Jeremiah 13:8-11 – Testimony in Tatters, but for the Lord
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.’
“The ultimate difference between God's wisdom and man's wisdom," reflects John Piper in Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God, "is how they relate to the glory of God's grace in Christ crucified. God's wisdom makes the glory of God's grace our supreme treasure. But man's wisdom delights in seeing himself as resourceful, self-sufficient, self determining, and not utterly dependent on God's free grace.”
To assist with that distinction, God provides Jeremiah, his people, and us as his spiritual heirs with a visual aid in Jeremiah 13:8-11. He has had Jeremiah purchased a sash, representative of his people's notion of their obedience. It girds them. It gets attention. Then God has Jeremiah as His prophet bury the sash to see how human obedience holds up.
It doesn't. The sash is ruined simply by the process of time and entropy in a fallen world. Anything Israel, or Jeremiah, would have to show for obedient discipleship will, over time, be rendered as worthless rags.
In case we miss this take away so adverse to our pride, God breaks it down for us in these verses. He distinguishes to His prophet who has so turned to Babylon obediently that His righteousness is not a spot on the map in Judah or Jerusalem. The location of His particular activity, or his people's obedience at what from time to time is known as His epicenter will vary. So will, God proclaims with radical vulnerability, His profit from His activity with people once known as His. He encircles a group with His sash, His outward signs of obedience and favor, and yet He laments that even in this exalted position, they, and we, don't hear.
So it is, still, but for His ongoing grace. Yesterday's act of obedience, however pride we might be of it, won't last unless God preserve any kernel of faith by which it was done. Unless He uses it to point to Christ, there is no profit for Him, or for us. If we, though, in small gestures like the purchase, and the wearing, and the burying of the sash consciously look forward to CHRIST'S sash, His righteousness covering and surrounding us, even as the props, the types, and the shadows rot in turn, the faith God uses them to engender will, by His grace, last forever.
“The ultimate difference between God's wisdom and man's wisdom," reflects John Piper in Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God, "is how they relate to the glory of God's grace in Christ crucified. God's wisdom makes the glory of God's grace our supreme treasure. But man's wisdom delights in seeing himself as resourceful, self-sufficient, self determining, and not utterly dependent on God's free grace.”
To assist with that distinction, God provides Jeremiah, his people, and us as his spiritual heirs with a visual aid in Jeremiah 13:8-11. He has had Jeremiah purchased a sash, representative of his people's notion of their obedience. It girds them. It gets attention. Then God has Jeremiah as His prophet bury the sash to see how human obedience holds up.
It doesn't. The sash is ruined simply by the process of time and entropy in a fallen world. Anything Israel, or Jeremiah, would have to show for obedient discipleship will, over time, be rendered as worthless rags.
In case we miss this take away so adverse to our pride, God breaks it down for us in these verses. He distinguishes to His prophet who has so turned to Babylon obediently that His righteousness is not a spot on the map in Judah or Jerusalem. The location of His particular activity, or his people's obedience at what from time to time is known as His epicenter will vary. So will, God proclaims with radical vulnerability, His profit from His activity with people once known as His. He encircles a group with His sash, His outward signs of obedience and favor, and yet He laments that even in this exalted position, they, and we, don't hear.
So it is, still, but for His ongoing grace. Yesterday's act of obedience, however pride we might be of it, won't last unless God preserve any kernel of faith by which it was done. Unless He uses it to point to Christ, there is no profit for Him, or for us. If we, though, in small gestures like the purchase, and the wearing, and the burying of the sash consciously look forward to CHRIST'S sash, His righteousness covering and surrounding us, even as the props, the types, and the shadows rot in turn, the faith God uses them to engender will, by His grace, last forever.
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