Let’s remember in good times what we have learned in days of trouble.

在顺境时，也别忘了在逆境中所学的功课。

They will be like a tree planted by the water. Jeremiah 17:8

他必像树栽于水旁。-耶利米书17章8节

This was a tree to be envied. Growing on riverfront property, it didn’t have to worry about weather reports, withering temperatures, or an uncertain future. Nourished and cooled by the river, it spent its days lifting its branches to the sun, holding the earth with its roots, cleaning the air with its leaves, and offering shade to all who needed refuge from the sun. 

这棵栽在水旁的树真令人羨慕。它生长在河畔，不须担心天气变化、气温骤降或未知的前景。这棵树由河水滋养并调节温度，日日向上朝太阳伸展枝条，向下抓住土壤扎根，树叶使空气清新，且提供庇荫之处。

By contrast, the prophet Jeremiah pointed to a shrub (Jer. 17:6). When the rains stopped and the summer sun turned the ground to dust, the bush shriveled into itself, offering no shade or fruit to anyone.

与之相反的，是先知耶利米所提到的沙漠中的杜松（耶利米书17章6节）。一旦停止降雨，夏日烈阳将土地变成干旱之处，杜松灌木丛就开始枯干，既不能庇荫也不结果实。

Why would the prophet compare a flourishing tree to a withering bush? He wanted his people to recall what had happened since their miraculous rescue from the slave yards of Egypt. For forty years in a wilderness, they lived like a tree planted by a river (2:4–6). Yet in the prosperity of their promised land they had forgotten their own story; they were relying on themselves and on gods of their own making (vv. 7–8), even to the point of going back to Egypt looking for help (42:14).

先知耶利米为何要拿青翠的树与枯干的树做对比呢？他要同胞们回顾，以色列百姓从埃及为奴之地被拯救出来之后，上帝为他们所行的事。百姓在旷野漂流四十年的时间里，有如栽在水边的树（2章4-6节）。但如今他们身处昌盛的应许之地，却忘了这段经历，反倒倚靠自己和他们所造的偶像（7-8节），甚至还想回埃及寻求庇护（42章14节）。

So God, through Jeremiah, lovingly urged the forgetful children of Israel, and He urges us, to hope and trust in the Lord and to be like the tree—not the bush.

上帝藉着耶利米劝勉健忘的以色列百姓，也提醒我们，要专一仰望和信靠上帝，我们要像那棵栽于水旁的树，而不是不结果子的灌木丛。

Father, in so many ways You have taught us that You alone can be trusted—even when it seems like You are nowhere to be seen. Please help us to recall today what You have already shown us along the way.

天父，祢已用许多方式指教我们，在无可指望的时候，唯独祢仍是可信的。求祢帮助我们今天就仔细思想，
祢从过去到如今为我们成就的一切。

Jeremiah 17:5-10New International Version (NIV)

5 This is what the Lord says:

“Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
    who draws strength from mere flesh
    and whose heart turns away from the Lord.
6 That person will be like a bush in the wastelands;
    they will not see prosperity when it comes.
They will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
    in a salt land where no one lives.

7 “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
    whose confidence is in him.
8 They 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.”

9 The heart is deceitful above all things
    and beyond cure.
    Who can understand it?

10 “I the Lord search the heart
    and examine the mind,
to reward each person according to their conduct,
    according to what their deeds deserve.”

整理：于姊妹