Obedient to the Lord

~~~ Jer 13:1-11 ~~~ Psalm Dt 32:18 ~~~ Matthew 13:31-35 ~~~

"...Obedient to the LORD's command..."

The Lord sent Jeremiah to buy a loin cloth...to wear it...not to put water on it...

Later the Lord directed him to hide the loin cloth in a cleft in a rock...

Much later the Lord told him to go back to the rock and retrieve the loin cloth.

When Jeremiah removed the cloth from the cleft in obedience he found it to be rotten....and good for nothing.

God wanted this cloth to become rotten to make his point.

When we are not obedient to the Lord's command we too can become rotten.

He never makes a request of us that we cannot accomplish.

Jeremiah was given multiple directions any of which he could have skipped.

We want to jump to the end without following all of the steps.

From time to time I have been known to struggle with the concept obedience.

If you are obedient, are you still exercising your free will?

You can in fact exercise your free will by making

the decision to be obedient.

Does that make sense to you?

Being obedient is always a choice.

There may be extenuating circumstances that influence this decision, 

but you make the final decision.

Jeremiah made the decision to follow each direction given by the Lord.

He even followed the direction when it probably made no sense to him.

"...Go now...and fetch the loincloth
which I told you to hide there."

When he saw the rotted cloth he must have been wondering

what could God possibly want with a rotten piece of cloth.

Jesus spoke in parables about things that were

 "...hidden from the foundation of the world."

The loincloth had been purposely hidden in the cleft and left there to rot.

"...This wicked people who refuse to obey my words,
who walk in the stubbornness of their hearts,
and follow strange gods to serve and adore them,
shall be like this loincloth which is good for nothing."

God did not just use an anology in this example; he was not telling a story.

He actually had Jeremiah carry out his prescribed

steps to make his story

real and tangible.

Jeremiah was instrumental in making a prop for God.

With this prop of rotten cloth God could better explain his point.

Participate with God through your obedience to him.

Trust that He just might be preparing to make good use of your obedience.