Did you read the title? What, wait….hide your UNDERWEAR? What does that mean? Settle down. It’s an interesting story. I heard a pastor on television say the other day that in Jeremiah, God told Jeremiah to put his underwear in a log. I had never heard that one before. You know it’s not the kind of thing you are going to discuss in Sunday School and I’ve never heard it in a sermon.
Interestingly enough, it would make a great sermon, so here’s my sermon on Jeremiah’s underwear. Depending on the version of the Bible you like the verse says linen belt, shorts, girdle, or undergarment. You get the idea. It’s his underwear.
Jeremiah 13: 1-11 (NIV) “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.’ So I bought a belt, as the Lord directed, and put it around my waist. Then the word of the Lord came to me a second time: ‘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.’ So I went and hid it at Perath, as the Lord told me. Many days later the Lord said to me, ‘Go now to Perath and get the belt I told you to hide there.’ 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. Then the word of the Lord came to me: ‘This is what the Lord says: ‘In the same way I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. 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! For as a belt is bound around the waist, so I bound all the people of Israel and all the people of Judah to me,’ declares the Lord, ‘to be my people for my renown and praise and honor. But they have not listened.’”
Jeremiah is called “the weeping prophet”. He tried to warn the people that if they didn’t change their ways they would face trouble, and they did. They were captured by the Babylonians and forced into exile.
In the same way, we are like the ancient people of Jerusalem. We look to our own “gods”, so to speak. We go after material things, status, adoration, money, love, etc. We look for answers in the wrong places. Remember the verse in Ecclesiastes about there not being anything new under the sun? People are people and we are always the same. The time and circumstances may be different but will have the same reactions.
Can we change? Doubtful. Not as a species, but I believe we can recognize our faults and the error of our ways. We can remember our past mistakes and try to improve on our behaviors.
I think when we recognize we’ve got to repent. In Biblical times, they would tear their clothes and walk around in sackcloth. You don’t have to go that far. I just say to God “I’m sorry. I know it was wrong when I did, X, Y and Z. I ask you to direct me and keep me on the right path. Show me the way and forgive me.” That’s the good thing about grace. We are forgiven.
Psalm 119: 9-16 (NIV)
How can a young person stay on the path of purity?
By living according to your word.
I seek you with all my heart;
do not let me stray from your commands.
I have hidden your word in my heart
that I might not sin against you.
Praise be to you, Lord;
teach me your decrees.
With my lips I recount
all the laws that come from your mouth.
I rejoice in following your statutes
as one rejoices in great riches.
I meditate on your precepts
and consider your ways.
I delight in your decrees;
I will not neglect your word.
Read these verses and remember what they say. Use it as a prayer and guide. Recognize your sins, but don’t dwell on them. Seek God first in all that you do.
Now you can tell everyone about Jeremiah’s underwear. I know you’ll never look at a pair the same again.
