I. Sin is the consumption not of the body, but of the soul, and without seeking to establish any curious analogies, but supposing that you were a mere neutral visitor, a mere unconcerned spectator of this world, you would see all its inhabitants labouring under a disease which has these characteristics: (1) It has its seat in the very citadel of life. Sin is deep in all the soul. The carnal mind is enmity against God, so unsound that it is not subject to God's law, neither indeed can be; the whole head is sick, the whole heart faint. (2) It is an hereditary disease. It is in the race, inveterate, a cleaving curse, a rankling virus. Each one is "shapen in sin," and with the dawning intelligence of each, sin is what first develops. (3) It is a fatal disease. It has as good as taken the life of the soul already, and when it has run its course it will infallibly end in the second death. It has no tendency to arrest itself, and there never has been an instance where it stopped spontaneously, and of its own accord passed away. (4) It is a flattering disease. Very seldom does the sinner feel as if he were labouring under a deadly distemper. (5) In many instances it proves an acute and agonising disease.
II. Notice a few analogies between Judah's balsam and that better balm which heals the wounds of sin the anguish of the soul. (1) There was no great show about the tree itself. It had no particular grandeur or beauty. And so with the Saviour. He had no outward form nor comeliness. (2) The balm tree was a stranger in Palestine. The Saviour was a stranger in our world. (3) In order to obtain its healing essence, they used to wound the balm tree. And in order to give forth in one conclusive act the merit of His life, the Saviour's side was pierced. He was obedient unto death. He poured out His blood and made His soul an offering for sin.
J. Hamilton, Works,vol. vi., p. 151.
Reference: Jeremiah 8:22. W. M. Punshon, Old Testament Outlines,p. 245.