Jeremiah 2:13 (KJV) “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.”
Dear friends, there is a real difference between a fountain and a cistern. A fountain is a natural spring that produces its own water. It doesn’t need to be dug, fixed, or maintained — it simply flows on its own. But a cistern is a well that people dig by their own strength. It depends on rain to fill it, yet it often leaks beneath the surface and eventually dries up. The water from a cistern is usually not very clean, because it does not flow — it just sits there, making it easy for frogs, lizards, and other things to contaminate it. This is unlike the pure, fresh water of a spring.
Now the Lord tells us His people have done two wrong things. First, they abandoned God, the fountain of living water. They are thirsty, yet they refuse the water that truly satisfies. This is pride — a refusal to accept the only source that truly quenches thirst. Pride ultimately leads to destruction. It’s like a sick person who refuses medicine, saying, “I won’t take your treatment.”
But that isn’t all. Instead of trusting God, they try to build their own sources of life — digging their own wells. They think they can secure water for themselves, but all they end up with are temporary, leaking cisterns.
This is what idol worship really looks like: When people let money take the place of God, that becomes their cistern. When education or skill becomes more important than the Lord, that becomes a cistern. When pleasure, success, relationships, or any worldly thing becomes the thing they trust instead of God — that’s digging a broken cistern.
People chase these things looking for satisfaction, and for a moment they feel relief. But soon afterward — regret. They never find lasting life or peace.
But there is hope.
Christ is the true Fountain. You don’t have to dig for this water — it’s already been given. Come and drink. Let the thirst for sin and worldly things die — and instead, live a life of peace and spiritual growth. The water that Christ gives brings eternal life.
John 4:13‑14 (KJV) “Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”
Stop digging broken cisterns.
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