Dirty underwear

Dirty underwear is gross.  Especially after it has been worn and then unwashed for a very long time.  The stains.  The crust.  The stench.  The discoloration.  Disgusting.  

This is what the Lord said to me: 

“Go and buy yourself a linen undergarment and put it on, but do not put it in water.” 

So I bought underwear as the Lord instructed me and put it on. 

Then the word of the Lord came to me a second time: “Take the underwear that you bought and are wearing, and go at once to the Euphrates and hide it in a rocky crevice.” 

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

A long time later the Lord said to me, “Go at once to the Euphrates and get the underwear that I commanded you to hide there.” 

So I went to the Euphrates and dug up the underwear and got it from the place where I had hidden it, but it was ruined — of no use at all. 

Then the word of the Lord came to me: “This is what the Lord says: Just like this I will ruin the great pride of both Judah and Jerusalem. 

These evil people, who refuse to listen to Me, who follow the stubbornness of their own hearts, and who have followed other gods to serve and worship — they will be like this underwear, of no use at all. 

Just as underwear clings to one’s waist, so I fastened the whole house of Israel and of Judah to Me” — this is the Lord’s declaration — “so that they might be My people for My fame, praise, and glory, but they would not obey. (Jeremiah 13:1-11)

We all probably wear some kind of underwear on a daily basis.  It's pretty essential to our lives because underwear protects and covers us.  It's the closest item of clothing to our most sensitive areas.  

It's crazy how in this passage God is connecting His people to be like His underwear, to be so close and intimate with Him!  Clinging to Him like underwear clings to us when we wear it! 

Yet He says that when the people reject such intimacy with God they become like underwear that's no longer in use.  Dirty underwear.  

Enough said.

Jmegrey