I was looking through books at a newsstand at John Wayne Airport in Orange County. The year was around 1989 or so. A traveler dressed in “California creative” attire pointed me toward the rack of adult magazines, and said, “You should really get one of those, you know.” Of course I said no. Not willing to give up easily, he went on suggestively, “You don’t know what you’re missing!”

I didn’t answer him as well as I could have. What I said was, “I’m a happily married man.” What I should have said was, “No, you don’t know what you’re missing! You’re trying to find satisfaction in a one-way relationship with fake images on paper. When I get home it will be to my wife, who loves me with her whole heart, just as I love her. She’s a three-dimensional person with a heart. Your paper relationships have nothing like that to offer.”

I’ve often wished I had said that. Either that, or if I thought he had any chance of catching the allusion, I could have told him he was trying to convince me to drink from a cracked cistern; and that he was walking after emptiness, making himself empty.

Of course I would never have expected him to know Jeremiah 2:5-6, where God asks through Jeremiah,

What wrong did your fathers find in me
that they went far from me,
and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?

The NASB says they “walked after emptiness and became empty,” and the NKJV speaks of them following idols. Together the three versions tell of a people who were following false, empty, worthless things, and becoming empty themselves as a result.

They chased after emptiness, the passage goes on to say, even though God had brought them through serious hardships “into a plentiful country, to enjoy its fruit and good things.” (Jeremiah 2:7, RSV)

Does that sound familiar? It does to me. I can’t help wondering what fault we Americans have found in God.

There’s controversy over whether America was founded as a Christian nation. There’s no simple, uncomplicated answer to that question, so I won’t try to offer one here. I do believe, however, that there’s at least one very straightforward point of similarity between God’s nation, Israel, and the United States. God’s hand was on Israel when they were founded as a nation, and just as surely it was on our forefathers when He brought them into this plentiful country, and led them to found the United States of America.

Yet today we are turning our backs on God. “Freedom from religion” is the term used by more than one organization. Actually it’s “freedom” from all the good found in God. It’s the same mistake the people made in Jeremiah’s day (Jeremiah 2:13):

For my people have committed two evils [says God through the prophet]:
they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
broken cisterns,
that can hold no water.

Cisterns are catch-basins to store rainwater for later use. Cisterns make good sense when there’s no other good source of water, but it’s foolish to rely on them — especially a leaky one! — when there’s a year-round free-flowing stream right nearby. No one would be foolish enough to do that, right?

Wrong.

The people wanted water, sure enough (or the goodness that water represents in this word picture). They had a problem with the fountain, though: God had made it part of a package deal. He was the fountain, so they couldn’t enjoy the water without encountering God at the same time. They didn’t want God, so they chose to lick the stagnant dribbles coming from a cracked cistern rather than drink the good, abundant life flowing from their Creator.

We have our own versions of cracked cisterns today. Pornography is a prime example. So is all our pursuit of satisfaction in money, in power, in drugs, in “sexual freedom,” in personal comfort and satisfaction — all of these are emptiness compared to the solid, true, satisfying life God gives if you draw close to Him.

It’s a powerful word picture, followed up by several others in Jeremiah 2. (It gets surprising graphic, actually.) The point God makes in all of them is that the people were incredibly foolish to reject Him. It’s painful to read.

It’s painful — and yet from another angle it’s wonderful.

It’s wonderful because of how clearly God’s caring heart shines through. He really, genuinely loves. He offers good to His people because He Himself is good, and because He loves so much to give good things. Yes, there are warnings in this passage. God will discipline those who stray from Him. Clearly His heart aches, though, even as He delivers His warnings (Jeremiah 2:31-32):

Why then do my people say, ‘We are free,
we will come no more to thee’?
Can a maiden forget her ornaments,
or a bride her attire?
Yet my people have forgotten me
days without number.

In the midst of many warnings God delivers hope. Sure, America is not Israel, so not every promise in the Old Testament was meant for us. Everyone knows that. But God is God. His character is the same. His goodness is the same. If we seek Him wholeheartedly, we can expect Him to respond much as He offered to do with Israel:

“Return, faithless Israel,”
says the Lord.
“I will not look on you in anger,
for I am merciful,”
says the Lord;
“I will not be angry for ever.
Only acknowledge your guilt,
that you rebelled against the Lord your God.”
(Jeremiah 3:12-13)

And the people finally learned to answer,

Behold, we come to thee;
    for thou art the Lord our God.
Truly the hills are a delusion,
    the [revelries] on the mountains.
Truly in the Lord our God
    is the salvation of Israel.
(Jeremiah 3:22-23)

What fault have we Americans found in God, that we would go far from Him, and “walk after emptiness, and become empty?” My heart aches, pondering that question.

There is no fault in God. None. His goodness is infinite.

Let us turn and approach Him, each of us individually; and let us call on others to come to Him together as families, as churches, as communities. Forget about the emptiness that’s offered us; let’s accept God’s good gifts instead — and God Himself with them! He will heal our backsliding. We will once again drink from the fountain of living water.