We Have an Invitation
A few days ago I woke up, and when I checked the time it was 7:17. When I saw this I smiled, as I have been seeing this number a lot lately. If you know me, you will know that God speaks to me through numbers EVERYWHERE. I find it fun to learn this new language, search out what He is saying and partner with Him to declare that through prayer and aligning my mind and heart to believe what He is saying.
When I see 7:17, God reminds me of Revelation 7:17:
“For the Lamb at the centre of the throne continuously shepherds them unto life —guiding them to the everlasting fountains of the water of life. And God will wipe from their eyes every last tear!” (Revelation 7:17 TPT)
I was lying in bed, enjoying the quiet and thinking about that and about the day ahead. While I was lying there, all of I sudden, I heard in my heart “Jeremiah 2:12”. It was quite strong, and I was taken aback. I didn’t know what Jeremiah 2:12 says, so I looked it up:
“The heavens are shocked at such a thing
and shrink back in horror and dismay,”
says the Lord.
“For my people have done two evil things:
They have abandoned me—
the fountain of living water.
And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns
that can hold no water at all!” (Jeremiah 2:12-13 NLT)
Instantly, I was struck by the theme in these 2 verses about fountains of living water, or water of life. One was a beautiful picture of His people in the heavenlies being led to everlasting fountains of living water, and the other was the heavenlies being shocked and dismayed because God’s people abandoned the source of living water, trying to dig their own cisterns, which were cracked and could hold no water.
Cisterns, in ancient times, were underground water storage tanks. They were very common in Israel, in fact, the prophet Jeremiah was thrown into a muddy cistern for a period of time because the nation didn’t want to hear the messages he was conveying to them from God. The cisterns the Israelites dug were holes in the ground that were lined with plaster. These crude tanks collected water that drained from roofs in wet weather and provided water through the dry summer months. The water could become putrid and dangerous to drink, and the plaster often cracked, letting the water leak out. While cisterns were at times useful, they were also at times unhelpful, and were incapable of sustaining life long term.
The nation of Israel had a tragic pattern of turning away from God and worshipping the idols that were worshipped by the surrounding nations. They thought they knew better than God, and that they could find their own way through life, protect themselves, care for themselves, and do what they thought was best. This led to some very turbulent times in their history as the consequences of their actions came back to haunt them. In these verses above, God was saying through Jeremiah, “I am the source of your life. I love you, I care for you, I provide for you, I nourish you and I sustain you. My source of life is like a never ending spring that bursts forth from the ground. It is so refreshing and there is more than enough to go round. But you are trying to find your own way to life. You dig these inferior cisterns that go stagnant and break, thinking that this is what provides you with life, and in heaven we cannot believe what we are seeing!”
It can be so easy to look at the Israelites and think, “why would you do that? Why would you substitute God for statues made of wood or stone? Why would you try to lean on your own strength rather than God?” It seems foolish, right? But aren’t we just as guilty of this ourselves? I don’t worship statues of wood or stone, but I know for me, I so often worship things that aren’t God and count on them to sustain me.
What are some things that we worship or depend on in our society? I believe the list is long: technology, money and/or the financial system, our spouses, children, family and friends, Hollywood and/or celebrity Christians, how many likes or followers we have on social media, our ability to do something ourselves, our appearance, the government, the media, and I could go on. All of these things, like in Jeremiah’s time, are cracked cisterns. Any sense of ‘life’ we receive from any of these things are so fleeting. They cannot sustain us long term, and they are not created to.
I believe that God was highlighting these verses to me because He is inviting all of us to search our hearts in this time and genuinely seek out ways that we are trying to dig our own cisterns in life. As we do, we are also being presented with a beautiful opportunity to repent, not because God is mean and nasty and spiteful, but because as a loving Father He desires to lead us down the best path, to the true source of life.
We have such a gracious God. In John 4, we have what is one of my favourite stories in the Bible, Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. This was a woman who was hurting and trying to dig her own cisterns, in her case through men. Jesus knew all this when he met her, but he didn’t condemn her, he simply presented her with a beautiful invitation:
Jesus replied, “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.” (John 4:13-14 NLT)
Jesus was inviting her to ditch the ways she was trying to find life, and come to him, and let this newfound relationship be her everlasting source of life. As she grasped what he was saying and doing with her, it completely transformed her, and as a result, her whole community, as they all came to know Jesus. Suddenly the things she was doing in the past didn’t matter anymore, as she saw them for what they really were and God for who He really was – a loving, caring Father who loves us more than we can ever comprehend.
I believe that this invitation to ditch those things is being specifically extended to you and I as well. That invitation to come to the true source of living water is for you, right here, right now. But it will take us being willing to give up the cisterns we have dug ourselves. But, when we understand who our amazing God really is, why would we want them anymore?
This brings me back to that verse I woke up to the other day in Revelation 7:17:
“For the Lamb at the centre of the throne continuously shepherds them unto life —guiding them to the everlasting fountains of the water of life. And God will wipe from their eyes every last tear!” (Revelation 7:17 TPT)
Who is the Lamb at the centre of the throne? Jesus. Who is he shepherding? In this verse, those who had died in this life and were in their eternal home with Jesus. And where is He leading them to? Everlasting fountains of the water of life, and no more suffering as every last tear is wiped away. This verse does (and should) give me a real sense of hope and excitement that we will be in this place forever, being continually sustained by everlasting springs of life. BUT, that invitation to enjoy this and live from this place here and now already exists. It existed in the Old Testament when God was reminding the Israelites, it existed when Jesus met the Samaritan woman, and it exists for you and I today.
The questions we need to ask is, what is stopping you from enjoying this? What cracked cisterns have you dug and are holding onto? And what is the Father inviting you to do with this?