Stunted Shrub or Green Tree

Bad news or good news, which would you rather receive? Most prefer good news. Because of a government clerical error, my friend Paula received a notice from the Internal Revenue saying their business owed $36,000 in back taxes. The misunderstanding was resolved, but Paula’s initial reaction was over-the-top hyperventilation.

            Unlike Paula, the Israelites sometimes got unwelcome news because of their disobedience. One of the ways God told about Israel’s future was through prophets. Through them, God sent messages to the obedient and disobedient. Those messages varied in degrees of blessing or meted-out justice. God’s prophecies sometimes arrived amid similes and metaphors, in comparison to something Israel could identify such as the plant kingdom. God characterized those who strayed as “stunted shrubs in the desert with no hope for the future” (Jeremiah 17:5 NLT). That’s dry, crusty land where reptiles grow thick skin to survive.

On more than one occasion God sent messages through Jeremiah. For several generations, some clans in Israel worshiped idols and practiced detestable things such as sacrificing their morals and children. God described them as having traveling feet that walked away from God because they trusted in their own strength.

However, God compared a faithful follower to a tree “planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream” (17:8). This tree, portrayed as green and fruit-bearing even in droughts, is also personified as having no fears or worries (17:8 NIV).

The two prophecies include plentiful crop and crop failure. Years ago, I had a fine garden -- organic fertilizer, abundant rainfall, and the perfect amount of sunny days. That combination produced many tomatoes. So many fruits ripened, we set up saw horses and put a sheet of plywood on top to hold the harvested bounty.

But another spring my smaller garden and three spindly tomato plants got a late start due to cold mornings. After too much shade and lack of moisture, nibbling worms also bit into those small red fruits. In July, we picked half a dozen pitiable runts – a bad crop from shriveled vines.

Throughout Jeremiah’s life he delivered prophecies of horror and hope to Israel. Although he delivered plenty of bad news, he also broadcast the very best news: a Savior for all. God pledged: “I will fulfill the gracious promise I made to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah . . . I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line” (33: 14, 15). 

            Most of us, if we’re honest, are a mixture of good and not-so-good, stunted and sturdy. We’re all in need of divine nourishment from above. Writer Mary Connealy pens that concept in her tagline beneath her signature: “Standing on his promises, falling on his grace.”

            In her slogan, Mary captures the human drama of deliverance: brokenness arriving at healing, non-producers finally flourishing with fruit, and the beat down rising to receive and produce blessings.

            The promised fruit bearing branch did arrive in the person of Jesus Christ. So even though we live in a dry and crusty land with thick skinned reptiles all around us, we rely on a Savior, who said, “In the world you have trouble: but take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

What news does our future hold? God alone knows, but we know that despite circumstances we have a gentle shepherd to guide us through drought or rainy seasons as long as we stand on his promises and fall on his grace.

            Index Card Scripture for Week 19: “This is what the LORD says: ‘Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls’” (Jeremiah 6:16).