Today’s reading takes us into the mind of Jeremiah, the Old Testament prophet who was tasked with an impossible job: to preach to a rebellious people saying things they would not hear or heed. Have you ever had to deliver a harsh word to people you love? If so, you can feel his pain. This passage is a little long, but hang in there.

Jeremiah 2:5-13, 29-32 (New Revised Standard Version)

5 Thus says the LORD:  What wrong did your ancestors find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthless things, and became worthless themselves?  6 They did not say, “Where is the LORD who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us in the wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep darkness, in a land that no one passes through, where no one lives?”  7 I brought you into a plentiful land to eat its fruits and its good things. But when you entered you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination.  8 The priests did not say, “Where is the LORD?” Those who handle the law did not know me; the rulers transgressed against me; the prophets prophesied by Baal and went after things that do not profit.  

9 Therefore, once more, I accuse you, says the Lord, and I accuse your children’s children.  10 Cross to the coasts of Cyprus and look, send to Kedar and examine with care; see if there has ever been such a thing.  11 Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods?  But my people have changed their glory for something that does not profit.  12 Be appalled, O heavens, at this, Therefore once more I accuse you, says the LORD, be shocked, be utterly desolate, says the LORD, 13 for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.

29 Why do you complain against me? You have all rebelled against me, says the LORD.  30 In vain I have struck down your children; they accepted no correction.  Your own sword devoured your prophets like a ravening lion.  31 And you, O generation, behold the word of the LORD!  Have I been a wilderness to Israel, or a land of thick darkness?  Why then do my people say, “We are free, we will come to you no more”?  32 Can a girl forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire?  Yet my people have forgotten me, days without number.

 If this is your first time reading Jeremiah, you might be feeling like you just took a sip of water out of a fire hydrant. It’s a lot to take in! Jeremiah was a prophet in a time of great apostasy, when the entire nation of Israel had turned their backs on God in every possible way. Having been safely brought out of slavery in Egypt and delivered into the lushness of the Promised Land, they now worshiped the false gods of their pagan neighbors and turned to Baal for divine guidance.

Did you pick up on the “living water” reference in verse 13? What a beautiful tie-in with Wednesday’s reading, where Jesus offered himself to the world as the Living Water that so completes us, we will never thirst again. In this passage, God described the living water he faithfully offered Israel, only to be rejected. People had chosen to dig out cracked cisterns for themselves that hold no water.

 Why do we make things so hard for ourselves? Why not just open our mouths wide and drink in living water? Yet we demand our own way and labor at the unprofitable task of grunting and digging out a useless and broken cistern of secularism and world things that can’t possibly sustain us.

 When we chase after the ungodly, when we follow the dictates of the secular world in pursuing what is popular, cool, admired, sought after (status, wealth, beauty, celebrity, material things, inappropriate relationships, etc.), we turn our backs on God and bow down to false gods.

Where have you rejected God? Where has something been so tempting, so appealing, that you lost your mind and flew after it, forsaking the One who brought you out of your own desert?

Come home, rebel. Come back to God. Remember who you are.

Come to the Waters by Michelle Robertson