Imagine that you have just been given a new shirt.

Great color.

Great-looking shirt.

And after wearing it a couple or three times, you take that fantastic shirt to the Cahaba River, and dig a hole on the riverbank,

and put the new shirt in that hole.

You put lots of rocks over the place where you have buried the shirt.

Then, after that shirt has been buried for about six weeks, you go to the river a second time, and move the rocks, and dig up. How does it look?

Not so great now, huh?

Something like that took place with the prophet Jeremiah nearly 2600 years ago.

God spoke to Jeremiah and told him to buy not a new shirt, but a linen loincloth.

Jeremiah wore the new garment, until God spoke to him again, saying, &8220;Take the loincloth that you bought and are wearing, and go now to the Euphrates and hide it in a cleft of the rock.&8221;

Jeremiah obeyed God, even though he may have wondered where all of this unusual activity was leading.

After many days, God once again spoke to Jeremiah and told him to retrieve the loin cloth.

Of course, when the prophet dug it up, it was ruined. Jeremiah said, &8220;It was good for nothing&8221;

What is this all about?

It is really about the corruption of the people in Jeremiah&8217;s time. In several chapters of the Book of Jeremiah, we read about the sin of the people of Israel.

For instance, in chapter 2, we read God&8217;s words to the people:

&8220;Though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me.&8221;

Wretched behavior!

Depraved!

Barbaric! And God has had enough!

That&8217;s why He spoke to Jeremiah about buying the waistcloth and doing with it as he did!

In chapter 13, God said:

&8220;This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their own will and have gone after other gods to serve&8230;and worship&8230;shall be like this loincloth which is good for nothing.&8221;

How many times has God sought to draw you close to Him, and you would not listen? Maybe to be drawn close to God meant that we had to give up a bad habit, or change an attitude, or rearrange how we spend our time.

But God wanted it for us.

He knew what was best for us, but we would not listen.

But we can listen.

However, the challenge is that we don&8217;t always do what we have the capacity to do.

Instead, we turn a deaf ear all too often. What is it about us as human beings that makes us think we can ignore God and be just fine?

How many of us need to be reminded that apart from the goodness and the mercy and the love and the forgiveness of Jesus Christ, our lives are good for nothing?

Dr. Ron Grizzle is the pastor of Riverchase Baptist Church.