Thus saith Jehovah Cursed is the man that confideth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from Jehovah.
God speaks here to a nation that had stopped waiting on Him and started bargaining with the empires around it. The curse falls on no crime. It falls on a direction of confidence — and on the heart behind it.
(Older translations read "makes flesh his arm" instead of "makes flesh his strength." That is why the writers quoted below speak of "the arm of flesh.")
The National Failure Behind the Words
This warning lands on people who had every reason to know better.
A curse is pronounced on the one who trusts in man, who departs from the Lord. For such a person there is no hope; he shall not see good; he must be an outcast, like the shrub in the desert. And this is the natural condition of man. His heart has departed from the Lord. He trusts in himself, making flesh his arm to defend and uphold him... He had called them to this place of blessing... He had shown His glory and His power among them. But they turned away from Him, and leaned not on Him but on the arm of flesh, on Egypt.
Kelly sets Judah beside the surrounding nations.
The Jews were only men like the nations, but more guilty; for they turned away from Him whom the others had never known.
The Heart Behind the Trust
The verse lists three things, but Vine treats them as one movement.
Let him not confide in man; let him not make flesh his arm, whether it claims scholarship or anything else; for to do so is to depart in heart from the Lord. Cursed is the man who does this. Faith works by love. The heart is the seat of affection and faith. Where the heart trusts the Lord, that soul will be kept from handing its confidence to man and the arm of flesh. And so it will be kept from the consequences that must follow such a course.
Instruments and the Hand That Uses Them
The verse does not forbid receiving help through people. It forbids resting on the helper.
True, He may and does use men as instruments. But if we lean on men instead of God — if we lean on instruments instead of on the hand that uses them — we bring down a curse on ourselves. For it is written: "Cursed be the man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the Lord." The Lord used the ravens to feed Elijah; but Elijah never thought of trusting in the ravens.
The One Exception
Darby sets this verse beside Psalm 2 to argue who Christ is.
"Blessed are all they that put their trust in him" (Ps. 2:12), but "cursed be the man that trusts in man" (Jer. 17:5). He and the Father are one: can any creature say that?
The record of the Bible's great men points the same way.
Adam failed in his headship in Eden. Noah failed to govern himself when God entrusted the government of the earth to him. Moses failed and could not enter the land of promise... The divine verdict is, "Cursed be the man that trusts in a man, and makes flesh his arm."
What the Curse Looks Like in a Life
Ahaz, one of Judah's kings, shows the verse acted out in one life.
He trusted in man and made flesh his arm, and his heart departed from the Lord. So he brought on himself and his kingdom the resulting curse and barrenness (Jer. 17:5).
The failure of people is not always bad news.
Our God, in real faithfulness to us, will cause our fellow-man to fail us, so that we may learn the folly of leaning on an arm of flesh.
Where the Warning Points
The verse has a positive counterpart, and that is where the warning aims.
God never leaves us in a negative position, simply telling us what we are not to do. Too many dwell only on that side. The blessed man is the one marked by positive confidence in the Lord Himself. Here, then, is the secret of soul prosperity at all times... If Israel fails, if the churches fail, then the blessed Lord is to be exalted all the more clearly before the faith of the true believer.
Summary
- Heart — trusting man and turning from the Lord are one act, seen from two sides.
- Instrument — God feeds His people through ravens, but the ravens are never the point; lean on the hand, not the tool.
- Failure — Adam, Noah, Moses, Ahaz: every trusted man gives way, and God lets ours fail us so we learn it.
- Christ — Scripture curses trust in man and blesses trust in Him; so He is no mere man.
- Blessing — the warning exists to drive us the other way: to open, positive confidence in the Lord Himself.