“How the gold has grown dim,
how the pure gold is changed!
The holy stones lie scattered
at the head of every street.
“The precious sons of Zion,
worth their weight in fine gold,
how they are regarded as earthen pots,
the work of a potter’s hands!”
[LAMENTATIONS 4:1-2] [1]
What a dramatic transition had taken place! The writer records that the gold had lost its lustre, the silver was tarnished, the diamonds had all turned again to coal. What was once precious was of little value; suddenly what had once been common was now in short supply. What had once been disdained was now avidly sought after. Disaster has that effect on us. Reading the fourth chapter detailing the traumatic account of national heartbreak, the casual reader might be induced to think the Prophet was focused on the loss of wealth. However, Jeremiah’s eye sees far more clearly than that; he sees the loss of an immediate future, the loss of hope.
In one of his sermons, Chuck Swindoll commented that a person can live about forty days without food, about four days without water, about four minutes without oxygen, and about four seconds without hope. That sounds about right. In Israel, the writer notes that the survivors of the Chaldean invasion were left in what seemed to be a hopeless situation. For those who survived, the future appeared bleak indeed, and there was scant reason to imagine that things would soon allow the people to know what it was to rejoice. They were experiencing difficult times, and the prospects for immediate relief were bleak.
Humiliation awaits the one who would impose his will on those who are unwilling, should he fail in the effort to compel compliance. The victor seldom anticipates humiliation, but in holding an attitude of superiority over the vanquished, they display an ignorance of the divine warning, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” [JAMES 4:6b]. In giving this warning to his readers, you realise that James is quoting the proverb that states,
“[The LORD] mocks those who mock
but gives grace to the humble.”
[PROVERBS 3:34 CSB]
Pride brings an individual to ruin. And Israel that exalted themselves in their own eyes rather than exalting the Lord. Now, their pride brought this downfall.
To be certain, the Babylonians would know their own sorrow within a few short decades. However, for the moment, it was Israel that was suffering. When the British Army was defeated at Yorktown and forced to surrender, the American Patriots played an old English folk tune as the surrender was effected. The British soldiers were treated to the song, “The World Turned Upside Down” as they marched to stack their arms under the baleful gaze of the rude backwoodsmen wearing buckskin. One can imagine that try as they might, the proud red coats could not put the words of the song out of their minds. It was one more humiliation the proud army was forced to endure. For eight long years they had inflicted deep pain upon the peoples living in the colonies; now, they would have their own humiliation. How often that very scenario has played out in history. And this reality shall undoubtedly be reality again in the future.
As I read the account of the first judgements rained down upon the earth during the days of the Great Tribulation, I note a strange detail as the third seal is broken during the days of those initial judgements. The Revelator writes, “When [the Lamb] opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, ‘Come!’ And I looked, and behold, a black horse! And its rider had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures, saying, ‘A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not harm the oil and wine’” [REVELATION 6:5-6]!
Did you notice as I read this passage that when this judgement is unleashed upon the earth, staples will become costly—wheat sufficient to make bread for a day’s meal will cost a day’s wage. The Revelator records that barley, viewed as an inferior grain for human consumption, though it will provide nourishment, will likewise be exorbitantly costly. These commodities will be in short supply; but olive oil and wine, seen as luxury items, will be plentiful.
The world will be turned upside down, and all the world will be looking for a saviour. The situation will not differ greatly from the situation prevailing in this present day when most want nothing to do with the Risen Saviour; and most people living in that day of divine judgements will want nothing to do with the Christ. When the bottom drops out, and I fear the bottom will soon drop out for our culture, if it is not already dropping out, it will do little good to ask why this happened. However, it will be beneficial for us who know the Saviour to know beforehand why this will happen. For if we know what is coming we can warn others, knowing that some will heed the warning we deliver. If we know what is coming, we will perhaps be able to take steps to protect our own families. And if we know what is coming, we will know to be looking to the Lord for wisdom to avoid undue suffering.
REALLY! SIN CAN DO THAT? Each of us have no doubt watched news broadcasts as the news presenters open their presentation with a warning that the images will be disturbing to some viewers. The warning with which these stories begin present a warning that the following story contains graphic images or descriptions that will disturb some listeners. Then, in the stories the faces are blurred, gaping wounds are pixelated so that no one will see what is presented, and the most vivid aspect of the scene are kept from view. I am part of a generation that wasn’t shielded from the graphic visual images, having witnessed news stories filmed during the Viet Nam war. Tragically, preachers in the past several decades have tried to shield congregations from graphic renditions of sin.
This portion of the grief-stricken lament of the Weeping Prophet begins with the observation that the concept of mercy was at best a distant memory; compassion seems utterly absent from what the nation was then experiencing as God held the people to account. Jackals, commonly thought to be the worst sort of vermin, will suckle their young; but jackals were more compassionate than the mothers within the nation. The people were suffering so greatly that not even infants were being cared for. To emphasise the grief that the people of Israel were experiencing, Jeremiah forces the reader to look at the results of their sin without any filter.
Sin is awful. Though sin allures us, promising pleasure and power and prominence, the promises prove to be a gossamer façade masking a devastating reality. As a young preacher, I heard John R. Rice tell of a time when he was strolling through a west Texas town with a small coterie of friends. As they strolled through the town, an old man in a wheelchair blocked their way. He said to those young men, “Five minutes of fun gets you a lifetime of misery.” I thought of what the preacher said at that time, and I’ve often thought of the reality of what he said since that time.
Sin is a terrible employer that pays a dreadful price. When we read in Scripture, “The wages of sin is death” [ROMANS 6:23a], we really don’t have the ability to think of just how awful the reality is. There is not a sin that does not eventuate in death, if not physical death, then death for relationships, death of ideals, death of character, death of communion with the True and Living God. Let’s think about the sins that permeate our culture and the price we pay to tolerate those sins.
Think about the sexual promiscuity that has percolated throughout contemporary society. I understand that we have been indoctrinated to decry the supposed sexism that is said to be a major feature of our world. But we fail to see the power of social interactions that recognise distinct roles for men and women. These are not roles that assign superiority and/or inferiority to one sex or the other. When God proposed to create a woman, the LORD spoke of her role within the marriage relationship, saying, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a companion for him who corresponds to him” [GENESIS 2:18 NET BIBLE 2nd].
The woman whom God presented to the man was not meant to be like him—she was not his inferior, nor was she his superior. The woman whom God made was a complement to the man. The woman ensured that man would not be a solitary unit; rather, it would be together that man and woman would be what we know as mankind. Together, man and woman would oversee the creation which the Lord GOD had made.
When Adam and Eve sinned, the LORD pronounced sentence on the sinning couple. His pronouncement to the woman is stunning, if we allow ourselves to contemplate what the LORD God said.
“I will greatly increase your labor pains;
with pain you will give birth to children.
You will want to control your husband,
but he will dominate you.”
[GENESIS 3:16 NET BIBLE 2nd]
Did you catch that? Woman will want to control man, and her illicit desire results from her sinful nature. Before sin entered the world, woman was a complement to man. [2] Fallen, she is a competitor, and her condition is part of her sinful nature, leading to death.
When they serve as complementarian to one another, serving with distinct sex roles, man and woman build strong, stable societies that grow and prosper. Serving as competitors, we tear one another down and seek to dominate one another, destroying society in the process. Women convince themselves that men have the better deal, and they want to become men. Men grow tired of the struggle and they either become brutes intent on pounding woman into submission or they surrender to the pressure allowing themselves to be feminised to the point they decide to become a woman. Either condition leads to dissolution of society and the ruin of civilisation. It is sinful to be disgruntled with who you are as determined by God. This point is so important that it must be emphasised: It is sinful to be disgruntled with who you are as determined by God. To seek to become what one is not, is the initial step to societal ruin and national dissolution.
Before rushing on, pause to consider that ingratitude toward the Creator, discontent with who you are and with your role in society, is the first step toward societal chaos. That is the point made when we read, “Although [people] knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened” [ROMANS 1:21].
We know that man and woman were created as distinct sexual creatures and were thus to be uniquely committed to one another. After providing the account of making the woman, God said, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” [GENESIS 2:24].
The commitment of one man and one woman in a loving, lifelong marital relationship is so important that our Lord emphasised this point when He was challenged by religious leaders. These religious scholars asked Jesus when divorce was permitted, and Jesus answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh?’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate” [MATTHEW 19:4-6].
Again, Paul, obviously conversant with what was written in the Pentateuch and echoing the words Jesus spoke, makes the same point when he instructs followers of the Christ how they are to conduct themselves in their marriage relationships. Paul wrote, “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband” [EPHESIANS 5:25-33].
I’ve said all that to bring us to the point of understanding that when a culture depreciates marriage, when a culture emphasises freedom from family responsibilities by killing their unborn whom God gives as His gift, when a nation promotes immorality and attempts to redefine what it means to be man or woman, that nation, or that culture, is perched on the edge of a precipice that will inevitably lead to destruction and ruin. And that is where western culture finds itself today. That is where Canada is at this moment. That is where the United States stands at this moment in history.
I have not even spoken of the culture that embraces pride and power as though these aspects of life were the summum bonum of life. Pride in self can be an incredibly destructive condition, as the Apostle of Love has written. “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever” [1 JOHN 2:15-17]. So much for pride of life!
And when we imagine that acquisition of power means we are blessed by God, we need but recall the pointed rebuke Jesus delivered to Pilate as the Master was haled before the Roman governor. “[Pilate] entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, ‘Where are you from?’ But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said to him, ‘You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?’ Jesus answered him, ‘You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin’” [JOHN 19:9-11].
Pilate claimed authority, but whatever authority he had was because the Lord God had given it. Upon His resurrection, Jesus appointed His disciples—and that includes each of us who follow Him even now—, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” [MATTHEW 28:18-20].
It is for this reason that we who follow the Risen Saviour have confidence concerning how things will turn out for us as His people. And we confess, “God has highly exalted [Jesus] and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” [PHILIPPIANS 2:9-11]. Amen; amen, indeed!
I have not even spoken of the multiplied sins of covetousness, malice, envy, hatred leading to murder, strife, deceit, and maliciousness. I need not speak of the societal destroying sins of gossip, slander, hatred toward God and bitterness toward all that is holy. I need not address the sins of insolence, arrogance, boasting, disobedience toward parents, lack of faith, ruthlessness, all of which erode civilisation. All these characteristics mark modern western culture; all tear down civility and stability ensuring that western culture is sliding toward oblivion. Ours is a society that is increasingly characterised by filthiness, foolish talk, and crude joking. And even we who name the Name of Christ Jesus are prone to slip into this dissipation.
This is precisely what we are warned against when the Apostle wrote his final missive to the Pastor of the congregation in Ephesus! You will recall that Paul wrote, “Understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth” [2 TIMOTHY 3:1-7].
Throughout this chapter, the writer has provided graphic descriptions of the impact of God’s judgement on the nation. He doesn’t shield us from the unpleasantness that attends God turning His back on the nation. I suppose the closest I can come in recent history is the impact of the Russian overthrow and occupation of Germany. Perhaps the tender mercies of the savages that deemed themselves ISIS as they rampaged through Iraq provide us with a nauseating example. Though we may grope for an example to compare with Israel in our text, what is evident from reading the text is that the nation was deserted into the hands of a vicious, violent, vile people who did not regard anything worthy of showing honour. When the Lord has delivered a nation into the hands of a violent, godless conqueror, the results will never be pleasant. Even thinking of the pain and degradation imposed on those within that nation will turn the stomach. The people, even those who were true worshippers of the Living God, had been silent as sin metastasised, insinuating itself into every aspect of the nation; they had grown to tolerate the most vile and wicked sin, until God could no longer be silent. Sin had found its way into the warp and woof of the national fabric, despoiling and contaminating every relationship within society. For years and for decades the Lord had warned that His judgement would be unleashed, and at last His judgement fell.
And it was sin that led to the overthrow of the Kingdom of Judah, leading to the sorrowful poems we have received as Lamentations. Israel sinned. There had been no repentance, no turning from the pervasive sin that had come to characterise the nation, no turning to the Lord GOD, until at last God called the nation to account. And that must inevitably be what happens to our culture, to our nation. There awaits a day when God will say, “Enough!” And that day may be closer than any of us can imagine.
WHEN LEADERSHIP FAILS! It is a truism that everything rises and falls on leadership. The leader of a nation sets the tone for that nation: and in turn, it is the character of the citizens that set the tone for what that leader does and for what he promotes. And those who were leaders in Judah had failed their responsibility in a most horrible fashion.
Israel looked to prophets, priests, and kings to provide leadership. The prophets were those raised up by the LORD to provide a revelation of the mind of God and to plead with God on behalf of the people. Priests were part of that class appointed by the LORD from the descendants of Aaron to serve before the LORD and to lead the people in worship. Kings were responsible to administer the affairs of state and to ensure that the people were kept safe. In Israel, there were three distinct offices populated by those whom God appointed to perform specific duties and to ensure that the people received divine guidance so that they would glorify the Name of the Lord GOD.
In this chapter we witness the failure of all three offices. The prophets had failed to hold the people accountable for their sins; they had failed to declare the warnings from God and the people ran amuck. You may recall how the Wise Man observed, “Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint” [PROVERBS 29:18a]. And thus the writer observes in our text,
“This was for the sins of her prophets
and the iniquities of her priests,
who shed in the midst of her
the blood of the righteous.
They wandered, blind, through the streets;
they were so defiled with blood
that no one was able to touch
their garments.”
[LAMENTATIONS 4:13-14]
And, as these verses witness, the writer recognised that the priests also had failed, sinning against God and leading the people into ruin when judgement came at last. Witness how the writer speaks in the verses that follow.
“‘Away! Unclean!’ people cried at them.
‘Away! Away! Do not touch!’
So they became fugitives and wanderers;
people said among the nations,
‘They shall stay with us no longer.’
The LORD himself has scattered them;
he will regard them no more;
no honor was shown to the priests,
no favor to the elders.”
[LAMENTATIONS 4:15-16]
Judgement had come, and all alike paid an awesome, a horrible price for the sin that had been tolerated. The king had also been captured and paid dearly for his failure to govern righteously.
“The breath of our nostrils, the LORD’s anointed,
was captured in their pits,
of whom we said, ‘Under his shadow
we shall live among the nations.’”
[LAMENTATIONS 4:20]
Jeremiah writes, “The king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah at Riblah before his eyes, and the king of Babylon slaughtered all the nobles of Judah. He put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him in chains to take him to Babylon” [JEREMIAH 39:6-7].
The prophets had failed; they had told lies to the people, claiming that the LORD had spoken when He had been silent. The priests had failed; they used their office to enrich themselves and to promote their own interests. And the leaders had been silent as the sin of those who were divinely appointed corrupted their offices. It was all exposed when God at last sent His devastating judgement on the land. And when the leaders were corrupted, the people followed their lead, believing they were immune from judgement because they performed the expected rituals. The Faith of the Living God was reduced to the performance of rites and to incantations pronounced at specific times in the temple.
Ezekiel exposed this state when the Spirit of the LORD prompted him to write, “The word of the LORD came to me: ‘Son of man, say to her, You are a land that is not cleansed or rained upon in the day of indignation. The conspiracy of her prophets in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured human lives; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in her midst. Her priests have done violence to my law and have profaned my holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they have disregarded my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them. Her princes in her midst are like wolves tearing the prey, shedding blood, destroying lives to get dishonest gain. And her prophets have smeared whitewash for them, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, “Thus says the Lord GOD,” when the LORD has not spoken. The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have oppressed the poor and needy, and have extorted from the sojourner without justice. And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none. Therefore I have poured out my indignation upon them. I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. I have returned their way upon their heads, declares the Lord GOD’” [EZEKIEL 22:23-31].
What happened to the people of God should be a warning to the Faith that has created the West. God says, “I have returned their way upon their heads.” And that is the consistent theme witnessed throughout the entirety of the Word of God. People are blessed richly. Then, in their fallen, arrogant condition, demand what they imagine they want, and the Lord gives them precisely what they demand. It never turns out as those demanding concessions from God anticipated.
A pertinent observation of this principle in action is provided in the words of Os Guinness, who writes, “The Christian faith contributed to the rise of the modern world, but the Christian faith has been undermined by the modern world it helped to create. The Christian faith thus becomes its own gravedigger.” [3] Christianity served as the foundation for western civilisation, providing a societal standard of individual freedoms. And it is those very freedoms that are now destroying the very civilisation that the Faith created.
I don’t mean to imply that Christianity has failed—it has not! Nor do I mean to imply that the Faith will disappear from the earth—it will not! I do mean that as we in the West have received the blessings of God, we have grown complacent about who we are and arrogant concerning what we deserve. Like Israel of old, we have concluded that God must bless us, that we are God’s only hope in the world. We assume that the wealth He with which He has blessed us is our due, and that we are the best God has.
Our churches in this day are more likely to preach western values than they are to declare the mind of the Living God. To be sure, there are many supposed preachers who will condemn western values because the preachers oppose the biblical foundations on which the West was built. These are usually preachers espousing a liberal bent in their theology. However, among Evangelical preachers and many spokesmen that present themselves as conservative, the western values themselves have become the message proclaimed rather than a bold proclamation of “Thus says the Lord.” Increasingly, those entering the service of Christ the Lord see their labour as a means of climbing the ecclesiastical ladder rather than an opportunity to work together with the Risen Lord.
Consequently, while liberal congregations present a deficient message, within Evangelical circles, we too often witness a decided and determined transformation of the Gospel into a quasi-social message meant to boost western values even at the expense of biblical doctrine. Can we truly anticipate that the Living God Who has given us His Word will bless a message that is twisted and distorted to say what the preacher wants to say? Will God bless a people who are patriotic when their patriotism has left room only for a cursory acknowledgement of the Lord God.
Dear people, I have served among the Lord’s churches for the better part of five decades, observing how multiple congregations conduct their work. The churches in which I have served have all been of an Evangelical persuasion; all of them would argue that they seek to obey God’s commands. Yet, it is more likely that when it is time to do business, leaders have already decided what they will do. If there is consultation with the assembly it is only to seek cover for what has already been decided.
The thought that a congregation would stop deliberation to pray, so that they could seek the mind of the Spirit, is so rare as to be exceptional. “We are congregational,” we say, “and we must have a vote.” Fifty percent plus one makes any action we take legal, and that is what we will do. But that is not the model we witness in the first assembly. In that first congregation, in anticipation of the fulfilment of Christ’s promise, the disciples—all of them, “returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers” [ACTS 1:12-14]. All were praying!
Later, when the work they were performing was threatened they united in prayer, with all sharing in the burden as we read after the leaders had been threatened and released. Thus, we read, “When [Peter and John] were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God…” [ACTS 4:23-24a].
Seeking the mind of the Lord for who should serve the assembly, they devoted themselves to prayer. The first missionaries were chosen with fasting and prayer, as we read. “There were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off” [ACTS 13:1-3].
In the realm of the Faith, everything rises and falls on leadership. If the leaders give themselves to seeking and doing the will of the Risen Saviour, God will bless by giving His Spirit that binds hearts in unity. If the leaders are men of prayer, the people will give themselves to prayer. If the leaders are mere functionaries who seek to do what the government dictates, though the congregation may appear vibrant and lively, the church will prove to be a withered vine without heart and without life. When judgement comes, and judgement will come, the congregation will cease to be a viable entity.
And what holds for a church will be equally true for societies, and ultimately the situation will hold true for nations. If those who lead the nation are known only for seeking power and prominence, then the people will shortly conclude that seizing power justifies every sort of evil. And those voices that fail to celebrate the mad grasping of power must be stifled. Such actions lead inevitably toward divine judgement as God concludes that the wickedness must be condemned.
And if there is no prophetic voice to speak the mind of the Lord God, there will be no rebuke delivered to confront the leaders who seek to cement their own legacy. In time, even the leaders of the western democracies will differ only in a matter of degrees from tyrants such as the Korean dictator Kim Jong Un or the Iranian tyrant Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. And if the pulpits fail to point to the will of God as revealed in the Word, the people will have no understanding of what should be done.
Prophets, priests, and king had failed Israel. There was nothing left but for the Holy One to surrender the nation to its own desires. And that is what the Lord did, leading to the traumatic descriptions the writer provides as he writes of life for the survivors of the Chaldean invasion. When the leaders failed, all alike paid the awful price that attended the invasion and subsequent occupation of the land.
My great fear for the nations of North America is that we are swiftly moving into the same condition that brought this awful judgement upon Israel. The prophetic voice is seldom heard from the pulpit. And if there is no voice speaking the mind of the Master, how will people know what is expected of them? The priestly work of interceding with God on behalf of the faithful seems to be a forgotten labour. And if there is no voice interceding for the nation, how can we expect that the Lord will show mercy. Many, perhaps even most, of those who govern appear determined to use their position to enrich themselves or to build up their personal power base. The swamp in Ottawa, and in Washington as well, is well populated with politicians, but few statesmen seem to be available in those capitals.
PASSING THE CUP! Why? That’s an all too familiar cry when we experience trouble. And I should suppose that each of us has cried out this precise question in just this fashion, if only quietly in our heart. When financial hardship comes into our life, we cry out almost involuntarily, “Why? Why has this happened?” Yet, we know that the chances are very good that maxing out our credit card contributed to our desperate plight. The meals out when we could have cooked at home added to our woe. The pleasure trips, the new car, the toys we just had to have, the needless appliances that would make our lives easier, all combined to add to our debt, until the demands of our creditors became greater than our ability to pay. Family conflicts aren’t just sprung on us without reason. We refused to speak up when our family acted unreasonably and unjustly, or we ignored the growing crisis in hopes it would just go away. What did we expect?
And the same condition applies when we consider what will happen to the nation. As leaders were revealed as corrupt, we were silent, hoping that they would maybe fade into the woodwork. When leaders stole our freedoms and demanded unthinking obedience to ridiculous dicta, we went along to get along. As taxation drove us increasingly into poverty, ensuring that we would have ever greater trouble feeding our families and that it would cost ever greater amounts to fuel our cars, we quietly paid the price. Oh, we grumbled that we worked for the government, and questioned why these politicians served themselves though they never seemed to serve the people that chose them, but we didn’t want to rock the boat. Then, when it all comes crashing down and we lose stature in the world, we will cry out to God, pleading, “Why? Why did this happen?” And the answer will come back, “Because we allowed it to happen.”
The writer of our text notes one other aspect that may be neglected until it can no longer be ignored. Listen to the closing words of this chapter.
“Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom,
you who dwell in the land of Uz;
but to you also the cup shall pass;
you shall become drunk and strip yourself bare.
The punishment of your iniquity, O daughter of Zion, is accomplished;
he will keep you in exile no longer;
but your iniquity, O daughter of Edom, he will punish;
he will uncover your sins.”
[LAMENTATIONS 4:21-22]
Nations that had benefitted from Israel were envious of her, and when the LORD judged her, they rejoiced. The writer cautions them that they are very foolish in taking delight in the punishment visited on Israel. If a vicious enemy would do this to Israel, there was nothing keeping them from doing the same to Edom and other, less powerful nations. The hand of God which had punished Israel was quite capable of punishing Edom.
Should divine judgement fall on the nations of North America, those nations of the south, and those European nations, and the nations of Asia will need to be cautioned to restrain their glee, to avoid gloating. The same God Who holds Canada and the United States to account, is God over the nations as well; and He will not ignore a lack of restraint should those other nations boast in their own standing rather than learning from the judgement that He has poured out. Indeed, we who know the Lord are instructed, “These things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” [1 CORINTHIANS 10:11-12]. And we must be cautious.
I don’t anticipate that those who hold the reins of power in Ottawa or in Washington will take heed of my words. Yet, you who do hear must know that we stand on the brink of disaster because of our arrogance and because of our refusal to give God the glory due His Name. We must not imagine that playing at being religious without a transformation of heart will impress the Living God. Let us determine that we will seek Christ and live holy, righteous lives to the praise of His glory. Let us do so from this day. Amen.
[1] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] For a careful discussion of this point, read, Susan T. Foh, “What is the Woman’s Desire?,” Westminter Theological Journal, Vol. 37, No. 3, 376-383
[3] Os Guinness, The Last Christian on Earth: Uncover the Enemy’s Plot to Undermine the Church (Baker Books, Grand Rapids MI 2010) 11
