Are You Rotten?

I am taking a very SSSLLLOOOWWWW walk through the Bible in my devotion time. It has taken me almost three years to get to the book of Jeremiah. I don’t use my devotional time to look for a sermon, I am looking to feed my spirit. But when we feed our spirit, God will always give us something that feeds our spirit…and others too. Communing with the Holy Spirit in the Word of God is the only place where you will find anything fit to preach!

The Word of the Lord comes to Jeremiah in Chapter 13 telling him to obtain a brand new girdle and to wear the garment for a certain length of time. I liken this garment to new priestly underwear, but it was much more than that; it was a special garment worn by the priests of his day. Because Jeremiah was also a priest, he would have access to these types of garments.

Then he was commanded by the word of the Lord to take the garment to a place at the Euphrates River, well over 800 miles away, and bury it for another length of time.

Much later (believed to be about 7 years) Jeremiah is commanded to go back to Euphrates and get the girdle and wear it in front of the people in Jerusalem as a prophetic word of the condition of the nation.

Calvin, Barnes, Jameson Faucett Brown, all complain that this was simply a vision in the prophets mind; he really didn’t go to the Euphrates, it was too long a journey and would take too much energy on the prophet’s part to make the journey…

If it was simply a thought in Jeremiah’s mind, then the rotten garment is really a thought in Jeremiah’s mind!

Fleshly/carnal people, while very sincere, have a hard time understanding spiritual principles. And I understand some uber-spiritual people have made a bad name for true prophets. Goofy and weird is not always a sign of the anointing. It may be a sign you are goofy and weird. But the fact is prophets are not anointed to be popular or mainstream; many prophets stay in hiding until the time comes for them to deliver the Word of the Lord. Once they deliver it, they go back into hiding.

We are more a spirit being than we are a flesh being. Paul in his writing to the Corinthians church (1 Cor. 2) made it clear the spirit of man is the part of our being that will understand the things of God. The natural man thinks the things of God are foolishness. The flesh will only last 80-90 years at most. It’s our spirit that lives forever.

Which makes me want to ask, why do we spend more time, money and energy satisfying that part of us which will only last a short time, than we do nourishing that part of us which will live forever?

Just as the rotten garment was a prophetic sign of the rotten hearts of the Jews of that day, it’s also a sign to us that all our works are rotten in God’s eyes.

I pray we will see the rottenness of our ways, our pride and our selfishness and turn back to the Lord with all our hearts! Quit waiting on a president or a congress to legislate righteousness! When government establishes religion, it produces legalism. True Righteousness comes when God’s people which are called by His name, humble themselves and seek His face…

He will then establish the righteousness of God on the earth we are crying out for!

When righteousness is established in our hearts, it will automatically show forth on the outside.

Are you rotten on the inside?