JEREMIAH'S LINEN GIRDLE

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JEREMIAH'S LINEN GIRDLE


Arthur E. Gove


Reading: Jeremiah 13:1-11


IN my consideration of Jeremiah's prophecies I have come to see that one of his qualities was to be God's Visual Aid expert. Like so many old time preachers, Jeremiah was bent on getting his messages across. Some preachers do not seem to bother whether or not their messages have any impact on the hearers. That would not do for Jeremiah. He had something to say and he intended to say it in such a way that the people would remember it. The sad fact of the matter was that in spite of his earnest preaching the people had stopped their ears so that his words had no effect upon them. They had grown hard and indifferent to the preached Word. It therefore seemed necessary to do something unusual to make them sit up and take notice.

God knew all about this exercise of His servant's and for this reason He told Jeremiah to give them another object lesson. He told the prophet how to approach this evil people who refused to hear His words and walked in the imagination of their hearts. He said to Jeremiah: 'I want you now to take a linen girdle, not to wash it in water at all but to wear it and wear it, so that everywhere you go people will know you as the man who wears the linen sash. Never mind how dirty it gets; go on wearing this girdle so that in time everybody will recognise you as the preacher with the linen sash. Never mind how grimy it gets; never wash it.'

Jeremiah faithfully carried out these instructions until God told him then to take the long 250 mile journey to the Euphrates and there to bury the girdle in a hole of the rock. He did this, completed the long return journey and waited until after many days the Lord told him to go back again, dig up the linen girdle again and see what had happened to it. Obediently Jeremiah undertook the tiring journey once more and when he had dug up the buried girdle: "Behold, the girdle was marred, it was profitable for nothing". He came back once more, so completing 1,000 miles, and all to make sure that the people took notice of his message. No doubt they thought him crazy. First they got used to seeing their preacher wearing his growingly grubby girdle, and then they found that he was without it and must have enquired what had happened to it. 'What a fanatic the man is,' they probably commented. 'What is he going to do next?' That was the whole object of the exercise, to arouse them from their apathy and to shock them into listening to what God had to say to them.

I heard of an evangelist who was being criticised for his message and methods. One day one of his critics came to him and said: 'I don't like your evangelistic methods!' 'Oh, that's strange,' replied the evangelist, 'neither do I. How do you do it?' Then the critic was overcome with embarrassment and answered: 'Well, as a matter of fact I don't [111/112] do it at all,' to which the evangelist responded: 'Well, I must say that I prefer my way of doing it to your way of not doing it.' Of course the supreme thing is for a man to be under orders from God, as Jeremiah was. They doubtless said that he was out of his mind, mad. But then they have always said that about God's servants. Festus said it of Paul: "... thou art beside thyself; much learning doth make thee mad" (Acts 26:24). Even our Lord was accused by His own human relations of being beside Himself, mad.

I don't think that at this stage Jeremiah was too bothered about what his listeners said about him. I feel that he was so filled with love and a desire for the glory of God that he was ready for anything that would make the people listen. What then was the object of the exercise? What was God's idea in telling Jeremiah to do these things and journey all that tremendous distance? Is there any message for us? I answer this question without any need to use my imagination or to consult commentaries or other books. God Himself gives me the explanation: "For as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, saith the Lord; that they might be unto me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear". So there are two plain lessons. The first is to show what God had designed for all His people, and the second to point out how sin and disobedience had destroyed His plan. They are two simple but very forceful lessons; the glory of God's design of grace and the tragedy of His people's sin.

God's design for His people is superlatively wonderful. It has these four aspects:


1. There should be a binding relationship between the Lord and His people.


Just as a girdle was worn in order to bind together a man's clothing, so God intended that there should be a binding relationship between Him and His people. The Bible has many illustrations of the use of such a girdle, for this was an essential part of an Eastern man's attire. After the fire on mount Carmel and the fall of abundance of rain on the land, Elijah had need of his girdle so that he could run before Ahab's chariot: "And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah; and he girded up his loins, and ran before Ahab ..." (1 Kings 18:46). In the New Testament we are given the commandment in the light of Christ's return: "Let your loins be girded about and your lights burning" (Luke 12:35). The girdle was used to bind together the flowing garments of a man so that nothing could hinder him or trip him up. The Lord wanted His people to know that just as the sash bound the clothes of an Oriental to its wearer, so His plan and desire was to bring His people and Himself together in the closest possible unity. He wanted their whole life to be linked up with Himself in this intimate way. Is this a new thought to you? Well then, how thoughtfully have you ever sung that well-known old hymn about 'Standing on the promises'? There is a verse of that hymn which speaks about being 'Bound to Him eternally by love's strong cords', and this suggests the very same thought as that illustrated by the linen girdle. Between the Lord and His true people there is this wonderful binding relationship. Paul asks several questions in Romans 8: "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? God justifies. Who is he that condemneth? Christ makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" Thank God that we know the answers. There is no guilt, no condemnation and no separation for those who are bound together with the Lord in the bundle of life. This is the comforting message of the linen girdle.


2. A priestly ministry is committed to all God's people.

UNFITNESS FOR THE KINGDOM

PREPARATIONS FOR THE KINGDOM


(Studies in 1 Samuel)


5. UNFITNESS FOR THE KINGDOM (Chapters 9 - 14)


Harry Foster


WE enter now into a period which at times seems bright with hopefulness and at others dark with despair, but which has always the undertones of the amazing grace and patience of our God. To us Saul is a person of mystery. Why was he ever called and anointed? It is a futile occupation for mere men to try to understand the ways of God. It is a much healthier and more helpful exercise to follow the divine record, gratefully accepting the encouragements of the story and humbly profiting from its warnings.


Chapters 9 and 10


There are some beautiful spiritual lessons to be learned from the call to the kingdom of this young man, Saul. We begin with a personal problem in his home, the loss of his father's asses. We ask, what could some wandering donkeys have to do with God's kingdom? The answer is that God makes use of so many apparently irrelevant things when He is pursuing His purposes. God's beginnings are usually small, and yet so much can hang on the seemingly unimportant. That is how it happened with Saul. He was instructed to choose whomever he wanted from among his father's servants, and he chose as his companion a man who served him well. For Saul was by nature an impetuous man. Three days searching for the lost animals was more than enough for him, and the pair would have returned home forthwith if the decision had been left to him. But a rash man is often also a weak man, and Saul was that. In this case happily so, for it was his servant who suggested the next step, provided -- or offered to provide -- the money judged to be necessary, and urged his master to get in touch with Samuel. They did not have to seek very far for, under the overruling providence of God, the two groups met almost at once: "When they came into the city, behold Samuel came out against them". Once again we see the miracle of God's perfect timing. Obviously He was taking great interest in the affairs of this young man Saul, ensuring that he did not find the lost asses, working to make him turn to Samuel for advice and forewarning the seer that this was the one who was to reign over Israel.


All Saul's problems were met at once. He was re-assured about the asses and he was invited to a prepared meal. But more than this, he was astonished to find that he was called to the kingdom. He, the member of such an insignificant family in the smallest of the tribes, was to be given the supreme honour in Israel. He had not thought of it; he did not choose it; and he certainly made no effort to obtain it; his beginnings were entirely a matter of grace. But there are warnings in Scripture about despising or frustrating the grace of God, and the tragic story of Saul will show us how possible such an action can be. [96/97]


For the moment, however, we have fair promise. Saul is led by Samuel into the banqueting house and there presented with a special dish which had been specifically set aside for him. It was a shoulder -- symbol of strength -- so that he could be sure that the God who called him to service would always provide abundant energy for that service. Samuel fed him before he gave him instructions. That is always God's way with us. He makes spiritual sustenance the priority. First we must feed on Christ and then we will be ready to be told what to do. Moreover, Saul had to be anointed. This was a very private and personal experience. Later Saul was to be publicly crowned in the presence of all the people, but at the first his experience of anointing came as he and Samuel were quite alone. Until then the nameless servant had witnessed and shared in what had taken place, but now Saul had his own intimate experience, as Samuel anointed him, kissed him and told him of the confirming signs which God had provided.


These were three, and they all happened just as Samuel said they would. The first was an encounter with two men at the tomb of Saul's famous ancestress, Rachael. That tomb marked the victory of faith, for there Jacob had changed his child's name from Son of my Sorrow to Benjamin, Son of the Right Hand. The message which the men gave was timely, for it re-assured Saul about the asses, but it was also one of fundamental principle since it indicated that God will always look after the personal concerns and problems of those who seek first His kingdom. The second sign was a meeting with three men on their way to Bethel, God's house. These men gave him food and drink, which must have been most welcome since Saul's own provisions were exhausted. But more, this sign reminded Saul and every other person called to the kingdom -- that God provides strength for those who obey His call. The third sign was a promise of enduement of power by the Spirit. This was a fellowship matter, precipitated by yet one more encounter, this time with a company of praising prophets.


We must not confuse this experience of Saul's with New Testament conversion. Although such phrases are used as: "thou shalt be turned into another man" and "God gave him another heart", this did not mean to him then what it means to every believer today. All through the Old Testament we read of the Spirit coming upon men at special times and for specific purposes. This seems to have been one such occasion, and there can be no question but that Saul had a mighty enduement and a miraculous experience of sharing in Spirit-given praises of God. It soon had an end (10:13), but it left its authentic mark of the Holy Spirit, namely a spirit of beautiful humility. He had nothing boastful to say to his uncle (v.16); he hid himself from publicity (v.22); and he did not harbour any rancour towards those who had insulted him (v.27). God had been very gracious to Saul. He had fulfilled His threefold promise right to the hilt, and with it all had enabled him to keep truly humble. Finally the moment arrived when Samuel could present him to the people as the chosen of the Lord.

Suck the honey out of it!

Spurgeon's sermon, "The Minstrel" It is wonderful the effect of a single verse of Scripture when the Spirit of God applies it to the soul. What power would come upon the soul, if we would grasp a single line of Scripture and suck the honey out of it till our soul is filled with sweetness.

"(all which things are to perish with the using)" Colossians 2:22

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INSPIRED PARENTHESES (26)

"(all which things are to perish with the using)"
Colossians 2:22

THIS is a contemptuous parenthesis. In a few words, the apostle sweeps away as temporary and virtually irrelevant a whole system of pious observances so precious to those who lack a vital enjoyment of close communion with Him whom Paul calls "The Head" (v.19).

IT is a notable fact that as soon as Christ ceases to be central and supreme to Christians, they begin to give exaggerated importance to outward observances. At times these are connected with special days -- mere shadows, Paul calls them (v.16-17). Not seldom they relate to food and drink, and sometimes they even focus down to the emblems used at the Lord's Table. One might think it unlikely or even impossible that Christians should quarrel about the two simple elements, bread and wine, but often they have done so, and sometimes they still do.

PAUL'S parenthetic reference to what happens to food and drink after they have been assimilated might seem coarse to us if it had not first been spoken by the Lord Jesus Himself. "Such things", He said, "after they have been eaten or drunken are expelled from the body as waste products" (Mark 7:19). This is what Paul meant by his parenthesis concerning things 'perishing with the using'. What folly to allow such 'rudiments of the world' to affect our spiritual life!

THIS does not mean that we can be careless about such matters when they cause others to stumble -- far from it. Paul himself wrote that he would gladly forego legitimate food if there were any danger of being a menace to another's faith. For my part, I feel certain that in a society like ours, where alcoholism is a major evil, the apostle would have been a total abstainer, as many of us are.

THE danger associated with such abstinences or observances is that some spiritual values should be attributed to them, as though something in addition to simple faith was needed to enjoy acceptance with God. This makes the Christian life consist of 'Jesus plus ...'. It does not! Christ, and Christ alone is the sole and sufficient basis of our acceptance with God. It is a common human failing to grasp at some rudiment or element, as the Colossians were inclined to do. We like to see and touch things, instead of having them solely by faith. The trouble about such actions is that they not only hinder the purity of personal faith, they also have a divisive effect on Christian fellowship.

PAUL closes this chapter with the positive affirmation that all such prohibitions or observances are, in themselves, quite powerless to deliver us from carnality. Only the cross of Christ can do that.

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"(By grace have ye been saved)" Ephesians 2:5

INSPIRED PARENTHESES (22)

"(By grace have ye been saved)" Ephesians 2:5

CLEARLY in our case grace operated on the basis of resurrection. But for grace we would be spiritually dead now and rushing on to eternal death. This parenthesis is slipped in between the reminder that God gave us new life (quickening) and that He then exalted us to share in Christ's heavenly glory.

IT was a mighty miracle which raised our Saviour who had sunk into the deepest death under the weight of our guilt and it is entirely due to God's grace that we share in that resurrection. Whether a Christian comes from most godly circumstances or not, his new birth is a miracle of grace. The simple believing of a child, as much as the sensational conversion of a defiant rebel, is a wonder of God's grace.

THIS might almost seem to be an unnecessary interpolation, for we should be only too aware of how completely indebted we are to God's grace for lifting us up out of our hellish misery into His heavenly glory. It is not quite unnecessary, though, for familiarity with the things of God can betray us into some kind of conceit or fancied superiority, as though we had raised ourselves up or enabled God to raise us by some co-operation on our part. We could look down on or even be contemptuous of those who are walking in the devil's ways if we did not remind ourselves that grace alone explains why we are different. We can be impatient with those who do not respond to the gospel if we imagine that anyone can become a Christian by his own efforts.

WE pause, therefore, and re-read this simple statement between the brackets. We remind ourselves that even if men are as spiritual as those Ephesian saints, there can be no explanation of their deliverance from the old deadly life of sin and self than the undeserved kindness of our God. If we had been left to ourselves we could have had no experience of heaven here below and no hope of heaven "in the ages to come", and if we still rely on our own efforts we will fall back into spiritual ineffectiveness. Grace, and grace alone, is the answer at all times.

WHEN we recoil with horror at the devil-driven procedure of those who are called "the sons of disobedience", we must remember that we would be in exactly the same state but for the inexplicable grace of God. When we sit down with satisfaction among God's children -- and perhaps are given a position of some honour among them -- we must remember that we would still be wandering with the world's outcasts if grace had not sought us out and brought us into God's family.

ONE imagines that those heavenly beings who never left their first estate must gasp with astonishment as they look upon the people who are seated with Christ in the heavenly places, and realise -- as they are competent to do -- the worthlessness of those being so honoured. How rich must be the grace of God and how exceeding great must be His love for sinners, if it can embrace such "children of wrath"!

SUCH beings see things as they really are. They know us in our true unworthiness, and perhaps that adds to the continual worship which they offer to the Redeemer for His matchless grace to men. In this they put us to shame. We should be loudest in our worship, for it is we who have been extricated from our misery and given a place in undeserved glory with Christ, and all because of grace.

"By grace have ye been saved." To us this is not so much a parenthesis as a bold headline to be displayed in constant humble gratitude over the whole story of our lives.

CALL AND RESPONSE

By Watchman Nee


THE divine activities in this age can be shown to have two great aspects, the direct work of God according to His eternal purpose, and His remedial work of redemption. In the revelation of Scripture these two interlock. We may distinguish between them, but we cannot separate them. God's work of recovery contains both a remedy for sin and a reaffirmation of His eternal purpose for man.

Even when God is dealing with the first step of justification He has the goal always in view. That is why we are told in Galatians 3. 8 that the scripture, 'foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel before hand unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all the nations be blessed'.

Abraham was the first man to receive the call of God. He was called because he was chosen; the call implies the choice. And he was chosen for no other reason than that God was pleased to choose him.

In the Book of Genesis God makes three beginnings, with Adam and his creation, with Noah after the Flood, and with Abraham at the time of his call. Noah was sent forth into the new world which he was appointed to govern. His generation saw the beginning of organized social life, of law between man and man. God's legislation through Noah was designed to give that new world a moral character, from which, however, it turned away.

Abraham's task was a different one. He was not called either to administer or to legislate for the nations of this world; indeed, he was to turn his back on the world. He already had a country of his own, but it was his only to leave. He had a kindred-to leave. He had a home-to leave. He looked for the city which has foundations (Hebrews 11. 10); he himself had no city. He was a pilgrim. Unlike Noah, he was to establish and to improve nothing. Noah had a task to do, to establish order and to give divine instruction to the world. Abraham in his life gave nothing to the world. He was a pilgrim, called to pass through it. His links were essentially with heaven.

Abraham was called out of the world. 'By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out unto a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing whither he went' (Hebrews 11. 8). There is no call except to come out.

Abraham was at home in the world with its established order, its advanced culture, its justifiable pride of attainment, and he was called to come out of that world to fulfil the purpose of God. That is the divine calling. There had been nothing wrong with Noah's way of dealing directly with the world in order to improve it; it had been God's appointed way for Noah. But when it led nowhere, and when accordingly God set Himself to His long term task of recovery, He began with the call to Abraham, not now to improve the world but to come out of it.

Today God's principle of working is that of Abraham, not of Noah. At Ur of the Chaldees it was not that God had forgotten the world but that He was going to deal with it through Abraham, and no longer directly. Through this one man He would deal with the whole world. Abraham was the vessel into which God's wisdom and power and grace were now deposited, in order that through him God might open the door of blessing to all men.

How then, we may ask ourselves, should one chosen as God's vessel for so great a task know His God? For the responsibility resting upon this one man was tremendous. To use man's finite way of speaking, the whole plan of God, the whole divine will and purpose for man, depended on Abraham. It stood or fell with him. Need we wonder, then, that Abraham had to go through so much trial and testing in order to bring him to know God, so that men could speak of 'the God of Abraham', and so that God could call Himself by that name without moral violation?

Abraham, we saw, is the father of all them that believe. This is an interesting expression, for it shows us that all spiritual principle is based on birth, not on preaching. Men are not changed by listening to some doctrine or by following a course of instructive teaching. They are changed by birth. First God chose one man who believed, and from him were born the many. When you meet a man who believes and who is saved, you become aware that he has something you have not got. That something is not just information; it is life. He has been born again. God has planted living seed in the soil of his heart. Have we this living seed in us? If we have, then we must give birth to others. Paul spoke of his sons in the faith. He was their spiritual father, not merely their preacher or counsellor.

The nations are blessed through Abraham, not because they hear a new doctrine but because they have received a new life. The new Jerusalem will witness the perfection of that blessing of the nations. It was Abraham's privilege to begin it.

Abraham's story falls naturally into two parts: his call (Genesis 11-14) in which the land is the central theme; and his posterity (Genesis 15-24) in which of course Isaac figures predominantly. We begin with the first of these.

We shall best understand the call of Abraham if we see it in its proper setting. 'The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran' (Acts 7. 2). Nimrod the mighty rebel had established his kingdom in Babel. His subjects had set up their great tower in the land of Shinar, and they had been scattered. The nations everywhere had not only forgotten God but, as we have seen, were idolaters. The whole world worshipped false gods, and Abraham's family was no exception. In this Abraham was very different from Abel and Enoch and Noah. They seem to have been men of backbone, strikingly different from all those around them. They stood out against the stream and refused to be dragged along by it. Not so Abraham. He was indistinguishable from those around him. Were they idolaters? So was he. Why, after all, should he be any different?

The work of God started with such a man. Clearly then it was not in him, in his upright character or in his moral determination that lay the source of his choice, but in God. Of His own will God chose him. Abraham learnt the meaning of the fatherhood of God. This was a vital lesson. If Abraham had not been just the same as all the rest, then after his call he could have looked back and based his new circumstances on some fundamental difference in himself. But he was not different. The difference lay in God, not in Abraham.

Learn to recognize God's sovereignty. Learn to rejoice in God's pleasure. This was Abraham's first lesson, namely that God, not himself, was the Source. Our salvation is entirely from God; there is no reason in us at all why He should save us. And if this is true of our salvation it is true of all that follows from it. If the source of our life is in God, so also is everything else. Nothing starts from us.

Where Truth Leads Us

By A.W. Tozer

      The world is full of seekers, true enough, and they gravitate quite naturally toward the church. Seekers after peace of mind are plentiful enough to keep the printing presses busy; seekers after physical health are always with us in sufficient numbers to make our leading faith healers comfortably rich; seekers after success and safety are legion, as our popular religious leaders know too well. 

But real seekers after truth are almost as rare as albino deer. And here is why: Truth is a glorious but hard master. It makes moral demands upon us. It claims the sovereign right to control us, to strip us, even to slay us as it chooses. 

Truth will never stoop to be a servant but requires that all men serve it. It never flatters men and never compromises with them. It demands all or nothing and refuses to be used or patronized. It will be all in all or it will withdraw into silence. 

It was Christ who capitalized truth and revealed that it was not an it at all but a Being with all the attributes of personality. I am the Truth, He said, and followed truth straight to the cross. The truth seeker must follow Him there; and that is the reason few men seek truth.