I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 13-15.

    The prophet Isaiah spoke words of condemnation, mixed with words of hope. If the people of Jerusalem would turn back to God and obey Him, God would turn aside the coming judgment. The prophet Jeremiah spoke words of even greater condemnation, with much less hope. It was too late for the people of Jerusalem to avoid the coming disaster, but if they would turn back to God, God would provide them comfort in the coming day of judgment. As a result, I am finding it much harder to know what to write each day about the passages from Jeremiah than I did with the Book of Isaiah. I do not believe that the United States has reached the point where the Kingdom of Judah was when Jeremiah prophesied.

    Having said that, I do have something to write about today’s passage. The passage starts with Jeremiah creating a visual metaphor for the people of Jerusalem. He wore a loincloth for several days. Then, he took it and buried it. A lengthy period of time later, Jeremiah went back and dug up that loincloth, at which point, it was rotted and useless. This is what happens to us when we do not do what God instructs us to do. God has created us for a purpose. He calls us, gives us gifts and abilities to serve that purpose, and sends us to do what He tells us. If we refuse to listen to His words and do as He instructs, we will become as worthless as a loincloth which has been buried. What gifts and abilities has God given us that we are not using to their full potential? Are we allowing those gifts to rot?