Encountering JesusSample

DISCOVER

The book of Jeremiah was written at a time when God’s people were in bad spiritual shape. They gave into their idolatrous tendencies so that they would prosper, gain protection, and indulge in pleasure. He wrote and preached to warn the people of the imminent judgment they would face if they did not repent from their evil ways. Jeremiah is called, “the weeping prophet,”but the truth is: God was the one who was deeply saddened by how His people were walking.

LEARN

They had forsaken Yahweh who, like a fountain, provided for their essential needs (Ps.36:9;John4:10-14;Rev.21:6). They had pursued idols who, like broken cisterns, could not even hold water—much less provide it. Israel's most reliable water source was a natural spring (fountain), and the least reliable was a cistern.

"The best cisterns, even those in solid rock, are strangely liable to crack, and are a most unreliable source of supply of that absolutely indispensable article, water; and if, by constant care, they are made to hold, yet the water, collected from clay roofs or from marly soil, has the color of weak soapsuds, the taste of the earth or the stable, is full of worms, and in the hour of greatest need it utterly fails. Who but a fool, or one gone mad in love of filth, would exchange a living fountain's sweet, wholesome stream for such an uncertain compound of nastiness and vermin?”3

APPLY

As the fountain of living water, or flowing spring, God is the source of everlasting life. Judah was pursued a false and empty religion. In the same way, we can pursue false religion when other things, people, or possessions take God’s place. We can only be truly filled and satisfied by the never-ending, living and refreshing water. Grace in Christ is compared to water from a fountain; it is cooling and refreshing, cleansing, and essential to help grow good fruit. It awakens dead sinners, revives drooping saints, supports and maintains spiritual life, springs forth eternal life, and is ever flowing. Let’s choose to drink the living water and refuse to be satisfied with anything else.