05-02-21 “A prophet traveled 300 miles to bury his underwear”

Scripture   Jeremiah 13:1-11
 
ILLUSTRATION: Skipper’s buried a bone and brought in the remains – dirty, limp, gross, smelly.
Dramatized Scripture Reading:
Jeremiah 13:1-11
This is what the Lord said to me: "Go and buy a linen belt and put it around your waist, but do not let it touch water." 2 So I bought a belt, as the Lord directed, and put it around my waist.
          3 Then the word of the Lord came to me a second time: 4 "Take the belt you bought and are wearing around your waist, and go now to Perath and hide it there in a crevice in the rocks." 5 So I went and hid it at Perath, as the Lord told me.
          6 Many days later the Lord said to me, "Go now to Perath and get the belt I told you to hide there." 7 So I went to Perath and dug up the belt and took it from the place where I had hidden it, but now it was ruined and completely useless.
          8 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 9 "This is what the Lord says: 'In the same way I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. 10 These wicked people, who refuse to listen to my words, who follow the stubbornness of their hearts and go after other gods to serve and worship them, will be like this belt — completely useless! 11 For as a belt is bound around a man's waist, so I bound the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to me,' declares the Lord, 'to be my people for my renown and praise and honor. But they have not listened.'
 
Jeremiah 13:1-11 (The Message)
God told me, "Go and buy yourself some linen shorts. Put them on and keep them on. Don't even take them off to wash them." 2 So I bought the shorts as God directed and put them on.
          3 Then God told me, 4 "Take the shorts that you bought and go straight to Perath and hide them there in a crack in the rock." 5 So I did what God told me and hid them at Perath.
          6 Next, after quite a long time, God told me, "Go back to Perath and get the linen shorts I told you to hide there." 7 So I went back to Perath and dug them out of the place where I had hidden them. The shorts by then had rotted and were worthless.
          8 God explained, 9 "This is the way I am going to ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem —   10 a wicked bunch of people who won't obey me, who do only what they want to do, who chase after all kinds of no-gods and worship them. They're going to turn out as rotten as these old shorts. 11 Just as shorts clothe and protect, so I kept the whole family of Israel under my care" — God's Decree — "so that everyone could see they were my people, a people I could show off to the world and be proud of. But they refused to do a thing I said.
Where was Jeremiah told to go?

 From his home in Anatoth which is near Jerusalem and to go to Perath (Hebrew for Euphrates).

The Euphrates River was over 300 miles away.
Some believe it referred to Parah (a town just over 3 miles away) It is possible but not likely.

 A trip to the Euphrates and back would take several months which lends itself to the linen being soiled by the time he arrived and also to the time between leaving it and going back to get it…”Many days”.

 
What was Jeremiah told to wear?
A linen belt, sash, shorts. 4 linen belt

This referred to a priestly garment (even of the high priest).
They were supposed to bathe in water before putting them on to resemble being clean. Jeremiah was specifically told not to allow water to touch it. In other words – put the sacred garment on your dirty body without bathing you or the garment first.
Leviticus 16:3-4
"This is how Aaron is to enter the sanctuary area: with a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. He is to put on the sacred linen tunic, with linen undergarments next to his body; he is to tie the linen sash around him and put on the linen turban. These are sacred garments; so he must bathe himself with water before he puts them on.
          The priest represents Israel to God and also God to Israel. As Israel,
1 wearing the garment on a dirty body showed how spiritually dirty they were.
2 taking it far away showed how distant they were from God.
3 

burying it showed that they had become useless to God. (like the parable of the talents where the third servant buries his talent/money and it is taken away and given to the other who invested and grew their talent money for their master).
 
Jeremiah’s underwear journey is an announcement (or a letter) to Israel that they have sinned and therefore willfully separated themselves from God. This is just the first of 5 warnings Jeremiah gives to Israel. God’s judgement is shown by Israel being taken captive into Babylonian exile.  Ultimately Jeremiah gives hope; that if they will turn to God, He will forgive them and give them and restore them to Himself.
Israel was meant to show the world who God is and how they can know Him, and they were failing miserably. How is the church doing at that today? It reminds me of a story I read recently that has some sting in it:
Some time ago an 18-year-old girl from Washington state attended a worship service. For the first time in her life she heard the gospel message. The following Tuesday the members of the church received a letter from her. It read:
Dear Church Members:
Last Sunday I attended your church, and I heard the preacher. In the sermon the preacher said that all humans have sinned and rebelled against God. Because of their rebellion and disobedience they all face eternal damnation and separation from God. But then he also said God loves all humans and sent his Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to redeem them from their sins and that all those who believe in Him would go to Heaven and live with God eternally.
My parents recently died in rapid succession. I know they did not believe in Jesus Christ, whom you call the Savior of the world. If what you believe is true, they are damned. You compel me to believe that either the message is true, that you yourself don't believe this message, or that you don't care. You see, we live only three blocks from your church, and no one ever told us.
Not only was Israel meant to show the world who God is, even more so, the church is to be doing that today…we are to be showing HIStory to the world around us.
 
1 Peter 2:6-12
For in Scripture it says: "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame." Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone," and, "A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the message (like the Israelites in Jeremiah’s day – and sometimes like us) — which is also what they were destined for.
Here is the Good News:
9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
ASHLAND MISSION STATEMENT
We are building an inspired community that creatively and compassionately connects people to Jesus Christ.
How do we fulfil this mission that has been God’s mission for us since He created us in the garden, and has been crafted specifically for how Ashland will fulfill that mission.
How do we do that?

A young salesman was disappointed about losing a big sale, and as he talked with his sales manager he lamented, “I guess it just proves you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.” The manager replied,“Your job is not to make him drink. Your job is to make him thirsty.” So it is with revealing HIStory to the world. Our lives should be so filled with Christ that it creates a thirst for Jesus and His Word!