Jeremiah 13 God Calls Judah to Repent through Symbolic Actions

Review of Jeremiah

We are still within the 3 year gap between the defeat of Pharoah Necho and Babylon taking the first exiles from Jerusalem. Last time we asked the question, “Why the wicked prosper?” and “Why do good things happen to bad people?” Now we see Adonai asking Jeremiah to perform some symbolic actions to drive home the call to repentance.

Read Jeremiah 13

Jeremiah 13 TLV

Thus Adonai said to me: “Go, and buy yourself a linen waistband and put it around your waist, and do not put it in water.” So I got a waistband in keeping with the word of Adonai, and put it on my waist. Then the word of Adonai came to me a second time, saying: “Take the waistband that you bought, which is on your waist, and get up, go to Perath and hide it there in a cleft of the rock.” So I went and hid it at Perath, as Adonai commanded me. Now it came to pass after many days that Adonai said to me: “Get up, go to Perath, and take the waistband that I commanded you to hide there.” So I went to Perath, dug it up and took the waistband from the place where I had hidden it. But to my surprise, the waistband was marred, worth nothing at all. Then the word of Adonai came to me, saying, thus says Adonai: “Just so I will mar the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. This wicked people, who refuse to hear My words, who walk in the stubbornness of their own heart, and go after other gods to serve them and worship them, will be just like this waistband—worth nothing at all. For just as the waistband clings to a man’s waist, so I will make the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to Me,” declares Adonai, “to be to Me a people, a name, a praise and a glory. But they would not obey.” Moreover, speak this word to them, thus says Adonai, the God of Israel: “Every jug should be filled with wine.” When they say to you, ‘Don’t we know very well that every jug should be filled with wine?’ Then you will say to them, thus says Adonai, ‘I am about to fill all the inhabitants of this land—even the kings who sit on David’s throne, the kohanim, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem—with drunkenness. And I will smash them against each other, even fathers and sons,’ says Adonai. ‘I will show no pity, nor regret, nor compassion, to keep Me from destroying them.’ ” Hear and give ear! Do not be haughty! For Adonai has spoken. Give glory to Adonai your God, before it grows dark, and before your feet stumble on mountains at dusk. When you look for light, He turns it into the shadow of death, and turns it into deep darkness. But if you will not listen, my soul will sob in secret before such pride, and my eyes will weep bitterly and overflow with tears, for Adonai’s flock will be taken captive. Say to the king and the queen mother: “Sit down low, for your glorious crown has fallen from your head.” The towns of the South will be shut up, with no one to open them. All Judah is taken into exile— utterly swept into exile. Lift up your eyes and see those coming from the north. Where is the flock given to you, Your beautiful sheep? What will you say, when He sets up the allies you cultivated for yourself, over you as head? Will not labor pains seize you, like a woman in travail? Suppose you say in your heart, “Why did these things happen to me?” Because of your great iniquity, your skirts are uncovered and your heels suffer violence. Can the Ethiopian change his skin? Or the leopard his spots? So, could you do good, that are accustomed to doing evil? “Therefore I will scatter them like drifting straw in the desert wind. This is your lot, the portion measured for you from Me.” It is a declaration of Adonai. “For you have forgotten Me and trusted in falsehood. Therefore I will also uncover your skirts over your face, expose your shame. Your adulteries, your lustful neighings, the lewdness of your prostitution— on the hills in the field I have seen your loathsome acts. Oy you, Jerusalem! You are unclean! How much longer?”

The Linen Waistband

Adonai directs Jeremiah to purchase and wear a special fabric belt. Without questioning, Jeremiah immediately obeys. Adonai then directs Jeremiah to hide the belt up in Perath. Again Jeremiah obeys, no questions asks. Then Adonai tells Jeremiah to go back to Perath to get the waistband.

Before we get to Adonai’s interpretation of the cloth belt being ruined, we need to look at where Jeremiah was commanded to hide the belt. The word Perath is the Hebrew name for the Euphrates River. As show in the picture that would have represented a 560 km one way trip. That is like walking from Canberra to Melbourne, and of course Jeremiah would have had to come back again.

Now assuming that Jeremiah was in decent shape, and had enough water and food, he could have walked about between 12 to 75km per day depending on how flat the terrain is. But it is not flat, it is a trip up into the mountains of Eastern Modern-day Turkey, so this trip, there and back could easily take between 2 to 3 months.

For this reason, some people have wondered if instead of Perath, Jeremiah actually travelled to the Wadi of Perah, which is only a 6 km journey from Jeremiah’s home of Anathoth. Personally, I think that Jeremiah made the 3 month journey to the Euphrates, twice. In that time, he would have viewed the destruction of towns and cities by the Babylonian army as he journeyed past Damascus 4 times.

Adonai’s Explanation

Now after both of these journeys, Adonai finally explains to Jeremiah, the meaning of the spoiled cloth belt. Adonai explains that just as the belt is now worthless, so also Adonai would remove the people of Judah from the land, “bury” them among the people of the East, and destroy their pride, their stubbornness, and their idolatry. The people of Israel and Judah were supposed to be a beautiful adornment that clung to Adonai, they were supposed to be a people who would reflect the glory and praise of Adonai. Do the people not realise that their only value comes from Adonai to whom they have been bound?

Full Wine Jugs

The next prophetic or symbolic act had to do with wine jugs/skins. This time Jeremiah only had to tell the people, either in Anathoth or Jerusalem, that the jugs were supposed to be filled with wine. I think that Jeremiah was probably thankful that he did not have to walk very far.

Everyone knew that wine skins were supposed to be filled with wine, so Jeremiah’s question would have sounded silly to the people. But then Adonai declared that all the inhabitants of the land from the poor to the king who sat on David’s throne, would be filled with drunkenness. And just as jars are smashed together and destroyed, so also Adonai was about to bring a devastating destruction. The image would have been burned in Jeremiah’s mind since he had walked past many cities destroyed by the armies of Babylon.

The Prophet’s Cry

The rest of this chapter is a poetic cry of Jeremiah, who has heard the warning of Adonai and has seen the coming destruction. Multiple times through out this passage, we have seen the sin of pride being addressed. This poem starts out with a warning to not be haughty, but instead to give Glory to Adonai, your God. Notice the personal position.

Jeremiah realises that the people will not listen and says, Jer. 13:17 “But if you will not listen, my soul will sob in secret before such pride, and my eyes will weep bitterly and overflow with tears, for Adonai’s flock will be taken captive.”

I am remined of a quote of Thomas Aquinas, where he said:

in order to overcome their pride, God punishes certain men by allowing them to fall into sins of the flesh, which though they be less grievous are more evidently shameful. Hence Isidore says (De Summo Bono ii, 38) that "pride is the worst of all vices; whether because it is appropriate to those who are of highest and foremost rank, or because it originates from just and virtuous deeds, so that its guilt is less perceptible. on the other hand, carnal lust is apparent to all, because from the outset it is of a shameful nature: and yet, under God's dispensation, it is less grievous than pride. For he who is in the clutches of pride and feels it not, falls into the lusts of the flesh, that being thus humbled he may rise from his abasement."

From this indeed the gravity of pride is made manifest. For just as a wise physician, in order to cure a worse disease, allows the patient to contract one that is less dangerous, so the sin of pride is shown to be more grievous by the very fact that, as a remedy, God allows men to fall into other sins.

Likewise, Jeremiah sees that the sin of pride will cause the feet of the people to stumble. Just as King Solomon had written, Prov. 16:18-19

Proverbs 16:18–19 TLV

Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. Better to be lowly in spirit with the afflicted than to share the spoil with the proud.

A Call to the King and Queen Mother

Just as Nineveh’s king had humbled himself before the warning of the Prophet Jonah, so now, Jeremiah is calling the king of Judah, Jehoiakim, and the queen mother, Zebidah, to humble themselves.

An individual’s pride will cause them to stumble, but the pride of the leaders can lead the country to destruction. Adonai declares that He will bring about a humiliation of the nation of Judah that will expose their wicked adulteries and idolatries.

Again, Adonai warns the leaders to look and see the armies coming from the north. Jeremiah has now see seen with his own eyes the destruction that these armies will bring.

Adonai’s Jealousy

The sin of the people of Judah has become so engrained, that there seems to be no hope of change. The words of Adonai crescendo and He once again promises to scatter the people instead of gathering them because of the sin of idolatry. Adonai is directly offended, the people have abandoned Adonai, they have not thanked the Lord, but have betrayed Him, insulted Him, and have insanely turned away from the living God to bow down before sticks and stones (Michael Brown).

Concerning the last few verses in this chapter, Dr. Michael Brown makes a powerful statement:

Perhaps nowhere in Jeremiah - or perhaps the entire Bible - is the Lord’s jealous indignation spelled out more clearly. God himself is the one who has pulled Zion’s skirts over her face, uncovering her before the world, shaming her in the most degrading way in the sight of her enemies, and thereby showing her off as an utter whore. The images of v.27 are rapid fire and jarring, all explaining the nature of her shame (qalon), the word with which v.26 ends.

Application

So how do we apply this passage to our lives today?

Symbolic Action

Sometimes Adonai asks us to do things that don’t make sense at the time. In fact many times, Adonai asks for incremental obedience as a way to grow our faith and trust in Him. We see the same idea with Abram in Genesis 12 through 18. Adonai speaks to Abram multiple times over several years, and each time Adonai reveals more of His plan.

Adonai did not tell Jeremiah up front what would happen, and what the lesson would be. However because he obeyed, Jeremiah not only had a powerful lesson to teach others, but he saw with his own eyes what was about to come upon Judah.

For us, we should be open to what Adonai would ask us to do. It could be as simple as showing love to our neighbour, or encouragement to our work colleagues. Or it could be more difficult like going on a mission trip for several months or even relocating to spread the Good News of Yeshua. God is always faithful to lead us gently so that our trust in Him grows.

The Reality of Pride

Pride is a sin that I have fought with throughout my life. When I was 14, I rededicated my life to the Lord, Yeshua. But it took 4 years until I was humble enough to fully repent. All that time I thought that I had something to offer God, but it took those 4 years for me to realise that even my righteousness was corrupted and impure. Just as Isaiah says, Isa. 64:5

Isaiah 64:5 TLV

For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteousness is like a filthy garment, and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away, like the wind.

Pride refers to an unwarranted attitude of confidence. While pride can have a positive connotation of self-worth or boasting, it is often used in Scripture to refer to an unhealthy elevated view of one’s self, abilities, or possessions.

Pride is thinking that we are more than we are, and in the process forgetting who God is. Whereas humility is remembering who we are in relation to God. We are the created, He is the creator. A great example of this is Nebuchadnezzar. He was the emperor of the world, but Adonai took it all away in a second until he remembered his place. Dan. 4:33-34

Daniel 4:33–34 TLV

“At that moment my sanity returned to me, and my majesty and my splendor were restored to me, for the glory of my kingdom. My ministers and nobles sought me out and I was reestablished over my kingdom. I became even greater than before. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt and honor the King of heaven, because all His works are right and His ways just. He is able to humble those who walk in pride.”

Pride is one of the sins that can remain hidden, but makes us unholy, as Yeshua said, Mark 7:20-23

Mark 7:20–23 TLV

And He continued, “It is what comes out of the man that makes the man unholy. For from within, out of the heart of men, come evil intentions, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustfulness, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things come from within and make the man unholy.”

The Love of God

Adonai would not be so Jealous for us, if He did not love us so much. It anger’s and pains Him to see us running from Him, and running after other things. I want to close with a passage from Rav. Shaul, Eph. 2:1-10

Ephesians 2:1–10 TLV

You were dead in your trespasses and sins. At that time, you walked in the way of this world, in conformity to the ruler of the domain of the air—the ruler of the spirit who is now operating in the sons of disobedience. We too all lived among them in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind. By nature we were children of wrath, just like the others. But God was rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us. Even when we were dead in our trespasses, He made us alive together with Messiah. (By grace you have been saved!) And He raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Messiah Yeshua— to show in the olam ha-ba the measureless richness of His grace in kindness toward us in Messiah Yeshua. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not from yourselves—it is the gift of God. It is not based on deeds, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship—created in Messiah Yeshua for good deeds, which God prepared beforehand so we might walk in them.