Isaiah 66:19 - Jeremiah 10:13
This picture of the "broken-hearted prophet" Jeremiah was painted by Michelangelo and is located in the Sistine Chapel.
Jeremiah is also known as the weeping prophet. His message consisted of stern rebuke for the sins of Israel and of warning that divine judgement could not be averted. Through him God sought first to turn the hearts of the people back to Him during the reign of Josiah. And when Israel once again departed from the Lord, Jeremiah was used to secure their co-operation with His purpose in the Captivity, which came not as retributive punishment but as remedial discipline. He constantly wept over the sins of Israel and over the doom that threatened his beloved nation. Jeremiah had cause for weeping if any prophet ever had, but he bore his message faithfully.
(Parts of this summary of Jeremiah is from http://www.nisbett.com/summary/sum-o-21.htm)
Jeremiah 2:13
"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."
The Hebrew people committed two sins: They chose not to serve God and they chose to serve themselves.
It's a flashback to the past with Joshua, "Choose you this day whom you will serve!", when Israel served the Lord. But with each successive king, Israel continued to choose to serve themselves instead of God. And Jeremiah is chosen to proclaim the future discipline and correction they will suffer.
It also points us to the future, when the voice of God would be quiet with His chosen people. For years, they would not hear his guidance. And their attempts to serve themselves became like cisterns that could not hold water. Their faith became dry and parched without the living water God provides.
It also points us to the picture of Jesus with the woman at the well.
John 4:13-14
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Notice that the reference to God the Father and Jesus the Son are the same: they are the spring of living water, the spring of eternal life.
We all try to carry water in broken cisterns made from our own design. Attempting to create our own righteousness, our own truth, and sometimes even our own god. In the end we will just be left with an empty bottle because all our attempts are apart from God.
A life without God is an empty cistern, and a house built on shifting sand.
There is only one water fountain that contains the spring of living water. His name is Jesus. And just like the woman at the well, He is waiting for you to ask for a drink.
