BROKEN CISTERNS THAT CAN HOLD NO WATER

God lays charges against Judah. They had abandoned Him to follow idols. He uses a strong metaphor to show how irratio­nal their behaviour had been. What a poor exchange they had made! The Lord describes Himself as the fountain of living water, the source of pure refreshment. The picture is of water drawn from flowing streams, freshly supplied each Spring by melting mountain snow, Jer. 18. 14. God is the fountain of all life, the source of lasting satisfaction, Ps. 36. 8, 9. He can fully meet our deepest thirst. Everyone has a void which only the triune God can fill. He has put eternity into man’s heart, Eccles. 3. 11 ESV. That deep longing is met by our Creator. The Lord Jesus promises that everyone who drinks of the living water He supplies will never thirst again, John 4. 11, 13, 14; 6. 35. Indeed, He invites anyone who thirsts to come to Him and drink. Whoever believes in Him enjoys the living waters of the Spirit flowing out from his heart, John 7. 37, 38.

In utter contrast, God describes the man-made gods Judah had adopted as cisterns they had dug out for themselves. Not only so, those cisterns were broken and could hold no water. All over the land, pits were dug to receive rain water collected from roofs or the soil. That water was stagnant, not living. It was polluted, not pure. Often these cisterns had cracked. The water, they held, poor as it was, seeped away when it was really needed. The cisterns dug out with huge effort proved to be an utter failure in time of drought.

Neither Judah’s idols nor those of the 21st-century world will ever give fulfilment. They cannot ultimately satisfy the deep needs of our hearts. They merely deceive us and, in our hour of deepest need, leave us abandoned. Power, pleasure and possessions are no substitute for a real experience of God and His salvation.

After trying both high culture and an abandoned lifestyle, Augustine was dramatically converted in 386 AD. Reflecting on his experience, he wrote these memorable words, ‘You have made us for Yourself and our hearts are restless until they find rest in You’.