Like a Loincloth

Jer. 13:11

For as the loincloth clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, declares the Lord, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen.

 

Jeremiah was commanded by God to buy a loincloth, put it around his waist without dipping it in water which he did. Later, God told him to go to the Euphrates River and hide the loincloth in the cleft of a rock. After many day, God told him back to the rock and get the loincloth. When Jeremiah found it, it was good for nothing having been ruined by the weather. What an object lesson for what was to come! 

 

The people of Judah and Jerusalem would not listen! In their great pride, they rejected the words of God. Instead they stubbornly followed their own hearts, going after other gods to serve and worship. So God compared them to the useless loincloth, one no longer useful fit only to be thrown away.  His plan for them was vastly different than the way they were living. He wanted them to be be a clinging loincloth, clinging to Him so that they would be His people, with His name, praising Him, and bringing Him glory. But their choices led only to the judgment of God, a horrible time of destruction and scattering. They would be reduced to mere chaff driven by the wind from the desert.

 

This account makes me think about my clinging to God. Am I listening carefully when God speaks? Am I seeking to praise Him and bring Him glory in all that I do? I know that I am His chosen child and desire to live for His glory. I know that He said, But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. But what is my response to all His words? Am I clinging ever tighter? Is my heart united for Him? Am I willing to follow wherever He leads?

 

Father,

Thank You for choosing me and giving me Your word. Draw me ever closer to You so that I may cling desperately to You for You are my life.

In Jesus name,

Amen