Jeremiah (1-31) 17:5 Commentary and Bible Study

The theme then changes, and now it is materialistic trust. ‘Thus saith the LORD; ’ – a solemn utterance is coming up – ‘Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm.’ The moderns mostly go for ‘mankind’ – ‘Cursed be the man trusted in mankind.’ That is going too far. That misses the point; it is about trust in the ideas of man, human strategies, human solutions, not mankind specifically. Interestingly, the word ‘man’ occurs twice here: the first ‘man’ in the Hebrew indicates man in his strength, and the second ‘man’ indicates man in his weakness. He is both of course. Man is potentially very strong. He is given the power of reason; he is given language, and many special and unique gifts not found in any of the animals. He needs to operate these by the help of God, and he is potentially strong by the help of God. But equally he is a weak thing. He changes his mind; he vacillates; he lacks wisdom so often. Bearing this in mind – that there is a strong man and a weak man in the verse – makes it all the more forceful. ‘Thus says the Lord, Cursed be the man’ – he looks fine and powerful and strong – ‘that trusteth in man’ – but he is trusting in man who is at the same time weak. That is pathetic: to put his trust in men, in politicians, in entertainers, and in human solutions. Cursed be the man that trusteth in man rather than in God. ‘And maketh flesh’ – fallen human nature – ‘his arm.’ ‘Arm’ is put here for strength. Fallen human nature becomes his strength, what we can figure out for ourselves, what we can accomplish. Certainly there is often much for us to think about, but prayer comes first and trust in the Lord, and especially in matters of Christian service. The trouble is that, if we are trusting in entirely human solutions, it is an indication of something else. ‘Whose heart departeth from the LORD.’ There is something the matter with our affections. There is something that we are after, something we want, and we are already moving away from the Lord, and beginning to backslide. That is why we don't trust him first, and commit everything to him first. ‘For he shall be like the heath in the desert’ – this is about the form in which the discipline comes. The heath in the desert is the waste places. ‘And shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.’ He will be blind to all the blessings of God. The person who trusts in man, even a Christian perhaps, is destitute. He is in a desert spiritually speaking. He is destitute of wisdom, destitute of comfort, of fruit, of joy and peace, and he can't see the promises and the blessings of God, and the spiritual provisions that are available to him. He has lost sight of them. He will lack fellowship among God's people; he will lack help. This is what will come upon the failure to put the Lord first. Then the positive verses flow here. ‘Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord.’ We need to know that when we read ‘blessed’ in Jeremiah, it translates the word which comes from ‘to kneel’ and it means, in effect, thankful and full of praise. When you read ‘blessed’ in the New Testament, it translates the Greek term for supremely happy. So ‘blessed are they’ in the Beatitudes in Matthew 5: ‘[Supremely happy] are they.’ In Jeremiah ‘blessed is the man’, means so grateful and thankful is the man. [‘Thankful and full of praise]’ – he has proved the Lord – ‘is the man that trusteth in the LORD,’ – obeys him, relies upon him, runs to him, seeks his blessing and help – ‘and whose hope’ – whose great anticipation – ‘the LORD is.’ One day I shall see him as he is; one day I shall see him face-to-face. Full of praise and thankfulness is the man who trusts in the Lord, and anticipates that great meeting one day. Even before that happens, ‘he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh.’ We have seen those words ‘shall not see’ from the godless earlier, and there is a contrast here. He who departs from the Lord ‘shall not see’ good, while he who trusts in the Lord, ‘shall not see when heat cometh.’ He won't worry; he won't be concerned about it; he will scarcely notice when the heat comes, because his roots run so far and so deep, and so adjacent to water, that he is unconcerned by a barren period in the weather, a dry spell. His leaves continue to be green. He is full of life. He will be like a tree planted by the waters’, even though he isn't; he is in the middle of a desert; Jeremiah has just told us that. But it will be for him as though he is planted by the waters and he won’t know drought and heat.