Saved by the Well – Jeremiah

Saved by the Well – Jeremiah.

“O Lord, You are the hope of Israel; all who forsake You will be disgraced. Those who turn away from You will be written in the dirt, recorded in the underworld, buried in the dust of the hearth; for they have abandoned the Lord, the wellspring of living water.” (Jeremiah 17:13).

SAVED: The Hebrew word for save is “Yasha,” which means to be set free into the wide open; to be delivered in a time of desperate need; to be saved from destruction and certain death. “Salvation” literally means to become spacious, and refers to “the sense of deliverance from an existence that had become confined, compressed, or cramped.” (Eugene Peterson). When Jesus delivers us from our inner spiritual confinement, we are liberated into a wide open, broad, expansive place. The word for “wide open space” is the opposite of a straitjacket. Without Jesus, our soul will never be freed from our spiritual straitjacket. There are three passages in Psalms that describe this freedom deliverance beautifully:

1. “From my distress, I called upon the Lord. He answered me and set me on a large place. After being in a tight spot, the Lord placed me into a broad space. Because I was hemmed in, I called on Lord Yahweh. He answered me and gave me room.” (Ps. 118:5);
2. “Lord, you have not given me over into the hands of the Enemy; You have liberated me and set my feet in a wide expanse, a good and spacious land. You have given me the freedom to roam at large, where I can freely move. You have given me room to breathe.” (Ps. 31:8);
3. “The Lord rescued me because He delighted in me. He brought me out to freedom into a wide-open space. My soul has been delivered because of God’s love for me, and my soul finally has some elbow room!” (Ps. 18:19).

THE WELL: There are four Hebrew words used in the Jewish Bible to describe the different kinds of ancient wells. There was the traditional well that was a deep hole dug in the ground to tap into an underground source of water. Another type of well was a fountain spring that had naturally broken through the earth’s surface on its own without man’s help. The wellspring is another version of well in Scripture in which fresh water flowed out of the ground in any number of ways to become available for cleansing, nourishment, refreshment, for survival itself. Life-giving wells of water have always been a powerful picture of our dependence upon God for spiritual survival. Just as Creator God has designed the human body to completely depend on water to live, our spiritual life totally relies on His presence in us to not just survive but to flourish. God is our spiritual well of fresh water, the only stable source of nourishment and purity. He is our fountain of life that gushes forth to replenish and cleanse us. God is our eternal wellspring of living water that will never run dry. Each of us is born spiritually dehydrated, and God alone is the constant, reliable water source to bring us back to life. As the silly joke goes, wells are a deep subject, and the biblical wells involve such stalwarts as Hagar and Abraham; Isaac and Moses; Samson and Solomon; the psalmists and the prophets. And of course, the glorious fulfillment of all these ancient stories of wells… Messiah Jesus and the woman at the well.

Jeremiah began his holy foolishness as a young man in Jerusalem, and he continued there for 40 years. He was routinely rejected by everyone in his prophetic ministry: Friends, family, neighbors, religious leaders, and even the kings who he served under in the palace. The only king who welcomed Jeremiah was Josiah, a staunch reformer. Otherwise, Jeremiah was rebuffed or ignored through the three remaining kings of Judah during his ministry. Nobody listened to Jeremiah as he preached about God’s judgment, the need for repentance, the coming destruction of Jerusalem. He was treated accordingly, having had to endure whippings, being put in stocks, thrown into prison, lowered deep into a dry well. While in the well he was miserable, and he was finally rescued by an Ethiopian eunuch who pulled Jeremiah out of the well with ropes. He was also taken captive and forcibly removed to Egypt after the fall of Jerusalem. It’s difficult to take a light-hearted approach to Jeremiah’s ministry. He wasn’t called the “weeping prophet” for nothing.

“The Word of Yahweh… ‘My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters; and they have instead dug for themselves broken wells in the ground that can hold no water.” (Jeremiah 2:13).

Yahweh Speaks a Hard Word. The Lord doesn’t waste any time getting into the point of His outrage. In chapter 2 we find a God who is brokenhearted over the unfaithfulness of His chosen people in Jerusalem. God deeply laments their disloyalty and spiritual estrangement. He mourns over the loss of the relationship He had with them in the wilderness, when Israel was His selected bride and with devoted love held Yahweh up as their spiritual husband (2:2). The Lord even suggests that their time in the wilderness together was like a spiritual honeymoon which has completely vanished.

Yahweh continues speaking like a rejected lover, and it is difficult for us to read… What did My people find wrong with Me? What made them turn their backs on Me and walk away without a backward glance? They chased after nothing, and they foolishly became nothing in the process. They didn’t even bother to ask where I was or where I went. But of course, I didn’t leave them. They left me! After all I’ve done for them, delivering them from slavery in Egypt, guiding them by the hand in the wilderness, bringing them to their own fruitful promised land. And their short memory breaks My heart. The priests don’t ask about Me, the scholars of my Word don’t know who I am, the leaders continue to rebel against Me, and even my beloved prophets now speak for Baal! This is dreadful and tragic! My own people have exchanged Me for worthless, empty gods! They have unthinkingly traded me, the Glory of their nation, for something of no value whatsoever!

Shocked and Appalled. Yahweh continues to express His outrage in v. 12… “This is horrifying!” The word Jeremiah uses here is the Hebrew word “sommu,” and this is such a dramatic utterance that this is the only time it is used in the entire Hebrew Bibe. Sommu means feeling absolutely desolated; shuddering in absolute horror; astonished; awestruck; shocking; appalling; causes one to throw up one’s hands in disbelief; aghast; trembling with dismay and disgust. Sommu…  The very heavens above shrink back in horror and are shocked at such a thing! The sky itself is astonished at this display of disloyalty and rebellion, such brazen unfaithfulness!

The Flowing Fountain and the Broken Well. Yahweh then inspires Jeremiah to offer this insight: My people reject Me, a naturally flowing fountain that will always provide fresh spiritual water for them, and they have chosen instead to dig a pit in the ground for rainwater that has cracks, and will leak, and thus become absolutely worthless. In other words, Yahweh is the only source of living water they will ever need, and they instead exchanged it for a cracked pit that will hold no water and is utterly worthless. The Lord your God is a fountain of everlasting life, and all these gods you are chasing are empty, pointless, and deal only in death.

Idols and gods. Can Jeremiah’s comparison be applied to us today? Of course it can. It’s quite possible we are being enticed by other lovers, digging wells that hold no water. Broken cisterns can be found just about anywhere… obsessive addictions; the compulsive need to be entertained; selfish ambition to be a worldly success; the feeding of a ravenous ego; grasping at power and control; the acquisition of adult toys and material things; beauty; youthfulness; fame. And there’s a lot more where that came from, and all of them are simply contemporary nicknames for Baal. The problem is that all of those wells are cracked, they won’t hold water, and the only supply of living water comes from our merciful, wise and almighty God.

Success or Failure? Spiritually speaking, Jeremiah was an astounding success story. He remained faithful to God’s calling during his entire forty years as prophet to the southern kingdom of Judah. Humanly speaking, though, Jeremiah was a dismal failure. Despite his consistent prophetic efforts as God’s spokesman, the nation refused to listen throughout his ministry. The people stubbornly refused to turn from their sins of idolatry and immorality. The people ignored his words all forty years, and the consequences were dire. He prophesied that Jerusalem would be destroyed because of their sinfulness, and his prophecies came true. Tragically, Jeremiah was witness to the fall of Jerusalem, the destruction of the Temple, and the people exiled into enemy territory. But all was not lost. Jeremiah also predicted that after the destruction and captivity, God would send a Messiah with a new covenant and an eternal hope. Despite his frequent gloom and doom, Jeremiah’s faithfulness and hopefulness makes him the ultimate success story.

“They shall come weeping with joy and with prayerful pleas for mercy, and I will lead them back, I will take their hands and guide them to fresh flowing wellsprings, brooks of living waters; I will lead them along smooth, uncluttered pathways in which they will not stumble. For I am Israel’s Father, and Ephraim is My firstborn son.”  (Jeremiah 31:9).