Jeremiah 2
Bible Passage: Jeremiah 2
Today’s chapter is like a “sampler” of topics which will appear again and again throughout our month with Jeremiah.
The primary themes are Judah’s defection from following the Lord and the importance of obeying His will. We see many times how Judah is compared as a prostitute or adulterous and this goes beyond the issue of worship. In verse 34, we read of the blood of the innocent poor whose lives had been consumed by the sinful activities of others.
Injustice and unrighteousness abound when people have a wrong understanding of who God is and what He desires from His covenant with His people.
But as I read today’s passage, the following verses left a deep impression on me…
“…. “I remember you,
The kindness of your youth,
The love of your betrothal,
When you went after Me in the wilderness,
In a land not sown.
3 Israel was holiness to the Lord,
The firstfruits of His increase. …”~ Jeremiah 2:2-3
Can a virgin forget her ornaments,
Or a bride her attire?
Yet My people have forgotten Me days without number.~ Jeremiah 2:32
This was God speaking through Jeremiah to the stubborn people.
The NIV version puts it even more clear…
‘I remember the devotion of your youth,
how as a bride you loved me
and followed me through the wilderness,
through a land not sown.’
We were once devoted to the Lord. We were even willing to go through all difficulties and sufferings just to follow Him.
But what has changed? Why is it that we are no longer as devoted as we once were.
Is it because of our marriage? Is it because we have gotten what we want in life? Is it because of our studies? Or career?
Or is it simply because we have gotten older and do not feel we need God anymore? Other things have now taken over the place where God once was and the aspirations and ideals that we had for God are now changed to our own dreams and desires?
Jeremiah gave this warning in verse 13…
“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.
God was telling the people of Judah then, and He is telling us NOW… “I am the spring of living water. I am the only thing that can fill you up and bring complete fulfillment in life. But you choose to continue trying to find satisfaction in others things by building your own broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”
We may not think it is true but let us truly reflect for a moment…
Reading the Old Testament is sobering and needful because we can see ourselves in the people of Israel. In one moment, God would perform some incredible miracle to save the Israelites from their enemies. But in the very next chapter, they would have almost forgotten the Lord and would be worshiping an idol!
It is so easy to judge the Israelites and wonder how in the world they could put anything in front of God.
But what about we ourselves?
Are we just as forgetful?
God has done something unimaginable!
He decided to leave His ivory palaces and come into the world as a man, knowing that He had to lay down His life on the cross and shed His precious blood so that we can be redeemed from darkness into everlasting light. He did it so that we do not need to pay the penalty for the sin that we deserved.
He did not need to do it… but He did.
And He rose from the dead and ascended to heaven. He offers to us this living water and new life.
Yet we continually forget what our loving, gracious heavenly Father did for us.
Instead, we constantly slap Him in the face and make Him wonder what He did to deserve this by constantly turning our lives and affections on something else, other than Him.
Are we building cisterns that cannot hold water in our lives? Are we crowding our lives with many idols – who are not gods – and push aside the one and only God we truly need?
As we prepare for the Holy Communion this Sabbath, let us consider our ways and turn back to the giver of living waters again.