Yesterday was a Holy Communion day at our Church. After the sermon, which was about Jabez and how he asked thy Lord that he may enlarge his territories .1 Chronicles 4:10
(When I read this scriptures I always note the context of the verse. The verse is between a genealogy of ancestors but out of that chapter of people the bible note that Jabez was more honorable than his brother. Jabez had a strong faith in God to pray a prayer that would counter the meaning of his name. Jabez asked God, “’Keep me from harm so that it might not bring me pain!’”The prayer of Jabez is one tiny little verse of 1 Chronicles, but it is packed with a valuable testimony of Jabez’s understanding and loyalty to God. May we all strive to pray like Jabez did. Will expound on the lessons learned later)
Now after the service we were prepared for Holy communion and the verses were read and the cup and bread distributed. As it is norm, we are supposed to wait for one another so as we all can partake at the same time.
As it was being distributed, I took the bread and I waited for the cup as I meditated the work that was done on the Calvary. After a short while the cup arrived.
The ones that prepare the cups always gets the best, but for one reason or another and this happened to be the cup I took but it was broken on the sides (had two cracks on the sides) and it was leaking, but this I noted after the one distributing had passed. The challenge I had was to either call thy person and exchange the cup or try and balance the cup to avoid the leaking, I choose the later but it proved a difficult task of holding the contents in.
As I continued balancing, I heard a clear voice say to me "the cisterns are broken"
Me: "What did you Say?" I asked again.
Voice: "The cisterns are broken"
Me: What do you mean?
And it was silent and a deep senses of "don't know what to do?" engulfed me.
After the service I went and shared with a close friend of mine whom when time allow we discuss the bible and the sermons in depth and try to get as much as we can from the scriptures about a particular sermon.
I narrated the happening and we started looking at the bible at what could broken cisterns mean.
We found alot of verses talking about cisterns and I have tried to list them as I continue to pray and find out what thy Lord was telling me.
2 Chronicles 26:10
He built towers in the wilderness and hewed many cisterns, for
he had much livestock, both in the lowland and in the plain. He also
had plowmen and vinedressers in the hill country and the fertile fields,
for he loved the soil.
2 Kings 18:31
'Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria,
"Make your peace with me and come out to me, and eat each of his vine
and each of his fig tree and drink each of the waters of his own
cistern,
Isaiah 36:16
'Do not listen to Hezekiah,' for thus says the king of
Assyria, 'Make your peace with me and come out to me, and eat each of
his vine and each of his fig tree and drink each of the waters of his
own cistern,
Jeremiah 14:3
"Their nobles have sent their servants for water; They have
come to the cisterns and found no water They have returned with their
vessels empty; They have been put to shame and humiliated, And they
cover their heads.
Jeremiah 38:6-13
Then they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern of
Malchijah the king's son, which was in the court of the guardhouse; and
they let Jeremiah down with ropes Now in the cistern there was no water
but only mud, and Jeremiah sank into the mud. But Ebed-melech the
Ethiopian, a eunuch, while he was in the king's palace, heard that they
had put Jeremiah into the cistern Now the king was sitting in the Gate
of Benjamin; and Ebed-melech went out from the king's palace and spoke
to the king, saying,
Genesis 37:19-24
They said to one another, "Here comes this dreamer! "Now
then, come and let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; and
we will say, 'A wild beast devoured him.' Then let us see what will
become of his dreams!" But Reuben heard this and rescued him out of
their hands and said, "Let us not take his life."
Jeremiah 41:4-7
Now it happened on the next day after the killing of
Gedaliah, when no one knew about it, that eighty men came from Shechem,
from Shiloh, and from Samaria with their beards shaved off and their
clothes torn and their bodies gashed, having grain offerings and incense
in their hands to bring to the house of the LORD. Then Ishmael the son
of Nethaniah went out from Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he went; and
as he met them, he said to them, "Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam!"
Zechariah 9:11
As for you also, because of the blood of My covenant with
you, I have set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.
Jeremiah 2:13
"For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken
Me, The fountain of living waters, To hew for themselves cisterns,
Broken cisterns That can hold no water.
Proverbs 5:15-19
Drink water from your own cistern And fresh water from your
own well. Should your springs be dispersed abroad, Streams of water in
the streets? Let them be yours alone And not for strangers with you.
Jeremiah 38:6
Then they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern of
Malchijah the king's son, which was in the court of the guardhouse; and
they let Jeremiah down with ropes Now in the cistern there was no water
but only mud, and Jeremiah sank into the mud.
Proverbs 5:15
Drink water from your own cistern And fresh water from your own well.
Gen 37:20
Gen 37:20
now therefore, come and let us slay him and cast him into a cistern, and we will say, Some evil beast has devoured him; and we shall see what will become of his dreams.
Reuben told them. "And no blood shedding, either. Instead, let's toss him into this cistern
that's way out here in the wilderness. But don't lay a hand on him."
(Reuben intended to free Joseph and return him to his father.)
They grabbed him and tossed him into the cistern, but the cistern was empty. (There was no water in it.)
So Judah's brothers listened to him. As the Midianite merchants were passing through, they extracted Joseph from the cistern and sold Joseph for 20 pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites, who then took Joseph down to Egypt.
Later, when Reuben returned to the cistern, Joseph wasn't there! In mounting panic, he tore his clothes
A spring or cistern containing water will remain clean, but someone who touches a carcass [in it] will become unclean.
Then Saul himself went to Ramah. He came to the large cistern at Secu, looked around, and asked, "Where are Samuel and David?" "At Naioth in Ramah," someone said.
As soon as Joab left David, Joab sent messengers after Abner, and they brought him back from the cistern at Sirah, but David was not aware of this.
David was thirsty and said, "How I wish someone would give me some water to drink from the cistern in Bethlehem near the gate!"
So the three elite warriors broke through the Philistine forces and drew some water from the cistern
in Bethlehem near the gate. They carried it back to David, but he
refused to drink it. He poured it out as a drink offering to the Lord
Benaiah son of Jehoida was a brave
warrior from Kabzeel who performed great exploits. He struck down the
two sons of Ariel of Moab. He also went down and killed a lion in a cistern on a snowy day.
He said, "Capture them alive!" So they captured them alive and then executed all forty-two of them in the cistern at Beth Eked. He left no survivors.
Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus saith
the king of Assyria, Make an agreement with me by a present, and come
out to me, and then eat ye every man of his own vine, and every one of
his fig tree, and drink ye every one the waters of his cistern:
David was thirsty and said, "How I wish someone would give me some water to drink from the cistern in Bethlehem near the city gate!"
So the three elite warriors broke through the Philistine forces and drew some water from the cistern
in Bethlehem near the city gate. They carried it back to David, but
David refused to drink it. He poured it out as a drink offering to the
Lord
Benaiah son of Jehoiada was a brave
warrior from Kabzeel who performed great exploits. He struck down the
two sons of Ariel of Moab; he also went down and killed a lion inside a cistern on a snowy day.
Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.
Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the
golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the
wheel broken at the cistern.
Its collapse will be like the shattering
of a potter's jar, crushed to pieces, so that not even a fragment of
pottery will be found among its shattered remains- no fragment large
enough to take fire from a hearth or scoop water from a cistern."
Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus saith
the king of Assyria, Make an agreement with me by a present, and come
out to me: and eat ye every one of his vine, and every one of his fig
tree, and drink ye every one the waters of his own cistern;
So they took Jeremiah and dropped him into the cistern of Malchiah the king's son, which was in the guard's courtyard, lowering Jeremiah with ropes. There was no water in the cistern, only mud, and Jeremiah sank in the mud.
But Ebed-melech, a Cushite court official employed in the king's palace, heard Jeremiah had been put into the cistern. While the king was sitting at the Benjamin Gate,
"My lord king, these men have been evil in all they have done to Jeremiah the prophet. They have dropped him into the cistern where he will die from hunger, because there is no more bread in the city."
So the king commanded Ebed-melech, the
Cushite, "Take from here 30 men under your authority and pull Jeremiah
the prophet up from the cistern before he dies."
So Ebed-melech took the men under his
authority and went to the king's palace to a place below the storehouse.
From there he took old rags and worn-out clothes and lowered them by
ropes to Jeremiah in the cistern.
and they pulled him up with the ropes and lifted him out of the cistern, but he continued to stay in the guard's courtyard.
But when they came into the city, Ishmael son of Nethaniah and the men with him slaughtered them and threw them into a cistern.
Now the cistern
where Ishmael had thrown all the corpses of the men he had struck down
was a large one that King Asa had made in the encounter with Baasha king
of Israel. Ishmael son of Nethaniah filled [it] with the slain.
As for you, because of the blood of your covenant, I will release your prisoners from the waterless cistern.
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