Jeremiah 13
IT has pleased God not only to tell directly in His word what He desired to communicate to man, but also to include, as an aid to its understanding, many illustrations. Thus we learn from what is told in the Bible about persons,—for example, Adam, Abel, Cain, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and above all others, God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. In the same way He has made use of things such as sheep, trees, the wind, the grass, leaven (in its modern form, yeast). So in our chapter a girdle or belt, part of the clothing of the East, is used to present a picture of God's earthly people, what they should have been, and what they were Jeremiah was directed by God to get a linen girdle, and put it on he was not to put it in water. If this refers, as we suppose, to cleansing it when soiled, it would seem to point to the sad fact that Israel did not cleanse themselves as a nation of the sins with which they became defiled. Rather did they steadily grow worse.
The girdle was to be taken off and hidden by the Euphrates,—-a foreshadowing of the captivity soon to take place, Some have questioned if Jeremiah actually went to the river, the nearest point on which would he about four hundred miles northeast of Jerusalem, but we see nothing- in the chapter to lead us to think that what is recorded was only a vision. Jeremiah's people were soon to be transported more than twice four hundred miles as captives.
After many days Jeremiah was sent by the Euphrates to get the girdle; it was spoiled, good for nothing. Verses 8 to 11 give the explanation of what must have puzzled the prophet; the girdle was a picture or symbol of God's earthly people. "The whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah," verse 11, in, eludes the twelve tribes, ten of whom were already gone into captivity under the Assyrians. Seeing their brethren taken away should have led Judah and Benjamin to repentance, but they were set upon their own evil ways. And now nothing lay before them but a judgment as severe as Israel's.
Jeremiah was to tell the people by means of another figure,—the skin bottles of his day—that the judgments to befall them would be so terrible that all, from the highest to the lowest, would be as persons filled with drunkenness. Fearful times were coming, and there would be no mercy shown.
Verses 15 to 17 reveal the tender heart of Jeremiah; he pleads with his brethren to hear; to repent; if they would not, his soul would weep in secret places for their pride; his eve should weep sore because Jehovah's flock is gone into captivity. The prophet thus brings to our minds One Far greater than himself, the Lord Jesus, drawing near to the same city of Jerusalem six hundred years later, when about to give His life a ransom for all that should believe in Fran, (See Luke 19:11-4411And as they heard these things, he added and spake a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear. 12He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. 13And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come. 14But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us. 15And it came to pass, that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded these servants to be called unto him, to whom he had given the money, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. 16Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds. 17And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities. 18And the second came, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds. 19And he said likewise to him, Be thou also over five cities. 20And another came, saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin: 21For I feared thee, because thou art an austere man: thou takest up that thou layedst not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow. 22And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow: 23Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury? 24And he said unto them that stood by, Take from him the pound, and give it to him that hath ten pounds. 25(And they said unto him, Lord, he hath ten pounds.) 26For I say unto you, That unto every one which hath shall be given; and from him that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him. 27But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me. 28And when he had thus spoken, he went before, ascending up to Jerusalem. 29And it came to pass, when he was come nigh to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount called the mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, 30Saying, Go ye into the village over against you; in the which at your entering ye shall find a colt tied, whereon yet never man sat: loose him, and bring him hither. 31And if any man ask you, Why do ye loose him? thus shall ye say unto him, Because the Lord hath need of him. 32And they that were sent went their way, and found even as he had said unto them. 33And as they were loosing the colt, the owners thereof said unto them, Why loose ye the colt? 34And they said, The Lord hath need of him. 35And they brought him to Jesus: and they cast their garments upon the colt, and they set Jesus thereon. 36And as he went, they spread their clothes in the way. 37And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen; 38Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest. 39And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. 40And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. 41And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, 42Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. 43For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, 44And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. (Luke 19:11‑44)),
Verse 18: The king, and the queen-mother (who is meant here, rather than the king's wife) must humble themselves, for from their heads the crown of their magnificence was coming down. We are not told who this king was, but judge that it was Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, placed on the throne of Judah by Pharaoh-Necho after his capture of Carchemish, important city on the upper Euphrates, At that time (about B. C. 610) Assyria had ceased to be a kingdom, and Nineveh its capital, was destroyed,
Verse 20 points to the north as the direction from which punishment was to be measured out on the iniquitous Jews.
If we are right in connecting Jeremiah’s prophecy in this chapter with Jehoiakim, it was spoken not more than 3 years before Nebuchadnezzar, at the head of his father's army defeated the Egyptians at Carchemish, and pushed his way through Palestine to Egypt. Returning to Babylon to become king, he took part of the vessels of Solomon's temple, beside captives of Judah, (see Daniel 1; 2 Kings 23:3434And Pharaoh-nechoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father, and turned his name to Jehoiakim, and took Jehoahaz away: and he came to Egypt, and died there. (2 Kings 23:34) to 24:7; Jeremiah 46:22Against Egypt, against the army of Pharaoh-necho king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates in Carchemish, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon smote in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah. (Jeremiah 46:2)). This was the beginning of the seventy years' captivity.
Judah's sins against a God whose forbearance will not always continue, were the cause of the sweeping of the last of the twelve tribes of Israel out of the land (verses 22-27).
If the Ethiopian could change his skin, or the leopard his spots, the children of Judah might do good, who were accustomed to do evil.
Messages of God’s Love 9/23/1934