On close reading of Jeremiah 2, you will see that it is a lawsuit put forward by God against Israel. And the charges against Israel, is adultery. Spiritual adultery to be precise. If we were to summarise the whole chapter, we could say that God is rebuking Israel on account of her covenantal unfaithfulness over hundreds of years of her existence, in spite of God remaining faithful.
The thrust of this chapter is that Yahweh’s elect people have gone against the covenant and they have to face the consequences of their actions.
Jer 2: 1-3 In the first 3 verses we see God describing the honeymoon period of Israel when she had become a nation. The verses tell us the special place the Israelites held as God’s chosen people.
God speaks of their devotion as He remembers the covenant Israel made with Him on Mount Sinai. How Israel went after and worshipped the Lord. And this devotion is compared to the devotion a wife has to her husband.
God indicates that Israel was a choice possession that belonged to Him. Just as the first yield from the people’s harvest belonged to the Lord (Leviticus 22:10-16), so did His people belong to Him.
And if anyone tried to steal her away or try to inflict harm upon her, God protected Israel against her enemies.
Jer 2: 4-5 The point of this picture of the faith of a past generation is to contrast it with the corruption of the people of Judah in Jeremiah’s day.
God is not angry with His chosen people, just because He feels like it. He clearly states the reason why in v.4-5.
The Lord had promised land and blessing to Israel but at the same time He required Israel’s faithfulness. Inspite of God’s goodness, Israel had forsaken God and so God challenges Israel to state what wrong they found in God for them to go away from Him. He asks them to state their case as to why their forefathers went after worthless idols and turned away from the living God.
Jer 2: 6-7 . Even though God delivered them from bondage in Egypt, even though He lead and sustained them in the wilderness, even though He lead them to a land that was ready to be lived in, a land that they did not have to labour in, they never remembered the good that their God had done for them. Instead they defiled the land and made it an abomination with idolatry. They went away from their God because they had no gratitude for God and what He had done for them.
Jer 2:8 God reminds them that even the people who were set above them, to guide and protect them did not do what they were appointed to do. Their own leaders rebelled against them.
Priests - those who serve the Lord did not remember the Lord
Scribes - those who handled the law did not remember the Lord
Shepherds or rulers - who looked after the people’s welfare, did not remember the Lord
Prophets - who spoke on God’s behalf prophesied by Baal, did not remember the Lord
Jer 2: 9-12 Since the people had no ground nor reasons to explain God’s accusations, God became their accuser. The accusation was that God’s people did something that no nation had ever done before. Israel abandoned their God.
Pagan nations, who worshipped non-existent gods sometimes changed the rank of the god in the temples or they added new gods, but they never abandoned their gods.
But in contrast, Israel who worshipped the true and living God, had abandoned Him to serve worthless idols. The only nation whose god was truly God, was at the same time the only nation that exchanged its God for dead idols.
God challenged them to go and search from the east to the west to find nations that had done such a horrid and foolish thing of abandoning their gods.
With the covenant made on Mt. Sinai, Israel had obligations to acknowledge Yahweh’s Lordship. The covenant was a 2 way street. Yahweh would bless His people and in return the people had to acknowledge and accept Yahweh as Lord. One way of acknowledging His Lordship was obedience to the covenantal laws.
The laws on it’s own did not show the people’s acceptance of Yahweh’s Lordship. The rituals and sacrifices did not have any power in themselves. Through these acts, the people were to remember who their God was. What He had done for them. It was to make them remember that there was no good in them for God to save them but He still did. It was to make them remember that He was their provider and protector. It was to make them remember that He loved them.
The Law was meant to instill a certain mental and spiritual behaviour towards Yahweh. It was meant to provoke worship in the hearts of the people because of God’s goodness to them. It was supposed to be a guide to national welfare and happiness but instead it became a curse and a threat to their national existence because the Jewish people held it lightly and openly disregarded it. They only obeyed the law in an outward fashion. Where their worship and sacrifices were meant to have a spiritual significance when performing them, the people reduced it to a mere display of habitual rituals. There was no heart or spiritual worship involved. They did it for the sake of doing them but then turned to worshiping idols and committing adultery.
The repercussions of this was judgement. God allowed Israel to slowly break up. After the death of King Solomon, the kingdom broke up into Israel and Judah. The worship and obedience to the law further dwindled. The more it spiraled down the more Israel fell into judgement. Nations began fighting her. There was unrest and turmoil within the kingdom. Eventually Israel fell into the hands of Assyria.
Since Israel had forsaken Yahweh a long time ago, there was an empty spiritual void that had to be filled. And when Assyria and other nations over time, introduced their pagan worship, it was embraced by Israel with open arms. And because God’s protection was no longer over Israel, Israel feared her human enemies more instead of the position she had put herself in, that is becoming God’s enemy. She signed treaties with pagan nations for their protection over her. They worshipped their gods because they wanted to appease these pagan nations rather than obey God. They wanted what these evil nations had to offer. This happened over hundreds of years because Israel was seduced by the pagan nation's power.
What we see here is that the sin that had stolen the people’s hearts was nothing less than idolatry. This was going against the very first commandment God had given His people. And the idolatry resulted in fear of men rather than God. It resulted in Israel trusting and wanting what man had to offer.
Because idolatry is replacing God with something else. Shifting your life focus away from God to anything you feel is more important and worth your time. And then pursuing it rather than pursuing God.
Jer 2: 13 That is what v.13 talks about in a way. God’s people committed 2 sins
1. The people abandoned their glory, that is the Lord who brought them into the promise land, who was their living water, AND
2. They have hewed out broken cisterns that can hold no water.
Palestine has three sources of water:
1. the best is fresh running water, the same that flows from a spring or stream, which is called “living water”;
2. next comes groundwater, such as might collect in a well, AND
3. last is runoff water collected in a cistern (a pit hewn into the limestone and plastered to prevent seepage; it also collects silt and mosquito larvae).
Their first sin was easy to understand. They exchanged God’s glory for worthless idols. They abandoned true worship for ritualistic nonsense.
Yahweh was compared to a fountain of living water which is continuously running water. Non stop. It was an endless, readily available supply. In a similar way God was their sustenance. His supply was limitless. If they accepted Him as Lord.
The second sin adds weight and a deeper meaning to the Israelites’ actions. Cisterns were man-made underground water storage structures. With cisterns, man had to go out, search for sources of water, collect it, bring it back to the cistern and then fill it for storage. What Israel had done is being compared to broken cisterns that could hold no water.
They had God on their side. The only one true God who was there with them to sustain and protect them with limitless power. To sustain them with all the blessings that He could bestow on them. Unlimited, constant provision from God. Provision that was there for the taking, which didn’t have to be sought after painstakingly. Just like the fountain of living water.
Instead they rejected God and went after gods who could do nothing for them. They tried to satisfy their needs by what they thought was right, by what they did and by their own methods. But man’s thoughts and ways are foolish and cannot compare to God’s. Man’s ways cannot satisfy his needs. Just like the water collected in the broken cisterns. We have to labour and toil to try and sustain ourselves with our knowledge and planning but what we can come up with is like the water collected in the broken cisterns. They cannot satisfy because water has leaked away through the cracks and whatever water is left is contaminated. So it is unfit to sustain us.
God teaches us time and time again, that the way we will be sustained is by Him providing for us. We need to go to Him for our daily sustenance. But we go after our “broken cisterns”, like schemes of making money, going behind people, vain planning, pursuit of fame, power, pleasure etc. Going behind them we fall into the trap to think that they are what will sustain us. In a similar manner this is what Israel did.
And in Jer 2: 37 God tells His people, from the very things that they ran after thinking it would sustain them, they would come away with their hands in their head. The things that they thought would prosper them, God rejected. He decided that they are no good and therefore, it would not prosper them. Whatever or whoever you find refuge in, they will fail you. They will disappoint you. You will run away from them and you will run away having been grieved and saddened.
Historically, we can see that this was true. Assyria fell and couldn’t protect Israel. Egypt could not provide for her and God’s people were exiled again, this time into Babylon They failed to realize that it is only the Lord who can provide the security and peace that all people seek.
CONCLUSION:
Do the events experienced by Israel seem a little familiar to us today? Is it something that we can all relate to in some small measure in our lives as Christians? If you are someone who hasn’t accepted Christ as your saviour, are you running around constantly in search for something to satisfy your thirsting soul but that thirst is not being quenched?
As the Israelites, when we Christians were just saved, we were on fire for the Lord. We were enthusiastic. We were excited because of the unique privilege we have been invited into, to become a member of God’s family. We wanted to meet up with people, we wanted to spend time with everyone and though we did not have much, we were happy, we prayed a lot, sang songs with a joyful heart, we forgave one another so readily and we put our faith and trust in God’s providence for our lives. We trusted in His plans for us.
But as time progressed and things changed, different things started to creep into our lives that introduced us to another side of life. And this new dimension slowly began taking over our love for God. Priorities, responsibilities, family, work, tiredness, holidays, exams, friends, traffic, weather all became the reasons why we couldn’t put God first. Why we couldn’t worship Him with a true heart.
Just like the laws were to remind the Israelites of God’s goodness and all that He had done for them, the table we partake of does not save us from sin. It is only a reminder of what the Lord has done. That He died on the cross for us and He rose from the dead and that He will come back one day to reign as the King. Like the covenantal laws, the table is meant to provoke our hearts to worship God because of what it brings to our remembrance. That a perfect holy God died for a sinner like me. Worshiping God with a true heart is the result of our acceptance of Him being our Lord.
Just as Israel practised their covenantal laws as just a ritual rather than having a heart geared to spiritual worship, do we take part in our meetings the same way? Like rituals? Like the Israelites, are we doing things for the sake of doing things, while our other gods are where our real worship and thoughts are?
If so, then we are committing adultery, just as Israel had done. Idolatry is basically saying, I don’t want God as the focus of my worship and my life, because I know what’s best for me. I know what I like. So,
1. I want to do the things that will make me happy.
2. I want to invest my time and effort into things that will keep my family safe.
3. I want to focus on doing things that will secure and sustain my future.
4. I want to put my trust and dependence on what I feel is important.
5. I want to do what I will enjoy
The Israelites did the same thing, and you know what God told them? “Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.”
The Israelites, unlike those people who are worshipping dead gods, experienced the goodness and pleasure of fellowship with the only true and living God. They experienced His goodness and still like fools, they rejected Jehovah to worship dead statues.
And so, Christians who have experienced Jesus’ saving power, who has experienced the peace that only God gives, who has tasted so much that words cannot express, how can we allow anything else to take His place in our lives. How can we make excuses to not want to worship Him. How can we worship your idols instead of this great God? How can we make cisterns that cannot hold even contaminated water after tasting the fresh sweetness of living water.
Being a Christian, means that you are precious to God. You know why? Because you were purchased with a heavy price, that is the precious blood of our Saviour. And since you are God’s own, if you stray from His path and put your trust in idols, be warned. If you put your trust in your plans, in people, in money, in other gods, in your job etc., be warned as God warned the Israelites, “From it too you will come away with your hands on your head, for the LORD has rejected those in whom you trust, and you will not prosper by them.”
The very things you trust in, they will come to nothing. The people whom you trusted will disappoint you. The money you thought would sustain you, will vanish. Anything that takes your focus away from God, will be removed by Him because He wants nothing to block His relationship with us.
You can do what you want to do, but God will not allow you to prosper by the way you think is right because God knows what is best for you. And so He will do whatever it takes to get you back to Him. If you knowingly go against Him and His will for you, be ready to face the consequences of your actions.
So if you have tasted the sweetness of the living waters, keep drinking from it. Though broken cisterns may seem appealing to you, they are but an empty trap that can do no good for you. Put the God of this universe at the center of your worship. If God is truly your focus, you will automatically worship Him with a true heart. And if this seems to be a challenge for you to do, if the worries of the world seem to take away your focus from God, then remember Jesus’ words in Matt 11:28, “Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Ask God for help to put aside all distractions so that you can have a wonderful relationship with Him. So that He can preserve you and sustain you. That He would give you the strength to stay focused on Him.
For those who are not Christians, the same warning applies. The things that you trust in and think is enough to keep you, you are in for a rude awakening. If you think you're good works will get you into heaven, you are mistaken. If you think Allah will get you into heaven you are mistaken. If you think Buddha will get you into heaven you are mistaken. If you think Brahma will get you into heaven you are mistaken. If you think Mary will get you into heaven you are mistaken. If you think your charity will get you into heaven you are mistaken.
If you want to go to heaven, you need Jesus Christ. Period. Because no one can do anything on their own to gain access to God, let alone, gain access to heaven. There is no good in us for us to be able to stand in front of God. That's why Jesus comes into the picture. Because if we accept Him as Saviour, His precious blood covers our sin when we are seen by God. When God looks at us, He sees that our sins were paid by the sacrifice of Jesus' blood. And so you need Him. Focus on him and not on the idols of this world. And when you do, you will have the peace that your soul has been longing for. You will have that rest that your mind was seeking.
O Christ, in Thee my soul hath found,
And found in Thee alone,
The peace, the joy I sought so long,
The bliss till now unknown.
I sighed for rest and happiness,
I yearned for them, not Thee;
But, while I passed my Savior by,
His love laid hold on me.
I tried the broken cisterns, Lord,
But, ah, the waters failed!
E’en as I stooped to drink they fled,
And mocked me as I wailed.
The pleasures lost I sadly mourned,
But never wept for Thee,
Till grace the sightless eyes received,
Thy loveliness to see.
Chorus:
Now none but Christ can satisfy,
None other name for me;
There’s love and life and lasting joy,
Lord Jesus, found in Thee.
There is no better way to capture or communicate the simple truth from God’s Word. Our God is coming. If you want to be with Him for eternity, if you want to be included in His plans for His people, if you want His blessings, then you need to worship Him and not idols.
What do you want? The fountain of living waters or the broken cistern that can hold no water?