Self-Inflicted Wounds

“Have you not brought this upon yourself by forsaking the Lord your God, when he led you in the way?” (Jeremiah 2:17, ESV)

When I was working at the United States Steel Corporation, I worked as a management trainee in the maintenance department. One day, one of our employees hit his thumb with a hammer and got one of those blue thumbnails due to blood building up under the nail. So, he remembered an old-timer’s remedy that he heard of. It was to take a drill bit and pierce the thumbnail to relieve the pressure of the built-up blood captured under the nail. He proceeded to take a small drill bit and put in in the drill press. He then turned on the drill press, put his thumb under the drill bit, and ran the drill down into his thumb. The only problem was that he ran the drill bit all the way through his nail and thumb and out the other side. Following this, he had to go to the mill dispensary for treatment. He turned a relatively small issue into a wound requiring treatment and it hindered his ability to function in the maintenance department as usual. Of course, we in the office laughed about his ridiculous decision. However, people do stupid things that create problems for themselves all the time. These are self-inflicted wounds.

This is the situation that the Lord is presenting to Judah and Jerusalem. Judah was under assault. Foreign invaders had come into the land conquering various cities and villages. They left them destroyed and vacant, lifeless. What message did the lord have for them? He asked this rhetorical question. “Have you not brought this upon yourself by forsaking the Lord your God?” It was the nation’s apostasy that led them into this trouble. The Lord had promised the nation His protection. Yet this protection was only available when the walked by faith, that is to respond to the Lord in closeness of heart trusting in Him and His great promise.

Unfortunately, the nation had turned away from following the Lord and turned to worshipping idols and trusting in their own earthly human wisdom. When they turned their back on God by trusting dead lifeless things and their own flawed wisdom, the Lord then allowed these things to provide for their security. Thus, He communicated that they brought their calamity upon themselves via their own apostasy.

Today, many people are doing the exact same thing. There are the ignorant that do not know any better and there are those who know the Lord and His ways but fail to seek Him as they should. The problem with this group of people is that without knowing it they suffer self-inflicted wounds. Now all people believers and the apostate will have struggles in life. Jesus said “In the world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33, ESV). However, the apostate ones unnecessarily compound their problems because of their departure from the Lord. In essence these are self-inflicted wounds.

What is the solution? For the unbeliever it is to trust in Jesus and to seek Him with a whole heart. For those who know the truth but have turned their backs on Jesus it is to repent, that is to turn from their apostasy and seek the Lord and His righteousness. For all it means to turn from half-heartedness to a true and vibrant pursuit of the Lord in life.