"AN ASTONISHING EXCHANGE" (Pastor Tom Henry) ~ 9/2/25

“Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD. 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 2:12, 13)

Jeremiah did not hear the Divine call upon his life without serious doubts and fears. His initial response to the Lord’s announcement says it all. “Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.” (Ch. 1:6) But there can be no resisting the eternal decree: “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.” (Ch. 1:5) Considering the nature of his ministry one can certainly understand his reluctance. The Lord said, “I have this day set thee over the nations…to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down…” This young prophet received assurance from the Lord, Who said, “Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee.” He was God’s prophet, and his message was God’s message. Jeremiah said, “The LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.” (Ch. 1:9)

Our text is part of Jeremiah’s first sermon. This Word began with some pleasant reminiscing. “I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness...” “Israel was holiness unto the LORD.” But the honeymoon was short lived. Their obstinance began early, even in the wilderness, but no sooner had they come into the land of promise than they began to go a whoreing after strange gods, even the gods of the land. This practice would continue to plague the people until God would cast them off, and they would be carried away into Babylonian captivity.

Here, the Lord delivered a twofold indictment against these idolators: “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.” They had committed the evil of forsaking their God, the only true and living God, Who had taken them to Himself and shown them wonderful favor. They had the love and protection of the Almighty God. “If God be for us, who can be against us?” The second evil they committed was becoming idolators, worshipping useless, powerless images. The psalmist describes these impotent idols as having eyes that see not, ears that hear not, mouths that speak not, and hands that can do nothing. As Paul said, “An idol is nothing at all.” Yet, Judah had exchanged their all-wise, all-powerful God and Savior for worthless vanities such as these.

Our text says, “Be ye astonished, O ye heavens, at this...” Jeremiah calls upon the people to search the world over and see if there be such a thing. “Pass over the isles of Chittim, and see; send unto Kedar and consider…” In other words, search the entire Mediterranean coasts, to the North and West; search Arabia to the South and East; consider the most civilized nations, and also the most barbaric, and you will not find a single instance in which a nation changed its gods. Yet this people forfeited their true glory - they traded their glory for shame. (Vs. 26) There is a greater shame still, when professed Christians exchange eternal glory for something of no profit. (Mark 8:36)

The analogy in our text emphasizes the foolishness of such an exchange. They forsook the Fountain of living water, the free-flowing grace of God, for cisterns that they hewed themselves, even broken cisterns that can hold no water. This is an apt metaphor to illustrate the total insanity of preferring a works religion to the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow reivers of living water.” (John 7:37, 38)