THE LAMENTING

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“All her people groan as they search for bread; they barter their treasures for food to keep themselves alive.”

“Look, Lord, and consider, for I am despised.”

“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look around and see. Is any suffering like my suffering that was inflicted on me, that the Lord brought on me in the day of His fierce anger?”

“From on high He sent fire, sent it down into my bones. He spread a net for my feet and turned me back.
He made me desolate, faint all the day long.”

“My sins have been bound into a yoke; by His hands they were woven together. They have been hung on my neck, and the Lord has sapped my strength. He has given me into the hands of those I cannot withstand.”

“The Lord has rejected all the warriors in my midst; He has summoned an army against me to crush my young men. In his winepress, the Lord has trampled Virgin Daughter Judah.”

“This is why I weep and my eyes overflow with tears. No one is near to comfort me, no one to restore my spirit. My children are destitute because the enemy has prevailed.”

“Zion stretches out her hands, but there is no one to comfort her. The Lord has decreed for Jacob that his neighbors become his foes; Jerusalem has become an unclean thing among them.”

Lamentations 1:11-17

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

In yesterday’s devotion, the first from the Book of Lamentations, we got a glimpse of what the aftermath of God’s judgment on Jerusalem looked like.

It wasn’t pretty.

For the book’s author painted a rather dreary picture, a picture of destruction of what was once a prominent, revered, holy city, laid to waste and left in ruins by the Babylonian forces that attacked it. There was also a picture of desertion and desolation because even the temple of God was demolished and all its treasures hauled away. The city was left uninhabitable and exposed as even its protective walls were torn down. No one was visiting Jerusalem anymore and no one lived there.

This is because we were given one final picture, a picture of the Israelites being hauled away into exile in Babylon, an exile that would last seventy years. That’s a lot of time spent enslaved and oppressed, a lot of time to think about how things could have been so much different if the people of God had only been obedient and faithful to Him.

Well, as we see in today’s continuing study of Lamentations 1, the people of Israel are starting to come to grips with their consequences and the associated hardship they were bringing, hardship that led to the following lamenting:

“All her people groan as they search for bread; they barter their treasures for food to keep themselves alive.”

“Look, Lord, and consider, for I am despised.”

“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look around and see. Is any suffering like my suffering that was inflicted on me, that the Lord brought on me in the day of His fierce anger?”

“From on high He sent fire, sent it down into my bones. He spread a net for my feet and turned me back. He made me desolate, faint all the day long.”

“My sins have been bound into a yoke; by His hands they were woven together. They have been hung on my neck, and the Lord has sapped my strength. He has given me into the hands of those I cannot withstand.”

“The Lord has rejected all the warriors in my midst; He has summoned an army against me to crush my young men. In his winepress, the Lord has trampled Virgin Daughter Judah.”

“This is why I weep and my eyes overflow with tears. No one is near to comfort me, no one to restore my spirit. My children are destitute because the enemy has prevailed.”

“Zion stretches out her hands, but there is no one to comfort her. The Lord has decreed for Jacob that his neighbors become his foes; Jerusalem has become an unclean thing among them.”  Lamentations 1:11-17

What difficulties did God’s judgment of exile bring on His people?

1. They lacked food.

“All her people groan as they search for bread; they barter their treasures for food to keep themselves alive.”

In Jerusalem, the people had easy access to food and plenty of it. Unless a famine occurred, the Israelites never had to worry about food.

But things changed after the exile. The Israelites were now foreigners held captive in Babylon and they had to scavenge for food, even trading their valuable for it if need be just to survive.

2. They were despised.

“Look, Lord, and consider, for I am despised.”

“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look around and see. Is any suffering like my suffering that was inflicted on me, that the Lord brought on me in the day of His fierce anger?”

The Israelites were once looked upon as a people of great honor because they were the very people of God. But what happened when God turned away from them as they had turned away from Him? The people became just like anyone else, not special or set apart in any way but rather despised and uncared for. No one had any sympathy for their plight and the suffering they were experiencing at the hands of God’s judgment.

3. They had lost God’s care and sustenance.

“From on high He sent fire, sent it down into my bones. He spread a net for my feet and turned me back. He made me desolate, faint all the day long.”

“My sins have been bound into a yoke; by His hands they were woven together. They have been hung on my neck, and the Lord has sapped my strength. He has given me into the hands of those I cannot withstand.”

God had been the strength of the Israelites and their very present help in times of trouble (Psalm 46:1) but they had turned away from Him to worship other gods. In their exile, they were experiencing what it feels like to be forsaken because God had made them desolate and without stamina to endure. The sins that had led to God’s punishment were not removed from the Israelites but rather they were made to bear them like heavy yokes around their necks as they were handed over to the Babylonians who they had no chance to withstand.

4. They were left without defense.

“The Lord has rejected all the warriors in my midst; He has summoned an army against me to crush my young men. In his winepress, the Lord has trampled Virgin Daughter Judah.”

It wasn’t like the Israelites had always been defenseless. Rather, they had always been able to ward off their enemies but that was because God had always ensured they would have victory for He was their God and they were His people.

Things were different when the Babylonians came calling on Jerusalem because God had not only removed His protection from the city and His people but He had also sanctioned the Babylonians to be the instrument of His judgment. All Israelite warriors were rejected and crushed by the Babylonian fighting forces as Judah was trampled and crushed.

5. They were left grieving without a comforter.

“This is why I weep and my eyes overflow with tears. No one is near to comfort me, no one to restore my spirit. My children are destitute because the enemy has prevailed.”

“Zion stretches out her hands, but there is no one to comfort her. The Lord has decreed for Jacob that his neighbors become his foes; Jerusalem has become an unclean thing among them.” 

There is no greater summation of the sorrow of the Israelites than in these closing verses of today’s devotion. The captivity they were in the midst of was nothing short of devastating, bringing the children into destitution. Eyes weeping to overflow were a common sight amongst the people, their spirits broken with no one available to bring them comfort. And though they were once considered holy and set apart by God, they were now viewed as unclean and out of the Lord’s favor. Why else would they be experiencing what they were going through?

Friends, God’s word is speaking powerfully to us today through the tears and distress of the captive Israelite people. Nothing will come from God’s judgment except for deep suffering and lamenting. This is why none of us should ever want to have to experience it.

The good news is that we can avoid it. All we need to do is live in full obedience to the Lord’s word, will, and way, turning away from sin while living fully immersed in His righteousness.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark
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