Jeremiah Chapter 2: From Living Water to Broken Cisterns

So, hello, everyone. Again, this is a welcome to the Christian Bible Study Ministry podcast, and we are today going into chapter 2 of Jeremiah. Our study of the book of Jeremiah, and do pray, as always, that this episode will bless you and somehow or another encourage you in your walk with Jesus. And if you are, of course, if you are not a Christian, then I pray that somehow maybe the good Lord's spirit will touch you and you will have a chance to be saved. Before we get into the program, there is always something that I like to say and that that is that I know that, especially right now, you know, with some news that I got today, There is a person that used to work with my mother over at one of the stores here that has passed away. And honestly, it hits hard, you know, and it's something that is difficult to think about, you know. But I have faith that they knew Jesus, and so they are in the same place that my mother is, you know. So, and that plus all the other people who are grieving, you know, that's something that I pray about every day. There's a lot of people family and friends who have lost people and their families recently so that's again i know firsthand the burden that grief is it's not pleasant and of course you know there's other things going on too you know people might have financial problems and other things that are weighing weighing them down excuse me so i do pray that. Whoever in the world is listening to this podcast that you will have some kind of blessing from God, you know, whether it be money, a kind word, or a good report from a doctor or whatever, you know, because the Lord knows we need these things. And so I'm just going to end the beginning of the program with that. And we're going to talk about Jeremiah, you know, as a refresher, Jeremiah was sent by the good lord to preach to the israelites who had abandoned their covenant and so jeremiah was promised by god in chapter one he said that. Jeremiah was not to worry about anything because the king or no one else would be able to harm him while he was preaching because the Lord wanted this message to be preached. And this was 50 years before the Babylonian invasion. So they had plenty of time to listen to Jeremiah's message and to accept it or reject it. And unfortunately, we will see they did in fact reject that message. So we're going to go into chapter two now so hold on just a second y'all bear with me please okay here we go so again we have we will see that in chapter two god will recall israel's early love and devotion when they were freed from egypt they followed him in the wilderness and they were set apart as holy and belonged uniquely to him you know this is why god gave them these rules to follow that the ten commandments and the other you know all 639 commandments total so and israel unfortunately had a tendency to wander from this so we're going to read the first few verses of chapter two moreover the word of the lord came to me saying go and cry in the ears of jerusalem saying thus saith the lord i remember thee the kindness of thy youth the love of thine espousals when thou wentest after me in the wilderness in a land that was not sown israel was holiness unto the lord and the first fruits of his increase all that devour him shall offend evil shall come upon them saith the lord the lord says hey anybody who comes after his own chosen people in this case the nation of israel they will cause great offense. And evil shall come upon them. It doesn't specify specifically what kind of evil. It just says evil. So it could be anything. And that evil can be very bad. And I believe we have seen in history that anybody who has gone after the Jewish people has suffered horribly for it. And there's too many examples for me to go into there on that. So, you know, we are going to go now to the next several verses. Where we see that God asks, what did he do wrong to deserve their abandonment? You know, God says, rhetorically speaking, what did he do to deserve Israel abandoning the covenant? The people followed their worthless idols, you know, their Asherah poles, their Baal idols and Ashtoreths and whatever other kind of idols that they had there. They forgot God and their leaders failed spiritually. The leaders were probably some of the very first people to turn in their hearts from God. They were in charge of the temple. They were in charge of teaching the law to the people. And they failed. They failed in their sacred duty. Verse 4. Hear ye the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel. Thus saith the Lord What iniquity have your fathers found in me That they are gone far from me And have walked after vanity And are become vain. This is where we see God As asking the people What fault did he have That they chose to turn from him He had blessed them with freedom He freed them from 400 years Of bondage in Egypt, Freedom from the last Freedom from beatings Freedom from murder uh, And yet, they rebelled against him. Why, God asked, did they turn? Verse 6, neither said they, Where is the Lord that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and pits, through a land of drought and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through and where no man dwelt? They didn't ask that question because they didn't have to. The Lord was there. With a pillar of fire in the sky. And then before that, the pillar of fire that blocked the path of Pharaoh's army. He led them through a barren wilderness. Hot, dry desert. Water in a few places here and there. Oasises, you know. Things look bleak in the desert, and yet he led them through that. So no, they didn't ask the question, where is the God of our fathers? Because they had no need to ask the question. They knew that he was there by the sheer fact that they were still alive in the desert and that they had even been allowed out of Egypt was proof of his presence and his power. Verse seven. And I brought you into a plentiful country, the land of Canaan to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof. But when he entered, he defiled my land and made mine heritage and abomination. When they got into Canaan. They came into contact with all these other people their idols their human sacrifices and other things the prostitution the sexual immorality there they were contaminated or rather they let themselves be contaminated instead of driving out all the people of canaan that the lord told them to they failed and they suffered for it god delivered on his promise he led them into a land that was extremely productive and fertile the land of milk and hunting it grew plentiful fruit and it had a lot of goodness in it and yet they still turned from him spiritually, verse 8 the priest said not where is the lord and they that handle the law knew me not the pastors also transgressed against me and the prophet and they and the prophets prophesied by bail and walked after things that do not profit you remember the story of bail the prophets of Baal, Elisha, or Elisha, I can't remember which were off the top of my head. These prophets were being stupid. They were cutting themselves, hollering and screaming and dancing around, thinking that that would get their God's attention. And yet all God's person had to do was basically, I guess, just kind of look up, you know, when the offering was consumed. And so were the prophets, consumed by fire. God doesn't need you to cut yourself up. and act stupid he can do whatever he wants to do without even you thinking about it, and yet these people this is what the people of israel had turned to they had turned to idols, the bales the asherahs the ashtaroths and i'm sure there's some other names there too you know, why did the people do this it is simply the evil of the human heart so israel exchanged the true god Yahweh. Adonai they exchanged the true gods or idols they abandoned the fountain of living waters you remember when jesus talked to the woman at the whale he said whoever drinks from this well will thirst again but whoever drinks of the water i shall give them shall have life eternal living water, instead of living water the people chose something that was broken first nine wherefore i will plead yet i will yet plead with you saith the lord and with your children's children not while i plead, he's already saying the lord's going to give them time here for pass over the isles of chitim and see and send them to ketar and consider diligently and see if there be such a thing, hath a nation changed their gods which are not which are yet no gods but my people have changed their glory for that which stood out which doth not profit the people of israel had exchanged their worship of the true god for worship of something that was meaningless that had no profit the idols couldn't move they couldn't eat they couldn't talk there were demonic influences behind it but the idols themselves had no power and it was i believe these verses are telling us that even among amongst the people around them there had no there had been no such thing because Because the people around them had no worship of the true God. So they were worshiping the same thing that they always had. People of Israel, however, had knowledge and worship of the true God, and they turned from that. God is saying here in his word through Jeremiah that that was unheard of. Verse 12, be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid. Be ye very desolate, saith the Lord. For my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and huge amount of cisterns, broken scissors, that can hold no water. Again, this is reiterating here. The people of Israel were working with something that was broke. It could not work, did not work, and will never work. Why would you want to turn away from living water? and to a cistern that can hold no water i would rather have the living wate