Welcome to this Daily PBJ devotional. Read Joshua 24 and Jeremiah 13 today. This devotional is about Jeremiah 13, 1-11, but I'll read all of Jeremiah 13 at this time. This is what the Lord said to me, Go, and buy yourself a linen loincloth, and put it around your waist, but do not let it touch water. So I bought a loincloth, as the Lord had instructed me, and I put it around my waist. Then the word of the Lord came to me a second time, Take the loincloth that you bought and are wearing, and go at once to Perith, and hide it there in a crevice of the rocks. So I went and hid it at Perith, as the Lord had commanded me. Many days later the Lord said to me, Arise, go to Perith, and get the loincloth that I commanded you to hide there. So I went to Perith and dug up the loincloth, and I took it from the place where I had hidden it. But now it was ruined, of no use at all. Then the word of the Lord came to me. This is what the Lord says. In the same way, I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. These evil people, who refuse to listen to my words, who follow the stubbornness of their own hearts, and who go after other gods to serve and worship them, they will be like this loincloth, of no use at all. for just as a loincloth clings to a man's waist, so I have made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, declares the Lord, so that they might be my people for my renown and praise and glory. But they did not listen. Therefore you are to tell them that this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says, Every wineskin shall be filled with wine. And when they reply, Don't we surely know that every wineskin should be filled with wine? Then you are to tell them that this is what the Lord says, I am going to fill with drunkenness all who live in this land, the kings who sit on David's throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the people of Jerusalem. I will smash them against one another, fathers and sons alike, declares the Lord. I will allow no mercy or pity or compassion to keep me from destroying them. Listen, and give heed. Do not be arrogant, for the Lord has spoken. Give glory to the Lord your God, before he brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the dusky mountains. You wait for light, but he turns it into deep gloom and thick darkness. But if you do not listen, I will weep in secret because of your pride. My eyes will overflow with tears because the Lord's flock has been taken captive. Say to the King and to the Queen Mother, Take a lowly seat, for your glorious crowns have fallen from your heads. The cities of the Negev have been shut tight, and no one can open them. All Judah has been carried into exile, wholly taken captive. Lift up your eyes and see those coming from the north. Where is the flock entrusted to you, the sheep that were your pride? What will you say when he sets over you Close allies whom you yourself trained? Will not pangs of anguish grip you As they do a woman in labor? And if you ask yourself, Why has this happened to me? It is because of the magnitude of your iniquity That your skirts have been stripped off And your body has been exposed. Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Neither are you able to do good, you who are accustomed to doing evil. I will scatter you like chaff, driven by the desert wind. This is your lot, the portion I have measured to you, declares the Lord. because you have forgotten me and trusted in falsehood. So I will pull your skirts up over your face, that your shame may be seen. Your adulteries and lustful ne'ings, your shameless prostitution on the hills and in the fields, I have seen your detestable acts. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! How long will you remain unclean? This is God's word. And again, this devotional is about Jeremiah 13, 1-11. One summer a few years ago, I was assembling something in our backyard for my kids. Somehow I left my tools out in the yard. They remained outside in the yard for the entire fall, winter, and spring. I found them late in the spring when I went to put something else together out there. Most of the tools I left are still usable. They're rusty, but still usable. And I think the rust can be cleaned off. but some of them are now useless. In the opening verses of Jeremiah 13, the prophet is told by the Lord to go buy himself a snappy new belt and wear it around. That's verse one. Wouldn't it be cool if the Lord told you to go buy some new shoes or a new shirt or even a new belt? Except that Jeremiah only got to wear it for a little while. Then the Lord told him to go geocache it in a rock crevice. Anyway, when he retrieved the belt, many days later, as verse six says, it was ruined and completely useless, like some of my tools are now. Goodbye, snappy new belt. I hope the Lord let him replace it from his ministry funds. But anyway, if you've ever lost something and then found it ruined, you can relate to what Jeremiah experienced in this passage. And this is how God felt about his people. He proudly put them around his waist, so to speak. But they ruined their utility by the stubbornness of their hearts through idolatry. Now they were useless for what God wanted them for, namely, to be my people, for my renown and praise and honor. That's verse 11 in the NIV. It's okay to say someone is useful these days, but it is not acceptable to say that someone used someone else. Being useful is voluntary. while being used usually indicates someone is being manipulated or coerced without realizing it, or that they're appreciated not as a person, but only for what they can do for someone else. In other words, being useful is a compliment, while being used in our language is degrading. When God says that his people are useless, however, like a rotten belt, he is not degrading his people. It is not degrading for something to do what it was created to do. I am using this camera to talk to you right now and a computer will be used later by me to edit this devotional. If the camera and the computer had feelings, they would not feel degraded, but rather grateful that they had been useful. And so it is with us. God created us to glorify himself. Israel, and all of us in the human race actually, degraded ourselves by giving ourselves to sin instead of being useful to the purpose of glorifying God. When by faith we love and serve God, we are useful to him once again. When His people give glory to the Lord your God, as verse 16 puts it in the NIV, we are doing what He created us to do, and that is the greatest form of satisfaction. God graciously brings light, as verse 16a says, and joy to us when we give Him glory through obedience. When life is dissatisfying, it may be because we are serving idols rather than giving glory to God. Is your life useful for God's purpose? Are you living in a way that might be degrading your usefulness for the Lord? These are important questions to think about, so think about them today, and I'll see you next time. May God bless you. Hope you have a great day today.