Today's Bible Reading: 2 KINGS 21:1-22:-2, 2 CHRONICLES 33:1-34:7JEREMIAH 1:1-2:22
Jeremiah 2:13
for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.
We make bad choices every day. When we look back on the decisions of our day we at times consider how rash and irresponsible that our actions were. We wish we had a makeover afford us to undo what our choice created. But sadly we are often stuck with what we chose and must live with the consequences no matter how dire they had become.
The children of Israel had been given everything they needed to survive and thrive in their promised land. They need not look to or plead with the deities of the people around them for all that they needed they found in Jehovah God. But that didn’t dispel their search for satisfaction elsewhere. Their wondering hearts led them to seek satisfaction from other sacred things around them and their pursuit left them high and dry.
Our text says their dissatisfaction led them to do two evils. First, they forsook the Lord and second, they forged for themselves gods of their own making. The problem with forsaking the Lord was they also forsook all the benefits that befell those that followed Him. They left behind “the fountain of living waters” that was giving by the Lord to all who are His. This was water that was constantly moving and flowing into some type of container that was designed to hold its endless supply. It was pure and uncontaminated water that was naturally wholesome and refreshing. This is the living water. It is the water of which Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, “Whoever drinks of the water that that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. (John 4:14). This is the water that the children of Israel were repulsed by. It was the water they rejected for the water that they thought would satisfy their longings but led to a complete distaste and ultimately dissatisfaction.
We are told that they “hewed out cisterns for themselves”. A cistern was reservoir or a container that was used primarily to collect and store up rain water. Its capacity to hold the water was limited by its size. The above mention fountain had a water source that was continually flowing into it so that its supply was unlimited. The cistern being a container was still and often stagnant. It was there for convenience and necessity as water was needed, but it was never a pure and unpolluted source of refreshing water. It typically tasted earthy and putrid and had a brackish coloring. It was often filled with insect larvae and when the need arose it utterly failed the test.
The gods that the Israelites hewed for themselves were a far cry for the Holy one of Israel. Like the water held in a cistern, they were vial and putrid. There was great hope that these gods would satisfy what the people were looking for and longed for, but like the murky water in the cistern these fabricated gods failed miserably to satisfy.
As a matter of fact when the people went to have their thirst quenched by the water in the self-hewed cisterns, they found them empty. They couldn't hold water. They were broken cisterns. This is the deception of their self-made gods, they too couldn't hold water. They were unable to accomplish what they were created to do, they too were broken. As the Psalmists says,. “The idols of the nations are silver and gold the work of human hands, they have mouths, but do not speak; they have eyes, but do not see, they have ears; but do not hear, nor is there any breath in their mouths”. (Ps 135:15-17). Those who follow them would find their hopes dashed and their expectations empty just like they cisterns that they hewed.
Don’t be like them and seek for satisfaction in the promises and pursuits of the world, you will only find them empty and unsatisfying. Look to the Lord who like "the fountain of living water" is constantly and consistently flowing. He is the only true and living God who has and continues to provide life. He will always led you to flourish rather than fail. Choose the fountain of living water rather than the failing empty cisterns that don’t hold water. Trust the Lord, the true living water.
Today thank the Lord that He provides you with the fountain of living water to refresh and replenish your dry and thirsty soul. Thank Him that He alone satisfies and that you needn’t look elsewhere for true lasting satisfaction. Ask Him to help you know and to reject all of the world’s cistern that are broken and can never hold water. Ask Him to help you be satisfied in Him alone.
Comments