Being Destroyed

What does it mean when we say we are ‘being destroyed’? Is our economy wrecked? Is our

community at odds with one another? Is our house struggling to make ends meet? Is the

population declining? What does it really mean to ‘be destroyed’? The answer to that question

comes in Jeremiah 13, in which God tells the people of Judah through Jeremiah, during the reign

of King Jehoiachin, that they are being destroyed spiritually, economically, and socially (and

soon to be physically). This chapter skips forward to about 597 BC, and speaks directly to the

people of Judah. The LORD tells Jeremiah to purchase a new linen sash and wear it around his

waist, but not to put it in water. Then He tells Jeremiah to go to the Euphrates River and hide

the linen undergarment in a hole in a rock. After many days, the LORD sends Jeremiah back to

retrieve the hidden sash. It is ruined. The LORD used the linen undergarment as a symbol of how

God would ruin the pride of Judah and Jerusalem because of their unrepentant sinfulness.