Blessed or Cursed? It's simple.

Hundreds of songs based on the Bible expound on the greatness of the blessings of God brought to us as we trust in him. Few, however, reflect on the converse effects if we trust in someone other than the LORD. Similarly, many people know the second part of the text from Jeremiah 17:5-8, but few know the context that introduces it.

Jeremiah records for us one of the great promises of God: “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its root by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; it’s leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”

We have learned that we cannot attribute any competence that we have to ourselves. We owe everything to God. He is the one who produces anything good in us. Now we will see the way that the blessing of this goodness comes to us. Furthermore, we will see, and be warned by, the alternative of not trusting God.

In our modern culture we need to be liberated from the idea that so many things can be neutral. Maybe you have heard someone say, “Well I’m no saint, but I still consider myself a good person.” There is this idea that something might not be the right thing to do, but it’s not called evil either.

According to God’s eternal word there is no neutral; there are no fence-sitters, and no in-betweens. You are either doing the right thing, or the wrong thing. A thing is either good or evil; that’s the way it is in reality. It is either righteous or unrighteous. Jesus said, “You are either for me, or you are against me.” There is no middle ground. We need to get rid of this casual sort of neutrality to our lives. If we are not resting, it’s time to work. If we are not accomplishing something it is time to rest.

Now in our context we are talking about trusting God. We have just read the promise through Jeremiah about receiving blessing when we trust in God. Nevertheless, there persists this idea of neutrality: that we have the option to not do the right thing by trusting God, but somehow we tend to think that doesn’t mean we are doing the wrong thing by trusting in a false god or something.

So, what are the converse effects of not trusting God? Remember there are the three sentences immediately prior to the blessing (You may want to grab a pen or pencil to do some underlining here).

This is how Jeremiah puts it, “This is what the LORD says, ‘Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD. He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives. But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD…’”

So then, what is the alternative to trusting in the LORD? The only alternative is to trust in flesh. Consequently, the person who trusts in flesh is turning away from the LORD. As we saw in the previous chapter, trusting the flesh, or using earthly wisdom, has more to it than what meets the eye.

Trusting the flesh is of the devil.

Remember all the way back to first temptation which led to the first sin, and the fall of humanity. Satan came to Eve, with Adam by her side, and pointed them toward their own personal greatness. He provoked them to trust in flesh. “The serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.” In the categories given to us by the apostle John in his first letter, the first humans fell into the age-old sin: the lust of the flesh (good for food), the lust of the eyes (pleasing to the eye), and the pride of life (desirable for wisdom).9 They wanted what their flesh had to offer, or what Satan offered to their flesh. It seemed like a better plan.

This is what it is to turn from God. Any person who has done this has stepped into a curse from God. Conversely, any person who turns back to God, and trusts in him will begin to walk in blessing.

Have you been trusting in flesh? It doesn’t need to be your flesh that you are trusting in for there to be a curse on your life? Maybe you have trusted the wisdom of a company to get out of a pinch, and you forgot to trust in the power and goodness of God who sees. You may be overwhelmed with circumstances, and you keep telling yourself, “I know I can figure this out, I just need to work harder.” Maybe you are convinced that meetings and discussions are the key to advancing or predicting problems; but they’re not. Perhaps you don’t know what to do, and you have begun to simply give up. Get your eyes off the frailness of flesh. Or maybe you’re not sure, but maybe you seem to be totally fruitless in your physical or spiritual life. Perhaps this is the reason: You have been trusting in the strength of flesh.

Nevertheless, do not lose hope. Only, be brought to the point that you are willing to repent. In the law it is written, “Cursed is any man who is

hung on a tree.”10 The spotless Lamb of God was hung on a tree, and so took on himself the curse that belongs to us. If you will let him he can take the curse off your life, but you must trust him. You must do away with any trust in any other person or thing.

Now, herein stands the importance of Jesus being God; not simply a messenger or prophet of God. Yeshua must be God. We will not get into the proof for this here, but we need to see how important it is for this to be true. If Jesus is not God, then we, as Christians, have placed our trust in flesh. In doing so, we have turned away from God. If Jesus is not God, then he is in direct opposition to God because he provoked us to place our trust in him. Some say that Jesus was not God, but he was a good person. Yet, does a good person intentionally turn people away from

the only true and living God? If Yeshua was not God, then he was not good. On the other hand, because Yeshua was, and is, who he claimed to be – God – his goodness stretches beyond our comprehension.

Furthermore, because Yeshua (Jesus) is God, we must place our trust in him. We cannot then, place our trust in God without trusting in Yeshua. I am not reading into the text here, but I am taking my ideas from what I read in the New Testament. Here are Yeshua’s words, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” Later he was in his last meeting with his disciples, and here is a piece of the conversation.

Yeshua: You know the way to the place where I am going.

Thomas: Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?

Yeshua: I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as Well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.

Philip: Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.

Jesus

Yeshua: Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? (John 14:5-9)

Jesus expected his disciples to trust in God by placing their trust in him. As he said, “I and the

Father are one.” So, if you want to trust in God, and be sure you are not under the curse of God; you must trust in Jesus—Yeshua Ha Meshiach.