Showing Us The Truth
God goes a long way to make a point.
Thus said the Lord to me, "Go and buy yourself a linen loincloth, and put it on your loins, but do not dip it in water." So I bought a loincloth according to the word of the Lord, and put it on my loins. And the word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying, "Take the loincloth that you bought and are wearing, and go now to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a cleft of the rock." So I went, and hid it by the Euphrates, as the Lord commanded me. And after many days the Lord said to me, "Go now to the Euphrates, and take from there the loincloth that I commanded you to hide there." Then I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and I took the loincloth from the place where I had hidden it. But now the loincloth was ruined; it was good for nothing. Then the word of the Lord came to me: Thus says the Lord: Just so I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their own will and have gone after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be like this loincloth, which is good for nothing. For as the loincloth clings to one's loins, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, says the Lord, in order that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory. But they would not listen. - Jeremiah 13:1-11
He could have simply said that he will destroy the people of Judah and Jerusalem, but instead, he makes Jeremiah go and place a loin cloth where it will become useless.
Why?
The damaged loin cloth is a visible sign of God's power. This is what he will do to his people. It is effective and clear.
We often need to see an example in order to understand. Something as simple as a damaged looin cloth has power.
It is a personal item, made to cleave to the skin and be a protection, so for Go to let it become damaged means he will no longer protect them.
This is scary stuff. God is always there to protect his people. They must have done horrible things to God to have God turn away.
How can they get God to come back?
We don't consider the consequences of our actions at times. We do what we want, and may not even think that we are disobeying God.
We might say that we would never bow down to other gods but maybe we should take a close look at what we are doing and see if perhaps we have.
Sometimes, it takes a prophet to show us the truth.
More to come...
Photo by Wolfgang Hasselmann on Unsplash