Arm of Flesh

Jeremiah had a warning and a promise for his people:

Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.
For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.
Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.
For 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, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

Jeremiah 17:5-8

Jeremiah warns against trusting in human power to the exclusion of God. Those who do so will be like a desert shrub, stunted and unable to recognize the good when it comes along. In contrast, those who place their trust in God will be like a flourishing tree, which doesn’t even notice the heat because it has a constant flow of water.

As the people of Judah considered how to deal with the imminent threat of invasion by the Babylonian army, this warning and promise were particularly relevant. Don’t expect people alone to fix this, Jeremiah was saying, either on their own or with help from others. Without God’s help, you will be powerless against the threats you face.

Shortly after his father’s death, Nephi references this passage in a more personal and intimate way. After lamenting the sins “which do so easily beset [him]” (2 Nephi 4:18), he employs two remedies:

1. Self-mastery: “Awake, my soul! No longer droop in sin!” (2 Nephi 4:28).
2. Faith in God: “O Lord, wilt thou redeem my soul?” (2 Nephi 4:31).

Nephi’s determination is sincere and palpable, but so is his recognition that he can’t do this alone. However hard he tries, he needs God’s help to overcome his sins. At the end of the psalm, he sums up this recognition by referencing Jeremiah:

O Lord, I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever. I will not put my trust in the arm of flesh; for I know that cursed is he that putteth his trust in the arm of flesh. Yea, cursed is he that putteth his trust in man or maketh flesh his arm.

2 Nephi 4:34

Near the end of his writings, Nephi references this passage again, this time as a warning to us. Satan will try to lull us into a state of complacency, he says, so that we are unwilling to receive new revelation from God. But God has promised to teach us a little at a time (2 Nephi 28:30; Isaiah 28:9-13). Therefore: “Cursed is he that putteth his trust in man, or maketh flesh his arm, or shall hearken unto the precepts of men, save their precepts shall be given by the power of the Holy Ghost” (2 Nephi 28:31; see also Isaiah 29:13).

Note the qualifier used by both Jeremiah and Nephi. It’s not that you should never trust other people, just that you shouldn’t trust them to the exclusion of God. Other people may strengthen our faith in God. They may teach precepts which they have learned from God. But when our trust in other people becomes a substitute for exercising faith in God, then we are crowding out the source of strength which empowers all else.

Today I will place my trust in God, first and foremost. I will make my own best efforts to face the challenges of the day, and I will enlist the help of others, but I will ultimately rely on God to guide me, to strengthen me, and to deliver me.