Scripture: Jeremiah 2:12-13
Date: May 29, 2011
Speaker: Sean Higgins
The phrase shock and awe comes from the military world. It is a method of warfare that attempts not just to defeat the enemy, but to destroy the enemy’s will to fight through a spectacular display of power.
In order to accomplish “shock and awe,” the attacking army must have four things:
It is a lightening war, where speed and power catch the enemy off-guard and unprepared. It is the kind of battle where swift troop maneuvers and rapid, precision guided munitions don’t just overpower, they steamroll the adversary and crush their very will to fight. A “shock and awe” campaign seeks to demoralize and dishearten. It is more than just guns and bullets and bombs. It is so many guns and bullets and bombs so well timed that it breaks the spirit, it dumbfounds, it traumatizes.
As you might imagine, “shock and awe” is difficult to accomplish. You need detailed knowledge of your enemy’s weakness, you must have massive amounts of firepower, you’ve got to coordinate an extensive attack, and your execution of the plan must be flawless. Only a few armies in the history of the world have been capable of this level of crushing attack.
But do you realize that a similar shock and awe offensive transpires every day? It is not a military campaign conducted by expertly trained soldiers. It is not a massive operation requiring extensive strategy and skillful organization. It is not an attack on some weaker enemy that is put into shock by a superior power.
This shock and awe effect is produced every day— when you get a drink.
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.
Jeremiah 2:12-13
Of course, when I talk about getting a drink, I’m not talking about a cup of coffee or a can of Coke or a glass of water. When I talk about getting a drink I’m not talking about how you quench the thirst of your body, I’m talking about how you satisfy the thirst of your soul.
Just as our tongues thirst for water so our hearts thirst for fulfillment. Every day each one of us searches out and drinks from whatever we believe will satisfy our hearts and slake the thirst of our souls for happiness and meaning and usefulness. And here’s the thing, if you don’t get this drink in the right place it is cause for shock and awe.
Look at the intensity of the vocabulary in verse 12. These are words that we don’t use in day to day conversation. Be appalled…be shocked, be utterly desolate. In other words, be awestruck, be astounded, be horrified! This is the terminology of total unexpectedness or complete inappropriateness. These are words we reserve for things that are unbelievable, even unthinkable. Who can imagine that such things could be done?
And look who/or what is shocked, “be appalled O heavens.” In this dramatic address, “O heavens,” God is crying out to the universe as His witness of these great atrocities. All of creation is summoned to shock and awe, or as the NIV translates it, “to shudder with great terror.”
Imagine a cosmic courtroom scene with all creation on the witness stand, the Lord as both Prosecutor and Judge, but who are the defendants? And what crimes could possibly be so horrific?
The defendants and the charges against them are found in v.13. First, the defendants, for My people. All of chapter 2 has been addressed to the Jews—to those in Jerusalem (v.2), of the house of Jacob, of the house of Israel (v.4). The first thing that stands out is that the ones on trial are not the ones we expect to find. These are not the “scum of the earth.” These are the good people, the good citizens; they are God’s people. These are the temple-goers, or in our day, the church-goers.
So what have they done? What could possibly be that bad? Were God’s people slaughtering women and children? Were they committing adultery? Or both? Or worse? No. They were charged with drinking from the wrong place.
What is so shocking and appalling, what God called creation to testify against, was where His people were going to quench the thirst of their soul. They had committed two evils. First, they had forsaken God, and second, they pursued their own avenues of satisfaction.
two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.
Some of the evidence of this cistern-hewing was already presented earlier in chapter 2. They stopped thinking about the Lord (v.6). The Lord was not a concern in their lives. He was no longer a part of their decisions or their priorities or their pursuits, even though He was the very God who orchestrated their exodus from Egypt. Even the priests stopped thinking about the Lord and disregarded His Word (v.8). Apparently some of the spiritual “leaders” even turned to serve other gods (v.11).
They had forsaken God and turned to other, empty things. They “went after worthlessness” (v.4). They went after “things that do not profit” (v.8) and again after “things that do not profit” (v.11).
It doesn’t even make sense that they would do this. This isn’t rational. Look back at verse 13. If you really want to have your thirst quenched, if you want to be satisfied, where do you go to get a drink? In Israel there were probably three or four options for getting water and two of them are compared here: a fountain of living waters, and a man-made, broken, and therefore empty cistern are the two choices here.
So what exactly is a cistern? A cistern is basically a reservoir or tank of sort, typically hewn—that is carved—out. Cisterns were dugout pits of various sizes in places that could catch the maximum amount of rain water. Cisterns were necessary for life because water was necessary for survival. In a predominately desert region, if there wasn’t a nearby well or a stream, let a alone a fountain, cisterns were the source of life.
But imagine the scene in Jeremiah 2:13. Let’s say it’s Tuesday and you began work at sunrise out in the fields. A few hours later the mid-day sun is beating down and you’ve worked up quite a thirst. So you put down your shovel or your hoe or whatever tool you have and take a break to get a drink. You’ve got two options: on one hand you look down into an empty, cracked, hot, dusty hole in the rock, and on the other hand is a flowing, fresh, cool, bubbling fountain of water. After considering both options, you choose the dry cistern.
Of course, all you get is a mouthful of dirt. You barely have enough saliva left to lick the dust off of your lips. (Are you thirsty yet?) There is no relief, even temporarily. Your thirst is not quenched. You find no refreshment. You walk away dissatisfied. Of course you would! It was a forgone conclusion. A satisfying drink was never even possible from that bone-dry, broken hole in the ground.
And yet hour by hour you come back to try again. Day after day you choose the cistern. You carve the hole bigger and patch every leak you can find trying to fix it, but every time you bow your head to drink all you get is dirt. All the while the fresh, flowing, abundant, living fountain is right there. It is so close that you can probably hear drops splashing and gathering into little pools. Maybe you even feel the mist from the fountain, blown by a light breeze onto the back of your neck while you’re bent over at the cistern.
This is worse than just stupid. Most of us would see that scenario and think, “Hey, if you want to be stupid, that’s your choice.” No doubt we’d call it foolish; but God calls it evil! This is the most shocking and appalling atrocity in the universe! It is a cosmic crime to seek satisfaction for your heart from the wrong place.
Why? Why is this so outrageous? What makes this so offensive, especially compared to many other sins? Why is drinking from a cistern so wicked? Because it is an immeasurable disregard for God. It is the ultimate slap-in-the-face to Him. For you to see Him there and know Him to be the living fountain and then shrug Him off as no real importance and ignore Him is the most scandalous, revolting, nauseating thing in the universe. Then attempting to find a satisfying drink in other places is just the other side of the same scandal. Creation is shocked. We should be too.
We don’t usually consider neglect such a serious sin. So why is this disregard so disgusting and dreadful?
It is easier to acknowledge the dishonor done to God by sins of commission than omission. Crossing a line God has prohibited is a clear violation of His authority. But simply failing to do something is typically not considered as despicable. So what is it about failing to drink from the living fountain that is cause for the creation’s shock and awe? What moves it beyond simple foolishness and makes it an ultimate and infinite evil? Let me try and expand on why it is wrong to drink from a cistern with three ideas.
When we ignore God it is not like neglecting a stranger that we have no relation to. It is not like brushing off a friend or a sibling, someone we have a relationship with, someone we consider to be on our level of importance. Even more, it isn’t like disregarding our parents who provide necessary food, shelter, and clothing—let alone love and guidance—as disrespectful as that is.
Or looking at it from the other side, we don’t like it when someone doesn’t trust us. We take offense when we serve and care for someone who disregards us. Spurned love is ugly, as you might imagine a husband who doesn’t appreciate his wife. Unthankfulness is ugly, as when kids fail to demonstrate gratitude. Those kinds of disregard are inappropriate, disgraceful, and perhaps we might say that to varying degrees even shocking.
So then a disregard for God is an infinite evil because He is infinitely greater than us. He is no stranger, He is not on our level, He is not just providing a few of our daily needs. His position is infinitely superior and we are totally dependent on Him. God is our life! We don’t have another breath without Him! Nothing could be more inexcusable or more despicable than to disregard Him. It is almost unspeakable.
In a book titled, The End for Which God Created the World, Jonathan Edwards suggests this fictional, yet thought provoking scenario. Imagine if there were an infinitely wise, third party observer between God and men. And what if this third party observer were to make judgments between God and creation as to their worth and value and how much. The one task of this detached judge would be to weigh things in the balance to see who was greater and who was lesser and by what degree one was greater and the other lesser.
And imagine that all the parties (namely, God and men/creation) agreed beforehand that after this wise judge made his conclusions, it would be necessary that:
the degree of regard should always be in…the proportion of existence and proportion of excellence. (142)
It wouldn’t even stretch the judge’s wisdom or take too many calculations to determine what proportion of regard should be allotted to the Creator and what portion to His creatures. As Edwards concludes, in our case the whole system of created beings would be regarded as “light dust on the balance or even as the air itself” compared to God in His eternal existence and infinite excellence.
As He is every way the first and supreme, and as His excellency is in all respects the supreme beauty and glory, the original good, and fountain of all good, so He must have in all respects the supreme glory. (143)
(So)…every wheel, in all its rotations, should move with a constant invariable regard to Him. (144)
To Him belongs the whole of the respect that any intelligent being is capable of. To Him belongs ALL the heart. (emphasis Edwards, 141).
He is the supreme source and so deserves the supreme respect. Every time a wheel goes around it should not do anything but give regard to God, without fail, without taking a break. And so if God has just part of your heart, that is an infinite sin in proportion to His existence and excellence. When we value something of lesser value, when we drink from the broken cistern rather than the living fountain, we have substituted something of utter inferiority for the infinitely superior God. There is no greater call for shock and awe.
Not only does disregarding God fail to give proper attention to His greatness, but attempting to drink from the wrong source dismisses God’s primary and eternal plan.
What is His ultimate, eternal purpose? Soli Deo Gloria—for the glory of God alone! “All things are from Him and through Him and to Him. To Him be all the glory forever” (cf. Romans 11:33-36). Everything He does is for the praise of His glory (Ephesians 1:6, 13).
God is passionate for His own glory. He has to be.
All things else, with regard to worthiness, importance, and excellence, are perfectly as nothing in comparison of Him. And therefore, if God has respect to things according to their nature and proportions, He must necessarily have the greatest respect to Himself. (The End for Which God Created the World, 140)
This is brilliant logic. In other words, if He is omniscient (and He is), then He knows all thing perfectly. Therefore He knows infallibly what has the greatest value, the most importance, and the supreme excellence. In every case, He must recognize Himself to be the best.
God could not esteem His creation greater than Himself as it would be inappropriate to honor the universe higher than its Creator. God could not favor any other being more than Himself since He Himself is source of all life.
So if God is the best—and infinitely so—then for Him to seek the glory of anyone else but Himself would be wrong. He would ultimately be an idolator to recognize or regard anything else higher than Himself. He is the only being in the universe for whom getting glory for self is not only okay, it is righteous.
I should think that these things might incline us to suppose that God has not forgot Himself in the ends for which He proposed the creation of the world. (145)
God knows what He’s doing and it is for Himself and His glory alone.
For My own sake, for My own sake, I do it, for how should My name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another. (Isaiah 48:11)
And as God values His glory, and does everything He does for His glory, so He expects—and here is His eternal purpose—that His creatures are passionate for His glory, and do everything they do for His sake. It is His eternal purpose to get glory for Himself from us.
So we come to one of the key questions: if glorifying God is His eternal purpose, and if God expects us to be passionate about glorifying Him to the degree of honor He deserves, how do we give God glory?
Edwards indicates two ways. First, God is glorified by us knowing Him. When we know and see and understand, both from creation and from Scripture, who He is and what He is like and what He has done, etc., God is glorified. Our knowledge of Him is decisive. If we don’t study God and know the truth about God we will be unable to honor Him appropriately. We won’t appreciate Him properly without learning about His supremacy. That is why doctrine and theology must not be overlooked or forgotten. Truth expands and shapes our understanding of God’s greatness.
However, knowledge of God is not the only way to give God glory, nor is it the highest way. Right knowledge of Him is necessary, but knowledge alone is not enough. If knowledge about God was the only requirement then we could give God no more glory than Satan and the demons can. For that matter, even those currently suffering in hell know far more of the reality of God’s greatness than we do. The truth is that many people know a lot of things about God but do not give Him glory.
So what is the answer? How does God fulfill His eternal purpose to get glory for Himself in us?
He that testifies his idea of God’s glory doesn’t glorify God so much as he that testifies also of his approbation of it and his delight in it.
This is why everything must be done for the love of God. We do not glorify God to the degree He deserves by simply knowing facts about Him. Knowing details of doctrine is worthless if that’s all we have. Facts are necessary, but facts must lead to affection.
Here is the second way to glorify Him: God is glorified by us loving Him. From eternity past His purpose has been to get glory, and so the Father planned to communicate to us in a way that we would love Him. He sent His Son to die on the cross to pay our penalty for not loving Him, and then sent His Spirit to take away our hearts of stone so that we could love Him. All three Persons of the Trinity are a part of this plan to stir our affections for Him. Our abounding love for Him was His plan in eternity past and is His everlasting purpose towards the getting of His greatest glory.
There are may reasons to think that what God as in view, in an increasing communication of Himself through eternity, is an increasing knowledge of God, love to Him, and joy in Him. (159)
So if we are drinking from other fountains, we are delighting in and loving something more than God. If God is not the satisfaction of our hearts, then we are guilty of disregarding the entire point of existence. Knowledge of God, and love for God, are the center of God’s eternal plan to bring Himself praise. That is why all of life must be lived for the love of God if we are going to glorify Him as He deserves. The ultimate end of creation hangs on us not just knowing about the fountain, but drinking from it.
To marinate our minds a bit longer in this truth, right knowledge is necessary, but it’s not enough. There must be knowledge AND love. And not only is this reasonable, more importantly it is biblical:
To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lamp-stands. “I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for My name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lamp-stand from its place, unless you repent.” Revelation 2:1-5
The church in Ephesus was doctrinally sound—testing and rejecting the false teaching. They were patient in suffering and sacrificing on behalf of the Lord. But the Lord still had something against them: they had abandoned their love. They no longer had white hot affection for Him like at the beginning of their relationship. This lack of love demanded repentance because lack of love is a disregard for God and His purpose to get glory. In other words,
Sin is trying to quench our un-quenchable soul-thirst anywhere but in God. Or, more subtly, sin is pursuing satisfaction in the right direction, but with lukewarm, halfhearted affections. (John Piper, God’s Passion for His Glory, 81)
For a creature to disregard the Creator’s eternal purpose is shockingly sinful.
Even though it isn’t explicit in verse 13, there is an implicit promise in the verse. The promise is of satisfaction. Though we don’t deserve it, though all of us have hewn our own cisterns and tried to suck life out of dirt, God beckons us to come and drink deeply from the fountain of His pleasures. The implication in verse 13 is that if we would only drink we would obtain delight and satisfaction. Water from the fountain of living waters is available to quench our thirst!
It is astonishing that we can have it! The fountain is not days off in the distance. God has not hidden or obscured it. It doesn’t require epic journeys or heroic feats or impossible fortunes to have this water. He has generously promised it to us if we will but turn to Him—the fountain of living waters. So, “Drink!” “Be satisfied!”
This call to drink is in other passages as well. For example,
When the poor and needy seek water,and there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst, I the Lord will answer them; I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. (Isaiah 41:17-18)
Note that God is personally interested and involved in providing for the thirsty who seek Him.
Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live. (Isaiah 55:1-3)
But perhaps the most well known and specific of these promises comes from Jesus Himself.
There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:7-14)
This is a gracious promise indeed, and what a mockery it is to seek life by sucking from the dust and disregarding His promise.
Where we drink from is of universal, eternal, and divine interest. Where you seek satisfaction and happiness either regards God appropriately or it disregards Him infinitely. When we drink from other sources than God Himself, that is a disregard for His infinite position, His eternal purpose, and His gracious promise.
Drinking from a cistern is a sin of infinite proportions because it makes God appear only as glorious as the proportion of our affections for Him. Failing to love Him with all of our hearts and souls and minds and strength relegates Him to a lower position. Our weak affections make it look like He is not worthy or lovely which couldn’t be further from reality. This is a great insult and a bold-faced scorning of God which He doesn’t take lightly. His wrath is coming on those who, though they know about God, do not honor Him as God or give Him thanks (Romans 1:21).
Some of us know the right place to get the water. We can describe the fountain of living water with great accuracy. Maybe we even understand a little bit about how the fountain works. But we don’t drink! We’ve got a view, but we have not tasted. We’ve got truth, but we don’t have experience. We’ve got the head knowledge but not the heart love. This is not enough, because as Edwards pointed out, God is not glorified by being known as much as He is glorified by being known and loved!
On the other hand, some of us know that we’re supposed to drink, we feel the need to drink, but we assume that drinking from any water near the fountain is good enough. We enjoy drinking, but any water will do. This is the group that has experience, but it is experience minus theology. Zeal without knowledge is not enough. Imagining that just because there is “love” everything is okay is a false hope. If it isn’t the right love, it is worthless emotion. In fact, we may love our good feelings more than we love God.
Either way, knowledge without affection or affection without knowledge is shocking and appalling. Knowing the right fountain but not drinking is shocking. Drinking but not from the right fountain is appalling.
It is our obligation then, to pursue knowledge of and love for God. When we realize what is at stake, we cannot do this halfheartedly.