Year 3, Day 66: Jeremiah 13

The Linen Belt

This is a very unusual passage.  But once we understand what God is doing here it can all make sense.  So bear with me for a second as I try to unpack this “linen belt.”

First, it is a belt.  Some translations call it a loincloth, which makes it sound like an undergarment.  Which – in some respects it is.  It would be the fabric that served as a belt or even a girdle that would hold the clothing in the torso and the groin in place.  The important part of this is that it is a piece of clothing that is kept close to the body.  It is a fairly intimate part of the clothing, not one’s outer robes.

Second, it is made of linen.  Linen was the fabric worn by priests.  It was a delicate and reasonably expensive fabric.  It was fabric you would want to have close to your body!

Third, God makes the comparison that this linen garment represents the Hebrew people.  He kept them close to Himself.  When they were close to Him, like one’s linen belt, the fabric is valued and treasured and even protected from being soiled and damaged.

Then God asks Jeremiah to do something quite unusual.  God asks Jeremiah to go elsewhere and bury the linen garment among the rocks.  Of course, the linen garment is ruined.  It becomes soiled.  The rain and the earth begin to decompose this natural garment.  It isn’t any good anymore.

So it was with the Hebrew people.  When they were no longer close to God, they became useless.  They became soiled and incapable of doing the job that God desired them to accomplish.

That’s really a deep parable!  It is also a parable that really makes me want to think about life.  Are the events with which I am occupying myself events that are keeping me close to God?  Or are the things of my life causing me to become soiled and useless?  Is my natural “linen” quality being preserved by closeness to God or being destroyed by distance from Him?

The Drinking Jars of Wine

Jeremiah is to set up another proverb.  There are to be jars (think cups made of earthen pottery) that are to be filled with wine.  Of course the people will know that they are to be filled with wine; that was the beverage that people drank in those days!

What the people wouldn’t see coming is when Jeremiah smashed the jars of wine together.  God was telling Jeremiah that the jars of wine would be the Hebrew people.  They would drink God’s wine – a common symbol in the prophets of God’s wrath – to the fullest.  Once they had drunk a full measure of God’s wrath, God would smash them upon one another.  There would be judgment and wrath to come for the choices that the Hebrew people had made.

The Source of the Trouble

As we close out this chapter, once more we turn to the root of the problem.  What is the problem with the Hebrew people?  Look at verse 17.  “If you will not listen, my soul will weep in secret for your pride.”  Look at verse 18.  “Say to the king and the queen mother, ‘Take a lowly seat, for your beautiful crown has come down from your head.’”  {This is likely penned as the Babylonians are taking Jehoiachin and his mother into captivity.}

The issue is pride.  The issue is a refusal to be humble.  The issue is a refusal to come to God and do things His way.  The issue is that we think we know what is best and in our arrogance end up destroying ourselves.  It is our pride that causes conflict with one another.  It is our pride that causes conflict with God.

And then we have the proverbial skeptic in Jeremiah {and God, for the record.}  One of the more famous lines in Jeremiah comes in Jeremiah 13:23.  Can the Ethiopian change the pigment of his skin?  Can the leopard change it spots?  What makes any of us think that we can change our nature, either?

Without God, we cannot change who we are.  Without God, we are prideful human beings.  Without God, pride will always be our problem.  This takes us the whole way back to the parable of the linen belt with which we opened this chapter.  What hope do any of us have in acting righteously when we so eagerly remove ourselves from His company?

Our pride pushes us away from God – the very one place where our pride can be dealt with.  Our pride becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Our pride causes us to go away from God, which only causes our pride to become more and more of a problem.  The answer is never found in more pride.  The answer is always found in humbleness and repentance.

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