Jeremiah 13 -- A Sermon I'd Sure Hate To Have To Deliver!

God often had Jeremiah act out out a sermon as a way of grabbing the attention of the people of Judah when no other ways worked.  According to my commentary, the "linen belt" in this chapter was actually "a thigh-length undergarment worn next to the skin."  It amounted to high-priced underwear.  And the word "Perath" in Hebrew refers to the Euphrates River, which lay 400 miles east of Jerusalem.  There's some speculation that it could have referred to a local area, since the people would not have been able to see what Jeremiah did when he traveled there, had it been the Euphrates.  

Much like the guys on most seasons of Survivor, he was to wear this garment to Perath in full view of everyone.  Then he was to take it off and bury it under a rock in a muddy river.  Not even the men on Survivor would want to use it after he retrieved it on the return trip many days later!  "They didn't realize they were passing judgment on themselves ... God had brought the nation close to Himself, but they defiled themselves with idols and became good for nothing," just like the underwear.  God finally told Jeremiah to go dig it up and bring it back so they could see how terribly it had been destroyed.

He also compared them to staggering drunkards bashing together and breaking wine jars in their stumbling.  Another image God told him to convey was that of a traveler "on an unfamiliar and dangerous mountain trail, without a map and without light, hoping for the dawn ... Instead, the darkness only deepened ... The leaders were too proud to admit they were lost and they wouldn't ask for directions."

Jeremiah was given several other illustrations, but the people of Jerusalem didn't care.  They had become like their pagan neighbors and wanted no part of God in their lives.  They wouldn't repent.  "Now they were asking, 'Why have all of these things happened to us?'  People may live as though sin has no consequences, but those consequences will come just the same... These people are too accustomed to committing evil.  Only God can change the human heart."

Father, sin looks so enticing, but it is wrapped up in a lie that You so want us to recognize, yet often we fall for Satan's marketing pitch, buying the lie.  Help me to know when Satan is behind something and help me to cry out to You for wisdom and guidance to resist it, rather than having to cry out to You for help to get out of it!  Thank You for standing ready to answer!

--

Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford