Broken cisterns and broken gods.

Last updated on January 22nd, 2024 at 01:31 am

Over the last few months, a certain subject has been weighing heavily on my mind. I’m not sure if it has to do with the political season that we are entering. Or what we’re continuing to see in our culture. Or what we have seen overseas recently with Israel. But, I’m increasingly feeling UNEASY with the state of the world. We are living in increasingly volatile and interesting times. And now, more than ever is a time to cling to God’s Word.

I once heard a wise man say that if you want to read tomorrow’s news, open the Bible. So, today we’re going to be reading the news. If have a Bible handy, please turn with me to Jeremiah 2:11-32

Background

As we open this passage, we find the children of Israel living in a state of apostasy, apart from the Lord. For all extents and purposes, life is good. But they are on the cusp of tragedy. During this time, the Lord is actively speaking through his prophets, warning the Israelites of the punishment to come.
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In 627 BC, Jeremiah joins Habakkuk in prophesying of the coming destruction by the Chaldeans (also known as the Babylonians).
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In a few short years, in 612 BC, Assyria fell and Egypt was decimated as Babylon, under the rule of Nebuchadnezzar, became the dominant power.
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The Fall of Judah is about to take place in 597 BC, where Nebuchadnezzar will conduct 4 invasions and deportations in Jerusalem (he’ll take Daniel on the 1st deportation)
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Before we begin reading, I want you to go ahead and get it in your mind. We’re standing on the beach, and we see a tsunami forming in the distance, rolling towards us. We are observing a people whose world is about to flip UPSIDE DOWN.

Let’s start with Jeremiah 2:11-19

¹¹ Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit. ¹² Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord. ¹³ For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. ¹⁴ Is Israel a servant? is he a homeborn slave? why is he spoiled? ¹⁵ The young lions roared upon him, and yelled, and they made his land waste: his cities are burned without inhabitant. ¹⁶ Also the children of Noph and Tahapanes have broken the crown of thy head. ¹⁷ Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, when he led thee by the way? ¹⁸ And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the river? ¹⁹ Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord God of hosts.

Jeremiah 2:11-19

Off the jump, we see a couple of things to note. The Lord, through Jeremiah, is asking the Israelite people some hard and direct questions regarding their loyalty. Understand that the Lord is calling his people to task. In a way, He’s going to give them the why He’s dropping the hammer before He drops the hammer.
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When I was a kid, two primary sets of hands dropped the hammer on me. My mama and my daddy. (As a side note, we need to get back to whuppin’ kids today like they whupped me then!). Now, I don’t have a favorite parent, but I FOR SURE had a favorite disciplinarian. Mama. And it wasn’t because she didn’t hit as hard. In fact, SHE’S the one who broke the wooden paddle over my rear end one time. But I could deal with that. I was tough.
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Dad, on the other hand (no pun intended) was the worst. He wasn’t just going to spank you. He was going to send you to your room and let you sweat. He had a good cop/bad cop routine that he played all by himself. He’d let you sweat, then, after he figured you’d got wise and stuffed your britches with extra underwear, he’d walk in, sit you down, and proceed to tell you exactly why you were about to get tore up. The suspense of the whuppin’ hurt more than the whuppin’ itself! Mama’d just get it over with. Dad wanted me to understand the WHY in clear and vivid detail.

Now, as Israel’s whuppin’ hasn’t happened quite yet, in this passage we find God, through Jeremiah, evaluating the behavior of his children. Like any good father does, he is making sure his children understand the reasoning behind the discipline to come. When I view this passage in the light of a behavioral evaluation reminds me that God does everything for a purpose. He is not random. Actions have consequences, and God would not be a just God if he allowed sinful actions and sinful attitudes to go unchecked.

As you can tell from the highlight earlier, the first verse I really want to hone in on is Jeremiah 2:13

¹³ For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

Jeremiah 2:!3

When I read this, it stuck out to me like a sore thumb. If we wanted, we could probably pull a whole sermon out right here and be done with it.
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I want you to note that TWO evils take place.
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1. The people forsake “me the fountain of living waters”
2. The people “hew them out cisterns, broken cisterns”

Me, the fountain of living waters

Who is the fountain of living waters? The fountain of the living waters is the LORD. For reference, you can jot down some verses to look at later here…

⁶ And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.

Revelation 21:6

¹⁴ But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

John 4:14

¹³ O Lord, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters.

Jeremiah 17:13

¹⁷ For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

Revelation 7:17

Revelation 21:6 speaks of the fountain of the water of life. In John 4:14 Jesus speaks of the same fountain of living waters. The Lord is called the fountain of living waters in Jeremiah 17:13 . In Revelation 7:17, The Lamb in the midst of the throne shall lead them unto living fountains of waters. The Lamb is Jesus, so this further reiterates Revelation 21:6 and John 4:14.

What’s the point Sam? The people have forsaken the Lord. They’ve turned their backs on Him. They’ve chosen instead to trust in the Assyrians and the Egyptians for protection from the Babylonians. Instead of building altars to God, they’ve chosen to build altars to Baal, Ashtaroth, Molech. They forsook the Lord.
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Can I tell you we have forsaken the Lord as well? As a nation, and as a world, we’ve turned our backs on Him. We’re not trusting in Assyria and Egypt anymore, but we’ve chosen instead to trust in scientists and politicians for protection. We’ve not built altars of gold and silver and stone to Baal. We’ve chosen instead to build altars to money, abortion, power, sexual deviancy, and a myriad of other evil, wicked, God-forsaken things.

The devil has one playbook. And, for whatever the reason, each generation of humanity falls into the same traps. Satan’s got a rotation of things he wants you to trust in instead of God and God’s commands, and he runs it through and through. Think about it. We’ve just come out of the “trust the science” COVID era. Now, we are in the throes of a “trust the politician” election cycle. We’re starting to enter a new, viler phase of “trust the kids”. We’ve become so blind and perverted that parents, doctors, and teachers today kowtow and acquiesce to children who want to mutilate themselves in the name of gender conformity! All in the name of trusting and validating the child.
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I’ll spoil the story for you and tell you that Israel’s trust in the Assyrians and the Egyptians didn’t stop the Babylonian invasion. Trusting in Baal, Ashtaroth, and Molech didn’t prevent the judgment of God from falling.
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Much in the same way, trusting science didn’t save anyone from COVID. Trusting a politician won’t save the America of tomorrow from the America of today. A neglectful, warped adult, trusting a child to choose their gender, won’t save the child from gender dysphoria, nor the adult from the wrath of God. Trusting in things outside of God will always leave you with regrets and questions. That innate thirst that all of us possess apart from God will never be satiated.

People spend their whole lives trying to feel that completeness and fill that void. We’re all thirsty at some point, and we look for the water that will satisfy our thirst. We look at different places to place our trust. Different people look for it in different ways. They look for it in family, sex, careers, popularity, vacations, clothes, drugs, bank accounts, jewelry, alcohol, a certain car, a certain house, friends, etc. All of these things can be lumped under one category… broken cisterns.

Broken cisterns

Before we go any further, let’s make sure everyone understands what a REAL cistern is before we dive into the application for our lives today…

• A cistern is a reservoir used to supplement an area’s water supply by collecting rainfall
• The various storage systems in the ancient Near East depended upon the rainy season, which was October through April.
• In Jerusalem, only 25 inches of rain fell in an average year.
• Toward the end of summer, springs and wells were often reduced in size—or entirely dry. Cisterns and open reservoirs were then sometimes the only sources of water.

These cisterns had plaster lining on the inside that was used to hold the water in and prevent it from leaking out into the surrounding earth. When a cistern was “broken” there were cracks and holes in the lining. It couldn’t hold the water, and would eventually run dry.

Do you see what the Lord is trying to say here in Jeremiah 2:13? He’s telling the Israelites “You replaced me, the answer to your thirst, with other gods that could never quench your thirst”. You hewed out broken cisterns. He’s telling us the same thing today folks.
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Listen, it took a while to put those cisterns together. To build those jokers right, you had to dig the holes, mix the plaster, coat the inside, and then wait for the rainy season to fill it.
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Can I tell you there are a lot of people today going through those same steps, hewing out broken cisterns?

• Maybe some of you reading this have dug holes in your past, and you’re sitting in them right now and you don’t have any idea how to get out. Maybe some of you are like me, and you don’t know when to stop digging and put down the shovel.
• Can I tell you today there’s a lot of people mixing plaster? They’re setting themselves up for worldly success. They’re working hard to get all the ingredients to build that recipe for a picturesque and easy life. They’re studying for degrees, and they’re getting house mortgages, and they’re building work connections, and they’re putting their kids in travel ball. They’re working out in the gym, buying designer clothes, drinking the finest wines, and dining on the finest steaks. And they spend their days mixing all of these activities and things. And they lay it on thick.
• Can I tell you there’s a lot of people coating their lives with this stuff? They coat their lives with the appearance of worldly successes.
• And they’re waiting for the rain. And, often, it does rain. God rains down blessings and he rains down opportunities over the years. Matthew 5:45 tells us He rains it on both the just and the unjust.
• Those people experience it. They experience the blessings and the opportunities, and they keep waiting to feel fulfilled. But the lives they’ve built are full of cracks and holes.

They retire from the careers God blessed them with and the feeling of purpose doesn’t stay anymore. They come back from the vacations and the feeling of peace doesn’t stay anymore. Parents die, kids move away and the feeling of family doesn’t stay the same. They keep wanting to feel fulfilled and they never do. It’s because they’re trying to satiate their thirst for purpose, drinking from broken cisterns.

Are you trying to sustain your life on a broken cistern? Are you pouring yourself into the things of this world? Are you pouring the blessings, talents, and opportunities God has given you into meaningless ventures? I had to ask myself as I was reading this, “am I investing in my eternity or am I investing in my “right-now”?. If you’re not living for God, then its all for naught. You’ll never achieve what your struggling to have. Only in Jesus can we find our true purpose.

A degenerate vine

²⁰ For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bands; and thou saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot. ²¹ Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me? ²² For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God. ²³ How canst thou say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim? see thy way in the valley, know what thou hast done: thou art a swift dromedary traversing her ways; ²⁴ A wild ass used to the wilderness, that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure; in her occasion who can turn her away? all they that seek her will not weary themselves; in her month they shall find her. ²⁵ Withhold thy foot from being unshod, and thy throat from thirst: but thou saidst, There is no hope: no; for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go.

Jeremiah 2:20-25

Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee. Seems pretty straightforward doesn’t it? We forget this sometimes. People take the just consequences of their sin and call it an unjust act of God. They call him unloving and uncaring. How could he allow such and such to happen? After all, if he loves me, he should make my life lollipops and rainbows right? Right now, there are people sitting in buildings all across America (I won’t call them churches), and they’re hearing men spew that nonsense from the stage.

‌The key verse here is Jeremiah 2:21.

²¹ Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?

Jeremiah 2:21

The Israelites were planted a noble vine. They were of the lineage of Abraham, God’s chosen man. They were given a land flowing with milk and honey. They Promised land. The Lord fought their battles on every side. He broke their yoke and bursts their bands. He brought them through captivity and genocidal slaughter at the hands of Pharaoh. They were a chosen lineage, and one day, hundreds of years from this time, God’s son Jesus would be introduced to the world through this lineage. All the variables were put in place for them to succeed and grow closer to God. Yet they turned from him. In fact, that’s what degenerate means there in Jeremiah 2:21, to turn aside and depart.

How many of you today can testify that the Lord broke your yoke in times past? How many of you has he brought through dark times? How many of you has He burst the bands of addictions from? How many of you has He brought through deaths, diseases, depressions? How many of you has He brought through bankruptcies, lost jobs, family tragedies, and housing crises? After all that, are you still serving Him with fervor? Or have you backslidden as the children of Israel did? Have you become so accustomed to the blessings that you’ve forgotten the One who BLESSED you? Have you become so accustomed to the comforts that you’ve forgotten the One who COMFORTED you?

Were you once rooted in the true vine, but have since turned aside and become a degenerate vine? Have you forsaken Him?
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The original word for “hast forsaken” in Jeremiah 2:17 and Jeremiah 2:19 means to give up and abandon. This implies that the Israelites once had that communion and relationship with the Lord. Of their own volition, they gave it up. It was not taken away from them. No one can take away your relationship with the Lord, for you have to make the decision on your own to forsake Him. And you will forsake him when you no longer fear Him. The word “fear’ there in Je 2:19 means to be in awe of. Are you in awe of the Lord today? Does that awe and fear of Him inform the decisions you make in your life?

Let’s look at the question in Jeremiah 2:23. Whenever you see a question in the Bible, highlight it or note it, because 99.9% of the time, it has application for you and for me. This popped off the page for me. In other words, God is asking his children, “How can you say you’re fine? How can you say you’re still serving me? How can you say haven’t turned aside and started to follow other gods? Look at your kids. Look at your house. Look at your town. Look at your schools. Look at your churches. Look at your nation. How do you not see this? See your ways. See the destruction and the apostasy. Know what you’ve done. Know that there will be consequences.
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Dromedary in Jeremiah 2:23 is another word for camel. The Bible is saying that the Israelite children were as an animal in heat. They were looking anywhere and everywhere for satisfaction. They had turned aside and were looking to be satisfied apart from God.
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Almost as if they felt the uncleanness of their whoredoms, they washed. Nitre and soap are synonymous in verse 22. They’re cleaning agents. As the land of Israel descended further and further into apostasy, the cleaning rituals remained constant. The sacrifices to the Lord kept happening. All the STUFF proceeded as it always had, but the heart of the people had long been turned away from God. The iniquity in their souls could not be hidden by their outward acts of service and religious duty. 1 Sam 16:7 rings true. Man looketh on the outward appearance, but God looketh on the heart. When God looks on your heart, what does He see?
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If God spoke verse 23 to America today, what would be our response? If he stood up in our churches, and our legislative halls, and our schools, and he asked us to see the depravity of our ways, would we see it? As a nation, I no longer think we would. Because we have become a blind generation.

A blind generation

Let’s read Jeremiah 2:26-31.

²⁶ As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed; they, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets, ²⁷ Saying to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth: for they have turned their back unto me, and not their face: but in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and save us. ²⁸ But where are thy gods that thou hast made thee? let them arise, if they can save thee in the time of thy trouble: for according to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah. ²⁹ Wherefore will ye plead with me? ye all have transgressed against me, saith the Lord. ³⁰ In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction: your own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion. ³¹ O generation, see ye the word of the Lord. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness? wherefore say my people, We are lords; we will come no more unto thee?

Jeremiah 2:26-31

Israel was ashamed. They had become weak in their idolatry. No one viewed them as a threat or power. No one feared the God of the Israelites, because He had become one of many that they served. To the outside world, God was no different than the stocks (trees) that the Israelites worshipped, or the stones, or the other gods. America is identical today.

Now, before we go further, there is a mode of theological thought that exists involving America and Israel. It has ties to Christian nationalism and American exceptionalism. At its core, it believes America to be the modern-day Israel, and attributes biblical prophecy to America. I want to tell you this morning that that mode of theology is false doctrine. Israel is God’s chosen people and Americans are Gentiles brought into the fold through the sacrifice of Jesus.
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That said, the similarities we see in the passage to our modern-day American culture are spot on. We deserve everything we are going to get folks.

America is ashamed on the world stage. We have transvestites in the highest offices of our government. We have rioters doing smash-and-grabs in broad daylight. We’re putting illegal aliens on planes and buses and CHAUFFEURING them INTO OUR COUNTRY when we intercept them at the border. IT MAKES NO SENSE.

I work with a Chinese man. His sister is 17 years old in China. Her life revolves around school. He wouldn’t even get her Christmas presents this past year, because he didn’t want to distract her from her studies. She’s studying for exams to get into college because of how competitive it is over there. The average 17-year-old here is glued to his social media and video games, barely scraping by in school, knocking his girlfriend up, smoking weed, and dreaming of being a football player.

We’re worshipping stocks and stones too. We used to call them tree-huggers, but now we’re politically correct, so we call them climate-activists. They tell us if we don’t treat Mother Earth with respect, she’ll retaliate. They tell us that’s why we have tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, and tsunamis. As if God’s creation is a god in its own right.

Jeremiah 2:30 is all too applicable in our day as well. True men of God are being pushed out by the culture. Their reputations are being martyred. Our children have been hurt the most. I saw a viral video online the other day of a rapper who goes by the stage name Lil RT. His song, entitled 60 Miles, is becoming very popular in certain circles. It’s a vulgar explicit song about degrading women for sex, killing people with glocks in front of the cops, running from the cops, and disrespecting the graves of the deceased. It’s vile, but pretty standard for rap culture. But, for the first time in the history of rap music, the “artist” of this garbage, who raps it with fervor as he’s surrounded by jewelry, women, cars, money, and guns, is Lil RT… a 9-year-old.

He’s just one of many. We could go on.

• All the children that have been enticed and encouraged to undergo sex change operations.
• All the young girls who’ve erroneously given themselves sexually to boys, seeking validation and love that should have been given in the home.
• All of the young boys who’ve built their ideas of masculinity around athletes, movie stars, and rappers, rather than God-fearing fathers.

Our children are being smitten. Some of them are old enough to know better, but the culture we’ve created in America encourages them to steel themselves against God and rebel. America is in the EXACT position Israel was in, and we haven’t learned.

• Instead of Babylon. We have Russia, and China, and North Korea.
• An altar to Baal, the master god of power and control, sits in NYC. If you look back in history, you will see that bulls are tied to Baal and his cultural equivalents, like Zeus and Jupiter. A 7100 lb bronze bull, known as Charging Bull is erected in New York . It symbolizes wealth and money, (for what offers more power and control in modern-day America than the almighty dollar?)
• ‌An altar to Ashtaroth, the goddess of immoral sex and pleasure, aptly named “NOW”, sits atop a Manhattan courthouse. According to The New York Times, the statue was commissioned as part of “cultural reckoning” to better represent “21st-century social mores” in public spaces. The 8 foot tall statue, symbolizing female empowerment and independence from man, specifically in regards to abortion and sexual freedom, stands on a lotus flower pedestal. In history, we see lotus flowers are associated with Ashtaroth. Female empowerment and independence from man is associated with Ashtaroth as well.
• Let’s get a bit closer to home shall we? An altar to Molech is 22 minutes from my house. It stands tall and proud at 1312 Ashley River Rd, Charleston, SC 29407. We don’t lay children on molten altars anymore to sacrifice them. We don’t burn them alive. Instead, we crush their skulls and suck them out of uteruses with tubes and scrape them out with scalpels. No one wants to talk about that part of abortion though.

Do you see?

The key verse here is Jeremiah 2:31.

³¹ O generation, see ye the word of the Lord. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness? wherefore say my people, We are lords; we will come no more unto thee?

Jeremiah 2:31

Our generation is blind to this. Oh that God would give us all sight to the wickedness and evil! Oh that God would remind people of their need for Him! O generation, see ye the word of the Lord!
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This is the crux of the message this morning. See ye the word of the Lord. The word there for see can also mean to understand, and to choose. God is telling us today, See My Word. Understand My Word. Choose My Word in your life, over your own.

There’s a lot of people in the world today who want to speak THEIR word over some situations. They want everyone to hear their opinion on the subject. Frankly, they want God to hear their opinion on the subject. They want him to take their two cents under advisement when He’s carrying out his omniscient and omnipotent plan. Opinions are like noses. Everyone has one and they all smell.

Choose to choose God’s Word over your own today. Yes, the world is wicked. As in the days of Jeremiah, so are the days of today. He preached 40 years, with little to no response from the children of Israel. He preached to a calloused people, drunk on the luxury and ease of their lives. Sometimes I feel that the God-fearing preachers today in America are modern day Jeremiahs. But, by the power of the Lord, I’m going to keep preaching the same message.
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Heed the warning of the broken cistern. Don’t expect to feel filled and fulfilled apart from Jesus. You never will be.
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Heed the warning of the degenerate vine. Resolve to remain rooted and fed from the True Vine, Jesus Christ. Don’t turn aside.
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Heed the warning of the blind generation. SEE the Word of the Lord. Make it real in your life. Choose God. Choose his direction. Choose his plan for your life. Choose to step in faith, rather than in your own will. Choose to pray that you might understand. Choose to abide in Him, rather than broken cisterns and broken gods.

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