So This Is What You Are Like….

Just imagine God using a pair of underwear to make a point. It’s exactly what God does in Jeremiah chapter 13. Imagine God telling you to go hide a pair of recently worn underwear outside. Then after a few years retrieving them. Can you imagine the smell? The stench? The appearance? God goes on to say the purpose of underwear is to cling to a man’s waist. It covers a very important part of his body. It even protects (from exposure). In the same way God created us to cling to Him; to walk closely with Him. But our nature drives us away. That’s what sin does. It drives us away from God rather than toward Him. And after awhile of purposely abandoning God, we eventually become useless, good for nothing (in serving Him). This passage reveals God’s heart. Some may read it and think, “this is disgusting and stupid”. But those who are honest with themselves will see God opening up and revealing His own heart. His desire for us to want to be close to Him is evident. He wants us to cling to Him like underwear does to a man’s body. When we neglect that desire of His, we rot away and become good for nothing. If you haven’t realized as you age that the priorities you once had have become less important to you, then you’re probably not moving toward God, but more away from Him. I know I don’t want to be good for nothing. And I know that the desires of this world mean less and less to me as I age. I want to please God, so being close to Him only makes sense. I don’t want to get to Heaven and say, “so this is what You (God) are like”. I want to know Him as best as possible while living here on earth. So when that day comes, my excitement when I stand before Him will be because I finally get to put a “face” to the One I already know intimately. Wear your underwear well, remembering to cling to God, daily.

1 This is what the Lord said to me: “Go and buy a linen loincloth and put it on, but do not wash it.” 2 So I bought the loincloth as the Lord directed me, and I put it on.3 Then the Lord gave me another message: 4 “Take the linen loincloth you are wearing, and go to the Euphrates River. Hide it there in a hole in the rocks.” 5 So I went and hid it by the Euphrates as the Lord had instructed me.6 A long time afterward the Lord said to me, “Go back to the Euphrates and get the loincloth I told you to hide there.” 7 So I went to the Euphrates and dug it out of the hole where I had hidden it. But now it was rotting and falling apart. The loincloth was good for nothing. 8 Then I received this message from the Lord: 9 “This is what the Lord says: This shows how I will rot away the pride of Judah and Jerusalem. 10 These wicked people refuse to listen to Me. They stubbornly follow their own desires and worship other gods. Therefore, they will become like this loincloth–good for nothing! 11 As a loincloth clings to a man’s waist, so I created Judah and Israel to cling to Me, says the Lord. They were to be My people, My pride, My glory–an honor to My name. But they would not listen to Me. Jeremiah 13:1-11