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Jeremiah 13:1-11 – Jeremiah’s Waisteband
God loves visual aids, of that I am certain. The whole world, the entire universe, aid God visually in illustrating His power, love, majesty, and wisdom. Jesus used visual aids – and He was God! So did Ezekiel – and He was inspired by God. When you look at all the visual aids Ezekiel used, it’s easy to see why I call him, “God’s Crazy Preacher!” I think more preachers could use a little “craziness!”
To another prophet, Jeremiah, God instructed him to visually illustrate a prophecy via a waistband. What is unusual about this occurrence is that it does not appear Jeremiah preached to others using the waistband as a visual aid. Apparently, God commanded the visual aid mainly for Jeremiah and those reading his words – and that would include us today.
Please first read the entire passage of Jeremiah 13:1-11 patiently before reading my comments that follow.
Have you read it yet? I didn’t think so, oh well…promise me you will read it afterwards, O.K.?
Lesson #1
God said that Israel had become as worthless as that rotted waistband. No one buys a waistband to bury it. You buy it to wear. God didn’t create and love Israel to have them fail in their purpose for existence. He made them so that they would cling to Him! But they refused to listen. They refused this closeness of fellowship.
Application #1
Why did God make us? We have Four Purposes and each revolves around the same purpose that God made Israel: God wants to have us to cling to Him (Jeremiah 3:11). Therefore, God gave us Four Purposes as individuals and as a congregation:
- Reach UP to God in Worship. That is clinging to God.
- Reach IN to One Another through Spiritual Activities. This helps others to walk with God.
- Reach OUT to Unbelievers through Evangelism. We want them to fulfill their purpose of existence too! We don’t want them to rot in hell!! We want them to be close to God, here and for an eternity.
- Reach Down to Help the Needy. As individuals we can help both believers and unbelievers. As a church we reach down to needy saints. How is this clinging to God? God is a giver (John 3:16)! We become like God when we reach down to help others.
Lesson #2
Some doubt the reality of Jeremiah’s experience, thinking it to be nothing more than mental or visionary symbolism without out the physical visual symbol – the waistband itself. They suggest instead it was only an inward vision, a mental aid. Their reasoning is: 1) the Euphrates was quite a distance away (250-300 miles one way); 2) the point was superfluous – everyone knows the waistband would be rotten! So why would God want Jeremiah to do the obvious and the difficult?
From a scholarly viewpoint, making this whole situation mental instead of actual misses the import of the Euphrates as an important symbol in and of itself—that is where the Babylonians came from; and that is where the Jews are going.
But practically, maybe the visual aids were not only the waistband and the Euphrates. Maybe Jeremiah was to be an actual symbol and visual aid too, to all who read and hear? How? God condemned His nation for not listening (v.11). God gave Jeremiah three commands (vv.1-7): Jeremiah listened and obeyed each and every time. Jeremiah did not give an excuse as he did in the very beginning (Jeremiah 1:6). Jeremiah fulfilled his purpose for living: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations” (Jeremiah 1:5).
Application #2
For us, I would like to make a very simple, straightforward and needed reminder. Why did Jeremiah need to buy a waistband, journey to the Euphrates, bury it, and then return again, only to dig up a rotted piece of cloth? BECAUSE GOD SAID SO! And folks, that’s enough for us, isn’t it?
After all, do you know is God’s favorite visual aid? Us obeying Him!
Now go read Jeremiah 13:1-11! You promised too, didn’t you?
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