“My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” Jeremiah 2: 13 NIV
As God begins to speak to His people through Jeremiah, He defines for them their two biggest mistakes. First, they forsook the Lord, they forgot about God and lost sight of who He is. How easy it is for all of us to do the same thing! We busy ourselves with the responsibilities and activities of life, and before we know it, if we aren’t intentionally seeking God, our attention is focused in other directions and God begins to take a back seat to our other pursuits.
He reminds us, through Jeremiah, that He is the spring of living water! In other words, He is all that will satisfy us! We need God more than we need anything else in our lives. Without Him in the equation, nothing else works, nothing else satisfies!
Not only did they lose sight of God, but their second mistake was this: Instead of readjusting their focus on the spring of living water, the people of God looked for satisfaction elsewhere. They began to dig their own cisterns! Of course, any attempt to find what your looking for, apart from God, is futile at best! The cisterns they built were broken and could not hold water.
Don’t miss what God is saying here: He, and He alone is the one who satisfies every “thirst,” we encounter. When we are walking with Him, life is good. When we forget about God and try to satisfy our own desires, we come up empty every time!
I thank God for giving us an inside look at the mistakes of Israel. For if we are wise, we can learn from their mistakes and avoid making the same ones ourselves.
He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.” Revelation 21:6-7 NIV