"For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water." --Jeremiah 2:13

In the days of Jeremiah, God's people had deeply transgressed against Him by going awhoring after other gods and sought after worldly glory which brings no lasting profit (Jer 2:11). The Lord had brought His people into a bountiful land of Canaan to partake of its fruit and its goodness, but when they entered, they defiled the land and made God's heritage an abomination (Jer 2:7). In Jeremiah 2:4, 11, 17, 19, 32, the Lord's repeated indictment against His people was that they had forsaken Him and gone after Baal and other pagan gods. What cuts to the heart of God the most is seeing His people turning their back on Him – forgetting Him, forsaking Him and seeking after other gods and idols of this world. God has loved an undeserving people with an everlasting and unconditional love, and brought us up out of the land of Egypt, led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and pits, through a land of drought and the shadow of death, through a land that no one crossed (2:6) and brought them unto Himself to enjoy of the riches of the land that He had prepared for them. Yet to the great dismay of God, His people turned away from Him without a cause, defiled the land, and committed a great abomination against God by going awhoring after other gods. In astonishment God asked, "What injustice have your fathers found in Me, that you have gone far from Me, have followed idols, and have become idolaters?" (2:4)

Jeremiah was a 'weeping prophet' because he reflected the sentiment of God towards His people at the time of their deep transgression against Him. Yet even while His people was in such lamentable condition and about to suffer an enormous consequence of being defeated by their arch-enemy and be carried away into captivity, God remembered the kindness of her youth, the love of her betrothal: "When you went after Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. Israel was holiness to the Lord; The firstfruits of His increase" (2:2-3). While on the verge of unleashing His judgment on His wayward people, God alluded to the fact that His judgment will always be tempered with His loving kindness towards them.

God spoke through Jeremiah and summarized their iniquities into these 2 evils: "They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns —- broken cisterns that can hold no water." A cistern is a vessel for storing a limited supply of something, usually water in those days. In contrast, a "fountain" of living water is a source of abundant water that continually flows out to supply the thirst of man. The pagan gods and the things that the flesh lusts after by the people are liken not only to cisterns, but "broken cisterns that can hold no water!" In other words, what the god of this world has to offer and the objects that our flesh lusts after can never satisfy our inner thirst. Only God Who is the "Fountain of living water" can satisfy our longing spirits and our heart's thirst. How sad and lamentable it would be if we turn our back on the Lord and allow ourselves to fall for the worldly glamour, riches, positions, and pleasures. Thus, we inadvertently and perhaps even knowingly place someone or something else as our first love in place of the Lord.

The Lord simply cannot tolerate our giving Him anything less than our best and the yielding of the preeminent position in our hearts to Him alone. To the church in Ephesus which is guilty of this very sin in Revelations 2:1-7, the Lord warned that unless she repents, He is about to remove the lampstand out of its place. Being gracious even after His people have sinned so horribly against Him, the Lord offered His people a chance to repent. The Lord said in Jeremiah 4:1, "'If you will return', O Israel, says the Lord, 'Return to Me; and if you will put away your abominations out of My sight, then you shall not be moved." Furthermore, the Lord said, "Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your hearts, You men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Lest My fury come forth like fire, and burn so that no one can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.” To circumcise our hearts is to cut off our fleshly desires, which lusts after so many things other than the Lord and which plunged man into corruption and destruction. We can be healed if we turn to the cross of Christ and identify with His death to old man and our flesh with its passions and desires. We shall also find healing to our souls when we turn to the Word of God rather than the counsels of natural and fleshly men. The joy of the Lord was restored in Jeremiah as he turned to the Word of God: "Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart."

In tears the prophet Jeremiah pleaded on behalf of the wayward people of God: "O Lord, the hope of Israel, All who forsake You shall be ashamed. 'Those who depart from Me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters.' Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; Save me, and I shall be saved, for You are my praise" (Jer 17:13-14). If we find ourselves in such a lamentable state, may we humbly repent and return to our Lord as the fountain of living waters. While the Lord still gives us a chance to return to Him, let us ask for the Lord's healing grace upon our sin-sick souls and forsake the broken cisterns which can hold no water.