Year 2, Week 12, Day 1 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 12, Day 1

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Jeremiah 12-13.

Today’s reading continues the second collection of declarations against Judah. Remembering the basic structure of the Book, Jeremiah 2:1-20:18, the first segment of the Book, contains two collections of declarations against Judah (and these two collections correspond to the two collections in Jeremiah 46:1-51:64). Jeremiah 2:1-10:25 was the first collection, while Jeremiah 11:1-20:18 is the second collection. Jeremiah 12 records the LORD’s admonition to Jeremiah to persevere: “Thus says the LORD concerning all my evil neighbors who touch the heritage that I have given my people Israel to inherit: “Behold, I will pluck them up from their land, and I will pluck up the house of Judah from among them. And after I have plucked them up, I will again have compassion on them, and I will bring them again each to his heritage and each to his land. And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, ‘As the LORD lives,’ even as they taught my people to swear by Baal, then they shall be built up in the midst of my people. But if any nation will not listen, then I will utterly pluck it up and destroy it, declares the LORD” (Jeremiah 12:14-17). Jeremiah 13 describes the symbols of a stash and wineskins, which depicted Judah’s impending judgment in light of their stubborn refusal to repent: “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…Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil” (Jeremiah 13:11,23).

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading was the LORD’s instructions to Jeremiah concerning the use of symbolism in communicating to Judah of the judgment that awaited them. Jeremiah was to wear a loincloth: “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” (Jeremiah 13:1-2). A loincloth was something like an undergarment; however, it was a costly piece of clothing. After Jeremiah obtained the loincloth and put it on, he was given additional instructions: “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” (Jeremiah 13:3-4). After Jeremiah was told to bury the loincloth, he was given additional instructions: “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” (Jeremiah 13:6-7). Having been buried in the ground, the loincloth was now deteriorated and useless.

Jeremiah had done exactly what the LORD had told him to do in regards to the loincloth. Jeremiah’s actions were intended to symbolically communicate to Judah concerning the trouble that they were in and the reason behind their imminent troubles. So as to ensure that Judah would not miss the point of the symbolism, the Lord explains to Jeremiah the point of the loincloth: “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). Just as a valuable loincloth was rendered decayed and ruined, so now was Judah. Like a loincloth was to be worn closely to the skin, so Israel was to cling closely to the LORD: “But you who held fast to the LORD your God are all alive today” (Deuteronomy 4:4), and: “but you shall cling to the LORD your God just as you have done to this day” (Joshua 23:8). But as Judah turned to idols and clung to them, they turned from clinging to the LORD. They brought upon themselves their own deterioration.

Formally, Israel was a precious treasure to the LORD: “And the LORD has declared today that you are a people for his treasured possession, as he has promised you, and that you are to keep all his commandments, and that he will set you in praise and in fame and in honor high above all nations that he has made, and that you shall be a people holy to the LORD your God, as he promised” (Deuteronomy 26:18-19). But their failure to trust and obey the LORD was their ruination and destruction: “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). By turning away from the LORD, they brought about their own uselessness before the LORD. 

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe