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

 

All Christ-ians will at some point learn that the arm of flesh, a Christ-ian arm or the arm of the unsaved will fail them.  It is the husband and wife, that do not expect perfection from their spouse, that has a happy marriage.  It is the child that will learn an important life lesson that a parent is not perfect and it is the parent that understands this that will not berate themselves when they inevitably fail a child. It is the wise parent that promises not anything to a child.  It is the wise parent that will explain to the child, at an appropriate time, that they both are growing up and that neither will be perfect. It is God and God Alone that “fails not.”  It is God and God Alone that is the perfect Parent.

Certainly, a spouse or a parent that stives to be godly and Christ-like in their own person and in their relationships with others will come closer to being faithful and being the person they want to be and those around them hope them to be. However, in Scripture we have many examples of persons, good and bad failing others.

What must Abel have thought as Cain, his brother, was beating him to death? Moses must have felt “all things loss” when he realized his jewish roots and he lost the family of his youth. King Saul must have been a great disappointment and a shock to David for his betrayals. Eli must have been a disappointment to a young Samuel as well as King Saul’s manifestation of his true colors before an older Samuel. John the Baptizer said, I must decrease, [H]e must increase.

It had to be a sobering time when the young Christ lost His earthly father, His provider, and His protector. This must have been one of life’s events that propelled Christ to grow in wisdom and stature. Though the betrayal of Judas was prophesied, expected, and known to Christ, how He must have felt when it came to pass and Judas kissed the Cheek of Christ. How must it have felt when the very crowd that welcomed Christ into Jerusalem with Hosannas; a few days later cried for His Crucifixion.

How must Barnabas have felt when he and Paul separated ways and how Paul must have felt when John Mark departed.  Later in Paul’s life or at the end of his life, or spiritually speaking, the continuation of his eternal life, he wrote that all have forsaken him, but the Lord stood with him. What went through Paul’s mind when Peter and Barnabas were caught up in dissimulation and hypocrisy?

The purpose of this article is to put forward the Scriptural principle that states how the arm of flesh, or how man will, without exception, disappoint. It is a set up for discouragement for a person to put all hope in a spouse, it is folly for parents to expect too much from their children, it is folly for politically minded persons to put all one’s hope in their guy.  It is folly for a Christ-ian to put trust in and focus on another Christ-ian for a source of soundness or stability.

After the transfiguration cloud faded from the site of Peter, James, and John, they saw Christ only. Moses and Elijah were gone.  When the blind received sight, they saw Christ. When John received the Revelation of Jesus Christ, he saw all of Heaven open, yet his focus was upon Christ (Revelation 19). In the Old Testament, the cure for the bite of the fiery serpent was to focus upon the brazen serpent upon the poll. Also in the Old Testament, Jacob had to learn that the place where he met God was not to be his focus but the God Who revealed Himself to Jacob, at that place, must be the focus.

An analogy and a paradox:  When one looks at the Cross, one should focus upon the Absence of the Lord Jesus. The Absence of the Lord Jesus from the Cross and His Absence from the tomb is the focus, whereas with crucifixes, their Christ is present on the cross and is dead. The crucifix offers nothing but limbo, the Christ-free Cross and the Christ-free Tomb offers life, abundant life, eternal life, everlasting life, “he that hath the Son hath life, he that hath not the Son hath not life.”

In Christ-ianity there is the doctrine of Christ-ian liberty.  Reader, if you would enjoy the abundant life, you must accept that man, a spouse, family members, friends, government, the local church, your pastor, etc. can fail you; man is fallible.

If you are to find liberty, you must accept that you will fail others because you are fallible. When others fail us and when we fail others, we should not dwell upon that arm of flesh, instead we should look to the everlasting Arm of God, that faileth not and that Arm of God will all the more become the focus of one’s faith.

Reader, “I would not have you ignorant,”  you will fail others and in order not to be discouraged we should understand we will be failed by others. However, don’t use this inevitability as an excuse or way out. This truth should not give us license to break our word or not be what we should be for others. When we fail others we should not simply brush it off and think it was inevitable and others should not expect so much from us.

When others fail us, we should not be shocked or hold that failure against them. In the last sentence, we are not speaking about persons who always disappoints, always discourages, always hurts, everytime; that is a different story and requires a different response. We are speaking to the fact that our faith and hope in God is well placed and will be rewarded by His faithfulness. On the other hand, it is a curse, as our text above states, to put all of one’s faith and all of one’s hope in a person, no matter how good they might be.

Having written all the above, it is not folly to “believes all things”, it is Christ-ian love to believe in others and give others the benefit of doubt, and to expect the very best out of others, this will propel them to be dependable but be not shaken when those we love are proven all too human. Instead of focusing on the fallibility of others and being discouraged, Look to God, Who fails not, Who is infallible, Who changeth not, Who will never leave thee or forsake thee, Who promised to uphold thee and to be with thee, Who loved and loves His own until the end.

It is written of the Psalmist, “David encouraged himself in the LORD.”