Jeremiah chapter 13, please. Jeremiah chapter 13. As you appreciate, it wasn't just the initial plan to be in Jeremiah this morning, but we are coming to it again nevertheless. And we're going to read this 13th chapter through and pick up on Something else that is said here through the prophet. So Jeremiah chapter 13, and we're reading from the opening verse of the chapter. Jeremiah 13 verse 1. Thus saith the Lord unto me, go and get thee a linen girdle, and put it upon thy loins, and put it not in water. So I got a girdle, according to the word of the Lord, and put it on my loins. And the word of the Lord came unto me the second time, saying, Take the girdle that thou hast got, which is upon thy loins, and arise, go to Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock. So I went and hid it by Euphrates, as the Lord commanded me. And it came to pass after many days, that the Lord said unto me, Arise, go to Euphrates, and take the girdle from thence, which I commanded thee to hide there. Then I went to Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it. And behold, the girdle was marred. It was profitable for nothing. Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Thus saith the Lord. After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. This evil people which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods to serve them and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing. For as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I cause to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel, and the whole house of Judah, saith the Lord, that they might be unto me for the people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory, what they would not hear. Therefore thou shalt speak unto them this word. Thus saith the Lord. God of Israel, every bottle shall be filled with wine, and they shall say unto them, Do we not certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine? Then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings that sit upon David's throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with drunkenness. And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, saith the Lord. I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them. Hear ye, and give ear. Be not proud, for the Lord hath spoken. Give glory to the Lord your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains. And while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness. But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride, and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears. because the Lord's flock is carried away captive? Say unto the king and to the queen, humble yourselves, sit down, for your principality shall come down, even the crown of your glory. The cities of the south shall be shut up, and none shall open them. Judah shall be carried away captive, all of it, shall be wholly carried away captive. Lift up your eyes and behold them that come from the north. Where is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock? What wilt thou say when he shall punish thee? For thou hast taught them to be captains and chief over thee. Shall not sorrows take thee as a woman and reveal? But if thou say in thine heart, Wherefore come these things upon me? For the greatness of thine iniquities are thy skirts discovered, and thy heels made bare. Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil. And therefore will I scatter them as the stubble that passeth away by the wind of the wilderness. This is thy lot, the portion of thy measures from me, saith the Lord, because thou hast forgotten me and trusted in falsehood. Therefore will I discover thy skirts upon thy face, that thy shame may appear. I have seen thine adulteries, and thy names, the lewdness of thy whoredom, and thine abominations on the hills and the fields. Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem! Wilt thou not be made clean? When shall it once be?" Amen. We know the Lord will add His blessing to the reading of this chapter. from the Word of God. We're coming back to verse 11 this morning of this particular chapter. For as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, saith the Lord. And this is the part I want to particularly draw to your attention, that they might be unto me for a people. for a name and for a praise and for a glory, but they would not hear. We'll bow together in prayer and ask the Lord for His help as we come to His Word. Our Father, once again we thank Thee for the Word of God that we have, or we have read those words today, thus saith the Lord. And we have read them a number of times, And we're reminded, Lord, that this book is a thus saith the Lord. It's Thy Word. It's not the Word of man. It's not the Word of any church, but it is the Word of the sovereign God of heaven, the one with whom we have to do. And we pray, Lord, that Thou will bless Thy Word to us now as we come to consider it. Give us insight. Give us understanding, we pray. Lord, humble us even before the Word of God and before Thee, acknowledging that we need to receive understanding from Thee. We pray, Lord, that we might be taught of the Lord today. Apply Thy Word to our own lives and circumstances. Let there be a Word in season to each one of us today, whatever our spiritual state is. We pray, Lord, that Thy Word will come with power now in these moments as we consider it. Hear us, we humbly pray, we ask in Jesus' name, amen. One of the features about the prophecy of Jeremiah is the number of symbols that he is instructed to use. We have one of them here in this portion, this girdle that is mentioned there from the opening verse of this chapter, where Jeremiah was told to go and take a girdle and do some things with it. But it is something that is not just unique to this particular chapter. It's a feature of the book of Jeremiah as a whole. If I can mention some others to you, his own family circumstances were to be a symbol, a spiritual lesson taught to the people of the day. Jeremiah chapter 16 verses 1 and 2, the word of the Lord came also unto me saying, thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt have sons or daughters in this place. So even through his family circumstances, there was going to be a lesson taught to the people of their day through the prophesying of Jeremiah. And then over in chapter 27, there's the wooden yoke that Jeremiah was told to go and take and put upon himself. Jeremiah 27 verse 2, the word of the Lord came to me, make thee bones and yokes and put them upon my neck. And Jeremiah actually physically walked about with a yoke upon his neck. And in that portion over there, we read how Hanani, the false prophet, went and took the yoke from off the neck of Jeremiah and actually broke it in half. And he said, oh, the Lord's going to break the whole that Babylon has upon the nation, because that's what the yoke was symbolizing. that the Lord was going to yoke them to Babylon, and there would be no way of escaping. And Hananiah broke it, and the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, you tell Hananiah, you tell the people, you may have broken a wooden yoke, but I'm going to make you a yoke of iron, unbreakable. So even there, again, the Lord was teaching a lesson through a symbol. Again, if we go over a little bit further, Jeremiah chapter 32, you read about the earthen vessel. That was the occasion when he was told to go and buy the field of his uncle, and go through all the legal process that was there at that particular time for Jeremiah to take ownership of it. And the thought was that the people were going to come back to the land someday, and they were going to occupy the land, and they would be able to claim the land. And whatever portion of it was theirs, they would have the right to it again. So Jeremiah was told, you write up. You write up all the legal documents. But in Jeremiah 32, 14, Jeremiah was told, take these evidences, the evidence of the purchase, both which is sealed and the evidence which is open, and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may continue many days. So the earthen vessel is another symbol that was used to put these documents in and to store them and to keep them. And there's a lesson in that. I'll mention one more to you just to show that this runs the whole way through. Right almost at the end of the prophecy, chapter 51, you read about a book and a stone and the river. In Jeremiah 51 verse 60, Jeremiah wrote in the book, all the evil that shout should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written against Babylon. And then verse 63, and it shall be when thou hast made an end of reading this book, thou shall bind a stone to it and cast it into the midst of Euphrates. So again, he was to do that as a symbol. The thought was that it was going to continue for many days and that the prophecy wouldn't be immediately fulfilled. So Jeremiah was to take the book that he had written it out in, the scroll, and he was to tie a stone to it, and he was to throw it into the river. And we understand it's going to sink to the bottom of the river. Maybe it's still there to this day somewhere, buried in all the silt and the sand of the Euphrates. But Jeremiah was to cast in the scroll with a stone tied to it. And the thought is God's Word will come to pass, even though time goes by. There's a wonderful encouragement in that too, Christian. Not only is it in the context of judgment there upon Babylon, but if you just think about that generally, the Lord doesn't forget His Word. The Lord doesn't forget a promise He's given us. Something that He said maybe years ago, the Lord said it to us. Maybe it's a promise of year's standing. And maybe there's a thought sometimes, well, maybe the Lord has forgotten that word. God doesn't forget what He says. Never does. never let the devil suggest otherwise to us. So right through the prophecy of Jeremiah, I've just highlighted, there's five I've highlighted to you. There's other ones that we could pick up on, but certainly those are five prominent times in the prophecy of Jeremiah when we find him using symbols of one sort or another and teaching a lesson through them. Now if we come back here to chapter 13, the picture here of the girdle, the Lord is illustrating the relationship that exists between him and His people. And that's really what I want to emphasize this morning. So in the context of this, Jeremiah is commanded to take a girdle and to wear it for a period of time. And as I say, this girdle is going to symbolize the relationship between the Lord and His people, that the Lord has a people And they're symbolized by this girdle. And in verse 11 there, Jeremiah 13, verse 11, it says, for as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I cause to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, saith the Lord. So there's the symbolism and what it means. Jeremiah is to wear the girdle, and the Lord says, in wearing this, you're going to teach a visible lesson that I have caused the house of Israel and Judah to cleave on to me. I have caused this. And then he's to take that girdle off after a period of time, and in an unwashed state, He is to travel to the Euphrates River, which is about a journey of 1,000 miles. It's not just across on a map. They traveled through what's called the Fertile Crescent, which is north out of the land of Israel, and then down that what we would call Mesopotamia, the area between the two rivers. That's how travel was done, which made the journey much longer. couldn't travel through the desert. If you went from just point to point, you'd be going out through the desert, and nobody's going to survive in the desert, and nobody traveled that way. That was not how travel was done. Even going back to the days of Abraham, Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees, which was Babel, down at the very bottom, almost out on the Persian Gulf, not quite. And then he traveled up to Haran, And then from Haran, he traveled on into the land of Israel. And it's a crescent if you look at it in a Bible map. That was the normal way of travel. So this was going to be a journey of somewhere in the region of 1,000 miles that Jeremiah was to engage in. And the Lord wanted him to do this. So he's to take this girdle, take it in an unwashed state, go to Euphrates and hide it there. Hide it there. And he was to hide it in such a fashion that he could go back and locate it, but nobody else, no scavenging creature would ever find it and take it away and destroy it, and Jeremiah not be able to locate it again. So he's to undertake this journey. He's to hide it in a hole of a rock. And then we read about him at another time. We're not told how how long this period of time was. But in chapter 13 of Jeremiah there in verse 6, it says, after many days, after many days. So some considerable time has gone by. The Scripture doesn't tell us how many. Remember, Jeremiah prophesied during five kings, the reign of five kings, which at least was around 50 years that he ministered. So what period of time this covers, we are not specifically told, other than that the Scripture tells us many days. If the time period was important, the Lord would put it into His Word for us. So that's not so much important. But after a time period has gone by, He is to go back there, and He is to unearth the girdle, and we know what's going to happen. It's something that's corruptible. It's something that's going to be marred. It's been buried for a particular period of time. Therefore, as it tells you there, it is profitable for nothing, is what's given to us at verse 7. I went to Euphrates and digged and took the girdle from the place where I hid it. And behold, the girdle was marred, and it was profitable for nothing. He couldn't, at that time, put it back on and start wearing it. was profitable for nothing. Maybe it was just threadbare, hanging apart. So, out of this picture, the Lord is going to illustrate certain truths to Israel. I just want to take one of those thoughts this morning, and that is the Lord wearing that girdle, in a sense. Now, pictured in Jeremiah, Jeremiah is the one who's actually told physically, to wear the girdle. But when you come down to verse 11, the Lord says that, I have caused the house of Israel to cleave unto me. So the picture of Jeremiah wearing the girdle in the physical sense is a representation of the Lord wearing this girdle. it's that thought that I want to draw to your attention, what the Lord has in this thought. There's much more here than we're going to cover this morning. Whether we come back to that or not, I am not entirely sure, but You can go on to think about the girdle being marred and then recovered and so on. That's another thought. I want particularly to consider these words at the end of verse 11, that they might be unto me for a people, for a name, for a praise, and for a glory, because that's the connection with the girdle. Wearing the girdle, you see, it's going to represent something. It's going to be seen to be something. And the Lord is here saying something about this very prominent part of Eastern dress that would have been very visible, and how it is a picture of the people of God. And therefore, there's an application to you and me. We claim to be the Lord's people. We come to know Him as our Savior. We profess Him as our God. We profess to follow Him. Well, in a sense, we are that girdle then upon the Lord's lines. the Lord would have it to represent something. There's four things that are mentioned here. We're just going to take them one at a time. First of all there, this people were taken to be the Lord's people. They were taken to be the Lord's people. We're starting off here. Well, it says there, this is the first, that they might be unto me for a people. So this is the most basic thought of the Lord, actually taking this girdle, in a sense, and wearing it. He's taking a people. He's causing a people to cleave unto himself. The Lord is pleased to choose a people for himself. Now, in Old Testament times, out of all the nations that there were upon the face of the earth, the Lord chose the descendants of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob. They were going to be His people. He brought them out of Egypt. They became a nation. Before that, they were families. It's interesting to notice that. They went down as families. Again, it's not something we can pursue this morning, but certainly I would encourage you in reading there at the end of Genesis and then into Exodus, when they came out of the land, they went down as families. They come out as a nation. They come out as a nation, the children of Israel, a nation chosen, a nation redeemed. nation that the Lord was going to put in a particular place of the earth as His people. He was going to identify with them. For example, Deuteronomy chapter 7 and verse 6, it says, For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. So they were a special people chosen by the Lord. And in that sense, here's the picture of the Lord taking the girdle and actually wearing it. Now it's going to be physically on Jeremiah, but the Lord is teaching a lesson here. I have taken this people. I'm wearing them as a girdle. They're my people. I've caused them to cleave unto me. Election is not a truth that is universally liked, not even among Christians, certainly not among the world, that God would make choice and make distinction, that He would make choice, and others He wouldn't. Well, that's something the Lord reveals in His Word, and Israel is the outstanding evidence of that. He chose one people out of all those nations. And you think of the various nations you could name from Bible times, Starting off with Egypt, where Israel were, and all the nations of Canaan, and all the nations that were round about Canaan, and even further afield, the Babylonians and the Assyrians, they were vast nations. And the Lord said, I'm going to choose this people. They weren't even a nation when the Lord chose them. It was just one man He started off with, Abraham. And that's a remarkable set of circumstances, because Abraham was a Shemite man living among the sons of Ham and Ur of the Chaldees. If you go back to Genesis 10 and the distribution of the sons of Noah and whereabouts they lived and occupied a dwelling place in the earth, the sons of Ham, or one of the sons of Ham, was over in Babel, Ur of the Chaldees. And yet we find Abraham, he's not a son of Ham. He's a Shemite. He's a son of Shem. And remarkably, we're not told how that came about, but remarkably, you find the son of Shem living amongst the sons of Ham. And the Lord puts his finger upon one man. And he says, Abraham, you're going to follow me. You're going to leave home, and I'm going to take you to a land. I haven't even told you where it is yet. And we know the account of Abraham, how he left Ur of the Chaldees, went to Haran for a time, and then came on into the land of Canaan. The Lord started off not with a nation, not even with a family. The Lord started off with one man, making choice of one man out of all of those individuals that were in the earth. And the Lord says, I'm going to favor you. I'm going to favor one of your children. Not Ishmael, but Isaac. son born of Sarah. And we know how that choice continued on between Jacob and Esau, and how the Lord made choice of Jacob. Nothing good in Jacob. He was a schemer and a twister. It was W. P. Nicholson who said that Jacob was that twisted. He could have hid behind a corkscrew. Nothing good about Jacob. Nothing attractive, nothing appealing about Jacob. And yet the Lord said, Jacob's my choice. Jacob have I chosen. And then his children, the 12 tribes, the Lord has made choice of a people as his people. Not because of anything in them, but because he was pleased to make a choice. And the Lord has done that today with you and me too. His choice continues. His choice continues. Let's go back to one place, at least in the New Testament, or forward one place in the New Testament, John's Gospel, chapter 15. If we go there for a moment, some of those words that were spoken in the upper room by the Lord Jesus, John chapter 15, verse 16, "'Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain. But whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.'" And the 19th verse as well, "'If ye were of the world, the world would love his own, but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hated you. '" So the Lord continues with His choice. into New Testament times, and he singles out a people who are going to be his people, his people. That's why Peter in 1 Peter chapter 2 describes him in a particular way as well that is interesting to observe, where he highlights some of these features of this people that the Lord was pleased to choose. You're a chosen generation in 1 Peter 2 now. a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." You're a chosen generation. And Christian, to this day, we're chosen. We're not saved because we chose the Lord. We're saved because the Lord chose us. The Lord chose us. He put His love upon us and purpose to save us and to bring us to Himself. The Lord made the choice. And if you look at 1 Peter 2 and verse 9 there as well, that word peculiar, yeah, and sometimes God's people are peculiar, but that word actually means purchased. If you've got a margin in your Bible, it'll give you that word alongside it. They're a purchased people. And in a sense, the picture that Peter is painting there runs parallel to Israel. They were a chosen generation. They were a royal priesthood. They were a holy nation. They were a purchased people, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. So that word peculiar has the idea of being purchased, purchased by the Lord. So the Lord's choice continues. He is a people today. that He would have to cleave unto Him. You see, that's the particular thought, if you go back to Jeremiah 13, that the Lord is lamenting here with the people of Jeremiah's day, is that they haven't cleaved to the Lord the way they ought to. They've turned aside and followed other gods. They haven't heard His word. The end of verse 11, Jeremiah 13, verse 11, but they would not hear. That's not the feature. It ought not to be the feature of a people who cleave to the Lord. There are people who are not listening, who are not hearing. So they are a chosen people. They are a priestly people. When you think of the linen girdle, it was used in the priest as part of the dress of the priesthood. Underneath the, well, it was the normal everyday dress of the other priests, if we leave aside Aaron for a moment. If you think of Aaron's sons, only Aaron's sons were priests. It's always important to make that distinction between the Levites and the priests, because the Levites ministered in the tabernacle and looked after the things of the tabernacle, but they were not the priests. The priests were the sons of Aaron. So Aaron's sons were dressed in a particular fashion. And part of that dress, you read about it in Leviticus chapter 16, was that they wore a linen girdle. They wore a linen girdle. Aaron had that as well underneath his high priestly garments. had the blue robe and then the ephod over the top of that and all which would have covered up the linen girdle, but he too wore that white linen garment and then the linen girdle. So the linen girdle is particularly referencing a priestly people. people who are to fellowship with God, a people who are to know the Lord, who are to commune with the Lord. They're not to be strangers to the Lord, and He's not to be a stranger to them. And the same can be said of you and I. We're not to be strangers to the Lord in that sense. We're to know the Lord, and the Lord is to know us. We're to walk with Him in company and fellowship and communion with Him day by day. That's what it is to be that linen girdle upon His loins. He's caused us to cleave to Him, that we might be to Him a kingdom of priests, a royal priesthood, going back there to 1 Peter 2, verse 9. So we are to know Him. We are to be a people who commune with Him. That's why He has caused us to cleave unto Him, that He might make Himself known to us. It's an amazing thought that the Lord would want to make Himself known to His creatures, but He does. Again, if we go down this line too far, we're not going to cover what I want to say this morning, but you go to verses, for example, in Isaiah, not all that far from where we will be tonight, but the Lord says, ask of me things concerning future. That's what the Lord actually says in His Word, ask of me concerning things relating to my people. The Lord is willing to show us these things and teach us these things. He reveals these things to us in His Word, and then He tells us, ask me about them. Well, does He tell us to ask, and He's no intentions of telling us? I don't think so. That's not how the Lord, the Lord doesn't mock His people. But the Lord brings a people in to be a priestly people so that they commune with Him and fellowship with Him and that He would speak to them. Let me give you another verse in the Psalms. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him. The secret of the Lord. The Lord reveals things to those who fear Him. They see things in the Word of God. Nobody else sees. It's not that there's some mystical knowledge there. No, it's just they've got spiritual eyesight. far greater spiritual eyesight than somebody else who doesn't fear the Lord in the same fashion. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him. So, the Lord is pleased to draw people, choose that people, cause them to cleave unto Him. They're going to be like a priestly people. They're going to be a people who know Him, who commune, who could fellowship with Him, and to whom He's going to reveal Himself. He's going to make Himself known unto that people. Then also there to be a serving people, because the whole purpose of the girdle was to be used to tie up loose-fitting clothes so that somebody could either work or take a journey. And you find in the Bible the girdle working in both of those circumstances. For example, in Elijah's life, 1 Kings chapter 14 verse 46, we read there about Elijah girding up his loins and running before Ahab's chariot. and how he was able to outrun Ahab's chariot. So there's an example of the girdle at work, but also then when they would go out to work in the field, their long loose fitting clothes would actually be cumbersome and get in the way. But that part of the girdle was that they would use the girdle to tie up those loose fitting clothes so that it wouldn't hinder them from engaging in the labour that they needed to do so. So again, when we think here about the Lord choosing a people, causing them to cleave onto Him, they're to be a people who serve Him. They're going to be a people who serve Him. In fact, that is our eternal purpose. For go right away over to the book of the Revelation to the new heavens and the new earth, and we read about a people who serve Him day and night. Serve Him. That's to be our purpose now. That's going to be our purpose in eternity. We're going to serve Him. The angels are those now who serve Him. But they serve Him as holy creatures. But you and I will serve Him as redeemed creatures. And we are to serve Him now. We are here to serve Him. We are not here to live for ourselves, do as we please, follow our own choices. We're on earth to serve the Lord. Wherever He has placed us, whatever He has commissioned us to do and overruled in providence to put us in a particular place, every believer is to serve the Lord. We don't believe in the idea of holy orders, as Romanism did, and that that's the only way you could serve the Lord. Every believer lives for the glory of God. If you are where the Lord would have you to be, if you're in the center of His will, Wherever that is in life, employment and so on, wherever you are, if you can say, I have sought the Lord and I am here because God has put me here, then that's your place to serve the Lord. And you could not serve the Lord anywhere else because you'd be out of His will. But we are to serve Him. This is part of being the girdle that the Lord has caused to cleave onto His loins. So he's taken a people for this purpose. And secondly, if we come back to Jeremiah 13 and verse 11, he's taken a people unto himself to be of renown. And if you look there at Jeremiah 13 and verse 11, the second one of these is that we might be for a people and for a name, that we might be for a name. And that's going to manifest something towards the ungodly world that we live in, that we are a people who belong unto the Lord. The Lord would have the world to know that He has a people. The Lord would have the world to know that He has a people. Why do we think that the Lord set Israel in the middle of the earth? Was it that the whole earth would look on at His people? You know that the word Mediterranean means middle of the earth, Mediterranean Sea. That's what it means, middle of the earth. And right on the shores of that sea that has that name, the middle of the earth, the Lord said, that's where I'm going to put my people. I'm going to choose them. I'm going to place them in a particular place. I'm going to drive out other nations that are there at present. I'm going to give this land on to my people, and I'm going to put them in the middle of the earth. And they're going to be my people, and everybody's going to see them as my people. " And here's this thought of a name, of a name. Turn over to Daniel chapter 9 for a moment, please, if you would. And it's verse 15 of Daniel chapter 9 that I want you to particularly look at. Because here's the sense of this. What does it mean that the Lord has taken them for a name? Well, Here's its translation for us in another way. So Daniel 9, verse 15, Now take a look at the marginal reference against the word gotten there. And you'll find that it has made thee a name. Made thee a name. I've taken a people out of Egypt. I've put them where they are as my people in the land of Canaan. They're my people. They're my name. But the sense is, they're going to be a people of renown. They're going to be a people known to be my people. And here's a little commentary in Daniel 9. Much of Daniel 9, much of Daniel is future. But here's the Lord taking us back in Daniel. And here's something historical. And the Lord is here talking about the day He brought Israel out of Egypt, the day they became a people. And He says, He did so that He might get renown, or that He would have a name. So when we come to Jeremiah 13 and verse 11, and the Lord says, I've caused this people to cleave unto me, that they might be unto me a people and also a name. The thought is here, I'm going to get renown. I'm going to be known through my people. I'm going to be known through my people." In manifesting Himself to this people, in manifesting His power and His purpose to this people, as they are among the nations, others are going to take knowledge of the Lord. They're going to know something about the ways of God. Now, let me immediately jump forward and tie this into a New Testament thought, where in Corinthians, Paul says that we are epistles known and read of all men. I wonder where Paul got that idea from? Epistles known and read of all men. Well, was it the fact that he knew that Israel in the Old Testament were to be just this, a people that got the Lord renowned? a people that manifested the Lord's ways, the Lord's truth to nations round about them, and that others looking on at Israel would know. And again, I know I keep saying this, but you could start going down that line of heathen kings who made statements about what they knew about the Lord by watching His people. I'll give you one that's not a heathen king, but a very obvious one. Remember what Rahab said. the spies went into Jericho and ended up in her house. And she said to those spies, I know. In fact, she said, we know. We know about what God has done and what He's going to do with you as a people. Go back there to those chapters in Joshua that deal with Rahab, and notice what it was she said to the spies about what she had already known. She had heard of what God had done in Egypt with the plagues and bringing the people out. She makes that obvious in what she says. So there was something that was conveyed to her through what God was doing in and among that people. And there is the parallel with you and me and today. We ought to be making the Lord known to this world that we live in. Others around us ought to be coming to a knowledge of the Lord. Well, the obvious question is, well, what is that knowledge that people are coming to? If we are those that, in a sense, represent the Lord, ambassadors for the Lord, are making known the Lord's truth and the Lord's ways and who the Lord is and how the Lord deals with His people, what is the message we are conveying to a perishing world all around us? this is the sense of this term, the Lord will get renown among His people. And as I say, you could start that as a study itself on your own of heathen kings and others who made comment about what they knew by observing the Lord's dealings with His people. The one that just is springing into my mind is Nebuchadnezzar with Daniel. What he learned from Daniel And even the kings had followed on as well in Babylon. But it's an interesting thought. The Lord gets him a name. The Lord gets renowned among His people. As He deals with His people, as He works with His people, yes, sometimes as He chastises His people, as He blesses His people, there is a message that is being conveyed to the world around us. A name. Very quickly, let's cover these other two. A praise and then a glory. Well, the thought is of this people being to the praise of God. Now, the Lord choosing a people, it's a bit like creation, but the Lord choosing a people does not add anything to the Lord. Rather, it gives opportunity for the Lord to manifest something. It's like creation. Creation doesn't add anything to God. God wasn't somehow in need of creating, that there was some lack within the Godhead and that that lack could only be supplied by God creating the world. God was complete in Himself and did not need to do anything in that sense, but He chose to create because He wanted to display His glory. He wanted to display His creative power, and He wanted to create a people that He would bring unto Himself who would know Him, that He would make Himself known to that people. Well, it's exactly the same when we think here about God making choice of a people, whether it's Israel in the Old Testament, whether it's you and me today, God makes choice of a people that they would be for His praise. They would be for His praise, and they would be a people who would magnify His name. So if He makes Himself known to us and makes Himself known through us, we in turn are to be a people who praise Him. And how many times in Scripture do you not find those words, praise the Lord? Hallelujah. How many hallelujahs are there not in the Bible? And the word hallelujah means praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. You and I are saved to give praise to Him. to magnify Him, and so we ought in our lives by our testimony. Our testimony ought to be a testimony whereby we give praise to the Lord for what He has done for us, where we acknowledge our unworthiness. In fact, we deserved His wrath, but He has magnified His mercy toward us. Do we give praise to the Lord? and render thanks to Him for what He has done for us, He could have left us to go to hell. Remember, we did not choose Him. He chose us. The Lord could have left you and me to go to hell. And He didn't. Is that not reason enough to praise Him? Yeah, we can have troubles in life, and we do. There's the ups and downs and all the trying circumstances that there might be, but that ought never to take us away from praising Him. We are to be for a praise. And then the last one here is we are to be for a glory. We are to be for a glory. That word glory is associated with the word beauty, as in the beauty of a garment or in the beauty of a jewel. And here's the Lord saying, I'm going to take a people, and it's as if they're going to be for a jewel. But then, that's a Bible thought, too, isn't it, Christian? Tells us about the Lord making up His jewels in Malachi when He comes in that little prophecy of Malachi. And we read there about the Lord making up His jewels in that day. It's Malachi chapter 3, verse 17, "'And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels, and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.'" The Lord says, every one of my people are just like a jewel, and I'm going to make them into a glorious crown someday. I'm going to gather them all in. They're all going to be quarried out, fashioned, So this is the word here, glory, that is associated with this. It might even be associated with that curious girdle that Aaron wore. You see, in a sense, that curious girdle that Aaron wore as a man was very different to the normal dress of men back in those times. They didn't wear bright colors. The women wore bright colors in Bible times. If you follow it through, read read some of those books that are produced, particularly by converted Jews, that tell you something about Jewish culture. They're very valuable. Alfred Edersheim and others, Bendor Samuel is a couple that I can think of offhand that I have, that tell you about Jewish customs. And they will tell you that it wasn't the practice among Old Testament men to wear brightly colored garments. That was the domain of women. And you'll find places in the Bible where it talks about brightly colored garments, and they're associated with women. But Aaron was different. Aaron was different. When he put on those holy garments, that brightly colored robe, blue robe, and then over it, breastplate of righteousness, and it had all the colors in it. And in it there was woven as well through it the gold seams. And then he had a girdle that was the very same makeup. He was going to stand out. He was going to stand out in Israel. There was not another individual in Israel dressed like Aaron. And it may be that that word glory is connected with that as well. I finish with this thought. It's actually a quotation from John Gill. How do we apply this in our own lives? John Gill said, to adorn the gospel is first to believe it and receive it, and then to profess it and to hold fast the profession walking worthy of it. That's how you and I are our glory. a glory to God, to the Savior who loved us and chose us and has left us to serve Him in the world. Be a glory to Him. Be an adornment to Him. Adorn the gospel. Gil was referring, maybe I jumped over that reference. I should have gone back to Titus chapter 2 and verse 10, maybe first of all, where it says there, that we may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things." Adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. And if we do, Christian, we'll be to His glory. We'll be outliving the purpose of the Lord, causing us to cleave onto Him, like this girdle that we read of in Jeremiah 13. This is God's purpose for His people. He used a very physical picture in the days of Jeremiah to illustrate that truth. I trust that you and I will take the lesson on board ourselves. May the Lord bless His Word this day.