What a scathing rebuke! And Jeremiah's first sermon! Jeremiah must have feared God with all his heart and soul. God told him in 1: 16, 19 that the message would be harsh and the people would resist. But Jeremiah obeyed God's call explicitly.
There are sooo... many parallels in chapter two of the sinful state of the people then and now. If you know you are wandering from God, read this chapter! Perhaps it will give you a wake up call as to where your life is headed.
One of the most striking verses to me is v. 13. 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.
A fountain is discovered. We must dig in the ground to find it. But the source of water is not from us. It flows forth continually with living water. A cistern, on the other hand, is filled with water that we provide. It is temporary and must be refilled again and again. If it is broken, as the ones illustrated in this verse, we may think it is full when it is actually leaking continuously. How foolish to work so hard to dig a cistern and continually fill it with water, when we can enjoy fresh spring water from a well that continually flows from within us.
Maybe you have discovered the Living Water, but you think you have to fill a little bucket for yourself and laboriously carry it to your own broken cistern and pour it in, rationing its use until the cistern is dry and you have to make another trip to the well.
God is calling us to higher living! If you are a child of God, you have an unending source that is always with you and can quench every thirst you have or will ever have. Don't forsake that well for a work of your own hands! Take some time today to enjoy it's cool, clear water!