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Daily Devotions

Jeremiah

Jeremiah 
Day 
Day 171

"Go and get yourself a linen sash"

Text: Jeremiah 13:1

THE SYMBOL OF A LINEN SASH

Sometimes, the prophets of God had to preach with powerful personal illustrations for all to see. This illustration was a dramatic one.

“Thus the LORD said to me: ‘Go and get yourself a linen sash,
and put it around your waist, but do not put it in water.’
So I got a sash according to the word of the LORD,
and put it around my waist.
And the word of the LORD came to me the second time, saying,
‘Take the sash that you acquired, which is around your waist,
and arise, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole in the rock.’
So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the LORD commanded me.
Now it came to pass after many days that the LORD said to me,
‘Arise, go to the Euphrates,
and take from there the sash which I commanded you to hide there.’
Then I went to the Euphrates and dug,
and I took the sash from the place where I had hidden it;
and there was the sash, ruined. It was profitable for nothing.”
Jeremiah 13:1-7

1. Instructions from the LORD to Jeremiah

a) Jeremiah was to obtain a new linen sash.
b) He was to wear it.

2. Jeremiah’s compliance

a) He bought the sash.
b) He wore it.
c) He did not wash it.
d) His new sash would be noticed by people.

3. The next part must have been quite confusing

a) Jeremiah was told to go to the Euphrates River.
b) He was to bury the sash in the River.
c) The Euphrates River

The flow and direction of the Euphrates River was the route the Babylonians would take.

4. After some days

a) Jeremiah was told to retrieve the sash.
b) The state of the sash:
i) It was utterly ruined.
ii) “It was profitable for nothing”
But what was the point of this object lesson?