Jeremiah was God's prophet to the kings and people of Judah. Having served under the leadership of three different kings, Jeremiah witnessed a gradual decline in Judah's reverence and obedience to God as they rebelled and fell into a moral and spiritual decay under the kingships of Jehoiakim and Zedekiah. This societal decay led to immoral practices such as child sacrifice and a sexual sin that the people didn't try to hide. We are experiencing this same attitude toward God in out world today.
When we stop and think about how gracious and merciful that God has been toward America having the freedom to possess and know God's perfect word (the Bible) and that he made sure to include the history of His people that we might learn from their ungodly behaviors, why would we want to repeat their sins? Have we somehow convinced ourselves that God's holiness has changed and our sins are now more acceptable in His sight than those of the people of Judah? Has God become more tolerant of our generation and culture because we live in a more stress-filled time than they did? Have we adopted an attitude that perceives things as the world sees them, that if there really is a God why doesn't He just make everything right or God is a loving God and He won't judge me.
Whatever the reason, the people of Judah were living as if there was no God and so they put their trust in the things that appealed to their flesh. Things that made them feel good. Jeremiah uses the example of a broken cistern to illustrate how futile it was for the people of Judah to trust in man or possessions. In Jeremiah's time the cisterns were basins that farmers would hewn out of limestone hills that were lined with lime plaster so the rainwater would not seep out. Unfortunately, over time the plaster would erode and the cisterns would develop cracks and the water would leak out. What God was saying to His people was that what they were trusting in what was broken and it would not sustain them in their time of need. Read what God is saying to all of His children in Jeremiah 17:5-9;
5 This is what the Lord says: “Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the Lord.
6 They are like stunted shrubs in the desert, with no hope for the future. They will live in the barren wilderness, in an uninhabited salty land.
7 “But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.
8 They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.
9 “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?
What is your "broken cistern"? Is it your career? Is it your marriage? Is it your material possessions? Is it your retirement fund? Unless Jesus is the only well from which we draw living water all these things will only disappoint us in our greatest time of need.
Jesus tells us that He who drinks from the well of living water will never thirst again. Jesus is that well. Let's place our trust and hope in Him.
