In Jeremiah 2, God says this to the people of Israel, "My people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols. Be appalled at this, you heavens, and shudder with great horror", 'declares the Lord.' "My people have committed two sins. They have forsaken Me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water." Cisterns were, and are, a much used source of water in the Middle East, where water is scarce. They are designed to hold water and make it available in times where there is no rain, or free flowing streams. The problems with them though are many. They were usually lined with plaster, and the breaking of that plaster through cracks and holes was common, allowing all the water to come gushing out. More, since the water was standing, and not flowing, it was prone to develop a scum on top, and to become brackish, even foul. It was a poor substitute for the free flowing, fresh water coming down from the mountains. The Father is saying here that everything we choose over Him, is, in the end, foul and stagnant in comparison to the lifegiving Living Water that He offers us in Christ, in Himself. Those cisterns that we construct so painstakingly, will at some point, burst, and in their bursting, all the "stooges" that we have put so much hope in will come washing out, and we will be the "idiots." We may be offended by such a description, but how else do we describe anyone who would choose stagnancy over the fresh flowing water of the Holy Spirit?
Kyle Idleman in his book Gods At War, tells two stories of people who had trusted and hoped in broken cisterns. The first took place at an AIDS clinic. A Doctor, new to the clinic was treating a patient, giving the weekly medication and said, unfeelingly to be sure, "You know don't you that you're not long for this world? A year at most." The patient, understandably angry, said on his way out to the head of the clinic, "That S.O.B. took my hope away." She replied, "I suppose he did. Maybe it's time to find another hope." A better hope. A real one. The other example is found in a woman who was seeing her life collapse around her. Her husband had left her, which had brought on personal bankruptcy. More, her physical condition which had always been a source of pride and strength to her, was deteriorating. All her life, she had been drinking the stagnant, scummy water that comes from broken cisterns, and those cisterns, along with the "stooges" they contained, had burst, their contents gushing out at her feet. Yet, in it all, she had discovered the Living Water that is Christ. She said, "I didn't realize Jesus was what I really wanted, until Jesus was all I had."
Where have our hopes been placed? In stooges, idiots and cisterns, or in the Living Water and Life of Christ? Sooner or later, those cisterns will burst, and all the hope we had in them will come gushing out. Will we, like the woman at the well, hear from His lips and heart, "If you will ask of Me, I will give you Living Water, that you may not thirst (for the water of the cisterns) again." Are you drinking of that Living Water now, or, are you building cisterns of your own making, and drinking the stagnant, waters of hopelessness that they contain?
Blessings,
Pastor O
Kyle Idleman in his book Gods At War, tells two stories of people who had trusted and hoped in broken cisterns. The first took place at an AIDS clinic. A Doctor, new to the clinic was treating a patient, giving the weekly medication and said, unfeelingly to be sure, "You know don't you that you're not long for this world? A year at most." The patient, understandably angry, said on his way out to the head of the clinic, "That S.O.B. took my hope away." She replied, "I suppose he did. Maybe it's time to find another hope." A better hope. A real one. The other example is found in a woman who was seeing her life collapse around her. Her husband had left her, which had brought on personal bankruptcy. More, her physical condition which had always been a source of pride and strength to her, was deteriorating. All her life, she had been drinking the stagnant, scummy water that comes from broken cisterns, and those cisterns, along with the "stooges" they contained, had burst, their contents gushing out at her feet. Yet, in it all, she had discovered the Living Water that is Christ. She said, "I didn't realize Jesus was what I really wanted, until Jesus was all I had."
Where have our hopes been placed? In stooges, idiots and cisterns, or in the Living Water and Life of Christ? Sooner or later, those cisterns will burst, and all the hope we had in them will come gushing out. Will we, like the woman at the well, hear from His lips and heart, "If you will ask of Me, I will give you Living Water, that you may not thirst (for the water of the cisterns) again." Are you drinking of that Living Water now, or, are you building cisterns of your own making, and drinking the stagnant, waters of hopelessness that they contain?
Blessings,
Pastor O
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