Currently, we are camped out in the spot in the Apostles’ Creed, dealing with the return of Jesus for Final Judgment. Previously, we have said that we will be judged, as Christians, based on what we did with the life Jesus has given us. Thus, now we are asking, over the next several sermons, what exactly do we do with what Jesus has given us? In this sermon we’ll look at the primary thing God wants from us: attachment to him.
Let us turn to Jeremiah 13:1-11:
Thus says the LORD to me, “Go and buy a linen loincloth and put it around your waist, and do not dip it in water.” So I bought a loincloth according to the word of the LORD, and put it around my waist. And the world of the LORD came to me a second time, “Take the loincloth that you have bought, which is around 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 the LORD commanded me. And after many days the LORD said to me, “Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take from there the loincloth that I commanded you to hide there.” Then I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and I took the loincloth from the place where I had hidden it. And behold, the loincloth was spoiled; it was good for nothing.
Then the word of the LORD came to me: “Thus says the LORD: Even so will I spoil the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their own heart and have gone after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be like this loincloth, which is good for nothing. For as the loincloth clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, declares the LORD, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen” (ESV).
Yes, this passage is quite strange and perhaps a bit disturbing. In essence we are dealing with underwear. Yet, God is a disturbing God who wishes from time to time to disturb us out of our slumber.
Now that you’ve had a minute or two to recover, let’s please do not get sidetracked. Let’s not get sidetracked by the strangeness of the material. Let’s also not get sidetracked by quick and easy conclusions. Merely offering this passage a quick read will most likely lead one to conclude that God is upset at Israel for breaking his laws.
Yet, let’s go a bit deeper. This God who issued 613 commands/teachings, is the same God who is upset at the failure at attach their heart of hearts to the heart of God. He made his people to “cling” to him.
This is not as strange as it may sound. How many of us know people who follow the rules at Church but are not real Christians? How many of us know folks who do good works, but their hearts are far from God. Ethics and good works were never meant to substitute for knowing God. These are not the words of a God who is merely upset that his honor has been offended. These are not the words of a high and mighty king who has seen his fixed laws broken. While some portion of these two is no doubt involved here, what picture more accurately reflects this passage is that of a lover with unrequited love.
God is looking for people who will attach themselves to his inner heart struggle. This is not to say that we should not be careful to heed God’s ordinances, ways, teachings, rules, and laws. Rather it is to say that each of these is supposed to flow forth from our relationships with, or attachment to God.
Jeremiah was such a one. God called him out to sympathize with God’s deep struggle for his own people and then communicate that to them. Jeremiah obeys the call, but quickly finds out that even his own friends and family can be not so nice. Thus, Jeremiah begins to complain to God about the people. Let’s pick up in Jeremiah 12:1-4:
Righteous are you, O LORD,
when I complain to you;
yet I would plead my case before you.
Why does the way of the wicked
prosper?
Why do all who are treacherous
thrive?
You plant them, and they take root;
they grow and produce fruit;
you are near in their mouth
and far from their heart.
But you, O LORD, know me;
you see me, and test my heart
toward you.
Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter,
and set them apart for the day of
slaughter.
How long will the land mourn
and the grass of every field wither?
For the evil of those who dwell in it
the beasts and the birds are swept
away,
because they said, “He will not see
our latter end” (ESV).
Jeremiah makes no bones about his Jonah-like desire to see God bring his wrath on the people who are violently rejecting Jeremiah’s overtures. Notice, however, how God responds to him in verses 5 & 6:
“If you have raced with men on foot, and
they have wearied you,
how will you compete with horses?
And if in a safe land you are so trusting,
what will you do in the thicket of the
Jordan?
For even your brothers and the house of
your father,
even they have dealt treacherously
with you;
they are in full cry after you;
do not believe them,
though they speak friendly words to
you” (ESV).
God called Jeremiah to attach himself to God’s struggle for his people. Like most of us Jeremiah gets sidetracked by their violent response to him. Jeremiah calls on God to minister to him, to understand him, to vindicate him. God’s response is something along the lines of: “And you’re surprised by all of this, eh? If my own prophet can’t stay on target to sympathize with me, why should you expect a violent and recalcitrant people to treat you nice?”
It’s as if God is crying out: “Will someone please put me first and center for just once?” This was after all the tip of the iceberg of the Sinai Covenant: “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:5 & 6; ESV).
Not only was deep, personal, heart attachment to God the heart of the Sinai Covenant, this is also the heart of Christianity: “And this is eternal life, that they know you they only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3; ESV). What is one thing we do with the life Jesus has given to us in Salvation? Attach our inner hearts to the heart of God: know him.
