Retrieving the Ruined Belt
If Jeremiah shows deep emotion in the book bearing his name, so also does God, who says:
“And if you refuse to listen, I will weep in secret because of your pride. I will shed many tears, and my eyes will stream with tears.” (Jeremiah 13:17)
Why would one choose a course of revolt against God? Occasionally, yes—we are flawed and/or fall into bad company. But to choose it as a permanent course? Can it be anything other than pride? and he weeps over that.
The “great Mississippi of falsehood,” de Tocqueville said about the human construct that we call history. Is the Euphrates the great river of human wisdom? Consistently, God likens water to wisdom—at Jeremiah 2:13, for instance: “Because my people have done two bad things: They have abandoned me, the source of living water, And dug for themselves cisterns, Broken cisterns, that cannot hold water.”
Human reasoning is great stuff. Pour me a double shot of it. But it can be used for both good and for ill. It can be used to fortify one’s relationship with God or to justify abandoning it. The heart makes a grab for what it wants, then charges the head to devise a convincing rationale in justification. This gives the impression that the head is calling the shots, but it is the heart all along.
Bury the belt by the Euphrates, Jeremiah is told. (vs 4) It is a long ways to travel. Go get it again, he is told days later. Nothering left of it. What does the belt represent? What is the overall message?
“‘For just as a belt clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me,’ declares Jehovah, ‘to become to me a people, a name, a praise, and something beautiful.” (vs 11)
“But they did not obey,” the verse adds.
Next is what we might call a big ‘Duh’: “And you must also give this message to them, ‘This is what Jehovah the God of Israel says: “Every large jar should be filled with wine.”’ And they will reply to you, ‘Do we not already know that every large jar should be filled with wine?’ [Duh!] (13;12) it is not as though they’re treating the prophet as an honored sage.
Jehovah then likens the rebellious nation itself to one of large wine-filled jars, filled with wine to point of roaring drunkenness. (vs 13) Let us call it drunk on human wisdom, the crud from the Euphrates. If they are going to be that way, “I will smash them against each other, fathers and sons alike,” declares Jehovah. “I will not show compassion or feel any sorrow or have any mercy on them; nothing will stop me from bringing them to ruin.” I mean, running the show by human wisdom does that anyway, causing people to “smash against each other.” Just step it up a little and save time, appears to be what Jehovah is saying.
This stuff resonates with me, though it will not with everyone. It serves as a good heads-up to get one’s act together, though not all with take it that way. I never want to be cocky in the face of God, though some don’t hesitate to do so. Things can usually be taken more ways than one, so that it becomes a matter of heart which one you will choose. Sort of like at Bob Wegman’s funeral how the story was told of a certain brusque vendor complaining to him, “Why do people instantly dislike me?” Well, it saves time, Bob replied.
****** The bookstore
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