I’m studying Jeremiah and came across a great verse. God describes the sin that Judah has committed against Him (idolatry) by comparing it to someone who needs water and goes about it in the dumbest way possible…
For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
(Jeremiah 2:13)
Judah’s sin is two-fold but both are a symptom of their foolishness. First, they have forsaken the Lord, who describes Himself here as a “fountain of living waters.” That segues nicely to the next thing they did: They made cisterns which can hold no water.
A cistern is a clay pot partially buried in the ground and intended to collect rainwater. So Judah has, on the one hand, rejected the cool, refreshing fountain of God and instead decided to drink rainwater…by relying on a jar that has no hole on the top!
This is the futility of idolatry. Judah rejected Jehovah and decided to trust in idols. But what can an idol do? How does an idol even compare to God? Can an idol speak? Can an idol hear? Can an idol protect? Can an idol attack? There is no comparison between an idol and Jehovah. In fact, the ONLY thing they have in common is the fact that both are worshipped, but only one of them ought to be.
It’s like comparing a sandwich and a tennis ball. Can you eat a tennis ball? If you cut it up you can. It won’t taste good and it’ll probably make you very sick, but technically you can eat a tennis ball. Does that make it food? I guess anything’s food if you’re stupid enough.
Anything can be a “god” if you’re dumb enough to worship it.
But there is only one “true” God. There is only one God who can actually do all the things God can do, and to reject that one God for an idol is like rejecting a fountain for a rainwater collecting scheme, while living in the desert, using a jar with a lid on it.
~ Matthew