Forsaking Jehovah,
the Fountain of Living Waters
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Jeremiah 2:13 says, “My people have committed two evils: / They have forsaken Me, / The fountain of living waters, / To hew out for themselves cisterns, / Broken cisterns, / Which hold no water. ” God’s intention in His economy is to be the fountain, the source, of living waters to satisfy His chosen people for their enjoyment. The goal of this enjoyment is to produce the church as God’s increase, God’s enlargement, to be God’s fullness for His expression. This is the heart’s desire, the good pleasure (Eph. 1:5 , 9), of God in His economy. The full development of this thought is in the New Testament, but it is sown as a seed in Jeremiah 2:13 .
God’s economy is to dispense Himself as the living water to produce His increase, His enlargement, to be His expression. This thought is developed in the writings of John. In John 1:1 and 14 we see that the Word, which was God, became flesh, full of grace and reality. Verse 16 goes on to say, “For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. ” In chapter four of John the Lord Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman concerning living water (vv. 10 , 14). In John 7:38 He said, “He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. ” In Revelation 21 and 22 we have a vision of the New Jerusalem, which is a great sign of God’s increase for His expression. Revelation 22:1 and 2 show us that in the New Jerusalem the river of life flows and that in this river grows the tree of life as the life supply to support and sustain the entire city. What we have in the writings of John is surely the growth of the seed sown in Jeremiah 2:13
Then God came in to call another man by the name of Abraham. Through Abraham God gained a people whom He brought out of Egypt to Mount Sinai. There God gave them the law, the Pentateuch, through Moses. We may say that this was the origin of Judaism, the origin of the Jewish religion. It was founded absolutely according to God’s holy Word, but gradually the children of Israel became corrupted and rotten because they forsook God Himself as their source, the fountain of living waters. In Jeremiah 2:13 , Jehovah said, “My people have committed two evils: / They have forsaken Me, / The fountain of living waters, / To hew out for themselves cisterns, / Broken cisterns / Which hold no water. ” All the idols are broken cisterns, which cannot retain water. The two evils are forsaking God and joining with Satan in worshipping idols. These are the two evils that resulted in the failure of the people of Israel, who were the descendants of Abraham in an earthly sense as the dust of the earth (Gen. 13:16). God sent the Babylonians to come to devastate Jerusalem and the temple and carry the people away into captivity in 606 B. C. Of course, God brought a remnant of them back after seventy years to rebuild the temple (Jer. 29:10), but that recovery did not last too long.
The pleasures lost I sadly mourned,
But never wept for Thee,
Till grace the sightless eyes received,
Thy loveliness to see.
Verse four was my experience when I was young. I mourned for some of the fun times my peers enjoyed and I passed up. But I found grace and satisfaction in Him. But now I see these things never satisfied my old friends and I can proclaim the chorus as my testimony.
Now none but Christ can satisfy,
None other name for me;
There’s love and life and lasting joy,
Lord Jesus, found in Thee.
I have a deep satisfaction in Christ that is ever lasting!
Often times I come to the Lord for Happiness and rest not loving His as He deserves. This song come to me, then I repent and seek to love the Lord Himself and not His gifts
The line that came to my mind this morning was ‘O the bliss till then I known. ’
Bliss in a broken world. It’s only found in Jesus. He is our hope in our fragile world. He is my everything. Bliss - perfect joy, lasting happiness here and now, and then eternal bliss. Amen
There are times in our life when loneliness pierces our soul, when no matter how many people are around us, we feel completely and utterly alone. It is in these moments that the Lord sings this hymn within me and reminds me that "None but Christ can satisfy," Whenever we put our hope and love in a name other than Christ, there can only be disappointment eventually. But there is "love and life and lasting joy, Lord Jesus, found in Thee." Lord, fill our every part with Yourself, only You satisfy!
I've always enjoyed this hymn but never so much as now, especially stanza 4 which before had never stood out to me.
The pleasures lost I sadly mourned,
But never wept for Thee,
Till grace the sightless eyes received,
Thy loveliness to see.
"The well and the waterpot meant so much to the Samaritan woman, but after she recognized Christ, she spontaneously gave up those cherished things and went to the people, testifying that Christ was now her satisfying life... The Samaritan woman did not go to her people with the doctrine of Christ; she first gained Christ and then went to them with Christ."
What a glorious and encouraging hymn. We sang it a lot as young people at our youth fellowship at church and also sang it regularly at our morning services. True satisfaction is found in Christ alone! But we sometimes or is it often forget that don't we? And go off looking for satisfaction in Al the wrong places. Let's continually seek living water from Christ and him alone.