The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
Jeremiah 17:5 “This is what the Lord says: ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind And makes flesh his strength, And whose heart turns away from the Lord. 6 For he will be like a bush in the desert, And will not see when prosperity comes, But will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, A land of salt that is not inhabited. 7 Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, And whose trust is the Lord. 8 For he will be like a tree planted by the water That extends its roots by a stream, And does not fear when the heat comes; But its leaves will be green, And it will not be anxious in a year of drought, Nor cease to yield fruit.’” (NASB)
Ancient Greek historian Herodotus once said of Egypt that it was the gift of the Nile. He had it backwards. Without the Nile, there would be no pyramids, no tombs, no treasures, no temples, no vast wealth, no pharaohs like Ramses or Tutankhamen. Without the Nile, Egypt would be like any other place in the Sahara Desert of northern Africa. But since the Nile flows year round, Egypt was not dependent on rain for life giving water. For Egypt droughts were not as devastating a problem. The Nile flooded every year from the snowmelts thousands of miles upstream in Ethiopia and Uganda. The floods deposited silt that enriches the soil year after year. The Nile was life to Egypt.
Go just a mile away from the Nile, beyond the reach of the floods and irrigation, and true nature of Egypt’s environment becomes obvious. It is a desert drear. Egypt like many other places on the planet, offers it’s inhabitants two radically different choices. Struggle to live a harsh, hostile, and brutal place away from life giving water or live along the rivers and enjoy the harvest. Where would you rather live, in the desert cursed or by the Nile bless with water? The answer is obvious.
One would think that what is so obviously true of between the choice of the desert or the Nile, would also be obviously true of the choice between a cursed culture governed by godless men, fear, and death or a blessed land guided by the one true religion of truth and love.
The text for the sermon is the Old Testament reading Jeremiah 17:5–8. It sets before us the choice between cursed and blessed. “This is what the Lord says: ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind And makes flesh his strength, And whose heart turns away from the Lord… 7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, And whose trust is the Lord. 8 For he will be like a tree planted by the water That extends its roots by a stream, And does not fear when the heat comes; But its leaves will be green, And it will not be anxious in a year of drought, Nor cease to yield fruit.’” (Jer 17:7-8).
Jeremiah is saying here what King David, wrote in Psalm 146:3 “Do not put your trust in princes, Nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help.”
We are living in inconvenient times. Some would say difficult. I don’t think we have reached difficult yet, but we are certainly heading in that direction. No doubt we are facing economic uncertainty, political unrest, fear of war, moral depravity, the leading edge of persecution and darkness, and an ignorance that always leads to captivity.
Today our leaders demand blind trust and obedience. They order trust in politicians, academics, the ruthlessly wealthy, governments, and man made religions. Trust what they tell us to. Fear what they tell us to fear. “Trust in the Lord,” as long as your trust in the Lord yields to trust in mankind first.
They make themselves out to be gods. They promise to end world property, to lower the ocean levels, to tame the climate, to end war, to make all things and people equitable, and banish all ideas that do not further their secular religion and advance their foolish dream of a man made utopia. And too many Christians have bent the knee, but this is nothing new.
This was the problem Jeremiah was confronting when the Lord God sent him to preach the law. The children of God were acting like the children of pagans. They trusted in their human leaders for protection and in themselves for their salvation.
Bible scholars have given Jeremiah a nickname. He is known as the “Weeping Prophet” because he wept over the unbelief of his kinsmen. Jeremiah was a prophet to the southern kingdom of Judah right before Judah fell to Babylon and was led away to captivity. God sent Jeremiah to a crumbling nation to warn of their impending demise. It was a warning that the rulers and people did not heed.
In these four verses Jeremiah sets before the hearer/reader the contrast between those who trust in the Lord God and those who trust in humanity (“flesh”).
The contrast is likened to a tree by water and a shrub in the parched places of the wilderness. The one is green; the other is dry in an uninhabited place. The one bears fruit, and the other does not. Cursed is the man who trusts in himself and in the things of this world, while blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord.
Cursed vs. Blessed
Trusts in man, flesh (v 5a) vs. Trusts in Yahweh (v 7a)
Turns from Yahweh (v 5b) vs. Trusts in Yahweh (v 7b)
Like a shrub (v 6a) vs.Like a tree (v 8a)
In a desert (v 6a) vs. By water (v 8a)
Does not see good (v 6a) vs. Does not fear (v 8b)
Parched places (v 6b) vs. Bears fruit (v 8c)
I am going to repeat those last two. Trusting in the flesh, in human nature, in humanity keeps one from seeing the good. What the world regards as good is actually evil. That ought to be obvious to people who call themselves Christians. It is not. It is truly sad at just how much of the culture Christians all into their thinking. The flesh, human nature, humanity produces no good work in God’s eyes.
Trusting in the Lord God on the other hand produces fearlessness. Trust in the Lord God produces good fruit. What our churches, neighbors, and country need today is fearless Christians and this fearlessness produces fruit. We need a courage that is born of true Christian faith. In other words we need blessed people, not cursed people.
The word used here for cursed by Jeremiah in V 5 “arur” was first used against the devil in Genesis 3:14, “Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all the livestock…”; then against Adam and the ground in Genesis 3:17, “Cursed is the ground because of you; With hard labor you shall eat from it All the days of your life.”
In contrast God speaks the blessing (wayebarek) to the man and his wife in Genesis 1:28. In Genesis 12:3, God told Abram that the one who curses/dishonors Abram God will curse (aor). Also, blessings (baruk, Deuteronomy 28:2–8) and curses (arur, Deuteronomy 28:15–26) are spoken by God on those who either hold fast to or break His commands.
It’s an either or proposition. To deal in just two sharply contrasting, all encompassing, and exclusionary categories is unpopular today. It’s down right offensive to even suggest that God Himself would deal in such absolute terms.
But there it is. Right in front of us. A person is either in a blessed state (we call that the state of grace) or is in a cursed state (under God’s judgment). That’s John 3:18, (you know right after 3:16-17) “The one who believes in Him is not judged; the one who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
There are only those two ways of being. A person either trusts in one’s self, in princes, in kings, and governments, or a person trusts in the Lord God Almighty and everything that that means. It’s either or. There’s no middle way.
It’s not just the prophets of the Old Testament that speak in this way. Jesus did it in the sermon on the plain, Gospel lesson this morning. It’s a sermon of “blessed” and “woes.” “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God… 24 But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full.”
In the language of the Bible, only Christians are blessed. To be blessed is to be a Christian. To be a Christian is to be blessed. The word has more to do with a state or condition, than it has a feeling. As for “woe,” the word “woe” in the Greek is “ouai” and that too is more than an expression of a feeling. Woe is a judgment. It means “alas” with an “oh no!” quality to it. Woe signifies impending doom, condemnation and the wrath of God. Jesus used the “woe” more than anyone else in the Bible.
Jesus and Jeremiah call us to a complete faith, not merely a sliver of it. Over these past few years we see how effective a sliver of faith is against the onslaught of anti-Christian philosophy and politics. A sliver of faith, a weak faith melts in the face of such intimidation.
For too many Christians, faith/trust in the Lord God is a restricted thing. It doesn’t apply to an entire way of trusting and thinking. Think of it this way, faith is restricted to one room of a very large house. It is restricted to the belief that Jesus died for our sins, but has nothing to do with the rest of believer’s life.
But look here at the context. The people had not only turned away from the Lord God in regard to the promised Messiah, they were trusting in their own morality, in their own wealth, in their own kings and rulers, in the treatises they had with pagan countries, and in the pagan philosophies religions of the age.
But here and in the all the Old Testament prophets the Lord God said to His people “If you trust in humanity, in human strength, in human wisdom, and in yourself, you are already cursed. But if you trust in Me, the Lord your God, then you are already blessed.
When the Bible speaks of Christian faith and calls us to believe, to trust with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength it means that we fully trust. That means that
1. we trust God’s promise that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone for Christ’s sake alone,
2. we trust the Lord God , our heavenly Father for our daily bread, and
3. We trust all things will work together for the good to them that trust the Lord.
In other words, we trust completely that our heavenly Father, His Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit care for us in and through the church, and in ours’ and others’ respective jobs and vocations. The Christian faith, meaning both Christian doctrine and the trust that is in the heart of the believer is complete and comprehensive. It contains everything you need for salvation and daily life.
Nothing else will last. Jesus said “Seek ye first the kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:33). Not as a last resort, but first! “Cursed is the man who trusts in man” (v 5).
In contrast, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord” (v 7). Trusting in the Lord is like being planted by an ever-flowing river of water, like a palm tree next to the Nile River in Egypt. It doesn’t matter whether it rains or not, whether the weather is fair or foul. Whether you are loved by the worldly powers or hated on account of Christ.
Luke 6:22-23, “Blessed are you when the people hate you, and when they exclude you, and insult you, and scorn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice on that day and jump for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven. For their fathers used to treat the prophets the same way.” Blessed are you when people hate you, that means, Christian are you when people hate you, because you are Mine says the Lord.
We fail time and time again to live in our blessed state. We don’t love the Lord God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind. Jesus though did not trust humanity. John 2:24 “But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, because He knew all people.”
Jesus entrusted Himself to His heavenly Father with all His life. In the temptation in the wilderness, Jesus left the river Jordan and all the trees and went into the desert where drought is almost every day. There in the wilderness Jesus did for us what we cannot do. He trusted completely an comprehensively the Word of the God and believed that the Father would take care of Him. When He died on the cross, parched and thirsty, not because of any sin in Him, but rather for us our salvation, Jesus said even then, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Lk 23:46).
Jesus trusted in God His heavenly Father– v. 7a. He was like a tree– v 8a, living by the water, (v 8a) did not fear (v 8b), and has bore the greatest of all fruits, saints, blessed ones, Christians who sins are forgiven.
Blessed is the man, Jesus, who trusted in the Lord. Blessed are you who trust in the Lord Jesus. Amen.
Amen.
May the peace that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.