" He says (verse 21). Yet through Christ's atoning work on the cross, we are given the chance to be brought near to God, to become His people.
The final passage even reads to me in some respects like a description of Calvary:
Behold, the tempest of the Lord!
Wrath has gone forth,
A sweeping tempest;
It will burst on the head of the wicked.
The fierce anger of the Lord will not turn back
Until He has performed and until He has accomplished
The intent of His heart;
In the latter days you will understand this.
Jeremiah 30:23-24
"It will burst on the head of the wicked" is shocking when read as a reference to Christ's death: the wrath of God did indeed burst on the head of the wicked (all of us), but the head that took the blow was that of the pure and perfect One. He died in our stead; He paid the price for us. This is how the incurable wound became curable. It's from nothing we did.
You may wonder why this is in the "blog" section. Well, you probably didn't wonder that, but I'll tell you:
Increasingly insurmountable walls separate people from the love of the God who died for them. Some of these people are my loved ones. They would struggle (to put it mildly) to see anything of Christ and His relevance behind the Christian rhetoric of our day. In the meantime, they are without access to the beautiful Saviour who longs to heal them. And occasionally, just occasionally, the enemy uses them as cannon fodder. I am the indirect target -- if he can afflict me and cause ripples of damage with the same blow, he's laughing -- but they suck it up and move on, not knowing there's a battle raging and that Someone's heart is breaking for them.
This passage gives me a picture to place in front of me. It helps me not lose hope, and to remember that God hears my prayers and is committed to continuing what He started, until He has accomplished the full intent of His heart:
"Your wound is incurable... I will heal you,"
He says to those trapped behind enemy lines.
"Your wound is incurable... I will heal you,"
He says to those who long to rescue them, and grow weary.
"Your wound is incurable... I will heal you!"
These are the words of the Saviour. He knows there is not one of us who does NOT need His healing. The prisoners are not the enemy. Let's remove ourselves from the rhetoric and let the Saviour's voice be heard loud and clear.