By: Dale Weckbacher
Text: Jeremiah
13
Jeremiah 13:9-10
“Thus says the Lord: Even
so will I spoil the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. 10 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.
(ESV)
When we picture a prison in our
mind, we usually picture a penitentiary where the state locks up criminals serving
a sentence for a crime but there can also be emotional prisons that prevent one
from living a full life. Biblically, we
are all under a death sentence for sin in our lives but thankfully can have
redemption through Jesus Christ (Romans
3:23, 5:8, 6:23; 10:9-10). There is
also the prison of worshipping false gods or idols in our lives and ignoring
the consequences of worship of these created things that will ultimately
disappoint us. Israel and Judah are
about to discover that the false gods of Baal they have been worshipping will
be of little help when invaded from the north and that redemption is only
possible through returning to God.
In Jeremiah
13, we once again see the graciousness of God demonstrated as He offers
another opportunity for Israel and Judah to receive redemption by returning to
God. God uses two illustrations to point
out the sins of the people with the consequences of these sins being invasion
from the north and exile to a foreign land.
This passage points out,
1) Pride
(Jeremiah
13:1-11) – Proverbs
16:18 reminds us that pride precedes destruction, but we can mistake pride
for confidence. Pride that causes one to
believe they no longer need to seek Godly wisdom from the Word of God, or a
haughty spirit, is a gateway to destruction and something to avoid. However, a fear of pride can lead one to lack
confidence, paralyzing them from accomplishing anything with their life. The confidence of God’s people is in Christ
Jesus and from this confidence, God’s people can boldly carry out whatever God
has for them to do with confidence doing all for the glory of God. The loincloth illustration in Jeremiah
13:1-11 illustrates what occurs when one becomes detached from the worship
of God and full of selfish pride with them becoming good for nothing. We must not become so earthly-minded that we
are no good spiritually.
2) Pleasure
seeking (Jeremiah
13:12-14) – Proverbs
20:1 equates wine with brawling or violence that can lead people astray. For those not choosing to take their cares of
life to God, wine or alcohol can also be a means of escape from the stresses of
life. However, this escape is only
temporary for once the effect of the alcohol wears off, the problems are still
there. The lord points out the drunkenness
of all in Israel and Judah from the kings and priests to the inhabitants of
Jerusalem (Jeremiah
13:13). It appears the people are
choosing the drunken pleasure of alcohol to forget the inevitable destruction
and exile coming due to their disobedience and refusal to repent of their
sins.
3) Prison
of exile (Jeremiah
13:15-27) – Therefore, God has no choice but to be true to His word and
follow through with sending His people into exile from the land (Deuteronomy
28:15-68).
The people of Israel, people once
led by King David, a man after God’s own heart (1
Samuel 13:14) have become detached from God and face invasion from the
north and exile (Jeremiah
13:20). God uses the illustration of
a loincloth to illustrate how a loin cloth detached from the one wearing it and
hidden in the cleft of a rock, becomes useless and good for nothing (Jeremiah
13:1-7). God uses this illustration
to show how Israel and Judah’s pride has led to their detachment from God and
becoming useless and good for nothing (Jeremiah
13:8-12). The illustration of the
wine jars indicates their preoccupation with seeking pleasure to escape from
the consequences of their sin instead of repentance and turning back to God (Jeremiah
13:12-14).
Like Israel and Judah, believers
in Christ and the Church can become detached from their missional focus of
spreading the Gospel and making Disciples and full of pride and seeking the
pleasure of good feelings. Pride in
facilities and programs can move the Church away from the use of the facilities
and programs to bring people to Christ to prideful pointing to the facilities
and programs as objects of spiritual success.
Pastors can become focused on attendance and contribution numbers
instead of trusting God with the numbers and water down their message so as not
to offend anyone. The Gospel and Word of
God are transformative and can be offensive.
A minister of the Word who becomes concerned with losing attendance and
contributions due to offending someone robs the flock of biblical truth bringing
loss of conformity to the world and transformation to people’s lives (Romans
12:2).
Perhaps you are reading this and
have never made a profession of faith in Jesus as your savior and still live in
the prison of your sins. If that is you,
there is good news for redemption from sin is available to anyone choosing to
profess their belief in Jesus as their savior (John
3:16; Romans 10:9-10). There is no
need to prepare or become right with God before making this profession for
salvation is by grace and not our works (Ephesians
2:8-9). I invite you to pray with me
now and make this profession of faith,
Dear Lord Jesus, I know I have sinned (Romans
3:23) and know that the penalty for my sin is death (Romans
6:23). I ask you to forgive me of my
sin and cleanse me as you promise in your Word (1
John 1:9). I believe you died, spent
three days in the grave, and resurrected from the dead and now declare you Lord
of my life.
My prayer is that all reading
this would abandon selfish pride and pleasure-seeking in their lives and
instead live a life that gives glory to God for that is the greatest joy one
can achieve in life. A world in chaos
must see God’s people serving God with confidence and hope, giving them hope. May God bless everyone reading this post.
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