The Prophetic Ministry of Judgment - Jeremiah 13

“Thus the Lord said to me: ‘Go and get yourself a linen sash, and put it around your waist, but do not put it in water. So I got a sash according to the Word of the Lord and put it around my waist.” Jeremiah 13:1-2

The linen sash represents the Jerusalemites. The sash was worn close to his body. God wanted His people close to Him. In John 15:15, Jesus told His disciples “I have called you friends.” In John 17:26, Jesus said to His Father, “I made You known to them and will continue to make You known in order that the love You have for Me may be in them and that I Myself may be in them.”

Jeremiah was not to put the sash in water because the people refused to be cleansed by the Word of God. Ephesians 5:25-26 says that Christ loved the Church and gave Himself that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word.

“And the Word of the Lord came to me the second time, saying, ‘Take the sash that you acquired, which is around your waist, and arise, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole in the rock.’ So, I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the Lord commanded me.” Jeremiah 13:3-5

The Euphrates River flowed through Babylon. Jeremiah’s trip to the Euphrates River, a distance of about 400-500 miles from Jerusalem, was symbolic of the future exile of his people. The “hole in the rock” was like a prison in reference to captivity. It also symbolizes a tomb. Israel’s exile from the Promised Land was like a death, and there return to it was like a resurrection.

“Now it came to pass after many days that the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take from there the sash which I commanded you to hide there.’” Jeremiah 13:6

“After many days” — enough time was given for the sash to become unfit for use. The people of Jerusalem had ceased to be witnesses for the Lord. They must, therefore, be cast away as a “marred” or a spoiled sash.

“Then I went to the Euphrates and dug, and I took the sash from the place where I had hidden it; and there was the sash, ruined. It was profitable for nothing. Then the Word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord: in this manner I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.’” Jeremiah 13:7-9

Ruined and profitable for nothing! That’s what pride does for us. It blinds us to our foolishness and compels us to boast in the things that are not good for us. So much of entertainment is like a worship service unto people with absolutely no worship unto God.

In 1 Peter 5:6-7, Peter advised us saying, “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.”

Before Philemon converted to Christ, he was useless, but afterwards, he became very useful.

What kind of sash are we? One that brings glory to God or shame?

“This evil people, who refuse to hear My Words, who follow the dictates of their hearts, and walk after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be just like this sash which is profitable for nothing.” Jeremiah 13:10

The godless cannot impart the blessings that only God provides. God gives the rain Joel 2:23 speaks of by pouring His Spirit into His people.

“For as the sash clings to the waist of a man, so I have caused the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to cling to Me, says the Lord, that they may become My people, for renown, for praise, and for glory; but they would not hear.” Jeremiah 13:11

In Acts 2:46-47, after being filled with God’s Spirit, people were praising God in one accord and having favor with all the people. The Lord added daily those who were being saved.

There’s a difference between us who have Christ and those who do not. 1 Peter 2:9 says, “Proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

In Isaiah 43:21, the Lord says, “This people have I formed for Myself. They shall show forth My praise.”

“Therefore, you shall speak to them this Word: ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: every bottle shall be filled with wine.’ And they will say to you, ‘Do we not certainly know that every bottle will be filled with wine?’ Then you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord: behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land—even the kings who sit on David’s throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem—with drunkenness! And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, says the Lord. I will not pity nor spare nor have mercy but will destroy them.” Jeremiah 13:12-14

When Jeremiah announces by the Word of the Lord that every bottle will be filled with wine, this is not good news. The wine and drunkenness that God referred to is a wine of wrath that causes people to destroy one another.

The Lord repeats this prophecy in Jeremiah 25:15-16 but adds to the list many nations. “For thus says the Lord God of Israel to me: take this wine cup of fury from My hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send you, to drink it. And they will drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword that I will send among them.”

God uses wine-drunkenness as a metaphor for His wrath against sin in Revelation 14:8; 16:19, 17:2. “Babylon is fallen... because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.’” “Great Babylon was remembered before God to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath.” “The inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.”

In Ephesians 5:18, the Lord says, “Don’t get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless actions, but be filled by the Holy Spirit.” The Lord loves people! He wants to fill people with love, peace, and joy! We need the Holy Spirit to fill us.

In Mark 1:8, John the Baptist prophesied saying, “I have baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” John’s baptism was for repenting of... removing sin. Jesus’ baptism is for the giving of the Holy Spirit.

In Mark 2:22, Jesus said, “No one puts new wine into old wineskins, or else the new wine burst the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins.” The new wine is the Holy Spirit. God’s put His Spirit in new creations meaning converted-to-Christ people.

“Hear and give ear! Do not be proud for the Lord has spoken.” Jeremiah 13:15

It is better to listen God’s Word than to suffer the consequences of those who reject Him.

Give glory to the Lord your God before He causes darkness, and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains, and while you are looking for light, He turns it into the shadow of death and makes it dense darkness.” Jeremiah 13:16

Give glory to the Lord your God! Psalm 34:5 says, “They looked to Him and were radiant, and their faces were not ashamed.”

1 John 2:10 says, “He who loves his brother remains in the light, and there is no occasion for stumbling in him.”

“But if you will not hear it, My soul will weep in secret for your pride; My eyes will weep bitterly and run down with tears, because the Lord’s flock has been taken captive.” Jeremiah 13:17

Bad choices have bad conclusions. The Lord has delightful purposes for people’s lives, but when they pursue evil, they reap horrible consequences such as a destructive captivity. It could be a captivity to a foreign nation or to a destructive addiction like alcohol, drugs or porn.

Jeremiah was in good company as he mourned for sinners who needed God to rescue them. In Psalm 119:136, King David wept for sinners, “My eyes shed streams of water, because they do not keep Your law.” Luke 19:41-42 says, “When He drew near and saw the city, He wept over it, ‘Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace.’”

“Say to the king and to the queen mother, ‘Humble yourselves; sit down, for your rule shall collapse, the crown of your glory.’” Jeremiah 13:18

Jehoiachin was the king. His mother Nehushta was the queen. Jehoiachin did evil in God’s sight. He was taken captive to Babylon. They should have humbled themselves before the Lord, then, they would not have been humbled before their enemies. (See 2 Kings 24:8-10, 15)

Isaiah 66:1-2, says, “Thus says the Lord, the heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you build unto me? And where is the place of my REST? For all those things have my handmade, and all those things have been, says the Lord. But to this man will I look even to him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembles at my word. Pause, dictation.

“The cities of the South shall be shut up, and no one shall open them; Judah shall be carried away captive, all of it; it shall be wholly carried away captive.” Jeremiah 13:19

The cities of the south were farthest from the enemy. Babylon’s army advanced to them from the north. Their cities will be shut up due to a lack of people to keep them operational.

2 Kings 25:21 says, “Then the king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was led away into exile from its land.”

“Lift up your eyes and see those who come from the north. Where is the flock that was given to you, your beautiful sheep?” Jeremiah 13:20

Where is the flock? In Babylon! They did not want God to reign over them, so God gave them into the hands of a pagan king. The pagan king is symbolic of Satan. In 2 Corinthians 5:1-5, Paul urged the Corinthians to give an unrepentant sex offender among them over “to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” The goal was to create a painful crisis to save the erring man’s soul.

“What will you say when He punishes you? For you have taught them to be chieftains, to be head over you. Will not pangs seize you, like a woman in labor?” Jeremiah 13:21

The metaphor of a woman’s pain during childbirth is used in the Bible to describe the level of pain experienced during seasons of divine judgment. 1 Thessalonians 5:3 says, “For when they say, ‘Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they shall not escape.”

“And if you say in your heart, ‘Why have these things come upon me?’ For the greatness of your iniquity your skirts have been uncovered, your heels made bare.” Jeremiah 13:22

Ecclesiastes 12:14 says, “God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.” “Skirts uncovered” and “heels made bare” is the imagery of an adulteress being exposed to open shame.

“Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil.” Jeremiah 13:23

A sinner cannot change himself. Conversion is a miracle. Jesus told Nicodemus that he must be born again to see the kingdom of God. This is true for every sinner. We must be reborn. We are born into the world with a sinful nature. The only way to shed the sinful nature and to gain a Christlike nature is to receive Jesus Christ.

In John 3:3, Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

“Therefore, I will scatter them like stubble that passes away by the wind of the wilderness.” Jeremiah 13:24

In Matthew 3:12, John the Baptist prophesied of Jesus, saying, “His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Separating wheat from chaff is what the Lord does. God separates right from wrong, and that which is useful from that which is of no use.

Psalm 1 says, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper. The ungodly are not so but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.”

Proverbs 27:22 says, “Though you grind a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with crushed grain, yet his foolishness will not depart from him.” In Matthew 19:25-26, when the disciples asked Jesus who can be saved, He replied, “This impossible for mere humans, but for God all things are possible.”

“This is your lot, the portion of your measures from Me, says the Lord, because you have forgotten Me and trusted in falsehood.” Jeremiah 13:25

When we don’t read the Bible, pray, worship and align ourselves with the Lord, we perish. 2 Thessalonians 2:10 says that people “perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.”

“Therefore I will uncover your skirts over your face, that your shame may appear.” Jeremiah 13:26

Their sin was perpetrated in public places, so God exposed them to open shame. “I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one will rescue her out of My hand.” (Hosea 2:10)

“I have seen your adulteries and your lustful neighings, the lewdness of your harlotry, your abominations on the hills in the fields. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! Will you still not be made clean?” Jeremiah 13:27

In James 4:4, the Lord says, “Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

In 2 Corinthians 7:1, the Lord says, “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”

How are we cleansed from defilement of flesh and spirit? We believe that the atoning sacrifice of Christ was for us. Not just others! 1 John 2:2 says, “He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” Psalm 103:12 says, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” Jesus makes us clean sashes.

Does the Holy Spirit help us to live a holy life? Yes, He does by providing power, guidance, and strength. He empowers us to overcome sin and produces godly character like love and patience through the fruit of the Spirit. He helps us to pray and assures our identity as children of God.

God’s Spirit dwells in... “By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.” (1 John 4:2) “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.” (1 John 4:15

People who profess faith in Christ in these ways are closer to God than sashes around His waist. They are abiding in God and He is abiding in them.