This verse from Jeremiah serves as an insightful metaphor for our spiritual journey. It reflects a dual reality—the joy of drawing near to God, the spring of living water, and the danger of turning away from Him to follow our paths, like relying on broken cisterns.
In ancient times, cisterns were man-made reservoirs used to collect and store rainwater. Unlike a spring or a well, which provided a continuous supply of fresh water, cisterns could crack and become polluted, failing to provide life-sustaining water effectively. In Jeremiah's time, this metaphor would have been immediately understood as depicting reliance on unreliable, insufficient sources. A broken cistern represents anything that we trust in or rely upon apart from God.
God is depicted as the “spring of living water,” a pure source of spiritual life. This living water is a freely given gift that sustains us. When we engage in spiritual practices like prayer, sabbath, and the study of God’s word, we are drawing from this spring. We find refreshment, renewal, and joy in these practices because they connect us directly to the source of all life and truth.
However, there is also danger embedded in this scripture—the threat of forsaking the spring of living water. How often, in our human frailty, do we turn away from God’s provision, seeking to create our own sources of satisfaction and security? These self-made cisterns, no matter how diligently constructed, are ultimately flawed—broken and unable to hold the water we so desperately need.
Our strength lies not in the rigor of our spiritual practices, but in the One to whom these practices draw us closer. Let us, therefore, approach spiritual practices with a spirit of humility and expectancy, eager to drink from the spring of living water, and wary of the broken cisterns of self-reliance and false security.
Every so often, pastors must protect the church from a person who has an agenda that does not fit with the gospel. It could be a flyer we won’t put up, or a book we won’t promote. It could be a speaker we can’t welcome, or a volunteer who has strayed into questionable behavior. It could be that someone is doing things under our roof we can’t condone, and they won’t modify or change their stance. It’s not fun to do this work of protecting. But we do it.
However, we can’t protect our members when they aren’t under our roof. You will see and hear things that are awful, deceptive, sensational, but false and wrong. You will hear versions of the gospel message that are skewed or twisted, and you will have to know that what you are hearing is wrong. We often sit down with people who are wrestling with something deceptive or evil they have been exposed to, to talk it all over, to be discerning together.
Paul reminds us that as we wrestle with things like this, we should remember that God who is good is already victorious over anything that is wrong in our world. When he says, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet,” he is reminding us of Genesis 3:15, when the serpent that spoiled Eden hears that there will be a descendant of Adam and Eve who will crush him finally. That descendant who has crushed evil flat is Jesus. That God will win in the end is not in doubt, no matter the troubles we struggle with in our time. As we remember this fact, sure enough, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is truly with us!