When I was young, I used to dig in the back yard and get some clay like ground. Then I would wet it down, shape and form it into vessels I desired, acting like I was a potter creating objects of beauty and necessity. I would spend a lot of time on each one, making sure the sides were smooth (insides too) and everything was level. Then I would let them dry for a couple days and use them for whatever I wanted. One of the things I couldn’t do was use them to hold liquids, because the liquids would soften the clay ground and make them fall apart thus leaking out all the liquid. My makeshift vessels could hold no water.
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| doesn't look appealing to drink, does it? |
There are two issues, both equally bad. The first is the people abandoned the Fountain of Life-giving Water, or the source of water which ‘saves’ the body from death (God-Jesus- Jh. 4:10 -14; 7:37 ,38). Forsaken (azab) means to leave, to depart from, leave behind, let alone, abandon, and neglect. Do any of us Christians today neglect God, leave the Lord alone without us all day, depart from His Word and will, leave Him behind in the church on Sunday, or abandon Him for the football game instead? I think we do, and far too often even if we don’t admit it, sometimes not even to ourselves!
The second evil is related because now, with no living water to sustain us, we feel empty and so we must build something to fill us back up. (Truly a vicious circle.) So we build, buy, or earn ourselves gods to fill the needs we have for happiness and fulfillment- money, electronics, beautiful homes, fancy clothes, cool cars. Matthew Henry wrote this:
If we make an idol of any creature-wealth, or pleasure, or honour, - if we place our happiness in it, and promise ourselves the comfort and satisfaction in it which are to be had in God only, - if we make it our joy and love, our hope and confidence, we shall find it a cistern, which we take a great deal of pains to hew out and fill, and at the best it will hold but a little water, and that dead and flat, (for Jer. 2:13)
So, Matthew likens the broken cisterns to any idols of wealth, pleasure or honour. Certainly, even Christians still treasure those three things in life, and yet they cannot truly fill that empty spot left for God in our lives- the God we so easily neglect. Still, we hope in our lives being made better by them, yet they are dead- useless for the purpose we built them up to be. We are no happier or fulfilled with them because they are cisterns that can’t hold life-giving water.
Though Scripture speaks to two evils, there is only one solution needed to resolve both, and it is to reverse the first evil. If we just stop forsaking the Lord, our lives will be more fulfilled than ever before, our joy, peace, and hope will be full and we will lack no important thing. How do I know this? 30ish years of experience and finally having/ keeping joy, peace, and hope through all (ok, most of the time) the troubles in life. Fulfillment in God alone is here if we want it; but we need to seek Him first (Mt. 6:33 ).
But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God,
thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.
Dt. 4:29