Sermon Jeremiah 2:4-13 Cracked Cisterns

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Sermon Jeremiah 2:4-13 Cracked Cisterns

First Presbyterian Church of Ocean City

August 28, 2016

            This is my second sermon in a series I have called, “Jeremiah, Prophet to the Nations”.  Last week we heard God’s call to Jeremiah to begin this work.  Jeremiah was part of God’s plan from the very beginning.  He had been chosen as a prophet before he was born.  As so now this teenager with no experience will bring God’s word to the nations of the world.  Today, we will look at Jeremiah’s first prophecy from God to the nation of Judah.  We will get to this, but first let’s pray.

            “Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification.  Amen.”   (John Calvin)

            God freed the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt.  He parted the Red Sea for them to escape, and guided them for forty years in the wilderness.  The wilderness is dry, a desert.  And shortly after they entered it they experienced their first problem.  They ran out of water.

Exodus 15:²² Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water.²³ When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.^[f]) ²⁴ So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”

²⁵ Then Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became fit to drink.

²⁷ Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water.

So God provided his people with what they needed, water.  Then, sometime later it happened again.

Exodus 17:1 The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.”

Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?”

3 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”

4 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”

5 The Lord answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.

            Over and over again for a period of forty years God provided Israel with everything it needed.  Whenever they were threaten with thirst or hunger or war God was always there to save them.  God could always be counted on.  So after forty years you would think that the descendants of those people would always remember what God had done for them.  But they didn’t.  They forgot all about their God.  And they even started following their Canaanite neighbors up to the hilltop to worship Baal, the Weather God, who never did anything for anyone.  Why would they forget the God who had saved their ancestors?  Well, before I try to answer this, let’s listen to what God had to say to them through Jeremiah, his Prophet to the Nations.

Jeremiah 2:4 Hear the word of the LORD, you descendants of Jacob,

    all you clans of Israel.

5 This is what the LORD says:

“What fault did your ancestors find in me,

    that they strayed so far from me?

They followed worthless idols

    and became worthless themselves.

6 They did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD,

    who brought us up out of Egypt

and led us through the barren wilderness,

    through a land of deserts and ravines,

a land of drought and utter darkness,

    a land where no one travels and no one lives?’

7 I brought you into a fertile land

    to eat its fruit and rich produce.

But you came and defiled my land

    and made my inheritance detestable.

8 The priests did not ask,

    ‘Where is the LORD?’

Those who deal with the law did not know me;

    the leaders rebelled against me.

The prophets prophesied by Baal,

    following worthless idols.

9 “Therefore I bring charges against you again,”

declares the LORD.

    “And I will bring charges against your children’s children.

10 Cross over to the coasts of Cyprus and look,

    send to Kedar[a] and observe closely;

    see if there has ever been anything like this:

11 Has a nation ever changed its gods?

    (Yet they are not gods at all.)

But my people have exchanged their glorious God

    for worthless idols.

12 Be appalled at this, you heavens,

    and shudder with great horror,”

declares the LORD.

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.

            So the Nation of Judah has forsaken the spring of living water to worship the false god Baal.  And, they have dug their own cisterns. Cisterns are large cavities in the ground which are used to store rain water.  God has said that the Judeans erred by digging cisterns.  He said that cisterns are no better at saving us from thirst that the old fictitious weather god of Canaanites  What is so bad about digging cisterns?

            Sometime shortly after arriving in the Promised Land, someone made an important discovery.  The found out that if iron ore from the ground was placed in a charcoal fire impurities in the iron would burn away and the iron would become soft and malleable.  He also figured out that when iron was still hot it could be shaped into just about anything.  Farmers came and wanted iron plows so they could cultivate more land.  Generals came and wanted iron arrow heads, iron tipped spears, iron helmets and shields, and iron chariots.  Builders came and wanted iron tools to cut limestone into large blocks which could be assembled to build massive palaces and temples.  The Iron Age had begun.

            Then someone figured out that iron tools could be used to dig a large hole in the limestone underneath his property to store water.  He made it bell shaped to minimize evaporation and pollution.  And he filled it by redirecting rainwater into it during the rainy winter season.  And he had plenty of water for whole summer.

            Cisterns revolutionized how we store water.  Before cisterns we were dependent on rainfall to fill the streams and rivers and the aquifers under the land. But with cisterns we could have water whenever we wanted.  We were in in control.  And this continues today.  On First street and St. Louis avenue Ocean City is building a new water tower.  All of us can get as much water as we want by simply turning on the tap, or by purchasing a case of water from CVS.  And all of this began three thousand years ago when iron tools were first used to build cisterns.

            So why is God warning us about building cisterns?  Before cisterns people depended on God for the water they drank.  And they worshiped God in gratitude for the water they received.  But once they built cisterns they no longer believe that God was needed.  They had their own ability to make water available whenever they wanted.  They didn’t need a God who provided water for them.  So they forgot about God.

            So too with us.  We have everything we need.  We have our health, and good health care if we need it.  We have good incomes, and plenty in savings if we run into trouble.  We have insurance and retirement accounts.  And we have good social services.  We have everything we need.  Why would we want any blessings from God?  This is why 99% of the people in Ocean City today are on the beach and only a small fraction are in church.  People have everything they need.  There is nothing they need from God.  And they think that they have received no blessings from God for which they would be grateful.  So, we won’t see them here this morning.

            The Nation of Judah thought the same way.  They were in control of things like water.  There was nothing they needed from God.  So why worship and glorify him?  But Jeremiah came with a warning.  Their cisterns were broken.  There are many small earthquakes in the Middle East.  One of these probably damaged the Jerusalem cistern.  It was leaking.  And it did not have as much water in it as everyone thought.  God knew that the time would come when the Babylonians would return and encircle the city.  The siege would last months.  And Jerusalem did not have enough water in their cracked cistern.  They would either perish of thirst or surrender to the Babylonians.

            The problem was that they thought that they could depend on themselves to provide for their every need.  But they couldn’t.  They needed a savior who would provide them with water when they needed it.  They needed the God of their ancestors who provided them with water in the wilderness.  This was Jeremiah’s message.  He warned the nation to return to its God before it was too late.

            The same is true for us.  We think that we have enough savings and insurance to provide for every need, but we don’t.  Maybe, hopefully, we won’t exhaust our resources.  But we may.  And if that happens we better have strong faith in the only God who provides his people with what they need.  That is why it is so important for people to be here, in church.  In church we hear the old stories of what God has done in the past.  We receive the assurance that God will do for us in the future.  And in gratitude for that assurance we worship God today.

            So technology causes us to believe that God is no longer need.  Science will give us everything we need.  But God is needed, because no matter how much we are prepared for any calamity, all preparation will ultimately fail.  We cannot always save ourselves and must trust in the salvation of God.  In Jesus Christ that salvation is assured.  So with joy and gratitude we worship the living God.  Let’s pray.

            Heavenly father, we have plan and prepare for whatever may befall us.  We have money and good health and everything we need.  But we know that whatever we have is not good enough.  And so we fall back on the assurance of your salvation.  This we pray in Jesus’ name.  Amen.