The Cure is There if you Look for It

(Photo from crosswalk)

Today's Old Testament lesson includes the verse: "Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?"--Jeremiah 8:22

Gilead was a mountainous region that was known for its agricultural products, particularly for its healing medicines.

The land of Gilead was known for its balm, a liquid rosin that flowed or dripped from certain trees such as pine, cedar, cypress, or terebinth. Gilead was most noted for the Balsamodendron Gileadense, a rosin-producing tree native to that area. Because of easy access to medicinal ingredients, many physicians made their homes in Gilead.

The Book of Jeremiah laments both the spiritual waywardness of the Israelites and the impending threat of Babylon, which later did destroy the Temple in Jerusalem. (King Nebuchadnezzar expelled the Israelites from the region during the Babylonian Exile that occurred in the 6th century BCE.)

There would be no material balm that would cure Israel's idolatry (the worship of something other than God). Many Christians believe that Christ is the balm that Jeremiah is seeking.

Note: Foster City's Gilead Sciences is its largest public company, currently valued by the stock market at $142 billion. Founder Michael Riordan originally named the business Oligogen in 1987 but changed it to Gilead Sciences when he heard the biblical passage. He could have done worse.