Here again we have moving expressions of the grief of God and yet again we should be reminded that these expressions are indicative of the depth of God’s love for his children. Any parent knows how heartrending it is to have to discipline a child. I remember how my youngest daughter as a toddler always wanted to be with her mother and me. But when she persisted in bad behaviour we would send her into ‘time-out’ for a little while (which I, being steeped in Biblical imagery, refer to as ‘exile’). There was nothing she hated more than being put in ‘time-out’ and so she used to sit there and sob. It broke our hearts, but, for her sake, we could not bring her out until she recognised the error of her ways and apologised. Jeremiah 13 illustrates God’s love for his children by describing them as a ‘waistcloth’ (NIV translates it as ‘belt’). The word is referring to one of the more intimate forms of clothing, clinging closely to the body of the wearer and serving as a thigh-length underskirt. In other words, God’s children are not like an overcoat that is separated from the body by a few layers but like the most intimate of garments. Because his children are so dear to him God is grieved at having to discipline them and yet their spitefulness compels him to do so. There may be times in your life when it will be necessary for God to put you in circumstances that will wake you up to your waywardness. However, you can be sure that if God does this it is because he loves you and it grieves him to have to do so.
Acknowledge God’s love for you and reflect on how you are responding to him.
Read Jeremiah 13
