Pure or Ruined?

I’ve been reading the book of Jeremiah recently. It’s not always a very edifying read I must admit, but, if you persevere, there are some interesting and enlightening verses amongst the gloom. The whole book hinges on God’s view of the sinful and wayward condition of His people Israel, and His feelings about their terrible situation. A holy God must judge their sin, but His wrath, as He reveals it to Jeremiah, is mixed with His desperate desire to get them to see their own terrible condition and turn back to Him. It struck me that we are no different today. God is still trying to open our eyes to the reality of our lifestyle; ignoring Him, focussing our lives on earthly riches and refusing the help He offers us. We can be just as wayward as they were.

But actions speak louder than words, so God told Jeremiah to stage a little drama to try to get the people’s attention. I guess only some of them actually saw the action, but perhaps, if a few got the message, maybe they would pass it on via the ‘social media’ of the day. So God told Jeremiah to buy a new linen sash and put it round himself, and not to wash it. The sash was probably used as an undergarment (the word used for  waist could be translated loins). So, the once clean and pure linen would get increasingly soiled by contact with human skin, but it was not to be washed. Then at some later time Jeremiah was told to take the now soiled sash to the Euphrates and bury it in a hole in a rock. According to verse 6, it was many days before God told him to retrieve it, by which time it was ruined and good for nothing.

The parable is focussed on God’s chosen people Israel, who had not keep His commandments, but had turned to foreign gods. Jeremiah is told it shows how proud Israel will be brought to a place of ruin, and will be ‘profitable for nothing’. However, as I read it,  it seems to me that it had a wider interpretation relevant to us in the twenty-first century.

Since linen denotes purity, I suggest the linen sash stands for pure people, who, before the Fall, remained pure, being in intimate contact only with God. However, in this fallen world we have intimate contact with ‘flesh’, our own carnality, denoted by the sweat and grim from our skin. Wonderfully, through Jesus’ death in our place, we can be ‘washed’ regularly through confession of our sin, and God’s generous pardon, so we can be clean again.

But without such ‘washing’, eventually we find ourselves (by our own doing), seemingly far from help, (ears and eyes closed, and understanding buried in rock). The means to wash us clean is near. It is the river Euphrates, (which is a picture of God’s ever-open arms), but we continue to hide in our ‘safe’ hole until we are ruined? It wasn’t a happy ending for Israel, but it can be so different for us. It doesn’t have to end like that!

I love dramas and parables of all kinds. They have such depth, and the possibility of bringing new revelations. In so many ways we deserve God’s wrath, just as Israel did in Jeremiah’s day. We should be subject to the many  punishments that Israel endured, because we often turn away from God, but we have Jesus to rescue us from the judgement which we fully deserve. Alleluia, what a Saviour!