Isaiah goes on to describe the people of Judah and Jerusalem, “they have forsaken the LORD.” “Forsake” means “to quit or leave entirely, to desert, to abandon, to depart or withdraw from, to leave, to renounce, to reject, to refuse." (Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition)
What happens to a nation that forsakes the LORD? Jeremiah 2:13,17,18 says, “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… 17) Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, when he led thee by the way? 18) And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the river?”
A people that has forsaken the Lord has no satisfaction. They have hewed out their own cisterns, cisterns that cannot hold water. Cisterns were commonly used in Bible days as holding areas to store water. Some cisterns were in the ground and were round and had stone walls. They may have looked something like a well but were more like holding tanks for water. Some were hewn right out of the rock, like the one shown in the picture. If the walls or bottom of the cistern were broken, it would not hold water. A people that has forsaken the Lord does not have a good supply to satisfy the soul. They are dried up.
A people that has forsaken the Lord has no leadership. They look to man for help instead of God – they forsook the Lord their God who led them by the way. Instead of looking to God, Judah and Jerusalem looked to Egypt, the people that had formerly held them captive. They also looked to other nations for help. They made affinity with their enemies in attempt to keep themselves safe.
Does it seem like America might be this way? When we look around, do we see lack of satisfaction? Are people empty and searching after vain things to fill the void in their lives? What about leadership? Do we have good leadership on the national or local scene? What do people do when they see that their leadership is failing them? Are they looking to God? Or to find the right President? Or to have better local leaders? Or the right agreement with the right nation or with enemies to keep our enemies at arm’s length? These things did not work for Israel. They will not work for America.
God has not left this nation, or other nations, without a remedy. The remedy is the fear of the Lord. That is the thing that is missing. Jeremiah 2:19b says, “…know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.” Also, Isaiah 66:2 says, “For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.”
“Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the LORD.” (Psalm 144:15)