(Jeremiah 2:13) God is the spring of living water, but you dig your own water cisterns.

What does this mean that God is the spring of living water? 

It means that God is the eternal source from which living water—the living presence of God, the Holy Spirit—flows without end. Living water never stops flowing. 

Jesus declares in John 4:10 that if we ask of him, he will give us living water. In John 4:14, Jesus says, “The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

In John 7:37-39, Jesus proclaimed in the Jerusalem temple, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Jesus is echoing Isaiah 55:1, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters…”

This is amazing truth of God’s grace and provision of ongoing spiritual renewal and healing through his ever-present Spirit.

However, the prophet Jeremiah in this passage confronts the people of Israel because they had chosen to dig there own water cisterns, instead of drinking from the living water that flows from God by his Spirit. 

The point of Jeremiah’s message is that the people of Israel no longer looked to God as their source of spiritual life and provision, but dug water cisterns in their own strength and depended on their own provisions for life. 

The contrast Jeremiah is making is that God is our eternal source of living water, but Israel rejected God and chose to dig water cisterns that do run dry. 

We are no different than Israel, we have the same chose. 

Do you daily thirst and drink from God’s living water, his ever-present Spirit? This chose brings constant spiritual renewal and growth.

Or do you dig your own self-made and self-reliant religious water cisterns that will simply dry up. This chose leads only to spiritual decline and emptiness.