Jeremiah Chapter 13 "Symbols, Pride, and Punishment for Scattering the Flock." This Bible
Study is written by Roger Christopherson, and it's
transcription/ location is provided by http://www.theseason.org God uses symbolism in His Word, because it makes the lessons easier to understand. It allows you to better relate to what He is saying, and share the same emotions that our Heavenly Father shares on the subject matter that is being taught. This is the same form used in teaching a group of children. It is a form of using teaching aids to stress a point. This chapter is prophecing about the captivity that is definitely coming to the House of Judah, and it is a type of what is also coming to our generation very shortly. The king of Babylon is going to come upon Jerusalem, and in the futuristic sense, it is the Antichrist that is definitely coming upon the earth, who is called the "Babylon the Great" in Revelation. Jeremiah 13:1 "Thus saith the Lord unto me, "Go and get thee a linen girdle, and put it upon thy loins, and put it not in water." This is a linen belt that is wrapped around the waist. Everything you brush up against will cause it to become soiled. It is going to get real dirty fast, but God told Jeremiah, "don't you wash it." Jeremiah 13:2 "So I got a girdle according to the word of the Lord, and put it on my loins." Jeremiah put that linen belt on and wore it. Jeremiah 13:3 "And the word of the Lord came unto me the second time, saying," Jeremiah 13:4 "Take the girdle that thou hast got, which is upon thy loins, and arise, go to Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock." Some time has passed by since Jeremiah had started to wear it. It is dirty. The "Euphrates" is the Euphrates river, and it has always stood for the border between Babylon and our People, Israel. In other words, when you cross the Euphrates river, you have crossed into Babylon, and the captivity will take place by the king of Babylon. But what about the rock? In the "Song of Moses", which the overcomers sing, even given in the book of Revelation, after the mark has been placed in the minds of the people, then they sing this song of Moses. In that song (Deuteronomy 32:30, 31) they sing; "How should one chase a thousand, And two put ten thousand to flight, Except their Rock had sold them, And the Lord had shut them up?" [30] "For their rock is not as our Rock, Even our enemies themselves being judges." [31] So when Jeremiah tries to hide this dirty girdle, or belt, being symbolic of the people, [but meaning a great deal more], he is hiding the people in the false rock that is false teaching. They don't do it knowingly, because they dont know what truth is. So lets now look into Ephesians 6:14 to see what the girdle symbolizes; "Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness:" You are suppose to girt yourself with the truth. The truth is the Word of God, properly taught and properly understood. That my friend, is called knowledge and wisdom within yourself. However God is indicating here, because of the false pastors, and scribes, over time, the Word has been made filthy and corrupt. That which the people have girted themselves with, is dirty and polluted. When you start dealing with the traditions of men, and you start to hide yourselves with those dirty traditions, rather then the pure Word of God, you will get dirty also, and the result is to try to hide in that false rock, which is Satan, thinking he is the true Christ. Jeremiah 13:5 "So I went, and hid it by Euphrates, as the Lord commanded me." Jeremiah 13:6 "And it came to pass after many days, that the Lord said unto me, "Arise, go to Euphrates, and take the girdle from thence, which I commanded thee to hide there." "After many days" means that it is in the process of rotting. That linen belt or girdle has been resting in that hole in the rock, and absorbing all the contamination for some time, and now Jeremiah is going to dig it out. Jeremiah dug that dirty belt out of the rock and he could really see the point. When you take any rotten cloth, and you put any pressure on it, that rotten cloth falls apart right in your hands. The point to us is that we never try to hide in mens traditions, but always check out any teaching against our Father's Word. God is showing us here what He thinks of man's religious forms, and their traditions that lead people away from Him. Christianity is not a religion, but a reality, but people like to play religion, it looks so nice, but is absent of the truth, which is the Word of God. Jeremiah 13:7 "Then I went to Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it: and, behold, the girdle was marred, it proifitable for nothing." That old girdle was falling apart, it was useless. Sometimes traditions of men go so far away from God's Word that they become useless to Him. It won't save your soul, or give you any spiritual food for the times when you need strength. God's Word will see you through, when you absorb it in its completeness. Jeremiah 13:8 "Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying," Jeremiah 13:9 "Thus saith the Lord, After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem." In the same manner as this old rotten piece of linen here, will I destroy the pride of both Judah and Jerusalem. God is going to destroy everything that they take their pride in. God will do away with their false scribes, their false pastors, and everything else that adds to their pride. the House of Israel, the Christian nations are included in that, in a few verses. God is saying, hold that rotten old girdle and ask if it will hold together any kind of value system? That is How God is looking at your religious forms and traditions that do not conform to His Word. What about your set of values? Are you strong in the Word of God, or are you listening to the babblings of these one verse preachers? God is trying to express to you how He feels when He looks at some of His children; He is comparing them to this old rotten girdle. Jeremiah 13:10 "This evil People, which refuse to hear My words, which walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing." God is calling all those people evil that will not read and follow His Word, and think that they can do things better then God, and create their own forms of worship. You know the type, they get together in their board meetings and decide how they will do their thing, and they vote it in, and pass on things that are contrary to their very purpose. They use their own imagination of their minds, rather then seeing what the Word of God says about what they are doing. God says that He looks at their worship, which is the girdle in symbolic form, as good for nothing. People get used to going for their hour of entertainment each Sunday, and they forget why they are there. They allow the customs of worshipping strange gods to be mixed with other traditions and the call it "of God". Friend, God doesn't like it, and He is calling it worthless. If you are not taught the Word of God, chapter by chapter and verse by verse, as the Word is given, then you are in an empty house, and you are wasting your time there. Jeremiah 13:11 "For as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto Me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, saith the Lord; that they might be unto Me for a People, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear." A man's girdle is his belt around his waist, and that is how close I am to you, God is claiming. God is claiming both houses, all the people as His, the House of Israel [the Christian nations], as well as the House of Judah [which includes brothers Judah, and Benjamin, and the Kenite Nethinims that mixed themselves with them]. God wants both these houses to be a praise not to themselves, but to Him. Everything that God would have for them, they rejected and closed their ears to the Word of God. Most have become just like that filthy old girdle that is worthless to Him. The only ingredient that can change that filthy old belt to something of value to our Father is the truth of His Word. Jeremiah 13:12 "Therefore thou shalt speak unto them this word; `Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Every bottle shall be filled with wine:' and they shall say unto thee, `Do we not certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine?" Jeremiah is to go out to that old linen belt and speak to them this Word that God is giving to them. God told them to take every bottle that they have and fill them with wine. Those old preachers and prophets spoke back to Jeremiah and told him that they had their own way of doing things, we have our own traditions, we don't need to follow God and fill the bottles with wine. Sounds very much like the preachers of today, and their doctrines and traditions. These wine bottles are not wine skins, but clay container bottles, made from the earth. These bottles represent the earthen clay bodies of God's people, (later on there will be more documentation on this). Jeremiah 13:13 "Then shalt thou say unto them, `Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings that sit upon David's throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness." This is a prophecy that is spoken of in Romans 11:8; "(According as it is written, "God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear";) unto this day." This was Paul quoting from Isaiah 29:10. The word in the Greek for "slumber" is "stupor", upon the people. It is kind of a cloak of innocency, because He said that there would only be seven thousand that would not bow a knee to Baal. That seven thousand is not a real number, but a spiritual number referring to include all of His elect. There are many thousands that are included in this number, including the kings and queens of the ethnos, the races. That seven thousand include all those souls that love the Lord and follow Him. All of the others, you can watch them and see the stupor that they are in. They have no idea what is going on in this world, and why the world is turning out the way that it is. They have devised their own ways to cure the many problems, and they all appear like they are in a state of drunkenness. That "spirit of sleep" is upon the world today. Why? God doesn't like wearing filthy rags, and that is exactly how He looks at their forms of worship. There is no reason to be ignorant and uptight to the things that are happening today, for we know that we are in this final generation of the fig tree. This time should be a time of great excitment for all Christ. Jeremiah 13:14 "And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, saith the LORD: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them." Now picture all the drunk people, and trying to scoot around and get things done. They will bounce off eachother, bottle against bottle, clay pot against clay pot. As they stagger drunkenly in their stupor, God doesn't destroy them, they destroy themselves. They have no idea what is happening around them, nor any idea of what God's Word says about it, and in their own imaginations they try to cope with it, and destroy themselves. As far as pinning the fault of why this is happening; let the teachers, the preachers and so-called prophets take the majority of the blame. The responsibility of the decay of morals in our nation, our homes, our schools and government is placed directly on the churches, all of them. The church systems are guilty of not training people to understand His Word, and being able to relate to the emotions of God that He has placed in His Word. Jeremiah 13:15 "Hear ye, and give ear; be not proud: for the LORD hath spoken." God is saying to stop and take a close look at that old marred broken wine bottle, and listen to what the Lord will say about it. Jeremiah 13:16 "Give glory to the LORD your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness." Satan is the death spoke of, and everything that he has to say is darkness. The dark mountains are the nations of the earth that will worship him and in ignorance believe him to be the true Christ. God is telling you, before you stumble upon that evil that will cover the earth, turn to the light. Christ is the light of the world. Many people will worship Satan, because they have worshipped at those dirty old wine bottle parties in the houses of emptiness. God has promised that the Antichrist is coming and He has given us the signs to know the times when Satan shall appear. There is very little time left to seek for the truth, and prepare yourself before that day arrives. This is symbolic so that even a child can understand. Jeremiah 13:17 "But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because the LORD's flock is carried away captive." "If you will not hear the truth" the captivity will take place, the deception, and the whole world will wonder after the Antichrist thinking he is the Lord. Why? They will think that Satan is Jesus coming to rapture them away. Those old drunken wine bottles will be ready to be whisked right into the arms of their lover, as they play the role of the harlot, with the false Christ. God shed tears for His children, when they turn away from Him. Jeremiah 13:18 "Say unto the king and to the queen, Humble yourselves, sit down: for your principalities shall come down, even the crown of your glory." Say to the people in authority, historically speaking, this was King Jehoiachin, and his mother, the queen, as recorded in II Kings 24:12-15. Look what happened to them, as they were out in three months, and gone to Babylon. There is only one way that you will escape the captivity in these end times, and that is if you are a follower of and captive of the true Christ. That means that you know the Word of the Lord, and the events that are to come, and you follow His true ways. However if you are Biblically illiterate, it is an absolute fact that you will be taken by the false Christ, Satan. Jeremiah 13:19 "The cities of the south shall be shut up, and none shall open them: Judah shall be carried away captive all of it, it shall be wholly carried away captive." "Cities" here, according to the Massoretical manuscripts, should read "eyes", in the Hebrew, "Hallel". The eyes of the south, or Negeb shall be shut up. The eyes of all of Judah are blinded by the truth, and they were carried away to Babylon. In our generation, the eyes of our people are also closed by the traditions of men, and just as Judah was carried away by Babylon, so also shall those that refuse to study and prepare themselves, will be taken in by the lies, deceptions and great wonders of Satan in these last days. Satan's new camp is nothing but a new form of church, and most churches will just make a few adjustments to fit right into the new religious structure of the Antichrist's new religious system. That is what the false messiah is, a new church, a spiritual death camp, not a physical holocaust. Jeremiah 13:20 "Lift up your eyes, and behold them that come from the north: where is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock?" This tells us exactly where that last drove of Russia, and her allies come from, the North. Jeremiah 13:21 "What wilt thou say when he shall punish thee? for thou hast taught them to be captains, and as chief over thee: shall not sorrows take thee, as a woman in travail?" Can't you see them asking themselves just where they went wrong? They followed their pastors and priests and those that they put themselves under, right into the birth of a new age. This doesn't come by suprise to them that know God's Word, for we know the signs of events that grow even closer and closer, as the end of this age comes to a close. Our people have allowed the enemy to be taught and trained to be captains and chiefs over us in many ways. This applies not only to the church, but in usury, government, and schools. Even the military is getting into the abominable things that God hates. Jeremiah 13:22 "And if thou say in thine heart, Wherefore come these things upon me? For the greatness of thine iniquity are thy skirts discovered, and thy heels made bare." In other words, you thought you were going to a wedding that was the marriage supper of the Lamb, however, you went to the wrong wedding. They didn't know the difference between the two weddings, and they became the bride of the first. Their pastors didn't tell them the difference between the two lambs, that the first one would look exactly as the second lamb, only the first lamb was a fake. Don't get caught with your skirts and your heels bare, playing the role of the harlot. Jeremiah 13:23 "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil." It is impossible for the Ethiopian to change his skin, or the leopard to change it's spots. God is telling us also that those that are trained [accustomed to] to do evil also can not do good. There is no way that they can change without the truth of God's Word. Jeremiah 13:24 "Therefore will I scatter them as the stubble that passeth away by the wind of the wilderness." Those that do evil will be blown around like the chaff of the stubble that gets blown away. Jeremiah 13:25 "This is thy lot, the portion of thy measures from me, saith the LORD; because thou hast forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood." Don't let this be your lot, you can change and make a difference. God is not playing around here, but absolute in His warning. Don't put on that dirty, filthy falsehoods, so-called truthful traditions around you, and call it of God. Jeremiah 13:26 "Therefore will I discover thy skirts upon thy face, that thy shame may appear." This is being caught in the act, as a spiritual harlot; and this is why Jesus would say about this in Matthew 24:19 "And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!" Jesus was not talking about a natural child, or a natural birth, or a mother nursing, that is why God created man and woman to reproduce and cover the earth. He is talking about His bride that is supposed to be a virgin, and waiting for His return, but they fall off to the first false christ, the false lamb of Revelation 13, and take Satan's name and number, and become the wife of the Antichrist. People are not taught, and so they will go playing the role of the harlot to Babylon the great. They don't know any better, because they are waring that filthy belt, and drinking that wine from earthen jugs making them drunk and out of control in ignorance. When the true Christ returns, you have to face Him and account for the evil acts of idolatry with Satan himself. What shame you will feel so that you will desire that the mountains would fall on you, all because you refuse to study His Word. That is what the "mark of the beast" is friend, to be ignorant of the truth that the false christ is coming first, and that there is no rapture. When you have that mark or thought in your mind, you will be taken at the first sight of the false christ, because you had been taught to do so in your church house. It comes through your rapture doctrines, and false teachings that are not from God's Word. Jeremiah 13:27 "I have seen thine adulteries, and thy neighings, the lewdness of thy whoredom, and thine abominations on the hills in the fields. Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem! wilt thou not be made clean? when shall it once be?" God sees all those idolatries, as His children chase after false teachings like a mare in heat. Every last abomination will be accounted for whether it be done in the field, or in the church house. God is sending His warning to you, and telling you to wake up and make yourself clean. The only way that this can be done within the truth of God's Word. By repenting of those sins to the Father, in Jesus name, and turning to His Word for the guidance for your life. God loves His children enough that He taught this chapter in simple symbols that anyone can understand. The girdle that Jeremiah was told to put on and wear represented the idolatries and teaching that was being accepted. When those idolatries were worn for a period of time, it made your very fabric rotten and ready to fall apart. When God told Jeremiah to tell His people to fill all the earthen clay pots with wine, and then drain them, it was because the earthen pots represented what our bodies are made out of, and the drunken condition they become when we fill them with all this polluted wine of their idolatries. They crash against eachother in their spiritually druken state without direction, and are destroyed. Then we are instructed that just as the Ethiopian can't change his skin, nor the leopard his spots, when you train yourself [accustomed] to do evi, that becomes the exact nature of your mind and soul. What you fill your mind with, and the training that you allow yourself to be taught; that is how you will be. That is why you will take "the mark of the beast" with joy, and be proud to be serving the false christ, in ignorance. Because you have been trained to do so. Now is the time to make the difference by getting into God's Word, and letting that Word control your mind. Friend in this generation that is the only hope for you. Why is it so easy for children to understand the simplicity of God's Word, when even the pastors that are supposed to know, get so confused? You must understand the plan of God, or you will be deceived.
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