Jeremiah 2:9 “Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the LORD, and with your children’s children will I plead. 10 For pass over the isles of Chittim, and see; and send unto Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there be such a thing. 11 Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit. 12 Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD. 13 For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.”
We’ve substituted canned biscuits for homemade ones. We’ve substituted margarine for butter. They are not the real thing. That’s what we’ve done with our relationship with the Lord. Jesus is the living water, and we’ve traded him in for broken cisterns.
A cistern is a container that catches water. It has a manhole type cover over it. One disappointment is that in itself there is only a way to get water in; it cannot put water out. Water that sits in a cistern without being used gets stagnated and dirty. Then the quality of the water is a moot point. A greater disappointment is a broken one that doesn’t hold water. In this scripture God told Israel they had left his living water and traded it for broken cisterns. They were substitutes for the real thing.
Israel served the living God, yet they had forsaken him and turned to false gods—broken cisterns. In verse 9 he is pleading, but it is an accusation. He gave them a charge. In verses 10 and 11, God told them to go to the pagan cultures in Chittim and Kedar. Their gods weren’t even real, but they had not turned their backs on them. However, God’s people had turned their backs on him. In verse 12 he told the celestial bodies to be shocked at what was going on. Look at what his people worshiped. They were cisterns that held no water. How many broken cisterns do we have?
In general, we’re not a Christian nation anymore. In a speech the other day, our founding documents were read and “our creator” was left out when he said “we have certain inalienable rights.” We’re so given to political correctness and heathenism that we no longer hold water. Nothing else can suffice but the living water of God. Our cisterns are empty and useless. Look at what people wear, what they buy, how they talk, and what they read. Can revival take place in America? Maybe, maybe not, but we can have it here if we want it.
Is the church innocent? We are guiltier than all. We have the truth. The Holy Spirit lives inside us, and by that we are more responsible than the world. When we have troubles, do we go to the living water? I’m afraid too many times we get our shovel and dig our own cisterns. We try a self help book over the Bible. We choose radio talk shows instead of talking to the Lord. We cling to traditions. The remedy for our broken cisterns is repentance. We must go back to the living water. Our problem is not how available the Holy Spirit is. It’s how available we are to the Spirit.
In Psalm 63 David said “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is.” It seems there is little water among God’s people. You can’t get it by being kind or living right. You must be born again. Psalm 143:6 says “I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land.” A lack of physical water makes us thirsty. The more of Jesus we have, the more we thirst. Most of us know the story in John about the woman at the well. Jesus told her that if she drank of the water in the well she’d get thirsty again, but “whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”
We’ve turned our backs from the living water. We’re cumbered with stuff. No matter how good the stuff looks, it will stagnate if it’s not the real thing. If our land is to be healed it has to start with the church. If the church is revived, it has to start with you and me. We need to turn aside from the broken cisterns and back to the living water. Are you thirsty?
Adwolfe Freewill Baptist Church 