Portion of Jacob

Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Why then is there no healing
for the wound of my people?

I was reading Jeremiah last night, and this verse hit me...this cry for a physician, for the wholeness that comes from the balm found in Gilead. A heart-wrenching cry for a miraculous treatment of the wound that's destroying the people.

This struck me too:

O Hope of Israel,
its Savior in times of distress,
why are you like a stranger in the land,
like a traveler who stays only a night?" (Jeremiah 14:8, NIV)

He longs to be Hope. I treat Him like a stranger...a traveler whom I will only allow to stay one night. Anything longer is...inconvenient for me? Too high a demand...too narrow a road...too deep an investigation of the heart...too overwhelming a love...too uncomfortable for my fears, idols, shame?


AH! But this is beautiful...
Jeremiah calls him "the Portion of Jacob" (Jeremiah 10:1)

the Portion of Jacob! Jacob's only hope. Jacob's total plan. Jacob's full trust. It's Him.