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Broken Cisterns
“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. Jeremiah
2:13
The last time Valerie and I visited my brother in Mexico, we went to
their local bazaar. It's held on Wednesdays on a narrow street just off
the
main drag in Ajijic. The length of the street were vendors selling
shoes, jewelry, art of all kinds, clothing, food; and surprising to
me, well known Swiss made watches at incredible prices. You could buy a
Rolex or a Cartier for a mere ten dollars! Within days I was back home
at my Rotary club sporting my ten dollar Rolex. The person sitting next
to me at breakfast seemed quite fascinated by my new purchase. I
managed to pull the sleeve on my jacket up a bit to show it off.
Then he chuckled and said, "They do a great job on those knock-off's
don't they?"
I just smiled.
He said, "The only thing that gives them away is that a genuine Rolex
second hand has a continuous motion."
I looked again at mine and sure enough, the second hand moved in the
typical one second lurches of any other cheap watch.
As I wondered how I could extricate myself from this embarrassment, I
realized that ten dollar Rolex cost me a bit more than I had bargained
on.
Here is another scenario. Imagine yourself in a hospital bed the day
before open heart surgery. The surgeon walks over to your bed and says
with a jaunty smile, "Guess what! I have figured out how to save the
health insurance thousands of dollars on these operations!"
You ask doubtfully how he is going to do that.
He says, "It's these new heart valves."
He holds up a jar full of what he tells you are heart valves and says,
"I buy them bulk over the internet and the fellow in Vanuatu tells me
they are every bit as good as the high price models."
Or just as you are about to make your first sky dive, the instructor
says, "I'll be interested in knowing how you like that new chute you
are wearing. It's a new test model I get for a lot less than from my
old supplier. Ok,....ready....Go!"
Oh my, those cheap imitations just are not the bargain we think they
are.
But something that really would be clueless would be someone who traded
their genuine Rolex in for a fake, thinking the new watch really was
superior. Or giving away a Mercedes "C" class telling the person you
prefer your old Dodge Omni. "It's more reliable than these foreign
jobs, you know".
Crazy for sure.
But that is exactly what God is saying through Jeremiah.
God says, Why have you given away what was valuable in exchange for
what is worthless?
He uses an example they would all understand.
They were predominantly an agricultural community with livestock to
water.
In the middle east, water is a precious commodity.
Having a natural spring of water on your property is like winning the
lottery. Most did not and had to collect surface run off in deep
cisterns they would hew out of the local limestone. They would plaster
the inside of the limestone with a form of plaster to help reduce
seepage into the rock. Eventually rock cracks and these cisterns would
develop fissures and become leaky.
God is saying to them, in me you have a constant spring of water.
Why would you abandon that in favor of digging out cisterns, broken and
leaky ones at that?
That's what we do when we think there is a better alternative to
listening to what God has to say about our lives.
God says to them,
Remember it was I who brought you from slavery to this land.
All along the way I cared for your ancestors. Since then, it was I who
was there for you when you needed me. I never failed to look after you.
So what terrible deficiency did you find in me that you decided to
abandon me in favor of other "gods" which really are nothing anyway?
The answer of course is that there is no deficiency at all.
And then he asks, why does no one ever stop even to ask "where is god?"
The answer is, they don't want to.
God makes demands on them. Also laziness. It's a lot easier to plug a
sacrifice into worshipping Baal and then forget him to live your life
the way you want to.
You can't do that with God. God makes demands on us. God expects to
lead and have us follow.
God goes down a list of people who don't even bother to ask for
guidance in a perfunctory manner.
The problem was they were content not to ask.
Do we get so that we are content not to ask?
Lets face it, it is easier going about life not having our opinions
challenged, our routine disturbed or our comforts or whims dismissed.
Just like it must have been easier to just plug a quarter in the Baal
machine and get on with your day.
Worthless, but easier.
And God says "why?" when it seems so futile.
God isn't saying we should be constantly fasting, reading scripture
five hours a day and walking around with a Bible tucked into our shirt
pocket.
There are times for fasting.
Reading from God's word on a daily basis sure keeps your reservoir
topped off and I can think of worse things to carry in your pocket than
a Bible.
But God knows what our days consist of. We are not monks after all.
So what is reasonable?
Start the day off with a time of prayer, a psalm or a reading from
somewhere else in the Bible and a request for the day.
It can go something like this: "Lord lead me through my day, please.
When I get preoccupied or forgetful it is not intentional. If I need to
change direction, please give me enough of a shove so that I know its
from you. Thank you for being there and I will do my best to honor you
in all I do. When I forget, I ask for your forgiveness in advance. Amen"
Or something like that.
God says, "no one even bothers to ask, "where is God?"
Not so much as even a thought.
In those days, one of the ways God gave them guidance was through the
Urim and Thumim, stones that were used by the priests to answer
specific questions. It was a bit like rolling dice, but they did it
with a clear understanding they were asking God for direction and that
they would follow it when they got it. You can see the process at work
in the book of Joshua chapter seven.
A man named Achan has brought disaster on Israel by stealing forbidden
items following the fall of Jericho.
Israel came forward clan by clan, family by family until God has shown
them the family of Achan, who confesses to his sin. We are not told
specifically this is how the division took place, but it is likely the
priest cast the urim and thumin each time a family came forward.
We find that means of asking direction a strange thing in our time.
The key is not so much in the stones themselves as it was that the
people were willing to accept God's verdict and be obedient to it once
they obtained what they believed to be God's word on something.
Listener take note: We may ask "where is God?" but are we willing to be
obedient to what God tells us, or do we brush off words from God that
are inconvenient, or go against our opinions?
As James would say, such a person should not expect to hear from God
until they are willing to act on what God says.
One of the ways the Presbyterian Church finds guidance is not in urim
or thumim. We believe that God speaks to us through scripture, through
the Holy Spirit and among others, we believe that the courts of the
church are vehicles through which God guides us. If you have attended a
Presbytery meeting you might wonder how God would do that, as it looks
and sounds like ordinary human discussion.
But it is the will of the people to listen for and to be obedient to
God's guidance when we hear it that matters.
If you really want to know what God is doing and are willing to act of
what God tells you, then you can expect to hear from God.
If not, then we too are guilty of disregarding the living water of our
creator in favor of creating our own broken cisterns.
And we have them.
Every time we brush aside what God says to us in our conscience in
favor of doing what we want instead. ...broken cisterns.
Every time we ignore something with scriptural basis when it does not
go along with our opinions... broken cisterns.
Whenever we just don't bother to listen to the Holy Spirit because we
think we know what's best for us...broken cisterns.
When you have access to the designer and creator of the universe, why
be your own architect of life?
You are a pilot on a huge modern airliner. Something goes wrong and you
and your passengers are in trouble.
A knock on the cabin door comes and a person is introduced as the
senior design engineer from Boeing who thinks he knows what the problem
is. Would you tell the guy to go back to his seat since you are
the pilot?
I hope not.
Why would we turn away from designer and architect of all life in favor
of following our own plans?
Doesn't make sense does it?
It didn't make sense in Jeremiah's time either, and God says as much.
Why doesn't anyone at least ask, "where is God?'
Why turn your nose up at a beautiful spring of fresh water in favor of
a puddle of muddy water in a broken down cistern?
The answer is the same.
Baal was easier and made no great demands on them. They could have
their cake and eat it too.
The problem was the cake was full of worms.
It still is.
Proverbs 14:2 says it all:
There
is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death
You want to know how to live day by day?
Ask God day by day then be prepared to follow what you are told.
Do that and you will find life, liberty and the pathway to a fruitful
life.
Preached September 2, 2007
Dr. Harold McNabb
West Shore Presbyterian
Church
Victoria, British Columbia
Resources Consulted
Charles L. Feinberg, Jeremiah:
The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Zondervan, 1986
J.A. Thompson, The Book of Jeremiah:
The New International Commentary on the Old Testament, Eerdmans,
1980
Online Resources Consulted
http://www.preachingtoday.com/
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