Our intentions often do not result in the expectations we imagined. Our childhoods provide reminders of good intentions producing undesired outcomes, those times we meant to do something special—cleaning only to make a worse mess or making Mom breakfast when we rose early and proceeded to turn the kitchen upside down (spilt milk, egg shells cooked into something inedible).
The Lᴏʀᴅ uses the example of a cistern to relate how we are prone to substitute less-ers for Him. In Israel, water was a prized commodity which in many regions came only at certain times of the year. Cisterns were hewn out of the rocky ground and stored the water from the rainy times so that it would be available in the dry seasons when the rain did not fall and the rivers dried up. Survivability depended upon the integrity of the cistern.
This analogy focuses on two faults: First, we first have the source of good, clean, fresh, viable water and second, the means to contain that water so it would be available when needed. The application is spiritual, first, turning away from God as the source of Living Water, and second, creating inferior cisterns to hold that Living Water.
Later, Jeremiah laments, “O Lᴏʀᴅ, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be put to shame; those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the Lᴏʀᴅ, the fountain of living water.” 1
We could either ignore the source of Living Water or we could try to contain it in something/someone ill-equipped for Living Water. Jesus gave us a parable about containers when He spoke of old and new wineskins indicating only the new wineskin 2 is suitable for newness of life. He also identified that only those who believe in Him could contain this,
Let us be engaged in the Living Water and have the Life in Jesus that contains such precious life.