“The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jer 17:9).
With just seven Hebrew words, Jeremiah explains why religion, New Year’s resolutions, self-help podcasts, and positive thinking cannot fix what’s really wrong with every human being. Our problem, according to the prophet, is our heart. But what exactly does “heart” mean in biblical Hebrew, and what is wrong with it? Although today we typically associate emotions with the heart, the Bible considers the heart as one’s inner self—where feelings, emotions, inclinations, will, intention, reason, and conscience reside. A heart to a human is much like a CPU to a computer.
All of us are like ticking time bombs, walking through life with an incurable heart disease which, in the final judgment, will be the cause of our death.
Jeremiah tells us there are two problems with the human heart. The first is that it is “deceitful.” The meaning of this word is perhaps best illustrated in the story of Jacob, where Esau says that his brother “betrayed” and/or “supplanted” and/or “tricked me” these two times (Gen 27:36; see also Jer 9:3). Although the world encourages us to listen to our heart for truth, Jeremiah tells us our heart is a liar. It will trick us into believing things that may look true and feel true but are actually false. Borrowing an analogy from Paul Tripp, our heart is an “inner lawyer” that works tirelessly to defend and justify all our sinful actions.
The second problem with our heart is that it is “desperately sick.” This Hebrew word is typically used of incurable wounds or diseases that will most certainly kill us (Isa 17:11; Jer 15:18; 17:9; 30:12, 15; Mic 1:9; Job 34:6). All of us are like ticking time bombs, walking through life with an incurable heart disease which, in the final judgment, will be the cause of our death.
But although there is no doctor, religious leader, psychologist, self-help guru, or therapist on the planet who can heal the incurable disease that distorts our reality and keeps us from admitting the truth, there is a divine Cardiologist who, through the gift of His Spirit and the new covenant, is able to heal us for all eternity by creating in us a brand-new heart. In New Testament terms, this is called the gospel. The gospel forces us to admit that we are desperately sick, sinful, and deceitful on the inside, and that God sent Yeshua—the Great Physician—who offers all who believe in Him a new, God-pleasing heart.
“Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom 7:24-25a).
