Approaching studies within Jeremiah, instead of trying to follow chronologically, which is difficult with this book, for roughly the first half of the book, the first 29 chapters, we will instead only produce studies within their appropriate chapters, theming them as follows:

• Jeremiah’s Calling                     Ch.1
• Jeremiah’s Main Message        Ch.2,3,5,7,21,22
• Jeremiah’s Action Parables      Ch.13,18,19,27
• Jeremiah’s Opposition              Ch.11,12,14,18,20,26,28
• Jeremiah’s Message of Hope   Ch.3,23,24,25,29

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, and the particular theme, as with studies elsewhere, each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read on the main Bible page.

Jeremiah’s Action Parables: 1 – The Belt

Jer 13:1-11

 1 This is what the Lord said to me: “Go and buy a linen belt and put it around your waist, but do not let it touch water.” ² So I bought a belt, as the Lord directed, and put it around my waist.

³ Then the word of the Lord came to me a second time: ⁴ “Take the belt you bought and are wearing around your waist, and go now to Perath and hide it there in a crevice in the rocks.” ⁵ So I went and hid it at Perath, as the Lord told me.

⁶ Many days later the Lord said to me, “Go now to Perath and get the belt I told you to hide there.” ⁷ So I went to Perath and dug up the belt and took it from the place where I had hidden it, but now it was ruined and completely useless.

⁸ Then the word of the Lord came to me: ⁹ “This is what the Lord says: ‘In the same way I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. ¹⁰ These wicked people, who refuse to listen to my words, who follow the stubbornness of their hearts and go after other gods to serve and worship them, will be like this belt—completely useless! ¹¹ For as a belt is bound around the waist, so I bound all the people of Israel and all the people of Judah to me,’ declares the Lord, ‘to be my people for my renown and praise and honor. But they have not listened.’

A. Find Out:

1. What did the Lord tell him to buy? v.1
2. What was he to do with it? v.1
3. Then what was he to do with it? v.4
4. What happened to it? v.7
5. What was this to picture? v.9
6. What were the people like? v.10

B. Think:

1. Why do you think God wanted Jeremiah to DO something like this?
2. How had the belt first of all been a picture of Israel?
3. What might  Jeremiah have felt when he dug the belt up and saw it?

C. Comment:

We now come to the first of a number of “action parables” where the Lord required Jeremiah to DO something which was then going to act as a picture of what the Lord wanted to say. Note here that the Lord looks not necessarily for our understanding but for our obedience. He will bring understanding in due time.

In this action parable Jeremiah had to buy a belt and put it on – so that it was close to him.  Having had it for some time he then has to go and find a place in the ground and leave it there – where it would obviously spoil. When Jeremiah was completely obedient the Lord told him the meaning of it all.

The belt on Jeremiah was a picture of the relationship that God had designed Israel to have with Him, a picture of a close relationship.  The spoiling of the belt, taken off and ruined in the ground was a picture of what was to happen to the nation. 

This very vivid picture would not be forgotten and as Jeremiah dug it up he possibly thought, “What a waste!”. That would certainly be true of Israel as well, for they needn’t ever have let it happen. There really was no need for them to be destroyed – IF they repented!

D. Application?

Thank the Lord that He takes time to speak to us and teach us, knowing that we often need time to come to understanding.