Tuesday, February 13, 2018

The Marred Belt

Jeremiah 13:10 
"This evil people, which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination
of their heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them,
and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle,
which is good for nothing."

    There is reason to assume that this passage describes an actual event, not a mere vision or imaginary story. The time was prior to the final Babylonian attack. The event is the "Marred Belt." Now why would God have Jeremiah purchase a "linen belt, put it on, and make sure it gets no water on it, and then God tells Jeremiah to go hide it, (bury it) in a cleft of a rock at the Euphrates? 
    The instructions to Jeremiah are some what like a parable, and the reason for the marred belt was to give God's people a striking symbol, (a wake up call). Because God's people had their minds on everything but their God and they would not hear. 
    The linen belt, (girdle or sash) that God told Jeremiah to put upon his loins, symbolizes the people when they were more pure and less corrupted. When they shared his affection, when they cleaved unto Him and gave God praise and glory. Then God told Jeremiah not to put water on it, in a sense not to wash it or whiten it. He wanted Jeremiah to wear it as it was, to symbolize that God took His people just as they were; At God's mercy, without merits, rough, unwashed, unpolished. Then He buried it. Why? Because  as he wore it, it became soiled with sweat, and not to be washed, would rot much sooner. This symbolizes the state of the people, corrupt and filthy. 
    My Friends, The humiliation of the best produces the worst, and nothing more strikingly sets forth the condition to which those may sink who have abused the highest possibilities, than the condition of this marred and profitless belt (girdle). Let us beware! since capable of God’s best and highest, we are also liable to the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. 
Amen!

Reading: ( Jer. 13:1-27)
Ref: (HG SB)
May God Bless You
And Your Family
Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.
The Cross Life Ministry
 

     
     

    


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