Let’s keep this brief
The title of this blog post will serve to get the first obligatory underwear joke out of the way. As I mentioned early on in this Jeremiah Project, God used this prophet’s ministry as a clear and vivid message to His people. Jeremiah himself was something of an object lesson, and the LORD also provided Jeremiah with specific instructions to deliver object lessons to his audience. Chapter 13 brings us to our first object lesson. The ruined loin cloth.
“Thus says the LORD to me, “Go and buy a linen loincloth and put it around your waist, and not dip in water. So I bought a loincloth according to the word of the LORD and put it around my waist”
It’s not all to strange to find words like “thus says the LORD” in the prophetic books. But the instruction that follows is certainly a bit unexpected. A loin cloth? Like a belt? The Message paraphrase says “Go and buy some linen shorts”. But if you’ll accept my paraphrase here, God is talking about underwear. A linen undergarment could well be described as underwear.
So God tells Jeremiah to go buy a new pair of underwear, subsequently instructs him to put them on, but tells him to skip over the washing step. Why underwear? (See Leviticus 6:10: And the priest shall put on his linen garment and put his linen undergarment on his body). Later on in chapter 13, we’ll receive a clear explanation from God. But for now, let’s see what happens next…
“And the word of the LORD came to me a second time, ‘Take the loincloth 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.”
Jeremiah’s obedience is noteworthy. Go buy some underwear. Done. Put them on. Ok. Now, go hide them in some rocks by the river. The Bible gives us a highly summarized version of Jeremiah’s obedience, so we might not think much of this ‘go hide them by the river’ part. Much of Jeremiah’s prophetic ministry took place in Jerusalem, but here we see God telling him to hide his new briefs along the banks of the Euphrates River. This could have been as far away as Babylon. Based on context, we cannot be sure if the prophet made a special trip just to obey God’s strange instruction, or if perhaps he was already there. But in any case, it would have been a hike to get to the river’s edge. Keep in mind that this river was not just any river. The Euphrates was representative of Judah’s captivity in Babylon. Put on some Bob Marley or just look up Psalm 137:1-3: “By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung our lyres. For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth , saying, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’’ How shall we sing the LORD’s song in a foreign land?”
The Lord is purposeful in instructing Jeremiah which river he should go to. Surely, the Jordan River would have had a different meaning for Jeremiah. Home turf. Just outside the City of Zion. But the Euphrates was in the heart of enemy territory.
“For as a loincloth clings to 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. ”
Just like Christ would later do with the parables, God would provide an explanation of this object lesson, offering clarity. No ambiguity from our great God. He says to His people that His desire was for them to cling to Him (apologies, but passage this might settle the timeless debate between men: briefs vs. boxers?). This is intimacy. It’s also His protection for them as the metaphor of underwear implies something worn under all the other garments. To be clothed with God’s goodness and grace would mean that Israel would be His people, His praise, and His glory. But, Israel (and also Judah in this case) resisted being held close to their God. Look back a few verses to see God’s rightful allegation.
“Then the word of the LORD came to me: ‘Thus says the LORD: Even so I will 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.’”
It should come as no surprise that Jeremiah is referred to as the weeping prophet. You’d weep too if you had to buy underwear, go bury it, let it rot, then dig it up, and tell your friends and neighbors that they’ve become worse than that worthless undergarment. I do not think any preacher would want to deliver that object lesson. Yet, here were are reading it. In no uncertain terms, God is letting His people know that their sinful rebellion has caused them to become worthless to the LORD, unable and unwilling to serve their singular purpose of clinging to Him. So, what do we do with this lesson? The last verse of the chapter ends with a question. How long will it be until you are made clean?
This question is ultimately answered when God’s true people are found to have their filthy garments washed by the blood of Jesus Christ, the risen lamb. The fitting of these new clean garments, like we see foretold with Joshua the Highpriest in Zechariah 3:4, is ultimately accomplished through Christ. Then, through regular repentance and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, the believer puts on new garments of a life that clings to Christ. See Ephesians 4 and Colossians 3. It seems you can learn a lot from underwear.