Jeremiah 13: 1 - 11

[COPLAND_3]

Below is the 1st Mass Reading for Monday July 28. What a point being made through the prophet Jeremiah! This shows Israel being compared to a spoiled cloth by rejecting God’s ways, even after all that God had done for them. What an object lesson that was done through Jeremiah, and a message for all of us. Here is commentary to this verse litteralchristianlibrary.wetpaint.com/page/July+28

**1 Thus said the LORD to me, “Go and buy a linen waistcloth, and put it on your loins, and do not dip it in water.”
2 So I bought a waistcloth according to the word of the LORD, and put it on my loins.
3 And the word of the LORD came to me a second time,
4 “Take the waistcloth which you have bought, which is upon your loins, and arise, go to the Euphra’tes, and hide it there in a cleft of the rock.”
5 So I went, and hid it by the Euphra’tes, as the LORD commanded me.
6 And after many days the LORD said to me, “Arise, go to the Euphra’tes, and take from there the waistcloth which I commanded you to hide there.”
7 Then I went to the Euphra’tes, and dug, and I took the waistcloth from the place where I had hidden it. And behold, the waistcloth was spoiled; it was good for nothing.
8 Then the word of the LORD came to me:
9 "Thus says the LORD: Even so will I spoil the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.
10 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 waistcloth, which is good for nothing.
11 For as the waistcloth clings to the loins of a man, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, says the LORD, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen. **

 

[Mea_Culpa]

Below is the 1st Mass Reading for Monday July 28. What a point being made through the prophet Jeremiah! This shows Israel being compared to a spoiled cloth by rejecting God’s ways, even after all that God had done for them. What an object lesson that was done through Jeremiah, and a message for all of us. Here is commentary to this verse litteralchristianlibrary.wetpaint.com/page/July+28

**1 Thus said the LORD to me, “Go and buy a linen waistcloth, and put it on your loins, and do not dip it in water.”
2 So I bought a waistcloth according to the word of the LORD, and put it on my loins.
3 And the word of the LORD came to me a second time,
4 “Take the waistcloth which you have bought, which is upon your loins, and arise, go to the Euphra’tes, and hide it there in a cleft of the rock.”
5 So I went, and hid it by the Euphra’tes, as the LORD commanded me.
6 And after many days the LORD said to me, “Arise, go to the Euphra’tes, and take from there the waistcloth which I commanded you to hide there.”
7 Then I went to the Euphra’tes, and dug, and I took the waistcloth from the place where I had hidden it. And behold, the waistcloth was spoiled; it was good for nothing.
8 Then the word of the LORD came to me:
9 "Thus says the LORD: Even so will I spoil the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.
10 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 waistcloth, which is good for nothing.
11 For as the waistcloth clings to the loins of a man, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, says the LORD, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen. **

The readings are put together for a reason. The Gospel reading for July 28 is Mt 13:31-35

Jesus proposed a parable to the crowds.
“The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed
that a person took and sowed in a field.
It is the smallest of all the seeds,
yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants.
It becomes a large bush,
and the ‘birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.’”

He spoke to them another parable.
“The Kingdom of heaven is like yeast
that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour
until the whole batch was leavened.”

All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables.
He spoke to them only in parables,
to fulfill what had been said through the prophet:

I will open my mouth in parables,
I will announce what has lain hidden from the foundation
of the world.

The yeast and the mustard seed have great potential, but only if used in the right way. By themselves, they are not much good. The mustard seed can become a huge plant, but only if a person sows it in a field, waters it, nurtures it. If it isn’t sown and nurtured, it is worthless.

A small amount of yeast can leaven a large amount of flour and make it rise, but only if is put into the flour and kept in the right conditions (not too hot, not too cold.) But by itself, the yeast is not good to eat and of no use.

Similarly, the waistcloth, if not used but hidden away, becomes spoiled. The parallel between the unused, hidden waistcloth and Israel is drawn. Under the Abrahamic covenant, Israel was the chosen people, a people set apart by God. As it says in the reading, “but they would not listen.” After David and Solomon, Israel became divided, ruled by a series of wicked kings, practiced pagan worship and immorality, and eventually was subject to the Assyrian exile in the north and the Babylonian exile in the south.

Was this the end of God’s love for his people. NO. In Jeremiah 31, (the reading for August 8) we hear that:

[31] “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah,
[32] not like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD.
[33] But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
[34] And no longer shall each man teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, `Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Of course, this new covenant was Jesus himself. When Jesus says at the end of the Gospel reading that “I will announce what has lain hidden from the foundation of the world” - He is talking about himself! Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise made by Jeremiah of redemption for not only the nation of Israel but ultimately for the entire world.

This tells us a lot about God’s forgiveness and about how we should live and proclaim our faith in our own lives, lest it spoil from not being used. As Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:

15] Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.
[16] Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

 

[COPLAND_3]

Great observation on how it ties together with the Gospel Reading. I think I see another way it can tie together, such as how the Jews were unable to live up to the Old Covenant, which led up to the New Covenant being brought in, that starts out small like a mustard seed and then grows into something very large.

 

[Lev23]

This shows Israel being compared to a spoiled cloth by rejecting God’s ways, even after all that God had done for them. What an object lesson that was done through Jeremiah, and a message for all of us.

That is why I love the book of Hosea. Even though they had rejected him after God initially chose them, God will buy them back and they will call him husband, not master.