At birth or sometime shortly thereafter each of us was given a name. Our given names are important for a variety of reasons and one of those reasons is that of identity and responsibility. If we sign or affix our name to a document or a piece of work then we have identified that document or piece of work as at least partially ours and we have taken some or all of the responsibility for it. For example, if we sign a check then we are telling the bank that we have authorized payment from our account to the payee and that we have taken responsibility for the amount listed on the check. Likewise, putting our name on a homework assignment tells our teacher or instructor that this work belongs to me, the one who has signed it, and I am responsible for the accuracy or inaccuracy of what is shown.
This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the LORD. For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land which is not inhabited. Jeremiah 17:5 (NKJV)
Now, what does our name have to do with trusting in man and not God? Jeremiah chapter 17 is all about the difference between those who trust in their own strength (in flesh) versus those who have placed their hope and trust in the Lord. Let’s look at a few of the differences and in doing so, we will have our answer.
Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit. Jeremiah 17:7-8 (NKJV)
The image here is of two plants, one a bush or shrub and the other a tree. The shrub is planted in the desert or wilderness and suffers from drought and is stunted because of it. The tree is planted by the river and has its roots near the water so that when drought comes it stays green and healthy, yielding fruit all the while. We might be tempted to think that the tree has an unfair advantage because it is planted by the river in the first place but remember, it is God who decides the course of the waters. God brought that water to the tree (the one who trusts in God) in the first place and if the shrub (the man who trusts in flesh) decided to seek the eternal, living water then God would not hesitate to alter the course of the river so that it too could become green and vibrant. The difference here is in the choice to trust and seek God or to trust and see only ourselves and the power of man. Dry and suffering versus abundance and protection, the choice is ours.
O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake You shall be ashamed. “Those who depart from Me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters.” Jeremiah 17:13
Jeremiah writes here that those who forsake God and depart from him “shall be written in the earth” because they would not come to the fountain of living water. They would not turn to God for sustenance and so their names have been written in the dust of the ground instead of in the permanence of the Lamb’s book of life. And what happens to anything that is written on the ground and scratched into the dust of the earth? At the first disturbance by wind, water or passing creature it is wiped out, obscured and obliterated.
The fact is, no autograph in the dust will last very long and with each choice we make we are effectively signing our names either in the permanence of heaven or the dust of the earth. Do our choices reflect our trust in God and an eternal hope that rests on him alone or do they instead show only a reliance on self and that which is temporary and fading? God has promised to provide for us and to sustain us through all of life’s trials and through any drought that comes our way. All that he asks in return is that we trust him and follow in his ways. Where is our trust? Where is our hope? Where is our strength? Find it all in God alone.
That which is written in heaven has a hope, a future and will remain. That which is written in the dust of this place is will soon be gone.