Jeremiah 13:1-11

Yahweh said to me, “Go, and buy yourself a linen belt, and put it on your waist, and don’t put it in water.”

So I bought a belt according to Yahweh’s word, and put it on my waist.

Yahweh’s word came to me the second time, saying, “Take the belt that you have bought, which is on your waist, and arise, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a cleft of the rock.”

So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as Yahweh commanded me.

After many days, Yahweh said to me, “Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take the belt from there, which I commanded you to hide there.”

Then I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and took the belt from the place where I had hidden it; and behold, the belt was ruined. It was profitable for nothing.

Then Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, “Yahweh says, ‘In this way I, will ruin the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem. This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who walk in the stubbornness of their heart, and have gone after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, will even be as this belt, which is profitable for nothing. For as the belt 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 Yahweh; ‘that they may be to me for a people, for a name, for praise, and for glory; but they would not hear.’

God’s teaching style is one that even a child can understand. In this case, He told His prophet to buy a belt, wear it for a while and then hide it by the river. Then, after a long time, God told him to go back and find it. Jeremiah had to dig to find his belt and discovered that it was now ruined. God used this to describe Israel’s pride.

Israel is like a belt to God. When God wears them, they have pride, but when they are stubborn and go after other gods, they rot and become worthless.

God expects mankind to have pride because they cling to Him, not because they have found or created their own way. It’s really too late for mankind to correct the problem though. We are ruined because we have already gone away from God, but God has prepared a miracle. Just as Jesus was ruined when He died for us, He came back from the dead. The Bible says that Jesus is the first one to rise again like this. Anyone who trusts in what the Bible says about Jesus, will be resurrected like Jesus. They are also to be made useful again. They won’t just be resurrected after they die, they are also new inside right away.