Jeremiah 17:5-8

In the name of our Savior who speaks to us through his Word, dear fellow servants of our Lord,

A couple years ago I saw a story about it on the local news, so last night I decided to go online and see if I could find it. And there it was – prairietumbleweedfarm.com! Yup – you guessed it! They grow and sell tumbleweeds! Right on their homepage – underneath their motto: “If they don’t tumble we don’t sell them!” – they state: “We ship tumbleweeds anywhere in the world.” And their home base? Garden City, Kansas . . . . “Tumbleweed Capital of the World!” I’m not sure if we should be more concerned about the people who make money selling them or about those who actually buy them! And I used to think that tumbleweeds were only good for target practice on those long trips through western Kansas!

Aside from a novelty item, we’d be hard-pressed to come up with a genuine use for tumbleweeds. After all, they’re just “weeds” that “tumble,” with no life-giving connection. You and I would be just as useless spiritually if we lost our connection to our source of strength. So let’s listen to the Lord as he speaks to us through the prophet Jeremiah. Let’s figure out what we are spiritually:

“Tumbleweed or Towering Tree?”

I. Trusting in man leaves us high and dry
I. Trusting in God brings us water and life

Jeremiah had been given the difficult duty of announcing the Lord’s judgment on Judah. The message was vivid and unmistakable. The Lord told Jeremiah not to marry because famine and the sword were coming. He instructed him not to go to a house of mourning because the Lord no longer would have any pity for his people. Nor was Jeremiah to enter a house of feasting because the sounds of joy were soon to end. The Lord would be severing relations with his covenant people. Jump back to the verse right before our text and we see that the people had only themselves to blame. The Lord tells them (Jer 17:4), “Through your own fault you will lose the inheritance I gave you. I will enslave you to your enemies in a land you do not know.”

Judah would soon learn that trusting in man had left them high and dry (v 5), “This is what the LORD says: ‘Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD.’” When faced with the threat of the Babylonians, Judah turned away from the Lord and instead tried to enlist the aid of Egypt as an ally. The Lord had tried to warn them (Jer 2:18,36), “Now why go to Egypt? . . . You will be disappointed.” Still, instead of repenting and putting their trust in the Lord, Judah turned to military might and political alliances for strength and security.

Soon they would learn how foolish a choice they had made. The Lord describes the fate of anyone who trusts in man instead of in him (v 6), “He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.” Out in the Judean desert one would easily find a number of juniper bushes struggling to survive. When rain comes to other parts of the world, these bushes out in the wasteland fail to benefit. If you want a more modern picture, think again of the tumbleweeds of western Kansas. Due to a lack of water and a very limited root system, tumbleweeds easily lose their ties to the ground and are at the mercy of the wind as to where they end up. They become nothing but lifeless, useless, tumbling weeds! They’re left high and dry, just like the one who puts his trust in man. In our psalm from this morning, those who forsake the Lord are described as “chaff that the wind blows away” (Ps 1:4). By trusting in man, the nation of Judah was left to face the bitter consequences – isolation, deprivation, and condemnation.

“You can do anything you set your mind to do!” Do you believe that? We want to. After all, we hear it all the time – in the business world, in education, in athletics. And yet while such cheerleading may get us all fired up, in the end we run up against the inadequacies of the human flesh. We fail! We lose! We let ourselves down! We find out that there are things that we can’t do, no matter how hard we try. Now I’m not saying we should all be pessimists who are afraid to attempt anything difficult. But we have to realize where our real strength is found. The apostle Paul did say, “I can do everything,” but he added these important words: “. . . through him who gives me strength” (Php 4:13). Without God, we’re helpless. We’re like tumbleweeds, left high and dry. But with the Lord, anything is possible. With the Lord we’re no longer tumbleweeds – we’re towering trees. Trusting in God brings us water and life!

Ask a random number of people today what they’re looking for in life, and you might be surprised how many give you an answer having to do with security. Then ask them where they think such security is found, and the answers will vary: in a large bank account, in stable relationships, in good health, in financial investments, etc. The problems with all those answers is that they’re all temporal solutions — none of them will last beyond this lifetime. For real security we need to think beyond anything found on this earth (v 7), “But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him.” Throughout Israel’s history the Lord had proven himself trustworthy time after time. What he promised, he fulfilled. He always provided, always delivered, always responded to his people’s cries for help. And the best was yet to come, for the Lord would respond to the world’s cry for help by fulfilling his promise of a Messiah. When it comes to salvation, on our own we’re all left high and dry. We have no solution – our own works can’t cut it; we can’t bargain with God; we can’t just “do our best” and “hope for the best.” No, God had to step in, wipe our sins away, and plant us once again in his kingdom through the suffering and death of his very own Son, who himself invites our trust when he says (Jn 14:1), “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.” In Jesus our biggest need has been met. “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him.”

When we trust in the Lord, then we’ll find the life-sustaining water we need. Then we 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” (v 8 ). What a difference from that lifeless tumbleweed! Unlike the high and dry bush in the desert, the man who trusts in the Lord is a strong, vital, fruitful tree. Even the unending heat and dryness of the summer are no threats to him. The secret to his fruitfulness? His nearby source of water! Where there is water, there is life. The Lord gives us that living water through his promises of forgiveness, protection, and salvation. He makes us alive again, standing tall as towering trees, firmly rooted in his Word.

If you’re opposed to the idea of tumbling aimlessly through life like a rootless weed, then dig in to the Word of God! Plant yourself here in God’s house every Sunday. Open your Bibles in your homes so you are regularly exposed to the “Son-light” of God’s love, evidenced in all that our Savior did so we could once again stand tall as fruitful trees. Keep yourselves close to your source of strength. Keep your roots by the stream of God’s Word – the water of life! Then you’ll never have to fear when the heat is on, when adversity strikes. When life on earth gets tough and all earthly resources seem to dry up, leaving our strength sapped and our willpower weak, we still will survive. That’s because all our cares, all our worries, have been taken care of in Christ. With roots firmly grounded in the Word, the everyday challenges of life can be met head-on, and in the end we’ll still be standing tall.

And we’ll still be bearing fruit. Trusting in God guarantees that our leaves will “always [be] green” and they will “never [fail] to bear fruit.” And isn’t that why we’re still here on this earth? We live in a world full of tumbleweeds, of people being tossed through life with no roots, no real connection to what can truly give them life. Don’t be fooled by what you see on the outside. People have learned to mask their pain and hopelessness. They’ve learned how to hide their despair. They present a strong front on the outside, but inwardly they’re wasting away. So many have misplaced their trust in someone or something that can’t do a thing for them when it comes to their salvation. They’re dying of thirst, soon to tumble into eternity with no hope, no joy, and no Savior.

Being planted by the water of life means that you and I can’t help but produce fruit. Only by cutting ourselves off from the Word will we be found with bare branches. So stay rooted in the Word – not only for your own sakes, but also for the sake of others, others who need to know that “when heat comes” there’s no reason to fear; and “in a year of drought,” there’s no reason to despair. They have the same Savior we do, one who has promised them also (Mt 28:20), “Surely I am with you always.”

Trusting in man leaves us high and dry. Trusting in God brings us water and life. So what will it be for you: tumbleweed or towering tree? Out on the Prairie Tumbleweed Farm a large tumbleweed is worth $25 plus shipping. But if you live like one you’re not worth a nickel! How different it is for the towering tree! A life firmly rooted in God’s Word, one bearing plentiful fruit, is priceless! And, best of all, that life never ends!

Amen

–Pastor Jonathan Rockhoff