Chapter 13 - Things Get Even Tougher to Take

Many of us have lived most of our lives in relative comfort and security. This past number of months may have been the first time we have seen how quickly things can come apart for a country, for the world. Even if we have done well as a province, as a nation, the pandemic has demonstrated how thin the thread is that seems to hold everything together. 

What might it look like if everything came apart? 
Take a look at Jeremiah 13. This is a weird chapter. If you have read other prophetic books of scripture, say for instance, Ezekiel, you will know that these odd object lessons are occasionally taken up by God. In this case God tells Jeremiah to buy a loincloth. Jeremiah does so. Then God tells Jeremiah to wear the loincloth. Jeremiah does so. Then God tells Jeremiah to take the loincloth off and go hide it, bury it in between rocks in the desert. Jeremiah does so. Sometime later God tells Jeremiah to go dig up the loincloth. Jeremiah does this as well. 
And then God tells Jeremiah to notice that the loincloth is soiled and really not good for anything in such a state. And then God says that the loincloth is like the people. Okay. 
There is intimacy in this metaphor. It’s a bit much to take actually, but God is saying that the people were that close, that intimate to him and now things are just terrible. 
There are more tough metaphors in the chapter. God warns of coming defeat and exile and says that the people have “lifted their skirts”. He then says that he himself will “lift your skirts above your face”. 

I can barely read stuff like this. 
And then the last verse; “How long will it be before you are made clean.” 

Then I pray, 
Dear Lord Jesus; 
Let me see you, even in this passage. I hear David’s prayer, 
“Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean, wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.” 

Amen