QT 7 Jun 11

Jer 2:13 (NIV) "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.

Jer 2:20 "Long ago you broke off your yoke

and tore off your bonds;

you said, 'I will not serve you!'

Indeed, on every high hill

and under every spreading tree

you lay down as a prostitute.

Jer 2:29 "Why do you bring charges against me?

You have all rebelled against me,"

 declares the Lord.

NOTE: Even though Israel's situation is different, many of the statements made here apply to us as well.  Israel was in a covenant relationship with God.  As believers, we also are in a covenant relationship, albeit significantly different from the blessings and curses of the Mosaic covenant.  Finally, the last group, the world, is under no such covenant.  But the verses are very descriptive of man's primary problem (all three groups):  (verse 13)we did not like what God had to offer; we went out for something that we wanted; and we found our water but it never satisfies because the cisterns are broken and they need constant refilling.  In the garden (verse 20), we broke free of our bonds, choosing to be gods.  We brought death to ourselves and decay to creation, resulting in many of the evils today.  And finally (verse 29), when disaster strikes, we scream at God.  We say God cannot exist because of the evil in the world, and yet it is our rebellion which brought about the present state.  In the garden, there were no natural disasters.  Death did not exist.  But we rebelled against God's idea of life, and believed the lie of Satan that we could be like God.  If we are bring charges against anyone, it is ourselves for rebelling against God's rule.