Read: Jeremiah 2:4-13
12 Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, 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.
In Old Testament Israel, water was an incredibly valuable resource. A cistern was an artificial reservoir which was dug in the earth or carved into the rock to collect and store water. Cisterns were very important in the land of Israel because of the long dry season and the relatively few natural springs.
Imagine going to your cistern and discovering that it was cracked! A broken cistern was practically worthless. Cracked rock or crumbling masonry could hold only a small quantity of water and what it held was usually dirty. Collecting and storing water in a broken cistern was futile. It amounted to little and what little there was tasted terrible.
Ideally, you would live near a spring, but that was rare. A spring was far better than a cistern. It’s fresh, running water was plentiful and tasted much more refreshing. If you had a choice between the spring or the cistern, you’d always choose the spring.
In Jeremiah 2, God says the people of Israel have done the spiritual equivalent of choosing a cistern over a fresh spring. They had turned away from the living God and were doing their own thing. They were no longer putting God first, but seeking after their own interests.
God offered them the spiritual equivalent of a fresh spring. He offered a fountain of living waters which would satisfy their souls and provide their deepest needs. And they knew it! They had been taught that what God offered was life giving and would satisfy their souls.
Yet they still chose to make their own way. They chose to make their own cisterns. Not only was the water bad, but they were broken cisterns. They had foolishly run turned away from their God and followed the false gods of the nations around them.
Take time to reflect:
Do you think people today are guilty of the same mistake? Have you wandered from the Living Water after another source, hoping it can satisfy? Have you built your own cistern?
There are all sorts of things we might try to build into our own cistern. We might try building a career and success as our cistern. We might use recreation and entertainment to fill that space. We might spend time seeking information through the Internet or newspapers and magazines. We might seek to build our cistern out of our family or friends or marriage.
Any cistern we might build is broken. Complete fulfillment and satisfaction can only be found in the fountain of Living Water. It can only be found in our God.
Where are you seeking to satisfy your spiritual thirst? If it’s in anything other than a relationship with God through Jesus, it’s a broken cistern. Repent and ask God to help you drink deeply from his spring of living water!