Broken Cisterns
Devotions for Growing Christians
Jeremiah 2:13 - “For my people have done two evil things: They have abandoned me - the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all!
In Bible times, a cistern was an artificial reservoir that was dug into the earth or carved into rock for collecting and storing water. Israel has a long dry season with relatively few natural springs, so catching winter rain in cisterns was very important. Fresh water was extremely valuable, so a broken cistern was practically worthless. Cracked rock or crumbling masonry could hold only a small amount of dirty water - or maybe no water at all. Collecting and storing water in a broken cistern was about as practical as using a sieve for a canteen!
The prophet Jeremiah used the illustration of “broken cisterns” to point out the extreme foolishness of God's people, Israel. Jeremiah didn’t just think up this illustration as sermon filler. The Lord Himself originated and used this picture when He spoke to His people through Jeremiah (v 1-2 & 4-5). The message was given as a rebuke to people who were no longer totally committed to their God. And that message certainly can be applied to believers today.
To appreciate the full impact of the broken cistern message, let's look a little more closely at the historical context of Jeremiah 2:13. Jeremiah preached in a day when the people of Judah, the southern portion of the nation of Israel, had turned away from God to do their own thing. They were no longer devoted to the Lord or depending on Him to meet their spiritual needs. Jeremiah 2 tells us they had created “cisterns” of idolatry and immorality for themselves, hoping that the pleasures of those sins could satisfy their needs.
Not surprisingly, the people of Judah found that these cisterns of their own making were broken. These cisterns didn’t break after holding water for a while. They never held any water! They were broken from the day they were built, and could never satisfy the people’s spiritual thirst. This is always true of our self-made schemes to find spiritual fulfillment apart from the Lord. Only God Himself can quench our spiritual thirst. (See Isaiah 55:1-2, John 4:10-14, John 6:35 & John 7:37-38.)
When the foolish people of Judah turned away from the Lord, they were guilty of two evils. Constructing an artificial spiritual reservoir was bad enough, but rejecting water from the life-giving Spring was tragic! Imagine a very thirsty person in a parched land, ignoring a bubbling spring of cool water, only to hack out a cistern in the blazing sun hoping to collect some rain water!
Without a natural spring nearby, a cistern would be the best thing you could do. If you were unaware of a nearby spring, at least you could be pitied for your diligent efforts to try to collect some water. But if you did know that there was a fresh spring available, and you deliberately turned your back to build a cistern, you’d be incredibly foolish.
God painted this picture in words to show His people how utterly foolish they were when they turned away from Him. The surrounding heathen nations could at least be pitied when they ignorantly followed lifeless gods that couldn’t meet their spiritual thirst. And unlike Judah, these pagan nations were loyal to their gods (v10-11). The people of Judah deliberately turned away from what they knew was their Source of Living Water. The heavens were called on to be appalled and "shudder with great horror" at such foolishness, such stupidity, and such evil (v12).
Is it possible that some Christians today are guilty of this same thing? Have we become so accustomed to the Living Water that we've wandered away from the Fountain to search for tasty water elsewhere? Have we foolishly built our own cisterns?
What about our pursuits of a successful career? What about the time we spend on our phones or Netflix, or other recreational activities? Some believers spend enormous amounts of time looking at their screens, but they spend little (if any) time reading Scripture. Why? Have these things become more interesting than God's Word? If we're turning away from the living Word and seeking to satisfy our thirst in some other way, we may be guilty of the same sins as the people of Judah.
Let's apply God's broken cistern message to our own nation. This country was founded on the premise of a "nation under God." Although the principle of separation between church and state was conceived from the beginning, separation between God and state was never envisioned. God was recognized as sovereign over the state and the church, and as the One "from whom all blessings flow."
Today, secularism has infiltrated and changed the mindset of our nation. God has been banned from the sphere of the State, and restricted to the sphere of the Church. Not only is His sovereignty over the state denied, but His very existence is questioned--even opposed--by many. Our nation has turned from the Fountain of Living Waters to the cisterns of secular humanism. These self-made cisterns of human "freedom from God” are a defiant slap in the Lord’s face.
Our nation not only allows, but condones, these broken cisterns that deny God and the teaching of the Bible. Lapping the stagnant, muddy waters of these cisterns not only fails to quench spiritual thirst - it leads ultimately to the poison of dehumanization. Look at the murky waters of evolution, for example, compared to the biblical teaching of the noble beginnings of mankind, created in the image of God! Look at the disillusionment and heartbreak of shattered marriages and broken families that result from drinking at the humanistic cistern of sexual freedom.
God gave the nation of Judah many chances to return, but they refused. In terms of the illustration, verse 18 indicates that instead of returning to God, they turned to the river waters of the Nile and the Euphrates. In other words, they looked to the gods and governments of Egypt and Assyria for protection and provision.
As a result, the Lord declared that His people would reap what they had sown (v19). Judah was conquered and taken away into exile in Babylon, on the Euphrates River, where they drank the bitter waters they had chosen. The survivors who were left in Israel ran away to Egypt, against the explicit counsel of the Lord through Jeremiah. There they died by the waters of the River Nile (Jeremiah 42-44).
The consequences of turning away from God are just as serious and sure today as they were 2,500 years ago. Why not avoid all the struggle and desperate thirst? Why not drink forever at the Fountain of Living Waters!
- Dave Reid
(Updated 2021, Ron Reid)