Dear Doves:

Keep on looking up.  It won't be long now.  Do what you can to share the Balm.

Gerry Almond

There is a balm in Gilead, to make the wounded whole
There is a balm in Gilead, to heal the sin sick soul.

This beloved hymn had as it inspiration a mountain south of the Jabbock River.  The last interview between Jacob and Laban took place in Mount Gilead (Genesis 31:21).  It was a place well suited for cattle.  The Reubenites and the Gadites, both of whom had large flocks and herds applied to Moses for permission to settle there in the land east of the Jordan River.  Moses granted this permission conditionally.  Within the borders of this Mount grew the celebrated “balm of Gilead” (Jeremiah 8:22 and compare Genesis 37:25).  It came to include the entire area east of the Jordan River. 

The Balm of Gilead, is of course a type of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  And the balm that He applied is to heal the condition found in Isaiah 1:6 which says “From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it, but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores.  They have not been bound up, neither mollified with ointment”.  Verse 18 is God’s invitation to have the Balm of Gilead, His Son heal their dire and dreadful condition.  It reads “Come now, let us reason together, saith the LORD:  though your sins be as scarlet, thy shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be (as white as) wool.  In the beautiful Song of Songs, the Bridegroom-to-be described His bride-to-be as “white as sheep that go up from the washing” (Song 6:6a). 

Jesus Christ, addressing the leading rabbi of Israel in his day said to Nicodemus that he must be born again.  He must be washed in the water of the Word by the Spirit of God.  He commended to Nicodemus the most famous passage in the entire Bible which reads, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.  For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him MIGHT be saved.  He that believeth on Him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God”.  Men have rejected the light that can save because they loved the darkness of sin more than the light of God.  They rejected the Balm of Gilead then and they are rejecting the Balm of Gilead now.

Why such insanity?  Why such foolishness?  It was summed up by the man standing in a prison cell up to his ankles in backed-up sewage, was being witnessed to by a local minister of the gospel.  He was trying to get the man to accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior.  As his time ran out, the prison guard ordered the minister to leave and as he obeyed, he nevertheless tried one more time and loudly asked the man to accept Jesus.  Incredibly, the prisoner’s reply was “I am not ready to give all this up yet”.  That is descriptive of this sinner in the world.  He wanted his shot at a million dollars no matter how he had to lie, cheat, or steal to get it.  He wanted his wild oats, no matter who he had to hurt to get them.  He wanted to rob, and even murder and he, like so many in the cesspool called the world simply wanted, wanted until finally time ran out and then it was too late. He felt he would have to give up too much if he followed Jesus.  Men believe that Jesus came as a baby in a manger, performed miracles and taught neat stuff, and they even believe that He is the Son of God.  They just don’t want Him to interfere with their “pleasures of sin for a season”. 

They therefore reject the only salve that can heal, which is the Balm of Gilead, Yahushua (Jesus Christ).  The Old Testament folks killed Him physically because of rejection when they knew who and what He was, and the New Testament folks kill Him today by the same rejection, and condemn themselves already, because they have not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God. 

I beg you, dear Christian brother or sister, make your election sure.  Repent if you need to (turn away from what you know offends God).  There is very little time left.  Do what you can and where you can for the Kingdom.  God, our Father will lead you if you ask Him to.  All of us can pray.  Hell is real, heaven is real, and the end of this age is very real. 

Look up, our redemption draweth nigh.

Maranatha

Gerry Almond