Jeremiah 13:7 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.
The difference between humility and humiliation is vast. God is saying: Humble yourselves before Me or I will humble you, and it won’t be pleasant for you. God doesn’t want to humiliate His people, He loves them, but they have wandered so far from Him and can’t even see the error of their ways because of their arrogant pride.
Jeremiah 13:8-9 Then the word of the Lord came to me: “This is what the Lord says: ‘In the same way I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.”
The rational side of me is baffled: how do they not see the error of their ways? But isn’t that the nature of pride? To think, “Poor fools. Look at them ignoring God’s plea for them to return to Him” when in my own stubborn, arrogant, human way, I’m doing the exact same thing?
Jeremiah 13:10 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!
Lord, I want to be humble and not humiliated. I want to be dutiful and not obsequious. I want to be an attractive adornment that brings attention to You and not a fleshly weight trying to block the world’s view of Your glory. I want to shine Your light and not my own. Help me. Draw me closer. Amen.
Jeremiah 13:11 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.’
Have a blessed day.