HEBREW WORD STUDY – CURSE – ‘AROR ארר Aleph Resh Resh

Jeremiah 17:5: “Thus said the Lord; ‘Curse be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm whose heart, departeth from the Lord.”

While on my journey into the heart of God, I have encountered a road sign saying Jeremiah 17:5. I used to warn my pastoral students in Bible College to pay close attention to this sign post. It seems like that all had visions of becoming a pastor of a mega church just like some College football player dreaming of making it to the NFL. The odds are about the same. 

There are two reason a church becomes a mega church. One is that the pastor was called to that. The other is the arm of the flesh. I would tell my students that if they aspired to being a pastor of a mega church, they need to spend much time in prayer to be sure they are called to that . Otherwise, just drop out of Bible College and go to business school and study marketing. In secular marketing you will learn to develop real cool websites, learn how to rally you faithful to go out door to door and take a survey asking everyone if they do not go to church why and what it would take to get them in church. Then develop program around those points that people look for in a church and, well, you get the point. 

There is a very famous evangelist who started out pretty slow and worked a secular job while trying to get some speaking gigs which brought in a maybe a dozen or so people. One day he had a visit from Bob Barker (The Price is Right guy) who told him he and a couple other investors would turn him into a world class evangelist bringing in millions of dollars. He took the bait and did just that and became a world famous evangelist and millionaire. Many times over. 

Did God call this man to this lofty position. It is not for me to say. What I do know is that if his ministry was created through the arm of the flesh and not God and his heart departed from God somewhere along the way, he is cursed.

Let’s take a closer look at this word curse or aror in Hebrew. Keep in mind, there are a number of words in Hebrew that have been translated into English as a curse. So curse doesn’t necessarily mean a magic spell as we think when we hear the word in English.  

Webster calls a curse an act of wishing misfortune on someone, or saying a formula, or using a charm to cause evil or misfortune on someone or to invoke evil on someone.   Is that what God would do to this preacher if he was depending on the arm of the flesh and his heart departs from God?  

The word aror is in a passive voice in this passage. Thus, this is not an action of God, but a result of what will happen if we trust in the arm of the flesh. The word has the idea of isolating and bringing into ruin or to weaken internally. This has happened to many maga church pastors and famous evangelist. You’ve heard their stories in the news. Some lost their ministry, some suffered divorce. Some even went to prison. That is the aror or curse if you want to use that word.  But many go their merry way without scandal.  I have personally known some of these and I know the other part of ‘aror fits them for they were weakened internally, they lost that first love. You could hear in their preaching, the power was gone, that anointing if you like that word was gone. They were holding onto their empire with a lot of bluff and bluster. 

The problem is not so much looking to the flesh to pull you through. I mean God uses secular work, human skills and knowledge. He uses the physicians, lawyers, politicians etc.  But whatever plan is used it must be what is called in Hebrew zera’o that is it must be birthed in Jehovah. Whatever battle plan we carry out must be plotted, conceived , or birthed (zera’o) in God and not man.  

Look closely at that last phrase “whose heart departs from the Lord.” The phrase begins with min which is in a construct to Jehovah so I will not dispute the rendering.  However, the pronoun modifying the word heart is a bit ambiguous.  Just whose heart are we talking about?  It is interesting that the word is livo. There is a dagesh in the Beth and the holem makes this pronoun singular masculine which clearly shows the object is referring to the man’s heart departing and not God (otherwise the pronoun would be feminine). The word Jehovah is used rather than Elohim which makes it very clear that God is not removing His heart from man, but man is removing his own heart from God. Is it possible for a preacher or teacher of God to remove his heart from God. I can speak for myself, I’ve been there. 

I know there was a time when if I was called before the Lord I would have said; “Had I not prophesied in your name? (I did that). Had I not cast out devils in your name? (Did that too).  Had I not done great and mighty things in your name? (In my mind I did that).  Yet, I know He would have said: “Depart from me, I never knew you.”  That word to know in Greek and Aramaic means an intimacy. 

Would you want to be pastor of a mega church and not be intimate with God or would you rather be pastor of a church of a couple dozen people working a secular job to just get by financially and yet share a deep intimacy with God, being able to enter the heart of God? 

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   Blessings, Laura