This chapter contains a cornerstone text for me. And instead of commenting on the whole of the chapter, I’m going to go straight for those cornerstone verses.
I used to teach Theology of Worship, a freshman level course at the Bible College where I graduated. I would get to Jeremiah chapter 2 very early on in the class because, before we can talk about worship we have to get very clear on what it even is.
And while I cannot replicate a 15-week college course in a single blog post, I can tell you this: Worship is joined to the concepts of source and service.
😦 Uh… I feel like that’s supposed to be super profound or something- the way you put it in bold font like that – but, uh… I don’t get it.
K. Let’s break it down.
What does the word “source” mean?
🤓 It’s where you get something from. Like – chickens 🐓 are the source of eggs. 🍳
😄 And eggs 🥚are the source of chickens! 🐣
Not the best illustration but keep going…
🤓 My little sister is the source of irritation!
😏 Toddlers are the source of messes!
Ho boy. How about “Love is the source of mercy…”
🤓 Ooo that’s all serious-like.
🤔 How about God is the source of life?
Yes! Now you’re talkin.
What is the source of water?
🤓 Rain?
🤔 A river?
Let’s see what God said…
“For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the source of living water, to hew out for themselves cisterns, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.”
Jeremiah 2:13 LEB
There are 2 sources in this verse. And only 1 of them really works.
God says that He is the source – the fountain, the spring – of living water. This is not a new claim. Remember this?
“Ho! Everyone thirsty, come to the waters! And whoever has no money, come, buy and eat, and come, buy without money, wine and milk without price!”
Isaiah 55:1 LEB
And remember how the LORD brought water from a Rock in the wilderness? Paul wrote about the children of Israel in the wilderness…
“and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.”
1 Corinthians 10:3-4 LEB
The Eternal Word of the LORD was their water in the desert.
Remember how Jesus offered “living water” to the woman at the well? And how He quoted Isaiah to the crowds at the Feast of Tabernacles?
“Now on the last day of the feast—the great day—Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me, and let him drink, the one who believes in me. Just as the scripture said, ‘Out of his belly will flow rivers of living water.’ ” Now he said this concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were about to receive. For the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.)”
John 7:37-39 LEB
The LORD GOD in three persons is the living water, the water of life. He is the source of life. Is there any life apart from Him?
🤔 Uh… No?
🤓 I’m gonna go with No. Only God has life.
So what about the cisterns?
🤔 What about the sisters?
No. Not sisters. Cisterns. In ancient Israel they were kind of like swimming pools built to collect rain water. Like this:
Or they could be HUGE… like this:
Cisterns are man-made. And they are NOT wells. A well is a shaft that accesses the underground water table. A cistern is just a very large jar. It’s not a source. At best, it can hold water from another source.
Let’s look at the text again…
“For go over to the coasts of Cyprus and look, and send to Kedar and consider very closely, and see if there has been a thing like this: Has a nation exchanged gods? And they are not gods! But my people have exchanged their glory for that which does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this, and shudder; be utterly desolate,” declares Yahweh. “For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the source of living water, to hew out for themselves cisterns, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.”
Jeremiah 2:10-13 LEB
God’s people have traded Him – the most perfect, glorious, kind, powerful, intelligent Being in existence – for statues of wood and stone… which they worship.
They have looked to those statues for things. They have prayed to them for rain. For protection. For prosperity. They are going to those idols as their source. That’s why I said that worship is joined to the concept of source. Anything you seek for “life” – approval, affirmation, success, marriage, you name it – if you are looking to that thing as your source, God regards it as idolatry.
Most Christian pat themselves on the back and say, “I’m not like those silly ancient Israelites. I’d never worship an idol!”
But until we understand that disloyalty to Yahweh and false-worship doesn’t have to involve other religions or idol shrines we might actually be more like Israel than we think.
Elsewhere in this chapter God quotes the words of the people back to them. They actually don’t recognize how sinful they’ve been.
“You say, ‘That’s not true! I haven’t worshiped the images of Baal!’ But how can you say that? Go and look in any valley in the land! Face the awful sins you have done. You are like a restless female camel desperately searching for a mate.”
Jeremiah 2:23 NLT
“And yet you say, ‘I have done nothing wrong. Surely God isn’t angry with me!’ But now I will punish you severely because you claim you have not sinned.”
Jeremiah 2:35 NLT
Friend, this Word from the LORD calls for deep searching of the heart.
There is an easy way to tell if you have been going to a cracked (and empty) cistern of your own making as your source. It’s this:
Are you thirsty?
🪑
(We all need to sit here on this one for a moment.)
Thirst is a signal.
It tells your body that you need water.
It’s a feeling of need; of deep desire.
If you have chased dreams like mirages in the desert, and when you get to them they didn’t satisfy like you thought they would – you are trying to get water from the wrong source.
You are looking for life in all the wrong places. Jesus told us to come to Him.
God’s people had committed TWO evils, not just one. It was bad enough that they abandoned the Source of Living Water. That was their first evil. But to attempt to replace Him with the works of their own hands? That was beyond comprehension. That’s why God says, “Be appalled O heavens!”
Oh – and notice the order.
- Abandon the Living Water
- Make your own source on your terms
If you are trying to find life (happiness, fulfillment, purpose – all the things) from the work of your own hands instead of from the Source of Life, you will never be satisfied. You cannot serve two masters. If you’re digging your own cistern, you have abandoned the Living Water. Even if you still attend church.
Whatever you look to as your source is something that you worship, because you regard it as the wellspring of life.
It’s not the thirst that is the problem.
Some religions and philosophies teach that. Just get rid of all desire. Ignore your thirst and it will go away.
God didn’t say it was wrong to be thirsty. The issue is where do you go for water?
So that’s a bit about the idea of worship as source.
But I also said that worship is about service.
Interesting that right after calling the people out for turning to their broken cisterns, God asks…
“Why has Israel become a slave? Why has he been carried away as plunder?”
Jeremiah 2:14 NLT
Here’s a statement that we should ponder:
“You will automatically serve the object of your worship.”
If the object of your worship is what you perceive as the source of life, you WILL continue to go to it, work for it, and do whatever you have to do to access it because to be in connection with it is to be in connection with life.
Humans do not have life in ourselves apart from Christ. That is why we MUST worship and serve something greater than ourselves. As Bob Dylan said, “It might be the Devil or it might be the Lord but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.”
Only Yahweh is the I AM – the self-existent One with LIFE in Himself. He needs nothing outside Himself to sustain perfectly fulfilled existence. [That’s why I cringe at song lyrics that imply God “couldn’t live without us” or that He “needs us.]
And only the I AM has the power to share His life with others. Look at these texts from the Gospel of John:
“For just as the Father gives life to those he raises from the dead, so the Son gives life to anyone he wants.
The Father has life in himself, and he has granted that same life-giving power to his Son.
“You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life.”
John 5:21, 26, 39-40 NLT
Here’s another statement to ponder:
Only Yahweh is alive.
In all of creation – visible and invisible, there is only 1 being who is actually alive – the God of Abraham revealed in Jesus Christ.
That’s it.
Everything else is dead unless it is joined to Him and sharing in His life – like some sort of permanent, spiritual, blood transfusion.
“And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.”
1 John 5:11-12, 20 ESV
The Holy Spirit does not say through John that Jesus HAS eternal life. He said He IS the true God and eternal life. Eternal Life is a person, not a thing. And He cannot and does not give eternal life apart from Himself.
Ironic isn’t it that the way we were given life was through the death of Christ? “The life of the flesh is in the blood,” (Gen. 9:4, Lev. 17:11, Deut. 12:23). And it is the divine lifeblood that makes atonement for us.
If you find yourself repeatedly going to various sources with your soul’s bucket, hoping to find life and satisfaction for a thirst that never quite goes away, that is a pretty good indicator that you need to drink from the living water. Because…
“whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
John 4:14 ESV
“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”
John 7:37-38 ESV
You drink by believing Jesus. To believe is to trust as your source of life.
If you need some music to help you leave the cracked cisterns and come to Jesus with your thirst, or just to worship Him because He is your source, here ya go…
To The Reader 