Jeremiah, known as “the weeping prophet,” witnessed some of the greatest atrocities the Israelites had ever committed. They were doomed, on a clear path of self-destruction that was very plain to see. Despite his best efforts of warning them, the Israelites were dedicated to their path, even mocking Jeremiah along the way. At one point, Jeremiah warned them directly from God: “For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water” (Jeremiah 2:13).
First, they rejected God as the fountain of living waters. Remember when Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well? He offered her living water and, not understanding what he said, she questioned him. Jesus replied, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4: 13-14). Of course, she came to believe that Jesus was the Savior and pretty soon nearly the whole village did as well.
Ironically, the Israelites who rejected God later on threw Jeremiah into a cistern that belonged to the king’s son. It was empty, proving Jeremiah’s point. Jeremiah was literally thrown into the metaphor that he was preaching about. They rejected God, the fountain of living waters, and they built their own broken cisterns. They were spiritually bankrupt. God is, and always has been, the source of living water. Jesus is our source of living water. The question is, are we tapping into Jesus as our source or are we building broken cisterns?