A Completely Useless Belt
Opening Prayer
Father, on this Ash Wednesday I begin the annual journey of Lent. I thank You for Your mercy, forgiveness, and the gift of eternal life.
Read Jeremiah 13:1-17
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Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Meditate
“…you were dead in your transgressions and sins,…you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit that is now at work in those who are disobedient” (Eph. 2:1,2). Hard to think of accomplished, cultured, noble people under Satan’s control, but it is true!
Think Further
God asked Jeremiah to act out a powerful but unusual sermon. He was to buy and wear a linen belt in public. Many would notice how nice the belt was. Then God asked Jeremiah not to wash the belt but to bury it under a rock. Later he was to dig up the belt, which was by now eaten by insects and in an appalling condition. Jeremiah was told to wear the horrible-looking belt in public. The message was clear: Judah was now a ruined and useless nation, though it was once beautiful and glorious. The reason: the nation chose not to be bound to God and the people did not listen (11).
Not realizing their desperate situation, they still expected prosperity (full wineskins, 12), but the wine they were to drink was the wine of God’s wrath. Judah was about to face the darkest hour and no one would be spared (13,14). In secret, Jeremiah wept bitterly for his nation (17). This was not a message he preached gleefully; he told the truth and wept for his disobedient nation (cf. Luke 19:41).
What a dreadful tragedy when people do not realize their true condition, when they are deceived into thinking they are fine when in fact they are wrecks. They think they are noble (well-educated, rich, powerful, clever) but are in fact noble ruins. They dream of prosperity but tragedy awaits them. How should Christians help such people? Should we not weep and tell them the truth? What if the church itself is caught in similar self-deception and false well-being (Luke 18:11,12)? Who will tell the truth that (as John Ruskin said) the greatness is not in us but through us? When we choose to leave God, we lose any greatness that our connection with him may have given us. We become useless.
Apply
How easily do you cry? When do you cry–over heart-rending movies, heart-touching news stories, disappointments? How about the state of the church or the world (17)?
Closing prayer
Father God, I have never cried like Jesus over Jerusalem, or Jeremiah over Judah. I need my heart to be sensitized to what causes You pain.
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