BLUF: The Ruined Loincloth

Text: Thus says the Lord to me, “Go and buy a linen loincloth and put it around your waist, and do not dip it in water.” So I bought a loincloth according to the word of the Lord, and put it around my waist. And the word of the Lord came to me a second time, “Take the loincloth that you have bought, which is around your waist, and arise, go 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, “Arise, go 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. And behold, the loincloth was spoiled; it was good for nothing. (Jer 13:1-7, ESV)

Context, Context, Context: Jeremiah was God’s man to call out the sin of the nation. The people were idolaters, worshiper of Baal, self-centered pagans. Only a relatively faithful remnant of believers kept the faith in the one true God. And Jeremiah had the formidable task of calling his own people back to God, back to righteousness. Not an easy mission. God commanded Jeremiah to execute an object lesson whose message would be overt.

Encouragement:  Once again, Jeremiah faithfully executed his mission from God. The soiled loincloth was just that—soiled—after Jeremiah retrieved it from the river. Like the cloth, the nation had become soiled. They were dirty; they needed to be cleaned. Yet they refused. Again, think about the battle to trust the Lord that Jeremiah was enduring. This mission he’d been given was a far cry from the false gospels peddled in our day from the prosperity preachers, who look like they spend more time in front of their mirrors than in the Scriptures. But God was gracious, you see. How? By sending his servant, the prophet Jeremiah, with the only truth sufficient to clean the soiled garments of our sins. God is gracious, but God is simultaneously holy. Those two attributes must both be understood about the unchanging God of Scripture.