Text: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
The destruction of Jerusalem in
587 BC was, without doubt, the most significant event to transpire in the
political and religious history of Israel since the Exodus from Egypt. Scarcely
any room for doubt exists that it was this momentous event which, on the human
side, precipitated the writing of the Book of Lamentations. In retaliation against the rebellion of his
vassal king Zedekiah, Nebuchadnezzar had laid siege of Jerusalem for eighteen
long months. Lamentations describes in the most vivid manner the terrible
suffering to which the Jews were subjected during the assault. When the city finally was captured the Chaldean king
ordered it completely demolished. To see
their sacred beloved city go up in flames
was a shocking—even unconceivable—experience. In spite of the incessant
preaching of the prophets who warned of this very thing, the Jews were totally
unprepared for it. For over a hundred years since the miraculous deliverance of
Jerusalem in the days of King Hezekiah,
the popular notion had been that Jerusalem was unbreakable and secure. Events
had demonstrated the basic premise of their theology to be false. Added to the
tremendous burden of their grief over what had occurred,
their nation was feeling they had been utterly rejected by God.
Lamentations is a sad book. The primary theme of the book is a lament over the
terrible woes which have befallen sinful Judah and the destruction of the Holy and
the Temple of God. The book consists of four laments (chs. 1-4) and one prayer
(ch. 5) which were written in those distressing days following the capture and
destruction of Jerusalem. As one reads the book, he can sense the depths of hopelessness into which the people had
fallen. Jeremiah has attempted to capture the mood of the people. This was not
difficult for him to do since he seems to have been personally involved in
their suffering. For the most part, the
poems contain descriptions of the plight of the people, their land, and their sacred city. Here and there are
confessions of sin, declarations of repentance,
and appeals for divine aid.
1.
A Widowed City 1:1-22
2.
A Broken People 2:1-22
3.
A Suffering Prophet 3:1-66
4.
A Ruined Kingdom 4:1-22
5. A
Penitent Nation 5:1-22
Lamentations is written entirely
in poetic form. Hebrew poetry, as a rule, does not involve rhyme but instead is a poetry of thought. The second and
third lines of each verse will repeat the thought
of the first line in different words or develop further the thought of the first line or negate the thought of the first line. The four laments in
the Book of Lamentations are in the form of alphabetic acrostics in which the
author begins each verse with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
Chapters 1, 2 and 4 have twenty-two verses one for each letter of the Hebrew
alphabet. Chapter 3 contains sixty-six verses
since three verses are assigned to each Hebrew letter.
Lamentations is read in Jewish
synagogues on the ninth of the month of Ab (which falls at the end of July or
early August), a fast day which commemorates the destruction of the Temple.
We can see a picture of the Lord
Jesus in the suffering of Jeremiah, and the people who rejected and persecuted
the prophet portray the religious leaders of Israel who rejected their Messiah.
Think forward some 600 years from Jeremiah's day into the future. If the
feelings of Jeremiah, as expressed in chapter 3, are feelings common to every man, then what must have been
the feelings of the Son of God! Read again Christ's words of lament for
Jerusalem.
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and
stonest them who are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy
children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye
would not!
Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you,
Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed, is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.
(Mat 23:37-39)
The Lord Jesus expressed the
intensity of His suffering in the words spoken in Gethsemane [Mat 26:36-45].
They serve to reinforce the fact that His holy nature must have recoiled at the
thought of bearing the sins of the world, and of dying at the hands of God's
chosen race.
The name ''LORD'' used in
Lamentations, is the name ''Jehovah.'' This name designates the
covenant-keeping God, the God of redemption, and reflects the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Although the lamentations of
Jeremiah are directed toward the people of Jerusalem, the fundamental principles of the Bible, expressing
both God's hatred for sin and His desire to see the sinner repent are also in
view.
The word ''sin'' literally means,
''missing the mark.'' How vividly this is seen in the history of Israel, for no
other nation has been so favored as that people! God delivered them by blood
and by power from Egypt, brought them across the Red Sea on dry land, fed them
for 40 years in the wilderness, and miraculously kept their clothes from
wearing out and their sandals from becoming thin. With Joshua in command, they
defeated the nations of Canaan. Their capital city, Jerusalem, was blessed by
God. Their temple, and particularly the Holy of holies, became the dwelling
place of God.
The glory of God filled the
place. Yet, Lamentations begins: ''How doth the city sit lonely, that was
full of people; how is she become a widow! She that was great among the
nations, a princess among the provinces; how is she become a vassal!'' (Lam
1:1). Why was this? The people had ''missed the mark.'' God had asked them to
follow Him and to keep His statutes so
that other nations might have the knowledge of the one true God. But Israel had
failed and now was suffering the fruit of her sin.
Sin and its results cannot be
disassociated; labor that is rendered must receive proper payment. If something
is earned, it is unjust to hold back the wages. The condemned sinner can never
accuse God of injustice. In Lamentations 1:18 the principle is stated: ''The Lord is righteous; for I have rebelled
against His commandment.'' Paul
writes in Roman, “the wages of sin is death.”
This law is absolute; it will
never be changed. Chapter 2 of Lamentations makes no mention of Nebuchadnezzar
nor the armies of Babylon [that destroyed Jerusalem and carried its people away
as captives]. Why? Because Israel realized that the law of God was at work. The
New Testament states it this way: ''Whatever
a man soweth, that shall he also reap'' (Galatians 6:7).
You will find it an interesting to
count the number of times the words ''He hath'' are used in chapter 2. God was
executing His righteousness by paying the people of Israel the wages they had
earned because of their sin.
Lamentations 3 presents another
consequence of sin, the suffering of the innocent. Though the prophet delivered
God's truth, he was hated, hunted and hounded. He suffered the most. The greater the innocence, the greater the suffering.
Chapter 5 of Lamentations is a
prayer. It is a prayer of confession (v.1,7,16), and it is a prayer of hope
(v.19). Note what that hope is founded upon: the eternal, never-changing God,
the Redeemer. Then too, it is a prayer for future blessing (v.21).
We are reminded of that dark day
pictured in John 6. Our Lord had begun to speak of His death and had indicated
that the only approach to God the Father was through Him. At the mention of His
impending death, the crowds that had followed Him for the loaves and the fish ''went back
and walked no more with Him'' (John 6:66). To the handful of disciples that
remained, the Lord Jesus posed this searching question: ''Will ye also go away?'' (John 6:67). The response of Simon
Peter was filled with the language of faith as he replied, ''Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And
we believe and are sure that Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God''
(John 6:68,69).
In Jeremiah's day, the prospects
were bleak for Jerusalem and the nation of Israel, and the prophet mourned the
predicted judgment upon their sin. Even so, he knew that restoration, return,
and blessing could be found only in the LORD, the Redeemer. Likewise, the
sinner, no matter how gravely he may have
transgressed, how vile his past, how extensive his iniquity, can find
cleansing, new life, and future hope in one person-- Jesus Christ. The Jehovah
of the Old Testament is the Lord Jesus of the New. The tears of sorrow and
suffering are wiped away by the One who cleanses and forgives all who come in
faith to Him. [ Isaiah 53:4,5]
There are some lessons that should
be learned for this book.
Lamentations should serve as a wakeup
call for America Christians. The message of the LORD’s judgment on His chosen
people should warn us of the impending doom facing America if we fail to
repent. God’s longsuffering patience for a nation is limited. God patiently gave Judah a space to repent
and that patience finally giving way to His attribute of justice, and Judah
received due recompense.
It
is not the evil of the non-believer that brings about judgment on a
nation. It is the sins of those who call
themselves Christian, followers of the LORD, that will bring judgment. What
believers sow in terms of obedience to God in a secular nation largely determines what that nation will reap. Again, this
is the guiding light of 2Chronicles 7:14. It informs us that God holds
believers responsible. In the NT, this same idea is underscored in a
non-theocratic context, 1Peter 4:17 states,
For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God:
and if it first begin at us, what shall
the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
Jeremiah 22:21 informs us that Judah was a
materially prosperous nation like America – but the prosperity served to buffer
God’s intended impact of His messenger and His message.
Such
is the case today in a vast number of American churches: Most everyone is just
playing church, going through the motions. Why? Because in our materialistic prosperity there are very few in
desperate need of God as their only solution!
Few cries out to Him from physical and/or spiritual poverty! Few are
America’s believers who have any needs today (that is revealed by the majority
of prayer requests which are dominated by medically related needs). In the Book of Revelation, the Church
of Laodicea serves as a replica of today’s American church. Rev. 3:14-17
The
Church of Laodicea and the Church of America are parallels to ancient Judah,
such similarities in attitude and condition in our country exist for God to
rock our nation. The blood of the
innocent cries out for justice. Our nation has carried out the exploitation of the
most indefensible of all individuals – the unborn! Such terrible, continued practices of
exploiting the innocent child – coupled with the callousness of “Christian”
political leaders and judges who do little about it will evoke the fury of The
Almighty! How can the LORD not bring judgment on a nation who continues the
practice of shedding innocent blood? Jeremiah 22:3 and 22:17 speaks respectively in
this regard-
Thus saith the Lord; Execute ye judgment and
righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do
no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow,
neither shed innocent blood in this place.
But thine eyes and thine heart are
not but for thy covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for
oppression, and for violence, to do it.
The
Book of Lamentations can be applied to America and should be understood as a warning and motivation for those who are His
chosen in our nation. 1Peter 4:17 underscore the principle of God’s chosen ones
being the guiding force by which God determines to bless or else curse an
entire nation! Again, take careful note
as believers go, so goes the nation.
For the time is come that judgment
must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin
at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God.
The
American Christian needs to wake-up if
God is not afraid to judge His own people in the Old Testament, then He is not afraid of judging His people in the New
Testament – and the nation(s) wherein they reside. Deuteronomy 32:21-22 states
regarding God’s “sinning Christians.”
They have moved me to jealousy
with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities:
and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. 22 For
a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall
consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the
mountains.
American Christians have been blinded by the teaching that the
judgment of God will be in the future and that the Christians will be removed
from what happens to this nation. Here
is a thought that should give this teaching of escaping judgment some
consideration.
God’s
uses surrogates to enact His judgment. It is interesting how this theme is
illustrated in the Book of Jeremiah, versus the Book of Lamentations. King
Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon brought about the destructive calamity that was a
result from the sin of God’s people. The
Book of Jeremiah mentions Babylon at least 150 times. In Lamentations, however, Babylon is never mentioned – only the Lord is specified as the one who will deal with Judah’s
sin. The conclusion is that Babylon is the surrogate instrument of the LORD to
achieve His ultimate purposes. Note this by comparing Jeremiah 50:23 to
Lamentations 2:1
How is the hammer of the whole
earth cut asunder and broken! how is Babylon become a desolation among the
nations!
How hath the Lord
covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from
heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in
the day of his anger!
This
insight more than suggests that God uses other individuals and other nations
(whom He dislikes too!) in order to invoke His wrath. It is well within the
scope of the LORD judgment to use America’s most detested enemies to manifest
His judgment on our nation. Could the jihadist be the instrument of the
LORD’s judgment on America and the other nations
that have forsaken the LORD?
That
is the application of this surrogate principle; it is often His way of
accomplishing shame, total humility, and
repentance. Likened to Babylon ransacking Jerusalem, such godly actions bring
the greatest disgrace – embarrassment that is both warranted and intended from
and by the LORD for our good.
Jeremiah
is giving us a warning that we should heed.
Christ is standing at the door of the American Church today knocking,
asking to come in. Will we heed the advice of Jeremiah and open the door and
repent?
