Jeremiah's Loincloth

This is what the LORD said to me: “Go and buy a linen loincloth and put it on, but do not wash it.” So I bought the loincloth as the LORD directed me, and I put it on. Then the LORD gave me another message: “Take the linen loincloth you are wearing, and go to the Euphrates River. Hide it there in a hole in the rocks.” So I went and hid it by the Euphrates as the LORD had instructed me. A long time afterward the LORD said to me, “Go back to the Euphrates and get the loincloth I told you to hide there.” So I went to the Euphrates and dug it out of the hole where I had hidden it. But now it was rotting and falling apart. The loincloth was good for nothing. Then I received this message from the LORD: “This is what the LORD says: This shows how I will rot away the pride of Judah and Jerusalem. These wicked people refuse to listen to me. They stubbornly follow their own desires and worship other gods. Therefore, they will become like this loincloth—good for nothing! As a loincloth clings to a man’s waist, so I created Judah and Israel to cling to me, says the LORD. They were to be my people, my pride, my glory—an honor to my name. But they would not listen to me. [Jeremiah 13.1-11]

Jeremiah's loincloth ordeal is intriguing. A loincloth is not just an ornament to be worn for show. It is really an essential item. The area a loincloth covers is the waist, an area central to the body but also at the center of reproduction - where life is regenerated...

God's lesson to Jeremiah about His people being a loincloth tells a great deal about how God feels about them. It tells that God's people are to be as close as possible to the very essence of God: His life and reproductive power. Don't gross out on me here... Intimacy is the word that best describes this relationship.

The significance of Jeremiah hiding the loincloth by the Euphrates River is understood only in understanding what the Euphrates River meant to the ancient world (no less than it means to the modern world). The Euphrates River stands in history past and present as a symbol of commerce, agriculture, provision, and the list could go on and on. The Euphrates River can easily represent God's love and care for His people in the abundance of provision. However, in Jeremiah's case, the Euphrates River represents something much different. 

The Euphrates, in Jeremiah 13, actually represents something sinister, something wrong, something idolatrous! To hide the loincloth in the bank of the Euphrates River symbolized God's people pursuing and trusting in the commerce of the world instead of trusting in God - As a loincloth clings to a man’s waist, so I created Judah and Israel to cling to me, says the LORD.

God told Jeremiah that His people were following their own desires and worshiping other gods - the loincloth hidden in the bank of the Euphrates proved that.

The loincloth also warns of the futility of trusting in anything other than God. Given enough time, the loincloth, no matter how close to the hustle and bustle of worldly commerce and provision, eventually rots and becomes useless to its intended design and purpose. This should scare the living daylights out of us today!

I described modern day idols as debt, insurance, medicine and technology (Modern Day Idolatry). These things make up a large portion of the commerce of our time and therefore what our time and energy are spent to procure. And, even though we were designed to trust in God alone, we have hidden ourselves, outside of our purpose, mind you, in the riverbanks of modern day commerce, not realizing that the 'security' of being hidden there is rotting us away into uselessness unto God Who created us. The 'security' we seek in the riverbank of idolatry becomes the trap that destroys our designed usefulness.

Let's look further in the context of Jeremiah 13... and the discussion of idolatry... [I will insert some thoughts in brackets]

Open up your eyes and see the armies marching down from the north! [Interestingly enough, the Euphrates River frows from NORTHwest to southeast] Where is your flock—your beautiful flock—that he gave you to care for? ["gave you to care for" speaks of our design and purpose (and it's not commerce)] What will you say when the Lord takes the allies you have cultivated and appoints them as your rulers? [the idols we "hide in" (allies) in the riverbanks of the "commerce" of the world become our slave masters - debt, insurance, medicine and technology... therefore:] Pangs of anguish will grip you, like those of a woman in labor! You may ask  yourself, “Why is all this happening to me?” [how often do we ask this question yet refuse to hear the Biblical answer:] It is because of your many sins! That is why you have been stripped and raped by invading armies [the very riverbank of worldly idols is what rots us away]. Can an Ethiopian change the color of his skin? Can a leopard take away its spots? Neither can you start doing good, for you have always done evil. “I will scatter you like chaff that is blown away by the desert winds. This is your allotment, the portion I have assigned to you,” says the LORD, “for you have forgotten me, putting your trust in false gods [rather than clinging to God, we have hidden ourselves in our idols]. I myself will strip you and expose you to shame. I have seen your adultery and lust, and your disgusting idol worship out in the fields and on the hills. What sorrow awaits you, Jerusalem! How long before you are pure?” [Jeremiah 13.20-27]

Jeremiah 13 is all about idolatry. It is serious business. It was in Jeremiah's time and it remains even more profoundly so in our time. 

Have we become so rotten that we have practically returned to the dust of the world? Or are we still somewhat recognizable as the LORD's? I wish this wasn't so intense - I wish it wasn't so hard! But idolatry is, and always will be detestable to God in every way.

We have believed a lie to think we can hide in the riverbank of the world's idols and still claim we are the LORD's loincloth. Jeremiah 13 stands forever between us and that lie.

Father, as I continue to consider the idols of this present day, may I be found doing everything in my power to stay as far away from them as possible. May my life be as unmistakably intimate with You as Your very own loincloth.