DIARY OF A DESERTED CITY (LAMENTATIONS 1)
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The last few months have not been easy for everyone in Hong Kong – from friends to family, and from the congregation to the pastors. No person is untouched. In September 2019 I cried for two minutes before I step up the pulpit in the Putonghua worship to preach on 1 John 4’s theme of love. In October it was worse when I had to preach on the church-given text of 1 Kings 19, where Elijah asked the Lord in the imperative mood to take his life (1 Kings 19:4). I cried for a full minute the moment I stepped up the pulpit while everybody nervously watched. Early this month tears welled up my eyes when I discovered to my horror in my Jonah Sunday school class that Jonah said the same words (Jonah 4:3).
Most scholars believe Jeremiah was the prophet who wrote Lamentations in similar style after the fall of Israel, witnessing the defilement, destruction and desolation of the city. Lamentations is a series of five laments, or funeral dirges; each chapter is a separate lament. Chapters 1, 2 and 4 each have 22 verses which each verse artistically beginning with the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet and the same chapters 1, 2 and 4 also begin with the exclamation “How!” Lamentations is a poem, a prayer and a prophecy – all in one. Some even say a protest. In the Hebrew Bible, however, it appears beside the Song of Songs, Book of Ruth, Ecclesiastes and the Book of Esther as the “Five Scrolls.” The book is traditionally recited annually on the fast day of Tisha B'Av (July or August,) mourning the destruction of both the First Temple and the Second.
How is God in control when there is crisis? Where is God when you don’t feel Him and don’t feel safe? What is God doing when things look bleak?
Cry to the Lord – Pray for Comfort
1 How deserted lies the city, once so full of people! How like a widow is she, who once was great among the nations! She who was queen among the provinces has now become a slave. 2 Bitterly she weeps at night, tears are on her cheeks. Among all her lovers there is no one to comfort her. All her friends have betrayed her; they have become her enemies. 3 After affliction and harsh labor, Judah has gone into exile. She dwells among the nations; she finds no resting place. All who pursue her have overtaken her in the midst of her distress. 4 The roads to Zion mourn, for no one comes to her appointed festivals. All her gateways are desolate, her priests groan, her young women grieve, and she is in bitter anguish. 5 Her foes have become her masters; her enemies are at ease. The LORD has brought her grief because of her many sins. Her children have gone into exile, captive before the foe. 6 All the splendor has departed from Daughter Zion. Her princes are like deer that find no pasture; in weakness they have fled before the pursuer. 7 In the days of her affliction and wandering Jerusalem remembers all the treasures that were hers in days of old. When her people fell into enemy hands, there was no one to help her. Her enemies looked at her and laughed at her destruction. 8 Jerusalem has sinned greatly and so has become unclean. All who honored her despise her, for they have all seen her naked; she herself groans and turns away. 9 Her filthiness clung to her skirts; she did not consider her future. Her fall was astounding; there was none to comfort her.
Can you imagine your city turned into a desert, a wasteland or a disaster zone? Or as an apocalyptic, a dystopian or a futuristic world maybe ruled by apes, zombies and warlords?
One of the greatest action movies is “Mad Max: Fury Road,” which I saw on an airplane a few years ago. The leading character and an ordinary person, Max, was captured by a fanatical desert army after an energy meltdown crisis to be used as a blood donor especially when the frenzied army went on a raid or a rampage. On one occasion, one of the leader's lieutenants, a lady warrior, helped the five wives to flee the leader in her semi-truck. The leader Joe and the raging maniacs in his army chased after the six ladies with guns blazing and music blaring with Max strapped to a car as blood supply to the wild young man Nux in hot pursuit.
A storm helped the ladies escape her pursuers, except Nux and Max, but the men’s car was destroyed and the ladies’ truck needed repair After the mayhem, including getting rid of Nux, the freed Max and the lady lieutenant Furiosa realized they have to team up to survive the desert, Joe and desert gangs. Meanwhile, the stranded young man Nux was picked up by Joe.
The relentless leader Joe and Nux caught up to the escapees but failed to capture them. The group reunited one of the ladies with her family, but their dream habitat was unlivable now, so Max convinced the group to return to the undefended headquarters, where there was ample water and greenery. They succeeded in killing Joe and his giant son on the group’s return trip, with the young man Nux turning on Joe. The impoverished Citadel citizens celebrated Furiosa’s return just as Max decided to leave.
You cannot but be caught up with the movie’s imagery and reality of doom, damage, death, destruction, decay, danger, destitution and demoralization.
The first part of the chapter, verses 1-8, is marked by the third person personal pronoun “she,” not first person “I” or the second person “you.”
The first verse on Jerusalem’s “social status” contrasts “deserted” with “once so full of people,” “widow” and “once was great among the nations” and queen among the provinces” with “now become a slave.”
V 1 social Status
No husband, habitat or help
V 2 emotional Sadness
Bitterly weep vs. none + comfort
No family, friends or future
V3 physical Suffering
affliction (vv 3, 7, 9)
V 4 religious Shutdown
bitterness
V 5 theological Significance
Many + sins
cause grief (vv 5, 12)
V 6 past Splendor
Splendor: good looks, glory and greatness
V 7 cold Sympathy
Laugh: sport, debut with Samson (Judg 16:25, 27)
V 8 great Sin
Sinned greatly
Verse 2 speaks of Jerusalem’s emotional sadness. Jeremiah is not called “the weeping prophet” for no reason. The verb “weep” occurs three times in the chapter (v 2 twice, 16). The verbs “bitterly/sore” and weep” are the same words doubled in the Bible - “bitterly…weeps” (NIV) or “weep…weep, “ just like Hezekiah (Isa 38:3) facing his impending death. It is continual, constant and complete.
Verse 3 tells 0f the city’s physical suffering from heathens and persecutors. Accompanying affliction (vv 3, 7, 9) is “harsh labor/great servitude,” which occurs for the first time in the Bible– more severe than Egypt. Affliction is being troubled, and the second is being trapped.
Verse 4 refers to the religious shutdown, her services and her servants and her sacrifices. The only verb in verse 4 is “bitter anguish/bitterness.” Bitterness is a feeling left in the tongue, throat, taste, trachea and torso. There is no lack of sighing in this chapter, in fact more than any chapter in the Bible, from her priests (Lam 1:4) to Jerusalem (Lam 1:8), from all her people (Lam 1:11) to Jeremiah himself (Lam 1:21).
Verse 5-8 is the theological significance. The main assertion, however, is the Lord’s hand in “causing her grief,” which is repeated in verse 12 (“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 verb “cause grief” (v 5) appears five of its eight times in Lamentations but is introduced into the Bible by Job (Job 19:2 How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?). The primitive meaning of “cause grief” is dissatisfaction - the feeling of discomposure, disquiet and discomfort. There is singular for “sin/transgression” in the Bible, but this is plural and the first “many + sins,” which is a “many sins” verdict mentioned twice after the fall of Jerusalem (Amos 5:12).
Verse 6 is Jerusalem’s departed splendor. Jerusalem has no attraction, aura or appeal left. Her princes were like deer without food, stripped of splendor, strength or sustenance.
Verse 7 is her cold sympathy. There was none to help her – no assistance or ally, only aggressors, adversaries and agitators. There is more “comfort” (vv 2, 9, 16, 17, 21 – three times as “no comforter”) in this chapter than any chapter in the Bible, negatively as “there is none to comfort her.” Laugh is sport (Judg 16:25, introduced in Samson), play (1 Sam 18:7), scorn (2 Chron 30:10), derision (Job 30:1), mock (Job 39:22) and rejoice (Prov 31:25).
Verse 8’s “sinned greatly” is sin (noun) followed by sin (verb), with nothing in between – an alternative version to double “weep, weep” verbs (v 2). It is a powerful confession equivalent to Moses’ admission -”sinned a great sin” (Ex 32:30-31) and Jeroboam’s “made them sin a great sin” (2 Kings 17:21). Sin is never insignificant, innocent or inconsequential in God’s eyes.
Confide in the Lord – Pray for Compassion
“Look, LORD, on my affliction, for the enemy has triumphed.” 10 The enemy laid hands on all her treasures; she saw pagan nations enter her sanctuary— those you had forbidden to enter your assembly. 11 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.” 12 “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? 13 “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. 14 “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. 15 “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. 16 “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.” 17 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.
Pastor Larson and his council president, Sven Johnson ended up in a heated argument over a seemingly minor worship detail.
“I suggest we go home and pray to God to grant us peaceful hearts,” said Pastor Larson as Sven stormed past him into the churchyard.
After worship the next Sunday morning, Sven greeted Pastor Larson warmly. “I took your advice,” he said. “I went home and said a prayer.”
“Great!” said Pastor Larson. “So did I! I prayed that God would grant us both peaceful hearts and a fresh start.”
“That’s not what I prayed,” said Sven. “I asked God to help me put up with you.”
The second part of verse 9 begins the first of eight imperatives, of which an incredible five of them being “look.” The imperative “see” is repeated in verses 9, 11, 12, 18, 20, and altogether the verb “look/seen” appears eight times, including the sight of her nakedness (Lam 1:8), affliction (Lam 1:9), vileness (Lam 1:11), sorrow (Lam 1:12, 18) and distress (Lam 1:20). It’s public, painful and pathetic. See is more than ability but awareness, attention and action. An imperative is not a call but a command, not an offer but an order, not an invitation but an insistence for attention and action.
Verse 9 begins a series of “look” imperative – see chart below. All of the imperatives have “I” or “my.” It is addressed to the Lord because three of the five “look” imperatives are addressed to the Lord (vv 9, 11, 20). The first imperative refers to what Jeremiah’s enemies did to her (vv 9-10). The verb “triumph/magnify’ is “great” in verb form (gadol) – overpower, overthrow and overrun you. Humility (v 9) vs helplessness (v 10), harshness, hated (v 11). No honor, no hope no help. In today’s terms it would be: Look at them? Do you see it? Just watch!
9 Look, LORD, on my affliction, for the enemy has triumphed.”
Affliction (humble, lowly, needy, poor)
Humiliated/Helpless
11 Look, LORD, and consider, for I am despised
Vile (shake (as in the wind), i.e. to quake; figuratively, to be loose morally, worthless or )
Heckled/Hated
12 Look around and see. Is any suffering like my suffering that was inflicted on me
18 Listen, all you peoples; look on my suffering
Sorrow (grief, pain, sorrow)
Harmed/Hurt
20 “See, LORD, how distressed I am!
Distress (tightness/mob)
Harassed/Hustled
The second imperative is in verse 11. The verb “keep alive/relieve” occurs four times, akin to comfort. Jeremiah finally revealed his demand in the way of a command: look/see and consider! The imperative “see/consider” (nabat ) is “to scan, i.e. look intently at; by implication, to regard with pleasure, favor or care” (Vine’s). It is to ask God for his care, compassion and consolation and comfort. Verse 12’s imperative “look around and see” is a reverse repetition of the imperative in verse 11 – “look and consider.”
From verse 13- 17 tells of how the Lord afflicted (v 12) Jeremiah in the day of his fierce anger, with body language for “progression”: bones, feet, back (v 13 “From on high he sent fire, sent it down into my bones. He spread a net for my feet and turned me back”), hand, neck, hands (v 14 “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)), weep/eye, eye, spirit/soul (v 16 “This is why I weep and my eyes overflow with tears. No one is near to comfort me, no one to restore my spirit), hands (v 17 Zion stretches out her hands, but there is no one to comfort her).
The reason could have to do with five-fold repetition of the noun “hands” (vv 7, 10, 14 twice, 17) from the hand of the enemy or adversary (v 7, 10) to his hand (v 14, the Lord’s) to Zion’s hands (v 17). The reason for Jeremiah’s references to the Lord is because it is better to leave judgment and punishment into God’s hands than his enemies. Why did the author see the hand of God behind Israel’s defeat? In 2 Sam 24:14 David says to the prophet Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of the Lord; for his mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hand of man. It’s OK to confide to the Lord how disappointed, displeased, disgust, disquiet and even disillusioned you are.
Count on the Lord – Pray for Courage
18 “The LORD is righteous, yet I rebelled against his command. Listen, all you peoples; look on my suffering. My young men and young women have gone into exile. 19 “I called to my allies but they betrayed me. My priests and my elders perished in the city while they searched for food to keep themselves alive. 20 “See, LORD, how distressed I am! I am in torment within, and in my heart I am disturbed, for I have been most rebellious. Outside, the sword bereaves; inside, there is only death. 21 “People have heard my groaning, but there is no one to comfort me. All my enemies have heard of my distress; they rejoice at what you have done. May you bring the day you have announced so they may become like me. 22 “Let all their wickedness come before you; deal with them as you have dealt with me because of all my sins. My groans are many and my heart is faint.”
Two weeks ago I saw an old movie on TV that was titled “Overheard 3,” starring Sean Lau, Louis Koo, Daniel Wu, Zhou Xun and Zeng Jiang. The movie tells of Zeng Jiang, the elder statesman of a New Territory village who had plans to purchase all the property rights of his villagers in partnership with a Mainland business man, who is his daughter’s boyfriend, for a lucrative IPO. His henchman and nephew (Sam Lau), with the help of fellow nephews, had other ideas and wanted the project himself.
The unexpected ending is the best part of the complicated movie, when the village leader was killed when he decided to abandon the IPO project. The question is, Who killed him? His daughter, his Mainland business partner, Sean Lau, Louis Koo, Daniel Wu or Zhou Xun? The shocking answer was his daughter who would lose everything if the project was dropped because she had no inheritance as a daughter. The mainland business partner tried to save the village leader twice. I heard the film made big business in China!
The praise “the Lord is righteous” occurs five times (Ex 9:27, 2 Chron 12:6, Ps 129:4, 145:17), but this is the only time the personal pronoun “he” added – the Lord “He” (is) righteous,” meaning Jeremiah is unmistakable, undoubtable, undeniable, unquestionable and unreserved. Righteous means He is steadfast to His people and promises. RIGHT stands for Reasonable, Impartial, Good, Honorable and Triumphant
God’s Righteousness
Man’s Righteousness (Self-righteous)
Lawgiver
Lawmaker
Attribute
Action
Intrinsic
Extrinsic
Adoration
Anger (Jas 1:20)
Eternal
Emotional
His Word, Our Relationship
Our Works, Our Results
First of all, righteousness is an attribute of God – from the start. It is intrinsic to God, inherent in Him and inseparable from Him. The Lord is righteous in all his works (Dan 9:14) and ways (Ps 145:17). He cannot be bargained, bribed or bent. He is free from wickedness, wrongdoing and weakness.
Second it is active – in the process. It is practicable not philosophical or political. The renowned philosopher Socrates believed that every person is capable of judging right from wrong and is thus solely capable for his actions and inactions. https://www.famousphilosophers.org/socrates/
Job says, “My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.” (Job 27:6) We cannot claim ignorance, irresponsibility or immaturity.
Third it is assured – to the end. Socrates tried to instill in those around him: to try to do the right thing no matter how hard it is to stand your ground. If not, you will lose your way and go towards the darkness, instead of the divine, the Good. In the dialogue Alcibiades I, Socrates is talking to Alcibiades about being a politician and about doing the right thing. He tells him:
If you act unrighteously, your eye will turn to the dark and godless, and being in darkness and ignorance of yourself, you will probably do deeds of darkness.(38)
http://www.moyak.com/papers/socrates.html
Verse 18’s “rebel” occurs in this chapter three times, equal with the most occurrences in the Bible for a chapter. This is the only chapter in the Bible with the phrase “I/I have rebelled” (Lam 1:18, 20), three times altogether. He is culpable, chargeable and blameworthy in contrast verse the Lord, he (v 18)! Each “rebel” (vv 18, 20) is introduced by the important reason “for”(ki). “I” Jeremiah initiated the action before the Lord
Conclusion: God is present in the midst of our suffering and storm. God alone is out certainty in the midst of uncertainty, our security in the midst of insecurity and our hope in the midst of hopelessness. Have you come to the Lord for comfort, care and courage? Are you turning to the ways of the world or turning to the word of God to solve problems big and small? Is God using you to comfort and care for others? To be a peacemaker, care-giver and a bridge-builder? The Bible says, Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted (Matt 5:4). There is certainly a time to weep, and a time to laugh (Eccl 3:4). Do you comfort those who are trouble (2 Cor 1:4)? Do you weep with those who weep (Rom 12:15)?
