Living water

Wednesday 5^th August

Read Jeremiah 2:13-19

“‘My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
    the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
    broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

¹⁴Is Israel a servant, a slave by birth?
    Why then has he become plunder?
¹⁵ Lions have roared;
    they have growled at him.
They have laid waste his land;
    his towns are burned and deserted.
¹⁶ Also, the men of Memphis and Tahpanhes
    have cracked your skull.
¹⁷ Have you not brought this on yourselves
    by forsaking the Lord your God
    when he led you in the way?
¹⁸ Now why go to Egypt
    to drink water from the Nile?
And why go to Assyria
    to drink water from the Euphrates?
¹⁹ Your wickedness will punish you;
    your backsliding will rebuke you.
Consider then and realise
    how evil and bitter it is for you
when you forsake the Lord your God
    and have no awe of me,’
declares the Lord,
the Lord Almighty.” (NIVUK)

The second example of the foolishness of God’s people in forsaking their God uses water as a metaphor. The people had access to a permanent spring, a reliable water source in a parched land, yet walked off into the wilderness and dug cisterns to collect rainwater. Leaky, unreliable cisterns at that (v13)! It was madness. Perhaps that is implied in the rather ambiguous reference to two cities in Egypt having cracked their skulls (v16)? You would have to be messed up in the head to behave as Israel and Judah have behaved.

Jeremiah spells out what the water metaphor looks like in practice. Those who rely on other powers and gods for security will reap what they sow. There is nothing reliable about allying with a major power to secure your future. They will always act in their own interests – and if that involves carving out pieces of Israel for themselves, then that is what they will do. Drinking their water (v18) will be bitter indeed (v19b).

The call to return to the source of living water is implied in God’s words through Jeremiah. “On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. ³⁸ Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.’” (John 7:37-38) (NIVUK). Security and satisfaction guaranteed…