Ruined Sash of Pride and sin’s Consequences

Jeremiah 13:1-14 

1 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." 2 So I got a sash according to the word of the LORD, and put it around my waist.

3 And the word of the LORD came to me the second time, saying, 4 "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." 5 So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the LORD commanded me.

6 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." 7 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.

8 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 9 "Thus says the LORD: 'In this manner I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. 10 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. 11 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.'

12 "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?'

13 "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! 14 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."'"

These parables given through Jeremiah to God’s wandering people seem harsh but really demonstrate just how seriously He takes our sin and pride.  The first was visual; the prophet was told to tie a sash around his waist, walk to the river, and bury the sash in a hole.  When he returned days later, it had been stained and ruined beyond cleaning or repair.  This is how Israel’s sins had sullied their souls beyond their own power to cleanse (Isaiah 64:6).  This is how we all are if left in our fallen state from birth as Israel proved in attempting to form their own righteousness until they gave up and gave in to their sin nature.  The LORD told the messenger and we who still read and hear His words that this was the pride of self-righteousness and the iniquity of their sins in their hearts which would ruin them as the sash hidden in the dark until it was ruined by lack of the light of righteousness in heart and actions.  Such lives are then profitable for nothing in God’s eyes or for our lives.  He had called His people to hold tight to Him in following with holiness because He is holy, yet they refused to hear and missed out on being renowned for His praise and glorify Him.  He then gave them the second parable of judgment by bringing on them a spirit of drunkenness that they could not do anything but destroy each other and be destroyed by Him.  God’s wrath on these who rejected Him speaks loudly to those now who would reject His Son (John 12:48) and face eternal consequences of the wrath of justice in judgment.  There is hope only in believing into Jesus the Christ, by trusting who He is and what He has done and receiving Him.  This is believing into Christ and not just intellectually or emotionally about Him.  Knowing who He is is not enough without entering into His body and blood by the action of faith.  May we therefore believe and move into Christ to be reborn and changed forever and live in and through Him by confessing our sinful nature and receiving the reconciliation of forgiveness in His great grace which we cannot attain in our own efforts of trying to do enough good.