A seven year drought brought the people of Israel to settle in Egypt—and the story of the Exodus was set up. Centuries later, Jeremiah (in Jer. 2:13) spoke these words for God—“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.
After saying that and other threatening stuff, Jeremiah was put in an empty cistern as a punishment, and sunk down into the mud (Jer. 38:6). After God’s people returned from their exile, God used drought to get their attention: What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the LORD Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house. 10 Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. 11 I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle, and on the labor of your hands.” Haggai 1: 9-11. Life requires water. There’s no way around it. Most of us aren’t farmers now—we live in the ‘burbs, don’t have wells or cisterns and can complain to the township if there’s a water problem. Clean water and sanitation is a wonderful thing. At the same time, the distance we maintain from being dependent upon our environment allows us to ignore God’s promptings—for now anyway. But even if the imagery of need is distant, don’t let it be lost on you. If you’re feeling dried up in your connection with God, or in the rest of your life for that matter, let it prompt you to seek out the One who is “the spring of living water.” Ask for God’s help in abandoning activities and even beliefs that “hold no water.” Acknowledge your need of God’s grace and blessing and learn total dependence on Him again.
Yours for the Journey,
Pastor Tom