The Lord Said: "Let Me Put It Another Way..."

 Jeremiah 13:7 Then I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and I took the loincloth from the place where I had hidden it. And behold, the loincloth was spoiled; it was good for nothing. 8 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 9 “Thus says the Lord: Even so will I spoil the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. 10 This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their own heart and have gone after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be like this loincloth, which is good for nothing. 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.

God had been giving Jeremiah all sorts of pictures of why He was going to judge Judah and Jerusalem. This chapter begins with Him instructing Jeremiah to go buy a loincloth(inner garment), put it on, then take off, and then hide it by the Euphrates River(which led into Babylon, where Israel would be exiled.) After a length of time, God sent him back to get it, and it was dirty and rotted.  God then says the above. Just as Jesus was the master of illustration as He preached in the Gospels, the Lord was in the pictures He made in the Prophets. The message is the same: when will we learn to listen and stay close to Him?