“For as a belt is bound around a man’s waist, so I bound the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to me’’, declares the LORD, ‘‘to be my people for my renown and praise and honor. But they have not listened.”
~ Jeremiah 13:11
Hi James and Ellen,
How many times does your dad and/or ma warn you that he, she or they will punish you if you . . . before he, she or they finally actually punish you? What kinds of punishments have your dad and/or ma told you that he, she or they will use to punish you if you do not do something that he, she or they have told you to do or when you do something that he, she or they have told you not to do? Have you figured out yet the moment when you know for sure that you have just crossed the ‘fine line’ or ‘red line’ – which is the moment between when you knew that your dad and/or ma were just threatening you with a punishment and the moment when you know for sure that your dad and/or ma are really going to punish you? Do you think that it is wrong for your dad and/or ma to punish you for something that you did not do that he, she or they had told you to do and for something that you have done that he, she or they had told you not to do? God warned His specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group guys and gals, that He would harshly punish them if . . . God through Jeremiah – who was one of His prophet spokesmen, told His specially chosen guys and gals why and how He was going to ruthlessly punish them. Jeremiah recorded in Jeremiah 13 five different ways that God was having to deal with the frustrations that He had towards the intentional disobedience that His specially chosen guys and gals were confronting Him. God – as God the Spirit, breathed on Jeremiah to write His first two warnings in prose and His last three warnings in poetry.
Has your dad or ma ever punished you by spanking you, smacking you with a belt or stick and/or having you stand in a corner facing the wall? God used a linen belt in the first warning that He gave through Jeremiah to His specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the city of Jerusalem and the land area of Judah. Linen was symbolic for the holiness that God saw in His specially chosen guys and gals. The linen belt symbolized the close, intimate relationship that God had had at one time with His specially chosen guys and gals. God first had Jeremiah literally wear the linen belt around his waist – as a way to exemplify the close, intimate relationship that had once existed between Him and His specially chosen guys and gals. God then had Jeremiah go to Perath – which may be the Euphrates River, to hide the linen belt in a crevice between some rocks. God sometime later instructed Jeremiah to go back to the place in Perath where he had hidden the linen belt to look at the linen belt. When Jeremiah looked at the linen belt, Jeremiah saw that the linen belt had become completely ruined. Verse 11 sums up what God was trying to prove to His specially chosen guys and gals through the linen belt, “For as a belt is bound around a man’s waist, so I bound the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to me’’, declares the LORD, ‘‘to be my people for my renown and praise and honor. But they have not listened.’” The ruined linen belt exemplified the ruined relationship that God had with His specially chosen guys and gals. It was God’s specially chosen guys and gals who ruined their relationship with God because of their deliberate disobedience towards Him.
The next example that God – as God the Spirit, had Jeremiah record in this Jeremiah Book chapter is about wineskins. Wineskins were used to store wine. God had every available wineskin filled with wine as a way to exemplify how he was going to have every guy and gal – including kings, priests and prophets among His specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the city of Jerusalem and in the land area of Judah, become drunk. God was illustrating a time when He would have His specially chosen guys and gals – while He had them in a drunken stupor, smashing and crashing against each other. God – as God the Spirit, makes it very clear through what Jeremiah scribed that because of their disobedient lifestyles that He would not allow His natural spirits of pity, mercy and compassion stop Him from punishing – by destroying, His specially chosen guys and gals. The three different poems that end this chapter has God – as God the Spirit, using Jeremiah – through his Jeremiah Book, to tell his specially chosen guys and gals that they really do not have any excuse when they realize that they have crossed the ‘fine line’ or ‘red line’ and that God is doing exactly what He said that He was going to do – which was to mercilessly punish them if . . . your grandpaa is constantly learning that he needs to listen to the warnings of other guys or gals when they try to tell your grandpaa something that he should do that he is not doing or something that he should not do that he is doing. Your grandpaa learned an invaluable lesson one day in Guatemala when he decided that he should move his pickup as a dark, menacing storm was bearing down right at where your grandpaa and some Guatemalan guys were fishing. Your grandpaa had parked his pickup near some small trees. Because your grandpaa did not want any of the trees to fall on his pickup, your grandpaa wanted to move his pickup. To get to where your grandpaa parked his pickup, he had to go through a grove of large trees. A Guatemalan guy who was with your grandpaa told your grandpaa that that he should not go through the grove of large trees but . . . just as your grandpaa began to go through the grove of large trees, a strong gust of wind toppled a large tree about a hundred feet in front of him across the path that he was on. Because your grandpaa had not listened to what a Guatemalan guy had told him, he was almost squashed by a falling tree. There has been other times when your grandpaa knows that he has been a splint second away from . . . your grandpaa does not know why God intervened the times that he foolishly, carelessly, unintentionally found himself in situations that could have resulted in him getting seriously injured or . . . but . . .
Jeremiah 13 (793)