Our Need for Intimacy with God.

Sometimes, many times, the prophets of the Old TEstament were asked by the Lord to do some weird things. Jeremiah is no exception. 

Jeremiah 13:1–4 (ESV) Thus says the LORD to me, “Go and buy a linen loincloth and put it around your waist, and do not dip it in water.” 2 So I bought a loincloth according to the word of the LORD, and put it around my waist. 3 And the word of the LORD came to me a second time, 4 “Take the loincloth that you have bought, which is around your waist, and arise, go to the Euphrates and hide it there in a cleft of the rock.”

The "linen loincloth" mentioned here would be an undergarment perhaps warn by priests. The symbolism is aimed to illustrate intimacy. Jeremiah obeys and hides the loincloth in the rock. And God speaks again.

Jeremiah 13:6–7 (ESV) And after many days the LORD said to me, “Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take from there the loincloth that I commanded you to hide there.” 7 Then I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and I took the loincloth from the place where I had hidden it. And behold, the loincloth was spoiled; it was good for nothing.

God then teaches Jeremiah the lesson. Israel is that loincloth. Instead of holding intimacy with the Lord as a sacred thing, they hid among the nations and committed abominations before the Lord. Instead of staying close, the grew apart from Him. 

Jeremiah 13:11 (ESV) 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, declares the LORD, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen.

The lesson should not be lost on us. God longs for intimacy with His people. Sin breaks that intimacy. It distracts us from who we are made for. We are made to be close to the Lord.

Not only are we made for intimacy with the Lord but it is the only place of true safety where our shame and fears are covered, where our loneliness is ended, and where our purpose is discovered. Like the loincloth in the rock, sin deteriorates our condition, it exploits our isolation and undercuts the mission for which we are made. 

Want to know God's peace and fulfillment? Come close to Him. This is the only way forward. Too many Christians want a casual relationship with the Lord. Or they want Him in small doses for limited moments. We are made for Him. He has created us for intimacy with Him. And when we have it, we discover how much we need it. 

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