Lent: Rotting Underwear?

Read Jeremiah 13: 1-11

Key Verse: For as the loincloth clings to one’s loins, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, says the LORD, in order that they might be for me a people, a name, an praise, and a glory. But they would not listen. Jeremiah 13: 11

Rotting underwear? The word translated “loincloth” is sometimes translated “linen belt.” As I understand it, the idea is the clothes worn closest to the body – or what I call “underwear.”

The prophet Jeremiah used some very interesting word pictures and metaphors in trying to get the attention of God’s people and urge them to turn back to God and away from sin and idol worship. And the rotten underwear is one of the best. But the verse that captured my attention is verse 15, which says that just like our most intimate apparel clings to our bodies , God designed us to cling to him. And as a result of clinging to and holding to and depending on God – we become God’s people.

Are we as a church clinging to God? Am I as a person clinging to God? Is my relationship as close and as intimate as this word picture depicts? If not, Jeremiah says we’ll end up like the underwear that was buried and hidden away – dirty and rotting and smelly.

Cling to God and develop that intimate connection.