Description
The Bible says God gave the prophet Jeremiah a strange mission. He told him to buy a linen waistband—a long cloth belt—and wear it without washing it. Then, after some time, God gave him another command: “Take the waistband and go hide it in the cracks of a rock.”
400 miles or 4 miles?
The Hebrew text isn’t clear about where Jeremiah had to go. Some think he traveled all the way to the Euphrates River, which was hundreds of miles from his home near Jerusalem, in the town of Anathoth. Others say he went to a closer place called En Prat (Ain Farah), a spring just a few miles away. Either way, Jeremiah obeyed. He took the waistband, walked to the place God told him, and hid it.
Digging up a rotten cloth
Much later, God told him to go back and dig up the waistband. When Jeremiah pulled it from the ground, it was ruined—rotten and useless. Then God explained the message behind this mission. Just as the waistband had once been useful but was now worthless, the people of Judah had once been close to God. But their pride and disobedience had ruined them. If they didn’t turn back to God, they would be destroyed, just like that waistband.
A waisted warning
This dramatic object lesson warned the people of the disaster coming if they refused to listen to God. But, as history shows, they didn’t listen, and destruction came just as God had warned.
