Accept no substitutions

"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." Jeremiah 2:13

Good morning, dear friends!

I have another secret for my blogging friends, something that I rarely share with others.  I am probably the most un-female female on the planet, but here it is:

I hate shopping.

I do not like it, Sam-I-am.  I do not like it in a car, I do not like it where you are.  I do not like grocery stores.  I do not like it, more and more.

Maybe one of the reasons why I hate shopping so much is trying to figure out what I need, and how much I should pay for it.  There is no choice to shopping for food or clothing, but I never know if the price that I pay is what I should be paying, or if I just held out a little bit longer, I could find a better bargain somewhere else.

I guess that's why I go grocery shopping twice a month, and that's it.

I love a good bargain.  Usually in the grocery stores, or in clothing stores, I don't look much at the brand.  As long as it looks fairly edible, or fairly durable, I don't mind trying generic or knock-off brands.  In fact, most of the things that are in my grocery basket or shopping cart are not the "real" brands, but the black and white store label.  My kids prefer the store-brand Nutella, for example, than the real stuff.

There are some exceptions.  Ketchup, for example, that is the store brand, is little more than tomato juice here, and definitely only good for sloppy joes and meatloaf.  Anything that says "American style," usually isn't.  I mean, when is the last time you bought hot dogs in a can that were not Vienna sausages?

Some things just do not substitute well at all.

While reading in the book of Jeremiah this morning, I was amazed again at the goodness of God toward His people.  In chapter two, God relates to Jeremiah a brief history of the Jewish people, how He led them out of Egypt "into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof..." (Jeremiah 2:7)  How God must have delighted in offering this gift to His children!  He gave them the very best that He could offer them.

After many years of enjoying the gracious mercy of God, the attitude of the people changed: "...but when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made mine heritage an abomination." (Jeremiah 2:7)  God gave them everything they needed, even more than they needed, and the people went away from Him to serve other gods.  They despised the gift they were given, and "have changed their glory for that which doth not profit." (Jeremiah 2:11)

The saddest verse in this passage for me is the verse at the top of the blog: "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." (Jeremiah 2:13)

God outlines two crimes against His children here:

1.  They turned their backs on God.  God likens Himself here to "a fountain of living waters," the source of refreshment and life for their souls.  God took care of all their needs, and more, and yet they rejected His rule and Lordship over them.  Instead,

2.  They tried to substitute ANYTHING for God.  Instead of enjoying the life and blessings from God's hand, the people tried to work out for themselves their own solutions to their problems.  They refused to go to God the source, and instead went searching for help anywhere but God.  They "hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water."  Not only were their solutions a pitiful substitute--give me a spring fountain anyday over a well--they were useless.  A broken well that doesn't even hold water makes no sense at all.

Before I am too quick to pass judgment on the people of Israel, should I not examine my own life? Are there areas of my life where I try to ignore God and seek out my own inferior solutions?  I may not bow down to a statue or pray to an idol, but the moment when I exalt my own intelligence or my own abilities over God's perfection, don't I do the same thing?

May God help me today to put Him first in my activities today.  May I seek to please Him and listen to His Word, more than I try to fix and fashion things in my own image.

May I refuse to accept substitutions, and pitiful ones at that, for knowing and serving the true and living God.