Living Water & Cracked Cisterns

“Behind every tragedy of human character lies a long process of wicked thinking.” When I was a young boy, Dad would often recite this quote from a little booklet titled, Chapel Sayings of Dr. Bob Jones Sr. It has stuck with me ever since. It reminds me of the Casting Crowns song “Slow Fade,” released in 2007: “People never crumble in a day; it’s a slow fade.” It is those little things that we first tolerate, then befriend, then love and worship that betray us in the end. But they usually don’t reveal their true ugliness in the early days, do they?

Think of addictions. If Ed Welch is correct, the descent into addiction looks something like this. First, we are unprepared or indifferent to the idol of our choice. Then we befriend it; it serves some utility purpose, and it provides temporary pleasure. Next, we become infatuated with it as it takes on more and more importance. In fact, we’ll defend it, lie about it, and vehemently deny that it poses a problem. Even when our idol eventually betrays us, we will cling to it because we truly believe it is more helpful than hurtful. In the end, it has enslaved us. Step by step we have abandoned our Fountain of Living Water and have dug cracked cisterns for ourselves that cannot hold water (Jeremiah 2:13).

It’s a sobering thought as we consider our own lives, which Matthew 7:3-5 tells us we must do. What is our relationship with idols in our own hearts? Are we taking some of those early steps away from our First Love, slowly abandoning the LORD our God, turning our back to him instead of our face? Are we indifferent to worthless, useless idols in our lives, slowly following them more and more, holding their hand even as they betray us?

But then we turn to the counseling room. Where is the counselee? Does he realize that he is abandoning his First Love? Does he see that indifference and friendship with idols leads to infatuation and love, and all of that leads to betrayal and slavery? His idol is not his friend!

This is why Jeremiah, who writes about these “cracked cisterns,” also writes multiple laments. He grieves terribly as he witnesses the downfall of his beloved city. The city weeps bitterly; she has been betrayed by her idols; she never considered her end, but her downfall was astonishing! (Lamentations 1:2, 9). That’s the way it always is when we abandon the Fountain of Living Water for cracked cisterns. It ends in slavery, betrayal, and destruction.

However, there is hope. “Even if [the LORD] causes suffering, he will show compassion according to the abundance of his faithful love. For he does not enjoy bringing affliction or suffering on mankind” (Lamentations 3:32-33). Abandon your cracked cisterns—flee! Return to the Fountain of Living Water, and experience his never-ending mercies. Great is his faithfulness.

~ Pastor James La-Follette ~

Resources

1 This 14-page booklet is still available here: https://store.kjv1611.org/chapel-sayings-of-bob-jones-sr/
2 Casting Crowns, “Slow Fade,” track 3 on The Altar and the Door, Beach Street Records and Reunion Records, 2007, compact disc.
3 Ed Welch, “The Descent Into Addiction,” in Addictions: a banquet in the grave: finding hope in the power of the gospel (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2001), 65-83.