When my wife wants to throw out my old underwear because it has holes in it, I push back with, how can you toss out a “hole-y” garment? It’s a bad pun, but a good Dad joke. After a roll of her eyes my skivvies go in the trash. Time to break in a new pair.

Jeremiah used an undergarment to make a point to the people of Judah. The Lord told him to Go and buy a linen loincloth and put it around your waist, and do not dip it in water. After publicly wearing the loincloth for a time, God sent Jeremiah to hide it in the rocks by the river. After many days Jeremiah dug it up and sported the now ruined loincloth around town. The indignities of an Old Testament prophet never ceased.

Why this bizarre demonstration using nasty old underwear? The linen loincloth (think modern day boxer shorts) was originally fresh and clean, invoking God’s devotion when calling Israel out of Egypt. The Lord declared, For as the loincloth clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen.

But instead of holding to the Lord, his people rejected the truth and embraced the religions of demons. God responded, This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their own heart and have gone after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be like this loincloth, which is good for nothing.

Good for nothing. A terrible indictment on the once proud people. Ruin massed on the horizon, and in a few years invaders overran Jerusalem and carried off her population as slaves. Lousy underwear proved the least of their worries.

Jesus grants those who follow him a privileged position. But like Jeremiah’s audience, I can disregard this intimacy and seek more immediate rewards. Never overlooked by the Lord, this behavior eventually leads to a ruinous outcome, one I hope to avoid. May my “hole-y” underwear remind me of the Lord’s encouragement to continually follow him.

Jeremiah 13:1-11

Photo by Maite Oñate