JEREMIAH CH 2: VS 1--13
DOES YOUR BUCKET HAVE A HOLE IN IT?
HAVE YOU EVER TRIED TO CARRY WATER IN A BUCKET THAT LEAKED? ***** EVEN WITH A SMALL HOLE IN IT*****
PROBABLY, YOU LOST MORE WATER THAN YOU CARRIED.
ENDLESS TRIPS BACK AND FORTH TO THE SOURCE OF SUPPLY.
WASTED TIME, WASTED ENERGY WASTED EFFORT.***
MANY CHRISTIANS ARE LIKE THESE THAT JEREMIAH WROTE ABOUT. THEY HAVE A LEAK IN THEIR SPIRITUAL LIFE.
I. THE LORD REMEMBERS THE EARLY DAYS OF ISRAEL.
HOW HE LED THEM OUT OF THE BONDAGE OF EGYPT.*
HOW HE GAVE THEM THE LAW, AND THEY RECEIVED IT GLADLY.
(A) HE REMEMBERS FONDLY, THEIR OBEDIENCE AND THEIR LOVE FOR HIM.
(B) HE REMEMBERS HOW HE CHOSE THEM TO BE HIS PECULIAR (BELOVED) PEOPLE AND HOW THEY RECEIVED HIM AS THEIR HEAVENLY FATHER.
( C) WE WOULD DO WELL TODAY TO REMEMBER OUR FIRST LOVE.
1. HOW THE LORD SPOKE TENDERLY TO OUR HEARTS.
SPOKE TO US BY HIS HOLY SPIRIT AND EXTENDED TO US HIS SALVATION BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH.
2. HOW WE LOOKED UPON THE SINFULNESS OF OUR LIVES AND OUR DISOBEDIENCE TO HIM AS WE LIVED RECKLESSLY AND SELFISHLY IN SIN.
3. HOW HE LOVED US THROUGH OUR SIN AND WAS STILL WILLING TO FORGIVE US OF OUR SIN AND SAVE OUR SOULS FROM THE PITTS OF HELL.
Rom 5:8
But God commended his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners , Christ died
for us.
II. HE NOW REMEMBERS THEIR DISOBEDIENCE AND DENIAL.
Jeremiah 2:5
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?
IN OTHER WORDS:
(A) what iniquity have your fathers found in me] ***Have they ever discovered anything cruel, unjust, oppressive in my laws? Anything unkind or tyrannical in my government? Why then have they become idolaters?
(B) THE ISRAELITES NOW HAVE ACTED CONTRARY TO GOD’S WORD AND GOD’S WILL.
They acted contrary to the usage of all nations. Their neighbors were more firm and faithful to their false gods than they were to the true God. (MATHEW HENRY COMMENTARY)
1. HOW DISAPPOINTED GOD MUST BE IN US WHEN THE PEOPLE WHO WORSHIP FALSE GODS HAVE MORE RESPECT AND HONOR FOR THEIR FALSE GOD’S THAN WE DO FOR JEHOVAH GOD.**
They acted contrary to the dictates of common sense, (MATHEW HENRY)
13 For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the “fountain of living waters“, and hewed* them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
[Two evils] First, they forsook God, the Fountain of life, light, prosperity, and happiness. Secondly, they hewed out broken cisterns; they joined themselves to idols, from which they could receive neither temporal nor spiritual good! Their conduct was the excess of folly and blindness. What we call here broken cisterns, means more properly such vessels as were ill made, not staunch, ill put together, so that the water leaked through them. ( A HOLE IN THEIR BUCKET)
( C) JEREMIAH NOW EXPLAINS THE GREAT ERROR OR THE GREAT SIN THAT ISRAEL HAD COMMITTED.
(A) Jer 2:13
Not a spring or natural fountain,*** but a tank or reservoir dug in the ground (see Jer 6:7), and chiefly intended for storing living waters, i.e., those of springs and rivulets.
The cistern was used for storing up rain-water only, and therefore the quantity it contained was limited.
(from Barnes’ Notes, Electronic Database Copyright © 1997, 2003 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)
Jer 2:13
Broken cisterns - tanks for rain water, common in the East, where wells are scarce. The tanks not only cannot give forth an ever-flowing fresh supply, as fountains can, but cannot even retain the water poured into them; the stone-work within being broken, the earth drinks up the collected water. So, in general, all earthly, compared with heavenly, means of satisfying man’s highest desires
(Jer 2:9-13
They have affronted their God,
Jer 2:9-13
"They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, in whom they have an abundant and constant supply of all the comfort and relief they stand in need of, and have it freely." God is their fountain of life,
(from Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition, Electronic Database. Copyright © 1991 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)
Jer 2:9-13
They have cheated themselves, they forsook their own mercies, but it was for lying vanities. They took a great deal of pains to hew themselves out cisterns, to dig pits or pools in the earth or rock which they would carry water to, or which should receive the rain; but they proved broken cisterns, false at the bottom, so that they could hold no water. . Copyright © 1991 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)
Jer 2:13
III. HE NOW ASKS: “WHY DOES MANKIND LEAVE GOD’S FLOWING FOUNTAIN OF THE WATER OF LIFE. AND RESORT TO OUR OWN DESIRES”?
(A) MAN HAS ALWAYS SOUGHT HIS OWN WAYS.
1. THE FALL OF MANKIND, IN THE GARDEN PROVES THIS.
2. THE FALLACY OF LOT, AT THE PLAINS OF SODOM PROVED THIS.
3. THE FOOLISHNESS OF ABRAHAM, (AND SARAH) AND THE BIRTH OF ISHMAEL, PROVED THIS.
(B) MAN HAS ALWAYS GOTTEN TANGLED UP IN HIS OWN ENDEAVORS.
1. MOSES IN EGYPT, (FIRST FORTY YEARS) DID IT HIS WAY. (FAILED)
2. KING SAUL, AT AMALECK, DID IT HIS WAY (FAILED)
3. THE FOOLISH FARMER OF LUKE 12 DID IT HIS WAY. (FAILED)
( C ) MAN’S WAY FAILS AND GOD’S WAY IS PROVEN AND SUCCESSFUL
GOD’S WAY IS GOD’S WILL FOR OUR LIVES.
CONCLUSION: WHEN WE DO THINGS OUR WAY, WE END UP WITH A BUCKET WITH A HOLE IN IT. (A SPIRITUAL LEAK.)
DOES YOUR BUCKET HAVE A HOLE IN IT?
