Wells and Cisterns

A cistern is a tank used for holding water – captured water from a spring, or stored rainwater. They were used extensively for storing water for drinking and for other uses in both old and new testament times.. Sometimes they were placed on a hill so that gravity could force the water to run into a home or irrigation plot, but most often, they were passive holding tanks from which the water was lifted with a bucket.


Grandfather Henry Cornelius built a cistern on a rise just above his home in Virgin, Utah, to water his lawns. He had pure water for use in his home, but needed a way to keep his lawns green and his truck garden watered. It didn’t matter that the water was not potable. The system worked well, but required considerable maintenance. On occasion, frogs, salamanders, and other undesirable creatures wanted to make the cistern their home. Leaves and other debris found their way into it. It sometimes built up silt and stopped flowing.

As a boy, My father sometimes had the very unpleasant but necessary chore of cleaning the cistern. The water was drained and he climbed into the cistern to excavate the muck and the creatures living there. He was not at all sure it was worth the effort and discomfort required to clean it out. Today, the cistern is somewhat broken down, useless and filled with debris.

The trouble with a cistern is that it is passive. It accepts and holds whatever comes into it, releasing it only on demand. Because of this, the water could easily become stagnant or polluted and undrinkable. Even though they were often covered, cisterns had to be cleaned regularly of muck, leaves, live creatures, dead creatures, and so forth (just like my grandfather Henry’s did). Cisterns are often used in the scriptures to refer to those who seek other means of gratification than the doctrines of the gospel. They take the things of the world into themselves and give little in return.

A well, on the other hand, also holds water for later use but constantly refreshes itself from a spring or other sources. It may also need periodic cleaning, but remains purer for longer periods of time. Often in the scriptures a well is referred to as a fountain – usually in reference to the living waters the Savior offers. When we drink of the always pure living waters, we can become a fountain of truth ourselves, sharing, learning, giving, and offering service to others. Jeremiah 2:13 is especially clear on this subject:

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.

Ellis T. Rasmussen, in his book, A Latter-day Saint Commentary on the Old Testament, pg 543, explains this scripture very simply,

Jeremiah ridiculed idolatry and chided Judah for having "changed their gods." In this matter they had been more fickle than the idol-worshipping people who clung to their "gods." His metaphor equated the true God and his blessings to a spring of living waters and idolatry to a cistern (a container for water storage)—indeed, a broken cistern. A spring ("fountain") produces water, but a cistern can only give out what has been put in, and a broken cistern would lose even that.

Jeremiah was Lehi’s contemporary. Jeremiah told the people of Jerusalem that they had forsaken the things of eternity for short-lived gratification. He was speaking the same prophesies that Lehi spoke and was beaten and imprisoned for doing so. Lehi and his family had to leave Jerusalem because of the things Lehi told the people – and because he was warned of the Lord to do so. Lehi left everything he owned and did as the Lord instructed him to do. Lehi’s example tells us that when we become too enamored of the things of mortality, we become cisterns instead of wells or springs. We lose sight of eternal goals. We serve ourselves instead of others. In the April 1972 General Conference, Elder Marion D. Hanks said:

Material objectives consume too much of our attention. The struggle for what we need or for more than we need exhausts our time and energy. We pursue pleasure or entertainment, or become overinvolved in associations or civic matters. Of course, people need recreation, need to be achieving, need to contribute; but if these come at the cost of friendship with Christ, the price is much too high.
For my people have committed two evils,’ said the Lord to Israel; ‘they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.’ (Jer. 2:13.)
The substitutions we fashion to take the place of God in our lives truly hold no water. To the measure we thus refuse the “living water,” we miss the joy we could have.

This is a battle we fight with ourselves every day. I just came back from the 2011 new car show, where I sat in a $387,000 Bentley convertible. It was a beautiful car – the salesman, a friend of the folks we went with – let us past the barrier that protected these cars from sticky-handed children. He told me that a local professional basketball star has two of them! Far be it from me to judge, but why would you need two of them? Why, in fact, would you even need one $387,000 convertible?

I’m not sure where the line is that defines excess, but we all need to be careful not to cross it. I do believe that we can tell when we are crossing the line if we really think about it.. When our earthly posessions mean more to us than a contribution to –say – the missionary fund or a homeless shelter or toys for tots or a myriad of other worthy causes, perhaps we have become a cistern instead of a well. As the Savior said in Matthew 6:19-21:

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

When our time and efforts are channeled into earthly pleasures and pursuits at the expense of giving and service or church attendance or visiting the sick or loving our neighbors, then maybe we need to re-evaluate our priorities. An article in the December 1st, 1997 LDS Church News, titled Treasures of Heaven, summarizes my thoughts well:

Surely, none of us would choose to drink from a limited, and perhaps stagnant, supply of water that stands in a broken cistern when we have available to us the refreshing abundance of a flowing and pure fountain. But isn't that, in essence, what we do when we invest our time and efforts in chasing after material gains and goods rather than first pursuing eternal goals and blessings, when the things of man matter more to us than the blessings of the Lord?

Let’s remember that all that we have and all that we are – even the very air we breathe—are blessings from the Lord of all. Let’s be grateful for all that we have been given and be willing to let the living waters of the gospel flow from us to those around us. Only as we do so, can we claim to be on the path that will return us to the God that created us.