I was reading Jeremiah in my devotions the other day and came accross a very “vivid” object lesson God gave to the people of Israel and Judah. In chapter 13 God tells Jeremiah to go buy a loincloth and put it on. Jeremiah obeys God’s strange request and gets himself a new set of underwear and puts it on. God then tells him to hide it in some rocks near the Euphrates river. Again, an odd request, but Jeremiah obeys. Finally, some time later, maybe days, possibly weeks, God tells Jeremiah to go get it. Jeremiah digs it up and says:
“And behold, the loincloth was spoiled; it was good for nothing.”
Jeremiah 13:7b
No kidding. It’s been sitting by a river, probably muddy, damp and moldy by this time, a smelly, disgusting pair of underwear that no one is ever going to put on again. It’s humourous at first to hear all this talk about spoiled loincloths, but the point God makes is pretty graphic.
“Thus says the LORD: 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.
Jeremiah 13:9 -10
Now, my first thought on reading this passage was that God’s point was that because Judah had fallen away from God and worshipped idols, this would cause them to become worthless and disgusting to Him, like a spoiled loincloth. This is close, but things are subtley different.
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 the LORD, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen.
Jeremiah 13:11
Here’s a shocking statement. God made Israel to be like his underwear. And the point of underwear is that it clings. It stays on good and tight. Judah’s refusal to cling to God made them like a loincloth that wouldn’t stay on. God fastened them to Himself, and they abandoned Him. So because they were not serving the function they were supposed to God was about to cast them off and leave them to rot till they were not only like non-functioning underwear, they would be like spoiled, disgusting, non-functioning underwear, utterly devoid of any use or value.
This is a difficult illustration. It’s hard not to laugh at it, but at the same time it’s very vivid, and converys how disgusting and damaging sin is. Even though this was given to send a message to Judah, I think it also accurately conveys the overall state of humanity. All of us were created with the purpose to cling to God and bring Him glory. Yet we have all fallen short of that, and abandoned God. So God tossed us aside and left us in our sin for a time till we became rotten and disgusting. But then He did something unthinkable. He picked us up, washed us off, repaired us, and tied us back around His waist, so that through Christ we might actually become for Him a people, a name, a praise, and a glory.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
1 Peter 2:9-10