Jeremiah 18:14, commentary and pictures

Lebanon's snow-fed streams are enduring, pure, cool and life-giving, and no one in his right mind would leave them for muddy and inferior waters, so to abandon them is unnatural folly. Israel did that very thing when it forgot the Lord who was its dependable source, turned to empty substitutes and left the established way for its own rebellious desires. God Himself is that fountain of living water, with Christ as the water of life within believers and the Holy Spirit's influence as the freely offered streams of salvation. To forsake Him now is to turn from His counsel, wisdom and pure truth to human advice, polluted ideas and worldly associations that leave the heart parched and endanger spiritual life. The folly stands as a rebuke especially to privileged teachers and leaders, yet judgment may still be averted by heeding the warning, drinking deeply from God and His Word, and returning to Him in repentance and trust.

The Waters Pictured

The snow of Lebanon pictured is enduring and dependable, remaining from season to season rather than failing. It comes from the rock of the field, a firm and fixed source, and is pure, cool, refreshing and life-giving. Its constancy makes it something to be relied upon and held to rather than left behind.

The cold flowing waters are clear and pure, unfailing in their flow and refreshing to those who come to them. They are a reliable source that satisfies thirst, giving life and strength instead of disappointment. Their steady provision shows what a true fountain should be.

The question is asked expecting the answer no, for a person does not ordinarily leave or forsake such waters. To abandon them is unnatural and unreasonable, an act of folly against sense and need. What is so dependable would normally be kept, so leaving it stands condemned by common conduct.

Against these pure, cool, snow-fed waters stand the turbid, muddy, murky and malarious streams of the valley and waters from another place. The contrast is between a better, life-giving source and an inferior, polluted and corrupted one. To exchange Lebanon's clear water for muddy valley water is to trade clearness for defilement and fullness for want.

Israel's Unnatural Forsaking

The question exposes Israel and Judah for forgetting God and forsaking the Lord, the dependable source they should never have abandoned. Just as a man does not ordinarily leave the snow of Lebanon that comes from the rock of the field, nor forsake the cold flowing waters that come from another place, so God's people should not have turned from Him. Their doing the opposite is presented as a shocking reversal, an unnatural betrayal and disloyalty that underscores their guilt and blameworthiness.

Having forgotten Him, they turned to vanity, to worthless worship and empty substitutes. They left the ancient paths and stumbled from the way God had set out into a way that is not established. They rejected that way to follow their own evil desires and sinful ways, and persisted in rebellion rather than turning from evil.

A people's choices shape God's dealings with them, so the threatened judgment stands as warning. Yet repentance and trust in God's strength can avert it and offer a way back to Him for the one who has gone astray. The call therefore remains to return and heed the warning rather than continue in guilt.

God The Living Source

God Himself is the fountain of living water pictured by the snow of Lebanon and the cold flowing waters, a dependable, unfailing source of spiritual life, refreshment, wisdom and help that is not ordinarily abandoned. To forsake Him for worthless things, empty substitutes, human counselors who neither trust nor obey Him, human teachings that are impure and unreliable, or help sought from people and other sources like broken cisterns is therefore unnatural, irrational, faithless and disloyal. That abandonment is a stumbling away from the ancient paths and a forgetting of God, exchanging true spiritual refreshment for inferior and polluted sources.

Christ is the cool snow-waters of Lebanon, the water of life and the living heavenly source of wisdom and grace. His grace revealed in His Word and His Spirit's teaching satisfies the thirsty soul, unlike water from another place — flattering worldly associations, business pursuits, worldly pleasures, sentimental affection and other low and inadequate streams that dull moral perception, weaken spirituality, leave the soul unsatisfied and put it in peril. Spiritual life begins in union with Jesus and grows in knowing God unto unselfish, Christlike love and righteousness, and it cannot be preserved while neglecting time with God and the words of eternal life. Fed on Christ's words and drinking deeply from Him, the believer receives purification through obedience to the truth, and Christ becomes a living source within, flowing through words and actions to awaken in others desire for strength, purity, holiness, peace and lasting joy.

The pure waters also picture the streams of salvation freely offered through the Holy Spirit and His abundant, pure influence. His repeated visits are showers of divine influence, dependable and life-giving as Lebanon's snow-fed waters, and not to be sensibly forsaken for polluted substitutes. To turn from His blessings and life-giving work to human science is to exchange pure water for polluted water and to be left spiritually parched, and that rejection must not be mistaken for discernment against deception or fanaticism.

God's Word, law and truth are the pure waters of Lebanon, the words of life and the Word of truth, cool, unfailing, pure, refreshing and dependable, in contrast with lowland streams of excessive, distracting reading and with turbid valley streams. Those seeking satisfaction in the world's low streams, in deceptive human teachings, in sentimental affection, in worldly pleasures, or in infidel writings that mingle truth with sophistry and lead minds into error, are to be directed to drink deeply from this better source. Feeding on Christ's words brings greater spirituality and purification through obedience, while Christ's gracious presence in the Word refreshes the spiritually thirsty. Christ came to present the original truths in gospel order and rescue people from error, restoring clear truth obscured by human traditions, including the binding claims of the law and the Sabbath, which are to be tested by Scripture.

Forsaking God Today

Forsaking the waters today means turning from God's counsel and the pure fountain of truth to human advice, human authors and speculation, and to false guides who do not trust or obey Him. It is abandoning what is pure, dependable and life-giving for vanity, leaving the ancient paths for ways that lead astray. The Lord's life-giving truth, the water of life from God, is not to be exchanged for unreliable human ideas, opinions and teachings that are impure and unreliable.

It means turning from God's pure wisdom and heavenly light to polluted ideas, to skeptical and pagan writings, to infidel teachings mingled with sophistry, and to human science. This is like abandoning the snow-fed, cold flowing waters of Lebanon for the muddy, polluted water of the valley. Such substitutes leave hearts spiritually parched, lead minds into error, and reject the showers of divine influence and streams of salvation freely offered through the repeated visits of the Holy Spirit.

It means forsaking the clear truth of God's word and law for confused and corrupted human teachings, traditions and false interpretations. The cool, pure snow-waters set against turbid valley streams show the folly of that exchange. The obscured truth, including the law's binding claims and the Sabbath, has been restored, and teaching is to be tested by Scripture rather than followed on the mere authority of religious leaders.

It means separating from fellow believers and turning to the turbid streams of worldly association, flattery, praise, pleasure, business and other cares. The cool snow-waters of Lebanon are Christ and the sustaining truth and spiritual nourishment found in Him, while water from another place is flattering worldly association and approval. Turning to worldlings for praise and influence, becoming absorbed in business and vanities, and turning from God and covenant privilege toward worldly pleasure dulls moral perception, weakens faithfulness to God and His people, forfeits special privileges, and puts the soul in peril. Those who let worldly cares crowd out prayer and Christ drink from malarious valley streams instead of receiving the religion needed for eternal life.

It means turning from God as the sure source of help and refreshment to seek help from people and other sources, like leaving Lebanon's waters for broken cisterns. It means turning from the words of life to excessive, distracting and unworthy reading. The pure, cool waters are the word of life which nourishes spiritual life and brings light, in contrast to the lowland streams of crowded reading that the mind cannot manage and that cannot replace that nourishment.

A soul cannot prosper or preserve spirituality while neglecting time with God, prayer, Scripture study, worship and sustaining grace. Spiritual life begins in union with Jesus and grows by knowing God, producing unselfish, Christlike love and righteousness. The thirsty soul should drink deeply from God, Christ and His Word, the water of life, rather than seek satisfaction in the world's low streams or in sentimental affection, for feeding on Christ's words brings greater spirituality and purification through obedience to the truth.

Warning And Call Back

The verse rebukes teachers and leaders who have received clear evidence of God's work, great light and special privileges, yet depart from His safe paths and fail those entrusted to their care. Just as the snow and cold flowing waters of Lebanon are dependable and not ordinarily forsaken, their abandonment of God is unnatural and blameworthy. Teachers who leave heavenly light and the Lord's word for corrupt sources have left the snow waters of Lebanon for the turbid streams of the valley. Having turned from that pure, life-giving source to corrupt human wisdom, they become blind and lead those under their influence to neglect salvation.

The same warning applies to those in Battle Creek who disregarded God's repeated counsel to spread the work among many cities. Like Israel forgetting Him and leaving the ancient paths, they forsook the dependable and life-giving source and chose their own wisdom instead. That reliance on human wisdom brought confusion and want and scarcity.

Resisting the messages sent to correct leaders who have not walked in the light shows a chosen course of unfaithfulness. After such resistance the Lord gives them over to their own perverted thoughts. The verse therefore carries a call to heed the warning and return, for Israel and Judah forgot God, turned from the ancient paths, and followed evil ways. Their abandonment of the Lord in contrast to the constancy of Lebanon's enduring snow and cold flowing water underscores guilt and the need to turn from evil rather than persist in rebellion.

Repentance can avert the threatened judgment, and repentance and trust in God's strength offer the one who has gone astray a way back to Him. The Holy Spirit's repeated visits at Battle Creek were showers of divine influence and streams of salvation, pure water set against polluted water, but teachers failed to recognize and receive them. Turning instead to human science left hearts parched, and the verse warns against rejecting the Spirit's life-giving work and mistaking it for deception or fanaticism. Workers are therefore to warn and plead with those seeking to quench spiritual thirst from the valley's waters and the world's low streams instead of Lebanon's snow waters, directing them to God's life-giving truth and to the life Christ gives. Christ's grace revealed in His Word and His Spirit's teaching satisfy the soul where worldly pleasures, sentimental affection and other sources leave it unsatisfied, for Christ's gracious presence in the Word refreshes the spiritually thirsty and flows as a living source within believers through words and actions to awaken strength, purity, holiness, peace and lasting joy.