Day 27 Cisterns vs springs



Jeremiah 2:13
“My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water

Have you read this verse before and perhaps pictured a cistern as being some sort of a hole in the ground, lined with a waterproof material - maybe like a square tank or a garden pond? Well that's what I always presumed a cistern was. And therefore the words of the Lord to Jeremiah seem perfectly reasonable - who in their right minds would opt for a small amount of stagnant water in a pot when they can have springs of living water from God?

But then I saw this



This is a cistern!! This one is in Istanbul and dates from the 4th century. But its not unreasonable to surmise that this is the sort of structure people were also building in the time of Jeremiah. In the above pictured cistern there are 336 giant columns (mostly Ionic or Corinthian in style) supporting the structure in 12 rows of 28 columns.

- It's estimated that there were more than 80 underground cisterns in Istanbul, but this is the largest and the best excavated.

- This Istanbul underground cistern is the size of a cathedral; it is 143m long and 65m wide and can hold up to 80,000 cubic meters (or 17.5 million gallons) of water.

That puts a whole different spin on the Jeremiah verse doesn't it? (Well it does for me anyway)  Here we have a vast, huge amount of water, enough to last a person for several lifetimes over (average lifetime consumption of water 110,000 gallons apparently)  This water probably isnt going to run out even if the cistern is leaking. If this was the sort of water supply system familiar to Jeremiah and his audience they might well have been thinking ' but we arent ever going to run out of water, our cisterns are doing a good job.  They do hold water, why is God saying they don't?'

Well perhaps God was saying that however spectacular and well thought out our own plans, regardless of how well they work and how satisfied we are with them, if they aren't His plans they aren't life-giving. We know this of course.  But today Im wondering how many areas of my life are 'of my own doing' rather than springing from His source.  Is the house in which I live a spring or a cistern? Is my job a spring or a cistern? Is the way I relate to my family and my friends coming from a complicated and watertight construct I have devised to keep  everyone happy and myself sane. Or do I rely on Jesus in every interaction and conversation?   The 'watertight 'word is interesting.  We like things to be watertight dont we? We like solid and safe and foolproof.  But the ever gushing spring doesnt bother with watertight.  It doesnt want to be contained.  It wants to gush and overflow and soak and flood and take us out of our depth until we are swimming. (Ezekiel 47;4)

Back to the verse we started with. There are two sins mentioned.  One is forsaking and the other is digging.  Let's commit again today to do neither.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 1 getting your eye in

Image
 Another Lent another blog.  This one is going to be a listening to God one rather than a study one, 2024 was a very eventful year for me.  I lost my Mum at the very end of 23 and her funeral was how  I started the year,  Then there  was her house to sort out, contents to deal with, probate to sort and house to sell in England.  At the same time a couple at church announced they were moving away for work for a couple of years and on the spur of the moment we decided to rent their house, get our own house completely rewired and put it on the market.  So 24 years worth of 'stuff' got sorted, packed and moved. Then our own house needed to be completely redecorated after the re-wire before putting it on the market. Phew, Im an old lady these days. Im surprised I survived! The house we are living in at the moment is great. Its two minutes from church.  And about 12 minutes from Hollywood beach - a lovely long bay overlooking the port where boats a...
Read more

Day 14. Silver

Image
Today is my silver wedding anniversary.  25 years ago I was preparing to walk down the aisle in Edinburgh City Fellowship with my Dad.  I was preparing to leave the keys of my Portobello house into the estate agent and move my life over the water to Northern Ireland.  Id already handed in my notice to work,  settled Cara and Katelin (my teenage foster kid and her baby)  into their new home.  It was a day of the most monumental change.  Everything after that day was different.  Not least the fact of finally being married after 34 years of singleness. To say I wasnt really ready for all the changes was an understatement. The change from single to married was huge and very disconcerting. The change from Scotland to Northern Ireland was much more complex than I had anticipated.  The loss of friends and church family was painful.  But when you are in love and you know that God has a plan then you just adapt and gird your loins and get on with...
Read more

Day 44 - prayer request

 Im going to do something I dont think Ive ever done in the 11 years of writing the blogs - take one whole post to ask you all to pray for something very specific Tomorrow (Friday) Im going to go and pray with someone who Im pretty sure needs deliverance. This is really important. The person concerned has been struggling with their identity (not gender identity) for about a year, believing all sorts of lies about who they are and their value to Jesus, their family and the world.  A negative spiral is now becoming a suicidal spiral - and whilst I genuinely dont believe that all mental health issues have demonic roots Ive been pretty sure for a while that this one has. The issue thats going round in my head is to do with my Messiah complex 😂😂 In my head I am pretty confident about going into a deliverance situation - I know what to do and I absolutely know beyond a shadow of a doubt that no amount of darkness is a problem for Jesus. This person is a Christian, so we are talkin...
Read more