Jeremiah 13:1 - Meaning and Application

Here is a sign, the ruining of a sash the prophet had worn for a time, by hiding it in a hole in a rock near the Euphrates River. Prophets often taught by signs so that dull, unthinking people might be moved to think, believe, and feel what was set before them.

First, Jeremiah was to wear a linen sash for a while (Jeremiah 13:1, Jeremiah 13:2). Some think he wore it under his clothes, because it was linen and later it is said to cling to his waist (Jeremiah 13:11). It seems more likely that he wore it over his clothes, since it was meant for display, as an honor and a mark of beauty, like the fine sashes worn by officers in the East. He was not to wash it, but to wear it as it was, so it would stay firm and not wear out too soon. Linen weakens from washing almost as much as from use. Since it was not wet, it would stay stiff and less flexible, yet he still had to manage to wear it. It was likely very fine linen that could last a long time without washing. Like John the Baptist, the prophet was not a man who wore soft clothes, so it would have seemed unusual to see him with such a sash, when he likely used to wear a leather one.

After he had worn it for some time, he was to go and hide it in a hole in a rock beside the water (Jeremiah 13:4). There, when the water rose, it would be soaked, and when the water fell, it would dry out again. That repeated wetting and drying would quickly rot it, sooner than if it were always wet or always dry. Then, after many days, he was to look for it and find it ruined, torn into rags and good for nothing (Jeremiah 13:7).

Bible teachers have long asked whether this really happened in front of the people or only in a vision in Jeremiah’s mind. It seems hard to think the prophet would be sent on two long trips to the Euphrates River, each taking much time, when he was needed at home. For that reason, many think the journey was at least done in vision, like Ezekiel’s visions from the captives in Babylon to Jerusalem (Ezekiel 8:3) and back again (Ezekiel 11:24). The explanation of the sign is given only to Jeremiah himself (Jeremiah 13:8), not to the people, which also suggests it was not public. Still, there were likely good roads between Jerusalem and Babylon, and part of the Euphrates was not far from the edge of the promised land (Joshua 1:4). So there is no real problem in thinking Jeremiah actually made the trips. Scripture says plainly, “He did as the Lord commanded him.” In that way he showed willing obedience to God, and put Israel’s stubborn disobedience to shame.

The effort of the journey fit the message well. It showed both the toil of their sin, since they worked hard to corrupt themselves with idols, and the pain of their coming captivity. The Euphrates was the river of Babylon, the land where they would be taken captive, so it made the sign very fitting.

Jeremiah was willing to spend himself and be spent to press God’s word on the people. Ministers must spend themselves for the good of souls. The meaning of the sign is explained in Jeremiah 13:9-11.

Israel had once been to God like this sash in two ways. First, God had brought them into covenant and fellowship with himself. As a sash clings closely to a man’s waist, so the Lord had caused the houses of Israel and Judah to cling to him. They were a people near to God (Psalm 148:14). They belonged to him, a special people, a kingdom of priests with greater access to him than the other nations. He had bound them to himself by the law he gave them, the prophets he sent, and the favors he showed them in providence. He required their regular attendance at his house and their repeated covenant promises through sacrifices. In this way, they were made to cling so closely to him that no one would have thought they could ever be torn away.

Second, God had done this for his own honor. When he chose them to be his people, it was so they might be to him for a name, a praise, and a glory, just as a sash adorns a man. The richly made sash on the high priest’s ephod was for glory and beauty. Those whom God takes as his people, he means to be his praise. It is their duty to honor him by keeping his ordinances and seeking his glory in them, which adorns their profession. It is also their blessing that he counts himself honored in them and by them. He is pleased with them and takes glory in his relation to them, when they live as his people should. He was pleased to be called the God of Israel, even a God to Israel (1 Chronicles 17:24). We only pretend to be God’s people if we are not also his praise.

But Israel had broken loose from him through idolatry and other sins. They had put themselves far away, stolen from God the honor they owed him, and buried themselves in the earth, even in foreign earth, as they mixed among the nations. They had become spoiled and corrupted, good for nothing. They could no longer be to God what they had been meant to be, a name and a praise, because they would not listen to the word that should have kept them close to him. They followed the desires of their own hearts and gave themselves whatever they wanted, especially in worship. They would not cling to God, but ran after other gods to serve and worship them. They loved the gods of the heathen nations near the Euphrates, and so they had ruined themselves for the service of their own God. They had become like this rotten sash, a shame to their calling rather than an ornament. It is a sad thing when such a people are so badly spoiled.

God would judge them and separate them from himself. He would send them into captivity and strip away all their beauty and worth, until they were like a fine sash turned into rags, useless and despised. In this way God would ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. He would take away all the things they were proud of and trusted in. It would not only be stained and dimmed, but destroyed, like the linen sash. He speaks of the pride of Judah, because the country people took pride in their holy land, their good land. He speaks of the great pride of Jerusalem, because there was the temple and the royal palace, and so its people were even more proud than those in other cities.

God notices every level of human pride, the pride of some and the great pride of others. He will break it and stain it. Pride always ends in a fall, because God opposes the proud.

He will either break the pride in us, or he will break the thing we are proud of. He can do this by his grace, by killing that sin in us, making us ashamed of it, and humbling us like Hezekiah was humbled for the pride in his heart, even for his great pride, until he is cured of it. This kind of humbling may be painful, but it is for the good of the soul. We are blessed if God uses hard events to humble our hearts.

Or God may mar the thing we boast in. He can ruin our abilities, gifts, learning, power, or outward privileges if we grow proud of them. It is fair for him to bring them down. Even the temple, when Jerusalem became proud of it, was ruined and burned to ashes. It honors God to take up every proud person and bring him low.