Jeremiah 17:9-11 – The heart matters

The human being is a complex being that God has made. Every one of us is essentially made up of a spirit, a soul, and a body. In the Bible, the heart is seen functioning not only in the body but also in the spirit and the soul. In the physical body, the heart is that vital organ located within the person’s chest. It plays a crucial role in our circulatory system by pumping non-stop day and night to keep us alive. It ensures that our blood is sent to be oxygenated in our lungs, then it ensured that the oxygenated blood is sent to provide oxygen to the cells in our whole body.

Relating to the spirit and the soul, the heart is said to be the aspect of us that enables us to feel, desire, and decide. This is the heart that Jeremiah 17:9 is referring to. He is talking about our feeling and emotion, and our desire and decision in relation to pleasing God. Concerning our feeling, desire, and decision, this verse tells us that our hearts are deceitful and desperately sick and hard to understand. Why? Because we all have adopted Adam’s fallen nature, hence we are prone to fall prey to our fallen desire.

Unlike the physical heart, the spiritual heart is hard to fathom. In the body, the function of the heart is strictly assigned and regimented to keep us alive. But in the spirit and soul, the heart is hidden and is hard to comprehend. While we know we need God, yet we may have desires that drive us to make decisions that are contrary to a healthy relationship with Him. The only person that can see our hidden attitudes, and motives is God. And He is constantly searching and testing our hearts. He deals with it when we are wayward and blesses us when we steer our hearts toward pleasing Him.

There are people who seek to gain riches by dubious means. using a bird, a partridge to illustrate, Jeremiah 17:11 shows us the outcome of gaining wealth through dubious means.  It is like a bird, a partridge that hatches eggs that it had stolen from the nest of others. When the birds it had hatched from the stolen eggs had grown, they will definitely fly the coup and leave one's nest empty.  

What does the Bible propose that we do? In Proverbs 4:23, we are told to guard our heart with all diligence, for from it flows the wellspring of life. In Proverbs 3:5 we are urged to trust the Lord wholeheartedly and not to lean on our own understanding. It is undeniable that the heart of learning is the learning of the heart.