Throughout the Bible we see the phrase “gird up your loins” and is a Hebrew term for “get ready for action”—it is a call to “get ready and prepare” for a task set before us. The loins refer to our torso area—our waist, core or center of strength. Back in the days of the Bible, both men and women wore flowing tunics tied with a belt or girdle. While tunics were comfortable and breezy, the hem of the tunic would often get in the way when a man was fighting or performing hard labor. So, they would lift the hem of their tunic up and tuck it into their girdle or belt. The effect basically created a pair of shorts that provided more freedom of movement. Thus, to tell someone to “gird up your loins” was to tell them to get ready for hard work or battle. If we want to stand against the enemy, it is of utmost importance that we get ready! We will examine some Old and New Testament references in our study that prepares us to “gird up our loins” as we ready for the challenges in the battles we now face!
The Book of Job is believed to be the oldest book in the Bible and contains the Biblical concepts of God, man, Satan, righteousness, redemption, and resurrection—setting forth the extent of revelation even before the writing of Scriptures. Job 38:2 God says, “Grid up now they loins like a man; for I will demand of thee and answer thou me.” In Chapters 38-40 Job consciously was brought into the presence of God. God reminds him of His greatness as Creator and Ruler of heaven and earth and that He is in total control through His power and might. God concludes with a summary question in 40:1, “Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? He that reproveth God, let him answer it.” In verse 7 God again gives the command to Job: “Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee and declare thou unto me.” Then God speaks an allegory of Satan as behemoth in verse 19: “chief of the ways of God: He that made him can make his sword to approach unto him.” Then in Chapter 41 as leviathan and in verse 9 He says, “Behold, the hope of him is in vain; shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him?” God in the remainder of that chapter reiterates Satan’s identity as having scales of pride; as a fiery dragon; his heart is as stone; he is powerful and fierce. “Upon earth there is not his like, who is made without fear; king over all the children of pride.” BUT GOD promises that He will stand before Him and that He will repay him because “whatsoever is under the whole heaven is Mine.” (v. 11) God confirms to Job that His Divine Plan of the ages will be completed and that He is in control and will prevail—His will be done in heaven and earth! God sets the stage for the battle via Satan and his adversaries that continues today and declares that God owns it all and He wins!
Next, let us focus on the Book of Jeremiah as God gives Jeremiah his assignment or call to be a devoted patriot wholly committed to Him and to holiness as His instrument of warning and judgment to His people and a call to repent. In verse 17 we read “Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee; be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them.” Jeremiah is known as the “weeping prophet” as he was persecuted by his own people for his bold proclamation of the unwelcome truth about the impending captivity; yet he never lost his compassion for them. An examination of the events in Jeremiah’s life reveals his rejection by his neighbors, his family, by false prophets and priests, by friends, by his audience, by kings, confinement to the courtyard of the palace, his scrolls taken and burned, taken captive and sent to Egypt. Truly Jeremiah embraced the words to gird up his loins, arise and speak in Chapter 26: 1-15 as he stood before the princes: “Then spake Jeremiah unto all the princes and to all the people saying, The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that ye have heard. Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the LORD your God; and the LORD will repent him of the evil that he hath pronounced against you. As for me, behold, I am in your hand; do with me as seemeth good and meet unto you. But know ye for certain, that if ye put me to death, ye shall surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and upon the inhabitants thereof; for of a truth the LORD hath sent me unto you to speak all these words in your ears.” Jeremiah was ready and prepared for the call from the LORD to do His bidding even though it may have led to his death. This is a challenge to us to arise and speak the truth even in the midst of opposition and threats!
It is expedient for us to consider the prophet Joel as his prophecies extend into our time for fulfillment as the LORD openly intervenes in the affairs of men, when man’s day has closed inaugurated with the Rapture of the Church. Joel was also called by God to urge the people to turn to the Lord. In Joel 1: 13 we read of God’s warning first to the religious sect of the day: “Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests; howl, ye ministers of the altar; come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God; for the meat-offering and the drink-offering is withholden from the house of your God.” Joel then spoke this warning to the people in 2: 12-14: “Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning; And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God; for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.” The words spoken by Joel 800-900 years before Christ are just as applicable to us today as much of what God spoke through Joel relates to the final days of the Church as Peter quoted his prediction of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit both in the early and latter days according to Acts 2: 16-21 “But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy; And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come; And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” The words of God through Joel and repeated by Peter are right now words for us! Whatever our age and stage in life, let’s ask God to help us make it our heart’s goal to gird up our loins to please Christ and to stay ready!
Now, let’s turn to the New Testament as both Peter and Paul instruct us how to gird up our loins in the midst of the very real spiritual warfare in the world today. The prophet Isaiah in 11:5 connects us with Christ the Messiah as “righteousness will be His belt.” That word “righteousness” in the Hebrew has many sides to it. What is right, what is correct, what is honest, what is true. The Messiah girds His loins in/with truth. We need Jesus. He is the truth. We are to gird our loins in the truth, or with the truth, by grounding our lives in Jesus who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. (John 14:6) Jesus once taught in John 8: 32, “If you hold to My teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set your free.” Jesus is saying that He is the truth, and Jesus is the only One that can set people free!
In Ephesians 6: 11-17 Paul also gives the command to gird our loins as a part of the full armor of Christ that equips us to do spiritual battle against the forces of evil. In verse 14 we read, “Stand therefore, having your loins girt (waist belted) about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness.” Our whole being needs to be strengthened with the truth. Truth is God in Christ as reality in our living and thinking. (Read Phil. 4:8) If we read the Gospels, we see that Jesus did everything in God, with God, by God, through God, and for God. God was in His living, and He was one with God. In John 17: 20-23 Jesus prayed that we would be one with the Father as He is—I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one. This living is being reproduced in all the members of His Body.
Peter in his first letter exhorts Jewish believers to Christian conduct and tells his readers to “gird up the loins of your mind.” (1 Peter 1: 13) Before his exhortation to gird up the loins of your mind, Peter provides a basis for the exhortation, as he commonly does in his letters. After a greeting (1 Peter 1:1–2), Peter extols the glory of God for God’s work in ensuring our salvation (1 Peter 1:3–5). In these few brief verses, he states at least eleven confirmations of eternal security and the eternal nature of our salvation. In light of these statements of hope, Peter reminds us that we can rejoice even in the greatest of difficulties because we know that God will deliver on His promises (1 Peter 1:6–9). No matter what hardships believers in Christ face today, we know that He is faithful to ensure our salvation (1 Peter 1:9). Peter exalts the power of the message imparted by the Holy Spirit that even causes angels to rejoice. (1 Peter 1:12) In light of all these promises Peter directs his audience—and secondarily all believers in Christ—to gird up the loins of your mind (1 Peter 1:13). We are to have the mind of Christ. (Phil. 2:5-11)
The phrase is clearly a figure of speech, as the mind doesn’t have “loins.” The NASB translates the phrase in 1 Peter 1:13 as “prepare your minds for action.” While this is not the word-for-word translation of the Greek phrase used, it does communicate what Peter seemed to imply by using the figure of speech. Believers are exhorted to gird up the loins of your mind—to be prepared for action and in doing that to keep a sober or alert spirit. Ultimately, we fix our hope steadfastly on the future fulfillment of God’s grace through Jesus in our lives when Christ is revealed at His second coming (1 Peter 1:13b). The way for us to stand firm in the midst of difficulty and even persecution is by preparing for encountering those things and being well equipped with the knowledge of God’s promises for us. Peter is giving us the recipe for successfully encountering and persevering through difficulty—that we be clear on our assurance of salvation. We can trust in God, as He will keep the promises He has made to us. Girding up the loins means being prepared. God freed the Israelites from the bondage of Egypt. We too are on a journey out of bondage and we are to be fully led by our God to insure that our thoughts are in line with the Bible. This is about girding up the loins of our minds, being ready and prepared.
Peter in his first letter also gives us instructions for Christian conduct in the light of the times in which we live in 4: 7-19—when the end of all things is at hand. He commands us to be sober, watch and pray; to pursue love as it covers a multitude of sins; to show hospitality without grudging; to be good stewards of our gifts and graces; to do and say whatever brings glory to Jesus Christ; rejoice in suffering and criticism; do not be an evil doer or busybody; do not be ashamed of Christ; commit the keeping of our souls to God our faithful Creator. We must note that in verse 17, as in the days of Jeremiah, the call to repentance is first given to the religious leaders, “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God; and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” Jesus Himself gave warnings pertinent to His return in the parable in Luke 12: 35-40. “Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning” as no one knows the day or hour of His return. His command is, “Be ye therefore ready also; for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.”
If we are a child of God, each of us is on a mission from God and we are supposed to be fulfilling that calling that God gave us. In other words, every day of our life we are supposed to be on a mission from God, and our whole life is to be a mission from God. It is time for us to arise and gird up our loins—to be prepared—to take courage—to be ready to take the never-changing Word of God to an ever-changing world—beginning with our family, our neighbors, our county and those we meet each day!
We have heard powerful words from President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu that should encourage and inspire us at such a time as this. President Trump: “I’m on a mission from God. And nothing can stop what’s coming.” “You don’t choose the moment—the moment chooses you. Listen to God’s voice and you’ll know what to do.” “God, I thank You. God, I love You.” Netanyahu prayed at the Western Wall and placed a prayer in its crevices with the words of Numbers 23:24, a verse that declares a timeless truth: God calls Israel and His people everywhere to rise with strength, purpose, and courage, regardless of the challenges they face. This is not just a word for a nation—it’s God’s call to each of us! May the Church arise in Spirit empowered boldness to proclaim Jesus so that people will come forth in all humility and surrender to the will of our Creator in heaven! Now is the time to gird up our loins!