Advent: Day 23

There’s a plant mentioned in the Bible that is worth looking a little closer at. Here is what it says in Jeremiah 17:

This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the LORD. That person will be like a bush in the desert; they will not see prosperity when it comes. They will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives – Jeremiah 17:5-6

Today, we are going to talk about a plant in the desert that most modern English translations simply call a bush, but in Hebrew it is understood to be specific plant called an arara bush and is found in the Negev Desert of Israel. The area is barren, dry, and lifeless, but occasionally, travelers will come upon what looks to be a lush green plant that grows fruit the size of a softball. It’s an arara bush. And if you happen to see it in the wilderness, you’ll see that its fruit looks ripe and full of juice and like a welcome refreshment, but when you open it, it lets out a puff of hot air and dust because it’s hollow and dry inside. The inside is only filled with stringy inedible webs. Opening the arara fruit would be a huge disappointment and frustration for thirsty travelers or desert dwellers. Something that looks so promising turns out to be a huge disappointment.

Not only that, but the little moisture found in the fruit’s peel is poisonous. It has been used for centuries by Bedouin shepherds to coat their blow darts as they hunt jackals. What the locals will also warn you is that if you touch your eyes after handling the poison in the fruit, it will cause you to go blind. The Bedouin call this arara bush the “Cursed Lemon” or “Sodom Apple” because it grows in the barren salt lands surrounding the Dead Sea where Sodom and Gomorrah were. According to their beliefs, when God destroyed Sodom, He cursed the fruit of this tree as well.

Let’s re-read the passage in Jeremiah now that we understand it a little more fully:

This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the LORD. That person will be like an arara in the desert; they will not see prosperity when it comes. They will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives – Jeremiah 17:5-6

Jeremiah is telling us valuable truths about what happens when we put our hope and trust in the wrong things.

Do you ever feel like it’s all up to you? Like you are the one who must make things happen. You are the one who has to achieve and have all the answers and make the moves.

If you ever feel like your success in life is all dependent upon your own strength, then Jeremiah has some thoughts. Living life according to your own strength will likely only produce frustration, disappointment, and emptiness. When you trust in your strength, you might appear to have it all together, but when we are honest about what’s inside, it’s hollowness, loneliness, and a deep longing that is still waiting to be satisfied. It’s like we are yielding empty fruit. Have you ever achieved a big goal, and it didn’t bring the sense of accomplishment or fulfillment you thought it would? All you could think about was what’s next?

Jeremiah says, “The one who trusts in man will be like an arar; they won’t see prosperity when it comes.”

But thankfully Jeremiah doesn’t just leave us there, he goes on to share the alternative to living life in our own strength. He reminds us that our trust, our confidence, and our hope are found in God. And when we entirely rest in Him, we start to experience the nourishing, satiating life we are so desperate for.

“But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in Him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” – Jeremiah 17:7-8

As you look to a new year, may the weight of believing that it’s all up to you be lifted from your shoulders. May you realize that blessed in the person who trusts God. And finally, may your eyes be opened to see prosperity when it comes.
Amen, and let it be so.