The bible says that the wage of sins is death and everybody suffers the pain of death because everybody committed sins. And also even though they are sinners, Christ came down to this earth and shed his blood to give us the forgiveness of sins so that we can be freed from the sentence of death given to us as sinners. Therefore, not to commit a sin anymore we must understand what sins are and we must eradicate the source of sins from us so that we would not entangle into the same sins over again. Then first we must know what are considered as sins in the eyes of God. What are sins?
Jeremiah 2:13 “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.
God teaches us that two things are considered as sins by God: first, forsaking God, and second digging their own cisterns. Then what are the meanings of these verses? First, let us think about God’s rebuking for forsaking God, the spring of living water. What is the living water?
Isaiah 12:2 Surely God is my salvation;
I will trust and not be afraid.
The Lord, the Lord himself, is my strength and my defense;
he has become my salvation.”
3 With joy you will draw water
from the wells of salvation.
The living water means “the well of water” that gives salvation. So living water simply means salvation. Let us confirm this through the teaching of Jesus. Christ taught what the living water was to a Samaritan woman.
John 4:10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” 11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” 13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The living water is the spring of water welling up to eternal life. Then who is the source of living water? It means, “Who is the source of eternal life?” It is only God who can give us eternal life. That is why in the Book of Jeremiah God the Father Jehovah said that he is the source of living water and in the Book of John Jesus said that he is the source of living water. It was because Jehovah and Jesus were the names of God given to God’s people in accordance with the plan of God for the salvation of his people. Therefore, the first sin of God’s people of forsaking the source of living water means that they forsook God who could give them eternal life and they depend on themselves or someone else for the salvation.
If we take a look at the time of Jeremiah, we can understand the situation a little bit better. In those days, God’s people did not obey the commands of God and they depended on different things for salvation both physically and spiritually. In the time of Jeremiah, God warned his people of coming disasters through Prophet Jeremiah so that they might repent of their sins and return to God for the salvation. When the Babylonians invaded the land of Judah and destroyed the city of Jerusalem, God taught them for the reasons of disasters and destruction that came to them.
Jeremiah 16:10 “When you tell these people all this and they ask you, ‘Why has the Lord decreed such a great disaster against us? What wrong have we done? What sin have we committed against the Lord our God?’ 11 then say to them, ‘It is because your ancestors forsook me,’ declares the Lord, ‘and followed other gods and served and worshiped them. They forsook me and did not keep my law. 12 But you have behaved more wickedly than your ancestors. See how all of you are following the stubbornness of your evil hearts instead of obeying me. 13 So I will throw you out of this land into a land neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’
The reason for the disaster was that they forsook their Savior who could give them salvation and they followed and worshiped different gods. Through this God is teaching us the greatest sin is forsaking the true Savior and following different gods who could not grant salvation. It was not just things that happened in the time of Jeremiah or the Old Testament, but the same thing happened in the time of Jesus and even in our time. Jesus who was the Savior in the Age of Son appeared to God’s people and gave them the new covenant through his flesh and blood that they might receive the salvation, the living water. He taught them, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day.”
But after Jesus’ ascension and the death of his 12 disciples, his people started to forsake Jesus the true Savior and they followed different gods and laws. The law of Sabbath was changed into Sunday worship, the day for the sungod. And the new covenant of the Passover was changed into the Christmas, another day for the sungod worship. These pagan teachings exist even in our time under the excuse of worshiping the true God. But what does God say about those who follow different laws and different gods? God says that they are committing sins and they would not receive salvation because they forsook the source of living water, the true Savior.
Then what is the second sin of God’s people? It is that they dug their own cistern which cannot hold water. What does this mean? Cistern is a place where you can store the water, in other words, the source of living water. But who prepared this cistern? God should be their cistern, but they prepared their own cistern. However what is the problem with this cistern? It is a broken cistern and cannot hold water. It means it cannot be the source of living water and it cannot give salvation. But instead of depending on God, God’s people they depend on their own ways and methods for the salvation. In the time of Jeremiah, God commanded King Zedekiah to surrender to the Babylonians and go to their land until the appointed time, and then God would bring them back from the Babylonian land to the land of Canaan back again and he would restore them to their own land. But King Zedekiah made an allegiance with the king of Egypt and tried to defeat the Babylonians. He tried to save himself and his country by his own method, disobeying the command of God.
Jeremiah 36:6 Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet: 7 “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Tell the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of me, ‘Pharaoh’s army, which has marched out to support you, will go back to its own land, to Egypt. 8 Then the Babylonians will return and attack this city; they will capture it and burn it down.’ 9 “This is what the Lord says: Do not deceive yourselves, thinking, ‘The Babylonians will surely leave us.’ They will not! 10 Even if you were to defeat the entire Babylonian army that is attacking you and only wounded men were left in their tents, they would come out and burn this city down.”
Exodus 12:12 “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. 13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.
Amos 9:2 Though they dig down to the depths below,
from there my hand will take them.
Though they climb up to the heavens above,
from there I will bring them down.
3 Though they hide themselves on the top of Carmel,
there I will hunt them down and seize them.
Though they hide from my eyes at the bottom of the sea,
there I will command the serpent to bite them.
4 Though they are driven into exile by their enemies,
there I will command the sword to slay them.