Read Jeremiah 2:1-13

““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

Two evils! This is God's charge against the people of Judah through the prophet Jeremiah. The translation of the Old King James brings out the meaning much better here, saying: “My people have committed a double evil.” It's not that there were two evils committed by Judah, but that these two evils are a double compound of the same evil. God is speaking toward a spiritual problem that His people were experiencing because they had forsaken Him. And we find that the hewn cisterns serve as a spiritual picture of the dangers of self.

First, it speaks to the pride of self. Notice the language: “And hewn themselves cisterns.” The people of Israel, of all nations, had found the only true and living God, the only real fountain whose waters bring everlasting life. But instead of seeking those living waters, which God has freely given them, they have stooped down to creating their own source of spirituality.

As the Lord said earlier in verse 11:

“Has a nation changed its gods, Which are not gods? But My people have changed their Glory For what does not profit.” (Jeremiah 2:11)

It’s as if God were saying: "My people are trying to hewn for themselves their own spirituality for their own pride. They're attempting to change their source of spiritual life from Me to themselves.”

The self focused life is one of the most dangerous things we could ever bring into our relationship with God because self is diametrically opposed to God.

Second, these hewn cisterns speak of the deadness of self. Interestingly enough — as is common in the Hebrew language — words often carried a dual meaning because the Hebrew language is so picturesque. The Hebrew word for cistern more often refers to a grave!

"You've dug yourselves graves to hold water!”

I wonder — how often are we going around in life digging graves? We beautify that grave and make it look nice, and we fool ourselves thinking that this is a righteous thing; that it’s going to hold the water we need. But we forget that a grave is still a grave. It’s meant to hold nothing but dead things.

Beloved, are you seeking the fountain of living waters or are you digging graves? Is your life refreshed by the Holy Spirit, or is it embittered by the deadness of self-effort?

Paul says in the book of Romans —

“For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” (Romans 8:6)

Third, these cisterns speak of the brokenness and emptiness of self. Notice, in verse 13, the Lord calls them broken cisterns — broken graves. Not only does the self-life fail in that it digs graves instead of seeking the fountain, but it fails in that it cannot even accomplish holding water if it wanted to. It's broken!

In fact, it’s so broken that it’s incapable of even holding a single drop of water — of life! And that right there is the greatest deception of living by the self-life. It promises to hold water, but it cannot hold a drop. Self is empty. Only the Spirit gives life.

“For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.” (Galatians 6:8)

May we today seek to draw from the life of the Spirit — from the fountain of living waters — and leave self where it belongs: dead on the cross.

““He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”” (John 7:38)

*Rivers of living water,

Rivers that flow from the throne,
Rivers o’erflowing with blessing,
Coming from Jesus alone.
Rivers of living water,
Rivers of life so free,
Flowing from Thee, my Savior,
Send now the rivers through me.*