“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)
This is a verse that reveals man's true condition. Christians, who often quote this verse, have hearts that are just as deceitful and just as wicked as the worst of sinners. Getting them to admit that in a personal application is nigh unto impossible.
The immediate context of this verse starts at verse 5 and ends at verse 13. Look at what it says:
Thus says the LORD: “Cursed be the man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the LORD. For he shall be like the heat in the desert, and shall not see when good comes; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. Blessed is the man that trusts in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreads out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat comes, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. As the partridge sits on eggs, and hatches them not; so he that gets riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool. A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters. (Jeremiah 17:5-13)
The historical context was the impending collapse of the Northern Kingdom of Judah. Jeremiah and others had prophesied of this imminent event but there were few in those days who believed this man of God. “We have the temple. God won't destroy us because we have the temple.” That's much like those who think God will not destroy the United States of America because we are a “Christian” nation.
I have talked with many people who claim to have been born again and who think they are on the path to heaven who exemplify what this verse is saying. My mind goes back to more than one who told me that even though they knew that it was contrary to God's will for them to divorce they were going to do it anyway and God would still bless them. One young women in particular comes to mind. She sued for divorce, it was granted, and within a year she was far, far from God. The last time I saw her, which was several years later, she was a chronic drunk and was sleeping with anyone who would have her. She had not been to church at all since she turned her back on God. Oh yes, God was blessing her, wasn't he?
Many boast that when persecution comes they will stand strong and firm and not deny their Lord. Years later you see them again and they have compromised their faith and their testimony not to escape persecution but to escape the inconvenience and discomfort of owning their Lord in front of their friends and family.
I know a man since the early 1970's who has been a missionary, a college professor, a seminary instructor, on the Bible translation committees of over 20 translation efforts, is a Greek textual scholar and who is now sitting in jail because he got caught with his hands doing things to little children that are unseemly and unacceptable. Well-meaning mature Christian leaders had talked to him in his youth about his attitudes and behaviors. Then, as in this case, his answer was, “I didn't do anything wrong.”
No one sets out to make a disaster of their life. It happens because of the deceitfulness of our hearts uniting with the deceitfulness of sin. The Apostle Paul gives a New Testament version of Jeremiah 17:9 when he says:
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. (Galatians 6:7)
There it is again: “Be not deceived.” The worst deception is self-deception. Many who claim to be saved are not. They are deceived. Too often, they are self-deceived.
I once had the occasion to talk with a woman who was suicidal and committed to a mental hospital under constant guard. She told me that she had unsuccessfully tried to kill herself. In fact, the last time had been just a few days previous. As we talked she said, “The wrath of God is on me.” With that I would agree. Then she told me she was being punished because she had murdered her unborn child by having an abortion. I then tried to point her to Jesus Christ who forgives all that will come to him. “Oh,” she said, “I'm a Christian. I made a decision for Christ when I was twelve years old.”
That woman was deceived. If she was a Christian she was not under the wrath of God. If she was under the wrath of God she was not a Christian. But her deceitful heart had told her that because she had made a decision (a term and idea found nowhere in the Bible) she was saved. Decisions do not save you. She was trusting in a decision, a bruised reed, a false hope: she should have been trusting in Christ, the Solid Rock.
Do not be deceived. This is a biblical exhortation repeated and addressed to Christians. Paul, after telling us to not be deceived, goes on to say:
For he that sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. (Galatians 6:8)
There are no weasel-words there. If you live like the devil you will find your lot with the devil. If you live like God you will find your lot with God.
Do not be deceived: you, too, have a deceitful heart. Don't let it fool you.
