Category Devotionals

Broken Cisterns Can Hold No Water

Todd R 2 Comments

Sometimes word pictures in the Bible weren’t written for people like me.  In my life I haven’t thought much of cisterns, but the Old Testament prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah refer to them a few times in their prophecies, and Jeremiah ends up thrown into one.  To Jeremiah’s original audience, and others living now, the meaning behind these pictures might be obvious.  But for me, it took a little research.

A cistern-centered comparison in Jeremiah 3:12-13 particularly drew my attention, where broken cisterns are used as a picture of false religion and idolatry:

“Be appalled, O heavens, at this;
            be shocked, be utterly desolate,
            declares the LORD,
for my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
            the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
            broken cisterns that can hold no water.”

God is the “fountain of living waters,” but how is false religion like “broken cisterns”?

Looking up “cistern” in the American Heritage Dictionary I find it is: “A receptacle for holding water or other liquid, especially a tank for catching and storing rainwater.”  So, a cistern is not a fountain, a source of water, but instead is dependent on another source (usually rain) for its water.  So, Jeremiah’s accusation is that false religion can’t create its own water, which brings us to the second point…

The false religions of Judah in Jeremiah’s day weren’t even good cisterns – they were broken.  While a cistern is a vessel for storing water in reserve when there is no rain, when broken it’s not even that.  Even with another source of water, putting it into a broken cistern was no better than pouring it out into the sand.  Jeremiah’s second accusation is that false religion can’t even store good things from other sources.  The picture here is that if they took parts of true worship and mixed them with other religions, not only were the other religions wasted, but whatever they would have gained from God is also wasted.

Without God, many things are like broken cisterns.  Things that make us happy in this world are temporary and require our Creator God to provide us with more.  A food you like might satisfy you for a while, but eventually you need to find more food.  Rain may satisfy your garden plants, but eventually they will need more water.  Money may seem alluring for its own sake, but it only buys things that are temporary like everything else.

In Jeremiah 2:18, he tells the people not to look anywhere other than the true God of Israel for the source of living water and eternal satisfaction:

“And now what do you gain by going to Egypt
            to drink the waters of the Nile?
Or what do you gain by going to Assyria
            to drink the waters of the Euphrates?”

Like a cistern, even the Nile and Euphrates only get their water from some other source.  They can’t make their own, and God can even determine if the rivers are empty or full.  Later, in Jeremiah 14:2-3, he says that because Judah had forsaken God, He had caused a drought, and therefore:

“Judah mourns,
            and her gates languish;
her people lament on the ground,
            and the cry of Jerusalem goes up.
Her nobles send their servants for water;
            they come to the cisterns;
they find no water;
            they return with their vessels empty;
they are ashamed and confounded
            and cover their heads.”

The people mourned their earthly problem but did not care about their spiritual problem which is infinitely more important.  No provision – any science, philosophy, or religion – can defend against a drought caused by forsaking God, because false gods – anything we put in His place – cannot deliver rain.  They are but broken cisterns.

Consider that if there is no Creator behind the workings of nature, or if that Creator doesn’t care about us, why should we expect the world to act in ways that predictably bless us, instead of just being completely unpredictable and random?  Why do things seem to work most of the time?  Rain, friction, food, gravity, math, and on and on.  Fortunately, our God “sends rain on the just and on the unjust,”[1] and to His own He gives “a spring of water welling up to eternal life”[2]

He calls all people to know Him as “the fountain of living waters.”  No cistern needed.

Soli Deo Gloria

[1] Matthew 5:45
[2] John 4:14

Jesus is Patient and Kind Even When I am Not

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Jesus is patient and kind; Jesus does not envy or boast; Jesus is not arrogant or rude. Jesus does not insist on His own way; He is not irritable or resentful; He does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Jesus bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Knowing the love Jesus has for us is an encouraging thought. This paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 was suggested in a devotional I read in 2021 [1] for John 13:34 – “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”  James Boice said that we are not to “love” in any way we see fit, but as Jesus loved, which the above describes.

Based on John 13:34, Boice says we should be able to substitute “I” in place of “Jesus” and see what He commands us to be.  When I re-read the first paragraph with myself in mind, I see how much I fall short, but His love for me remains an encouragement.  He will be patient and kind with me.

Pray that we may get ever closer to living the love of Jesus.

[1] From “August 30.” James Montgomery Boice and Marion Clark. Come to the Waters: Daily Bible Devotions for Spiritual Refreshment.  (2017).

In Pursuit of Fruit

Todd R 2 Comments

What fruitful habits do you have for spending time with God?  Are there personal patterns in your relationship with Him through prayer, Bible study or other means?  Note that I write “fruitful” instead of “enjoyable” because although we’d like to enjoy every moment with God, as our Father He sometimes has to tell us things we won’t like immediately.  As Jesus said in John 15:2 – “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”

One example of a fruitful habit for me has been to study more than one book of the Bible at a time.  What do I mean by this?  For example, I currently have a goal to read 1-2 chapters each of the Psalms and the Pentateuch[1] daily, along with study Bible notes.  The idea came from a recent sermon, where the 5 books of Psalms were described as similar in theme to the 5 books of the Pentateuch.  Shortly after, I read that: “Just as Genesis tells how mankind was created, fell into sin, and was then promised redemption, many of these psalms [book 1, or Psalms 1-41] discuss humans as blessed, fallen, and redeemed by God.”[2]  With a little work, I was able to map out a schedule lining up the Psalm readings with the other readings and I’m trying to follow it.  Reading different parts together can help make connections I wouldn’t otherwise.  One connection recently led me to post about frustration with my cat and how it relates to Noah and the ark.

At other times, I’ve been reading a Gospel along with the Psalms, or one of the prophets because changing the pattern over time helps reveal unexpected context or connections.  I wouldn’t talk to a friend the same way over and over again, so why do it with God?  Years ago, when reading Psalm 46:10 and Matthew 21:15-16 on the same day led to a stark reminder that God is worthy of, and will receive, all praise.  These are those verses that nailed the point home:

“Be still, and know that I am God.
            I will be exalted among the nations,
            I will be exalted in the earth!”

“But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read,
             “‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies
                        you have prepared praise’?”

I know I can’t require God to speak to me in a certain way, but these occasional “accidents” from different parts of Scripture have reinforced each other in ways I might have never seen or might even have resisted.  Sometimes, we might prefer to keep certain truths away from certain parts of our lives, but when we make time to be quiet, listen and allow different parts of God’s word to collide in ways we didn’t expect, we may uncover an encouragement or a challenge that bears fruit.

What creative and fruitful habits do you have for spending time with God?

[1] The first five books of the Bible, sometimes called the books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy)
[2] Life Application Study Bible, introduction to the Psalms.

The Beautiful Letdown

Todd R 2 Comments

While this blog got its name from an old twenty øne piløts song called “Taxi Cab,” my second choice would be to use something from “The Beautiful Letdown” by Switchfoot.  The line – “set sail for the Kingdom come” – would have been a good blog title!  I’ve intended to post about the song for some time, and it fits in with this week’s other posts, so here we are.

The theme of “The Beautiful Letdown” is that while we don’t like being let down or disappointed, it’s a beautiful and blessed thing when we are let down by the things of this world, because that is when we can find God.  In Jeremiah 3:21-23, God calls His people to turn back to Him from the many temptations of the world in striking language:

“A voice on the bare heights is heard,
            the weeping and pleading of Israel’s sons
because they have perverted their way;
            they have forgotten the LORD their God.
“Return, O faithless sons;
            I will heal your faithlessness.”
“Behold, we come to you,
            for you are the LORD our God.
Truly the hills are a delusion,
            the orgies on the mountains.
Truly in the LORD our God
            is the salvation of Israel.”

The language is striking because we don’t like being told that the things we worship are a delusion, and we don’t like being accused of spiritual adultery, but regardless, being let down from the delusions of the world is a beautiful thing, because it’s a requirement for knowing God more deeply.  Back to the Switchfoot song, the lyrics say it’s beautiful when we find out that “all the riches this world had to offer me would never do,” but that “we’re still chasing our tails and the rising sun.”  It also says its ok to be “painfully uncool” by the world’s standards because those are the wrong standards.  We are “the church of the dropouts, the losers, the sinners, the failures and the fools.”

But perhaps my favorite part of the song is the bridge:

“Easy living, you’re not much like your name
Easy dying
Hey, you look just about the same
Won’t you please take me off your list
Easy living, please come on and let me down”

Wouldn’t it be nice to be “off the list” of messages from the world lying about how amazing it is, and how easy things would be if we just bought the right products and had the right lifestyle?  If only we floated along with the world’s idea of progress?  However, as C. S. Lewis wrote: “We all want progress…but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.”  Being let down by the world is a good thing.

To listen to the full song, click on the video below.
To just read the full lyrics on genius.com, use this link: https://genius.com/Switchfoot-the-beautiful-letdown-lyrics

“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” – Philippians 3:7-8

Beware the Bugblatter Beast of Traal

Todd R 2 Comments

Regular readers will know that I am a fan of Douglas Adams’ science fiction comedy novel The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.  Adams makes a comic art form of extreme absurdity, and one such creation is the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal.  In the book, intergalactic hitchhikers are urged to always travel with a towel, and among the reasons is that a towel is handy to wrap around your head to “avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you)”[1]  By simply covering your eyes, you can escape being devoured by this Beast, one of the least intelligent creatures in existence.

I thought of the Beast when reading Psalm 50:17, which says: “For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you.”  Why cast words behind us?  So we can’t see them, and if we can’t see them, we think we can safely ignore them.  Perhaps God will leave us alone, as if He does not exist.  But the verse is a warning not to be like the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal.  God can’t be swept under a rug and ignored.

There is an episode in the book of Ezekiel that would be comical if it weren’t so tragically similar to this Beast.  Ezekiel’s many images, object lessons, and visions are designed to stir God’s people from complacency and turn back to Him.  To fully convince Ezekiel that the nation was casting God’s word behind them, Ezekiel was taken in a vision inside the temple in Jerusalem, and this is what he saw:

“So I went in and saw. And there, engraved on the wall all around, was every form of creeping things and loathsome beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel.  And before them stood seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan standing among them. Each had his censer in his hand, and the smoke of the cloud of incense went up.  Then he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in his room of pictures? For they say, ‘The LORD does not see us, the LORD has forsaken the land.’” – Ezekiel 8:10-12

Ezekiel was a prophet to Jews already exiled to Babylon, but Jerusalem itself had not yet fallen, and many Jews thought it was impossible.  But inside the temple, the very place symbolizing God’s presence and glorious light, the elders of Israel were worshipping Egyptian-style animal deities and using incense to ward off evil spirits.  They sinned, while saying God couldn’t see them because they don’t see evidence of Him in their circumstances: “the LORD has forsaken the land.”  How like the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal!

Later, in Ezekiel 9:9, the prophet records:“Then [God] said to me, “The guilt of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great. The land is full of blood, and the city full of injustice. For they say, ‘The LORD has forsaken the land, and the LORD does not see.’”

Can this dry land live again? Photo by Tobias Jelskov on Unsplash

Sometimes by casting His words behind us, we may think we are forsaken.  We interpret His word in light of our circumstances, instead of interpreting our circumstances in light of His word.  It is when the church acts like God doesn’t see that we should be fearful.  When the church claims Jesus as Savior but not as Lord.  When the church trusts in worldly power, not God’s power.  When the church struggles to see how their very Maker and King is, as they say, “relevant.” 

In Ezekiel chapter 10, the glory of Lord departs the Jerusalem temple entirely, and all of Judah was exiled, but Ezekiel’s message wasn’t finished.  He also proclaims hope, most dramatically in chapter 37, the “Valley of Dry Bones” vision.  Ezekiel sees dry bones scattered everywhere across a valley, symbolizing how spiritually dead God’s own people appear.  The vision is a test for Ezekiel: would he look at the valley and assume, based on the immediate circumstances, that “The LORD has forsaken the land, and the LORD does not see”?  In verse 3, he writes: “And he said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’”  Ezekiel doesn’t jump to conclusions but trusts that God knows best: “And I answered, ‘O Lord GOD, you know.’”  Symbolizing new life in Christ, even from death, God re-assembles the dry bones, adds sinew and flesh and skin, then breathes life into them, “and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.”[2]

In the Valley of Dry Bones, Ezekiel learned that God does see our dire situation, and He has a plan, even if we choose to look the other way.  This plan is infinitely and eternally more “relevant” than any present (and temporary) circumstances.

In the New Testament the plan continues with an Ebenezer[3] moment, as the apostle Paul wrote: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4-6)

[1] Adams, Douglas. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.  (1980).
[2] Ezekiel 37:10b
[3] Ebenezer, the ‘But God…’ Squirrel, is the blog’s mascot and a reminder that, no matter the situation, God can overcome it, and the words “But God…” in the Bible are often moments where that happens.