"Then the word of Yahweh came to me: “Thus says Yahweh: Even so will I spoil the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their own heart 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 the waist of a man, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, declares Yahweh, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen."
The first seven verses of this chapter relate the story of how Yahweh tells Jeremiah to buy a loincloth and wear it and then bury it in a hillside. Jeremiah is then instructed to retrieve it and, as expected, it is ruined. It's good for nothing. This is yet another picture that Yahweh gives to demonstrate the filth and putrition of Israel/Judah, and what was about to happen to them.
I think too often we try to nail down the eschatological meaning and significance of passages such as this and we forget to apply it to our own lives. What does the loincloth picture and how does it apply to us? Here's a few of my thoughts.
Yahweh chose a loincloth to demonstrate the intimacy that He had sovereignly granted to the nation of Israel (which later became the two nations of Judah and Israel). They had been given the rare opportunity of dwelling in the very visible presence of the Creator of the Universe. As intimate as a husband is to his, so Israel was to God. Isreal scorned this privilege and regarded it as worthless. They despised it. They trampled it under their feet. As spoiled children they couldn't comprehend the priceless worth of their status and they rebelled against their Father.
Here's the thing. We have been given an even greater privilege. We can approach the throne of Yahweh through Christ. Indeed, we are invited to. Instead, we prefer our sin. We prefer the television. We prefer the bosom of evil to the intimate communion of our Father and His Son, our Husband, Jesus Christ. Like Isreal, we whore ourselves out to our transgressions. We fail to understand the worth of the position we have been given in the family of Yahweh, the Creator God. We are sons and heirs--fellow-heirs with the perfect God/Man, Jesus Christ. We are the bride and He is our bridegroom, and yet, we choose to revel in our iniquities, presuming upon the mercy of God.
We need to stop. We need to repent. We need to enjoy the intimacy and fellowship with God, remembering that light has no fellowship with darkness. It can't. It won't. 1 John 1 makes that clear.
The first seven verses of this chapter relate the story of how Yahweh tells Jeremiah to buy a loincloth and wear it and then bury it in a hillside. Jeremiah is then instructed to retrieve it and, as expected, it is ruined. It's good for nothing. This is yet another picture that Yahweh gives to demonstrate the filth and putrition of Israel/Judah, and what was about to happen to them.
I think too often we try to nail down the eschatological meaning and significance of passages such as this and we forget to apply it to our own lives. What does the loincloth picture and how does it apply to us? Here's a few of my thoughts.
Yahweh chose a loincloth to demonstrate the intimacy that He had sovereignly granted to the nation of Israel (which later became the two nations of Judah and Israel). They had been given the rare opportunity of dwelling in the very visible presence of the Creator of the Universe. As intimate as a husband is to his, so Israel was to God. Isreal scorned this privilege and regarded it as worthless. They despised it. They trampled it under their feet. As spoiled children they couldn't comprehend the priceless worth of their status and they rebelled against their Father.
Here's the thing. We have been given an even greater privilege. We can approach the throne of Yahweh through Christ. Indeed, we are invited to. Instead, we prefer our sin. We prefer the television. We prefer the bosom of evil to the intimate communion of our Father and His Son, our Husband, Jesus Christ. Like Isreal, we whore ourselves out to our transgressions. We fail to understand the worth of the position we have been given in the family of Yahweh, the Creator God. We are sons and heirs--fellow-heirs with the perfect God/Man, Jesus Christ. We are the bride and He is our bridegroom, and yet, we choose to revel in our iniquities, presuming upon the mercy of God.
We need to stop. We need to repent. We need to enjoy the intimacy and fellowship with God, remembering that light has no fellowship with darkness. It can't. It won't. 1 John 1 makes that clear.
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