“Take the loincloth that you have bought, which is around your waist, and arise, go to the Euphrates and hide it there in a cleft of the rock. . . Then I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and I took the loincloth from the place where I had hidden it. And behold, the loincloth was spoiled; it was good for nothing. . . For as the loincloth clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, declares the Lord, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen.”
(Jeremiah 13:4, 7, 11, ESV)
When I was in the military, one of my assignments was as the Battalion Maintenance Officer. I had to oversee the maintenance of over 154 vehicles. On my first day, the Motor Sargeant took me on a tour of the maintenance shop and maintenance vehicles. In one of the maintenance bays there was a tracked vehicle, an M578 light recovery vehicle. When I saw it, the first thing I did was point to it and ask, “What is that?” Now, I knew what the vehicle was. My question had to do with why is it here in such bad condition. The Motor Sargeant replied with a big grin, “That’s your M578, sir.”
The 578 was a mess. One of the headlamps was hanging out of its socket and the other was missing. Yet this was a minor problem. The engine cover was lying on the ground, twisted up with the puncture holes of a tank sprocket run through it. How that happened I never discovered. The engine wiring harness was hanging out of the engine compartment with frayed and broken wires. The engine would not run and the vehicle winch and crane were inoperative. They had let the M578 sit like this for six months waiting for someone to send it to the scrap yard. What started as a beautiful and functional vehicle was now headed for the scrap heap.
This is exactly Israel’s problem and the reason for the object lesson that the Lord has Jeremiah demonstrate. The Lord God established and set apart the nation for a beautiful purpose. Israel was to bring praise and honor to God, but her apostasy, idolatry, and refusal to hearken to the Lord’s commands rendered her useless in this.
The object lesson was simple. Jeremiah was to purchase a good new loincloth, the inner most garment. He was to wear the garment, proving its usefulness, and then take and bury it in a cleft of a rock. The location was identified as “Parath,” which could refer to either the city Perath, which was relatively close, or the Euphrates River about 350 miles away. In either case, sometime later the Lord told Jeremiah to go back and retrieve the undergarment, which by that time was spoiled, that is decayed and good for nothing. It was useless just as Israel had become.
There is a parallel here for us today. The church’s usefulness is in seen only in her full devotion to the Lord. Moreover, this is the same for every believer. What is mean by this full devotion? It has to do with the heart of the church and believers. Full devotion implies a heartfelt walk with the Lord that is pleasing to Him. It involves harkening to His word because of the love in our hearts for Him. When churches and individual believers cave into the system of this world, prioritizing the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, over their walk with the Lord, they lose their light in the darkness. They lose their usefulness in being a display of God’s glory in the world.
Renewing the Heart 