«For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water» (Jeremiah 2:13).
CISTERNS HAD THEIR USEFULNESS IN PALESTINE. In fact, they were indispensable water reserves in geographical areas where rain was very scarce during the summer. As Marcos T. Terreros points out, «in dry and long summers (May to September), the rain in Palestine, if any, was very scarce. This fact, coupled with the lack of natural sources, highlights the importance of cisterns, as people depended for their livelihood on the rainwater they contained.
However, as useful as they were, no one could think of exchanging a spring of living water for a cistern; much less for a broken cistern! However, that was precisely what Judah was doing by exchanging the true God for false gods. Who could think of it!
Perhaps the most surprising thing in all this is that the idolatrous nations were more faithful to their gods than Judah was to the true’ God. That is why God asks, » ‘Has a nation changed its gods, which are not gods? But My people have changed their Glory for what does not profit’ » (v. 11).
Lawrence O. Richards illustrates the irrational conduct of Judah with a person’s decision to abandon the crystal clear spring of water they have always had at their disposal, and enters the wilderness in search of cisterns that quench their thirst. t Totally irrational, right?
Irrational and also foolish. It is foolishness to seek substitutes for the true God; to turn ones back on the God who never abandons His children, to go after idols who are unable to help in times of affliction. That is why the prophet asks, «Where then are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them come if they can save you when you are in trouble! For you, Judah, have as many gods as you have towns» (v. 28, NIV).
And now the question for us is: Which of the two sins of Judah could we be committing today? To abandon God, the source of living water, or to drink from broken cisterns? We would never think of rejecting God, but how easy it is, sometimes without realizing it, to drink from modern cisterns—riches, praise, power— looking in vain to quench our thirst?
Dear Jesus, please deliver me from the temptation of drinking from cisterns that cannot quench my thirst for You. Instead, please give me the water that springs to eternal life so I will never be thirsty again.
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Taken from: Devotional Readings for Adults 2022
“GREAT IS OUR GOD!”
From: FERNANDO ZABALA
Collaborators: Xiomara Perdomo & Angelica Cuate
