Jeremiah 17:5: “Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.”

The word curse is ’arur. This has the idea of being removed or being without God, without His protection, presence or covering. When someone curses another person he is literally telling a person to be without God.

Curse is the man.  What catches my attention is the word used for man. It is the word gavar.  This is a strong man, a powerful man, a hero.  Such a man is without God if he trusts in man.  The word trust is batak which means to cling or adhere to. The next word for used for man is different than the first word used for man (gavar).  This time the word is adam.  This is a man of the flesh, a natural man. So this verse is really saying, “Curse is the great and powerful man who puts his trust in a natural man.”  In other words a great and powerful man who puts his trust in the advice and strength of a natural man is without God.

Then the verse adds that this strong and powerful man is cursed if he makes flesh his arm.  The word make is sum. This has the idea of setting your heart upon.  This strong man who sets his heart upon the flesh of his arm is without God.  The word flesh has the idea of the natural, physical as well as the secret parts of the physical.  This means setting your heart upon your own understanding, a physical knowledge and natural understanding.  The word arm  is zara.’  This is a physical arm but also is used to express physical strength. He sets his heart upon the strength of his own natural understandings and physical knowledge.

Then we read something very chilling.  Such a person’s heart has departed from Jehovah.  The word for heart is lev which is  your passions and the word for depart is yasur, which means  to turn away, put away, remove oneself.  Someone who has set his heart or passions upon his own understandings, strength and abilities has turned his passions away from Jehovah.  That is Jeremiah’s definition of being under an ‘arur, a curse.

So we  look at this verse and it is easy to  tell ourselves that this surely does not apply to us.  Yet, there are many times when we face a difficult situation and we begin to fret about our problem. Right there  we are ’arur (cursed), because we are looking at our problem through the eyes of the flesh and not the eyes of God.  So we take hold of ourselves and we tell ourselves: “Come now, I shant worry.  I have many resources to draw from, I have certain abilities, I am strong, I am capable.”  That is when we start setting our hearts upon our own strength.  Then we look at the circumstances and we think of all the positive things in our natural strength and understandings that will resolve the problem. So we start using our natural understanding, our own strength to confront the problem. We may even find some relief, but it is only temporary and not entirely satisfying.  We had been approaching this problem without God, our passions have left God and thus from the beginning we are approaching our problem under a curse.

Yes, maybe we have the strength to work through the problem, maybe there are natural resources out there that will get us through the problem. Perhaps God will use this to get us through.   But, we are not looking to God our passions have left God.  Our strength could fail, our resources are not dependable and that uncertainty creates a growing fear and terror.

However, when we look to God and tell Him, “its ok, if the worse happens, even if the problems does not resolve, so long as I am in the center of Your will, I am ok with that.”  Then, for the first time we stop fretting, the curse has been lifted and God is now involved in our problem. This is where we find true peace in that problem.

Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not to your own understandings.” In the Hebrew this word for lean is sha’an which means to find rest in something and is in a Niphal form which means it is reflexive. Thus, this verse is telling us, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart or your passions and don’t find rest for yourself in your own understandings.  It is ok to use your understandings to figure out the problem, but don’t find your rest in that. The verse continues by saying, “In all your ways acknowledge Him. In Hebrew that word for all is kol and the best English rendering for that word is all, all of your ways, your understandings, your abilities and strength acknowledge that He is the source of it all.

The verse concludes that he will then direct your paths.   Too often when we face a difficult decision we immediately try to figure it out the best solution.  That is ok so long as we first hold it up to God, present it to Him in prayer and begin looking for His best solution.  Many prefer to run to the arm of the flesh and seek advice, but it is not advice they seek, they really want someone else to tell them what to do.   They just don’t trust their own hearts which is joined with the heart of God.  A good and God fearing friend can offer advice to help confirm what is in your heart if you have problem discerning what God has revealed to your heart, but too often we just leave God out of the equation and trust in man’s advice or our natural understanding, the arm of the flesh and our hearts once joined with God departs from the Lord as warned in Jeremiah 17:5.