Lesson Three: The Contact Between God and Man
Dearly beloved of God, the Scriptures are the revealed Word and Will of God. The Word of God puts us in contact with God, Who is Spirit. To know God we must know the revealed Word of God.
Jeremiah 2:13
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.
God was speaking to His people, and He said that they had committed two evils.
First, they had forsaken God Who was the fountain of living waters. A fountain is a source for water, and God is likened to a fountain of living waters. He is an unlimited source of supply for His people, yet His people had forsaken Him.
Their second evil was that they hewed out cisterns of their own making, which took work, and these cisterns were broken cisterns that could not even hold water.
The best a cistern can do is to hold its contents; it is not a source of supply like a fountain is. The cisterns they made were broken cisterns that could not even hold water.
Which would you rather have, a fountain of living waters, or a leaky broken cistern that could not even hold water? This is quite a contrast is it not?
They could have had God’s supply of unlimited resources available to them. Instead, they forsook Him, Who was the fountain of living waters, and they replaced His Word with man-made doctrines likened to broken cisterns of their own making that could not supply anything.
Why would God’s people settle for broken cisterns when the fountain of living waters was accessible to them?
All scripture is God-breathed and it is profitable. How profitable is the Word of God? God has given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness by the knowledge of His Word.
God gave us His Word by revelation. Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. The Word of God gives us a point of contact with the fountain of living waters, the One True and Living God. The revealed Word of God reveals His Will to us. This is why we should be vitally concerned about the integrity and accuracy of His Word.
Hosea 4:6
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…
The context surrounding this verse makes it is clear that they were destroyed for a lack of knowledge of the Word of God.
Like God's people that we read about in Jeremiah, these people had forsaken God and rejected His Word. Forsaking God and His Word will not work any better for us today than it did for those in Jeremiah’s day or those in Hosea’s day.
God’s people were not destroyed for a lack of the knowledge of current events, nor for a lack of knowledge of politics, nor of a lack of knowledge of their enemies, but for a for a lack of knowledge of the Word and Will of God.
God’s people should be vitally concerned about the integrity and accuracy of the Word of God. If we are to know God, and His Will we must know the revealed Word and Will of God. It is our point of contact with the One True and Living God.