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 word 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.
~ Jeremiah 13:1-11 ESV
I was sorting through piles of papers yesterday when I was cleaning up and came across a page of notes from seminary which I had considered blogging about on the day of the lecture but never got around to it. So here it is for all who are curious about what types of talks go on within seminary classes from the classroom of Dr. David Lamb a professor of Old Testament at Biblical Theological Seminary in a class on the Prophetic books of the Bible. The talk started with the discussion over what was meant by a “loincloth”, which is also rendered as a belt, girdle or sash in various Bible translations. To which Dr. Lamb said that a loincloth is basically underwear and suggested boxer sorts as a good alternative contemporary English translation choice. To which he recapped the passage as God telling Jeremiah to go out and buy a new pair of boxer shorts, and to put them on right away without washing them first. Then Jeremiah was told to take his boxer shorts and hid them in some rocks outside for a time before being told to go back and get them. To which he asked if any of us were ever walking outside and came across a pair of underwear on the ground that we wanted to pick up and take home with us to wear without even bothering to wash them first? Something that seemed unthinkable yet it gets even more shocking when later on in the passage God refers to His people as His underwear. What a shocking imagery of the intimate nature between God and His people which is described as clinging to Him as our underwear clings to our most intimate parts. Yet in our sin and unrighteousness we become to God like a pair of underwear that is left outside among rocks after a while, soiled and corrupted to the point of being useless. So this gives us another interesting way of looking at the Bible’s command for us Christians to be holy in how we live our life because God is holy. After all as the underwear of God it would be very bad news if we allow ourselves to become so soiled with sin that we become unwearable as it would be very bad news for us if it gets bad enough for God to go commando on us in judgment. Just like what happened to Israel in the time of the Babylonian Exile which occurred later on during Jeremiah’s ministry.
