God Uses Funny Objects to Teach Us His Lessons
I have a girdle, maybe you have one too. This girdle (that I have) is an undergarment that sometimes I must wear, even though it’s not a garment that I look forward to wearing. When I was young, my mom owned a girdle. That was the late 1970s, and I think the whole world of women wore girdles and slips back then, or at least it seemed that way to me, a kid.
As time passed, I never had a need to wear a girdle, that is, until suddenly, I did. The year was the year before COVID, I remember that year quite well. It was the most free-feeling year (I think now) as I stand in 2023 and look back at the year before the pandemic we call “COVID.”
In 2019, the year of freedom (that we did not know we enjoyed UNTIL the freedom was suddenly stripped away from us), ironically, that was the year I took up the wearing of the dreaded girdle. The Event—My Daughter’s Wedding. The Reason—My Stomach Was Not As Flat As It Had Once Been. The Affect Produced By the Girdle—A Smoother, Flatter Stomach Smashed Underneath My Mother-of-the-Bride Dress.
Today, I found it quite humorous that the LORD caused His prophet Jeremiah to also wear a girdle. As I read this passage, my eyes were opened to the “REAL PURPOSE” of the girdle. Let’s read God’s Word together.
“This is what the LORD said to me:
(Jeremiah 13: 1-8 & 11 NASB)
“Go and buy yourself a linen undergarment and put it around your waist,
but do not put in in water.”
So I bought the undergarment in accordance with the word of the LORD,
and put it around my waist.
Then the word of the LORD came to me a second time, saying,
“Take the undergarment that you bought, which is around your waist, and arise, go to the Euphrates and hide it there in a crevice of the rock.”
So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the LORD had commanded me.
After many days the LORD said to me,
“Arise, go to the Euphrates and take from there the undergarment
which I commanded you to hide there.”
Then I went to the Euphrates and dug, and I took the undergarment from the place where I had hidden it; and behold, the undergarment was ruined, it was completely useless.
Then the word of the LORD came to me saying, . . .”
“For as the undergarment clings to the waist of a man, so I made the entire household of Israel and the entire household of Judah cling to Me,’ declares the LORD, ‘so that they might be My people, for renown, for praise, and for glory; but they did not listen.”
- The people of God had been God’s great pride.
BUT NOW
- The people of God had become wicked in their actions.
- The people of God refused to listen to God.
- The people of God followed, served, & bowed to other gods.
- The people of God had become to Jehovah God like a useless undergarment.
It’s difficult to not read this parable in the Bible and not smile at the humorous way God used His prophet Jeremiah to reveal God’s displeasure. I am sure the people of Judah thought Jeremiah was a crazy man. Consider his actions & Think about the watching world.
1st—Jeremiah bought for himself a girdle.
2nd—Jeremiah began to wear the girdle.
3rd—Jeremiah wore the girdle for several days (yes, without taking off this undergarment!)
4th—Jeremiah took off his girdle (Thank the Lord!) and did something even more strange.
5th—Jeremiah traveled from the land of Judah to the Euphrates River located in the land of Babylon (the very land of the people God was going to use to punish His people).
6th—Jeremiah kneeled next to the Euphrates and hid the girdle there in the river & walked back to Judah.
7th—Jeremiah traveled back to the Euphrates (after many days), stooped down at the place where he had hidden the girdle, took it out from the river, & saw that—“it was completely useless.”
When we sink so far into our sinful nature, we become totally useless to God. It is then that God allows us to face the consequences of our actions as we become captive to the gods of this world that we have placed in front of Almighty God.
In the New Testament, the Son of God referenced the girdle too, when he revealed to His disciples through His example what they too must do.
“Jesus, knowing that the Father had handed all things over to Him, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God,
(John 13: 3-5 & 12 & 20 NASB)
got up from the supper and laid His outer garments aside;
and He took a towel and tied it around Himself [girded His loins].
Then He [JESUS] poured water into the basin, and began washing the disciples’ feet and wiping them with the towel which He had tied around Himself. . . .”
“Then, when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done for you? . . .”
“Truly, truly I say to you, the one who receives anyone I send, receives Me; and the one who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.”
If we do not have fellowship with the Son of God, then there is no way we can serve others.
- Service to others is an action of Christ.
- Service to our neighbors reveals to the world our fellowship with Christ.
- Service to the world surrounding us acknowledges to those watching how our sins have been washed by the blood of the Lamb.
God cannot use dirty garments!
The undergarment Jeremiah wore for many days became totally soiled from the dirtiness found within daily life. That particular girdle, though Jeremiah hid it in the water of the Euphrates River, was completely useless.
God can only use garments that He has made clean!
- The people of God who are “girded” with His Truth!
- The people of God who have been “washed & made clean” by His Son! &
- The people of God who have “received Him”—JESUS—who was sent by God!
God Uses Funny Objects to Teach Us His Lessons
- May We Never Forget What Our Lord Jesus Christ Has Done for Us!
- May We Learn & Apply God’s Lesson Today Within the World We Live.
- May We Be Hidden Within the Crevice of the Solid Rock of Jesus!
- May We Be God’s People: “for renown, for praise, and for glory;. . .”