Jeremiah 12:14
The Bible says in Jeremiah 12:14-15, “Thus saith
the LORD against all mine evil neighbours, that touch the inheritance which I
have caused my people Israel to inherit; Behold, I will pluck them out of their
land, and pluck out the house of Judah from among them. And it shall come to
pass, after that I have plucked them out I will return, and have compassion on
them, and will bring them again, every man to his heritage, and every man to
his land.” These verses show how merciful God is. Even though
these people did not deserve any compassion from God, He still offered them His
compassion. One word is used to describe these people during the time of
Jeremiah: “evil.” The same word can be used
to describe any of us. It says in Romans 3:23, “For
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” But the word used
to describe God is “compassion” in Jeremiah
12:15. God’s great compassion for all of us is the reason that Jesus went to
the cross of
Notice that after the Lord said that He would have
compassion on them and visit them, that the Lord also said in Jeremiah
12:16-17, “And it shall come to pass, if they will
diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, The LORD liveth;
as they taught my people to swear by Baal; then shall they be built in the
midst of my people. But if they will not obey, I will utterly pluck up and
destroy that nation, saith the LORD.” God was going to give the people
of
The Bible says in Jeremiah 13:1-11, “Thus saith the LORD unto me, Go and get thee a linen
girdle, and put it upon thy loins, and put it not in water. So I got a girdle
according to the word of the LORD, and put it on my loins. And the word of the
LORD came unto me the second time, saying, Take the girdle that thou hast got,
which is upon thy loins, and arise, go to Euphrates, and hide it there in a
hole of the rock. So I went, and hid it by Euphrates, as the LORD commanded me.
And it came to pass after many days, that the LORD said unto me, Arise, go to
Euphrates, and take the girdle from thence, which I commanded thee to hide
there. Then I went to Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle from the place
where I had hid it: and, behold, the girdle was marred, it was profitable for
nothing. Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Thus saith the LORD,
After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of
Jerusalem. This evil people, which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the
imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them, and to
worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing. 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.”
There is a very important teaching symbolized by
the linen girdle. A linen girdle was a basic article of clothing. It should be
a very basic thing for any human being to desire to serve God faithfully each
day. You get up in the morning, you get dressed, and you go out and face the
day. In the same way you should get up in the morning, make sure your heart is
turned to the Lord Jesus, relying on Him as you start the day, and you go out
and face the day. As it says in Romans 13:14, “But
put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to
fulfill the lusts thereof.” Think how a garment wraps totally around you
and covers the entire part of your body where the garment is worn. The garment
has close, personal, and constant contact with you. If you were to put your
arms around Jesus, and He was to put His arms around you, spiritually speaking,
that is what clothing represents. You need that spiritual clothing. If you do
not have it, your flesh is exposed to the world and the attractions of the
world, and all the things that selfish flesh is heir to.
When God told Jeremiah to take the garment and
hide it near the Euphrates River, and that was symbolic of the fact that the
Jewish people would be taken captive to the land of the Euphrates: the land of
Babylon. Then God told Jeremiah to go get the garment and return it from the
Euphrates, and that was symbolic of the fact that the Lord would cause the
Jewish people to be returned from Babylon back to the Promised Land. But notice
what happened to the garment after it was
returned. It was “marred,” and “it was
profitable for nothing.”
The only way that you can serve God
effectively in this world is by what Jesus does through you. It is not you: it
is Jesus. Paul wrote in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through
Christ which strengtheneth me.” Jesus said in John 15:5, “I am the
vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same
bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.”
One of the truths about the fact that
the garment was “marred” has to do with the truth that a believer can damage
himself or herself so much by going the wrong path in life, that such a
person’s effectiveness for Christ is greatly diminished or even totally done
away with. One way of describing this is called ruining your testimony. If you
act in such a way that people do not respect you, you will no longer be able to
influence them with the gospel. If you constantly throw away your opportunities
to grow in Christ and to live by faith, then you will not grow and you will
always be weak and ineffective. It says in First Peter 2:2, “As newborn
babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.” The danger
is that someone will become saved through faith in Christ, but then will not
grow spiritually. Jesus is our Savior, and He is also our example of how to
live this life, and it says about Jesus’ childhood in Luke 2:52, “And Jesus
increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.”
The Bible says in Jeremiah 13:12-14, “Therefore
thou shalt speak unto them this word; Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Every
bottle shall be filled with wine: and they shall say unto thee, Do we not
certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine? Then shalt thou say
unto them, Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of the
land, even the kings that sit upon David’s throne, and the priests, and the
prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness. And I will
dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, saith
the Lord: I will not pity nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them.” This
passage of scripture has a very important practical message to it concerning
the use of alcoholic beverages and what can go wrong with using them. The
problem with alcoholic beverages is that they can result in what verse 13 calls
“drunkenness.” Some
believers want to justify the use of alcoholic beverages, and so they always
approach the subject from the standpoint of saying, “There is nothing wrong
with the use of alcoholic beverages as long as one does not use them in excess.”
Even though that may be true, there is another way of looking at the use of
alcoholic beverages by saying, “Since alcoholic beverages can be so easily
misused and since the consequences of mis-using them can be so disastrous, it
is best not to use them at all.” I subscribe to the latter philosophy. It is
the safest route to take. If you never drink at all, then you will never abuse
alcohol. If you never drink at all, then you will never influence anyone else
to abuse alcohol. It says in Proverbs 20:1, “Wine is a mocker, strong
drink is raging; and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.” It says in
Romans 14:21, “It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything
whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.”
There are some very revealing
statistics that tell about alcohol’s negative impact on society. Approximately
100,000 deaths per year can be attributed directly to the misuse of alcohol,
including almost half of all fatal car accidents. Because of alcoholism many family
relationships have been irretrievably damaged, careers have been ruined,
productivity has been cut, potential has been lost. Tremendous physical and
mental problems result from the abuse of alcohol. Of course, for a Christian
one of the worse consequences of alcohol has to do with the moral judgment that
can be impaired when under alcohol’s influence. The desire of the Christian is
to do the right thing, and that can be difficult enough even when one has
control of his or her faculties. How much better off the world would have been
if only no one had abused alcohol. Therefore, how much better off the world
would have been if only everyone had chosen to never drink alcoholic beverages.
The Lord warned the people of Israel
in Jeremiah 13:12, “Every bottle shall be filled with wine.” In other words He was warning
them about the excessive use of alcohol. None of their bottles had water, or
apple juice, or mike, or grape juice, or diet soda. It was all wine. Nothing
but wine: nothing but alcoholic beverages. What was the reaction of the people?
They were fine with that. It did not bother them one bit. They said, “Do we not
certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine?” The more
that alcohol is made accessible, the more that people will use them. It is the
law of averages. That is why doing away with prohibition had so many terrible
consequences: it resulted in many more people drinking than otherwise would,
and that resulted in many more people becoming alcoholics than otherwise would.
The result in a society of many people abusing alcohol is given clearly in
Jeremiah 13:14, “And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and
the sons together, saith the Lord: I will not pity nor spare, nor have mercy,
but destroy them.”
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Copyright; 2012 by Charles
F. (Rick) Creech
All Rights Reserved