THE BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS – PART 1 – JUDAH HAS FALLEN IN WEEPING – CHAPTER 1:1-3
One of the least studied books of the bible is Lamentations, or more fittingly, “The Lamentations of Jeremiah”, for the prophet pours out his heart in lament at what has befallen Jerusalem and Judah. The book is very sorrowful and does not contain the exaltation of many of the New Testament passages, but it is not meant to.
However, like a prospector searching for gems among the dross and unwanted rocks, occasionally you will fine an encouragement or a verse of comfort; a treasure of great value. A synonym for lamentations is “dirges” such as you find at a most miserable and depressing funeral.
In studying this book, the point will be missed if one does not consider the reasons behind everything that has happened. We will look at the reasons, but more than that we will look at our own condition, for the displeasure of God is upon us if we miss the vital aspects of bonding with our Saviour, that Judah absolutely despised.
The lessons here are very profitable and as with every portion of God’s word, we can not neglect the messages covered here, individually, for each of us.
PART [A]. ONCE PROUD JERUSALEM LIKE A SCARECROW IN A CUCUMBER FIELD
{{Lamentations 1:1 “How LONELY sits the city that was full of people. She has become like a widow who was once great among the nations. She who was a princess among the provinces has become a forced labourer.”
Lamentations 1:2 “SHE WEEPS BITTERLY in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks. She has none to comfort her among all her lovers. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her. They have become her enemies.”}}
Dirges and sorrow. That is what lamenting is all about. This book by Jeremiah expresses his great sorrow about many things and these we will see as we look into the book. The whole description begins what might be considered the single point of lament. The once proud and sinful city is displayed as lonely and empty. These two verses are just full of misery, but we must not miss that this is what reduces a man or city or nation to. Those who depart from the Lord will find no Lord in the dreadful wilderness.
The once proud city stands in shame for all to see, and turn away from her. She is a spectacle, an unpleasant one. That is why I used the image “like a scarecrow in a cucumber field” standing there silently and all forlorn. That image comes from here speaking of dumb idols – {{Jeremiah 10:5 “They are like a scarecrow in a cucumber field, and they cannot speak. They must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them, for they can do no harm, nor can they do any good.”}}
What was once a delight, even though grossly sinful, is gone. All memories are there but not to be enacted again. “How lonely”, is the start of this book. Jerusalem sits there as a spectacle of shame and defeat, the outcome of her own willful sinfulness. Once full of people, now a desolation and emptiness.
How could the city of the LORD be reduced to this? Jeremiah knew for he prophesied it over and over, but repentance and turning from sin was not to be found among the people and they finally came to end of the road with the LORD’S back to them and the cruel face of Nebuchadnezzar before them.
They had the choice all through Jeremiah’s preaching and Josiah’s reign to turn to God in repentance but the people were stubborn, wicked and resolute in departure from their God, and would not heed the preaching of the prophet. Sin has consequences and they must be paid. Not one person in the whole of creation can sin and get away with what its fruit produces. The soul that sins shall surely die.
Jeremiah preached his heart out hoping for a dramatic turn in repentance and restoration even though the LORD had told him the people were not going to respond to his message – {{Jeremiah 7:27 “You shall speak all these words to them, BUT THEY WILL NOT LISTEN TO YOU, and you shall call to them, but they will not answer you.”}} The further away a person gets from the Lord the harder his heart becomes and greater the impossibility is that he will ever respond. Nevertheless Jeremiah remained faithful in calling for repentance and maybe a few did heed his messages. God always has a remnant.
There is a place some 205 km from where I live that once was a thriving copper centre in the north of Queensland. Chillagoe was the smelting centre for the surrounding region from about 1890 to about 1940. The site processed ores from numerous small mines within a radius of 50 to 150 km, mainly for lead and copper with some silver and small amounts of gold. When I visited it, all the old workings were there, rusting away and the grass and weeds were growing in areas where people once worked. The chimneys and old furnaces could be clearly seen.
However it all stood in desolation and isolation, all quiet and no one around. I can relate that to Jerusalem in its conquered state. Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote a poem called Ozamandias recounting a statue he saw in a distant land. The poem ends this way” –
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Lonely, bare and desolate, that is how Ozymandias was in the desert, suggestive of Jerusalem devoid of people except for a few left behind. Who was to blame – God? Nebuchadnezzar? Unfortunate circumstances? No, none of those. The people had only themselves to blame because of their great sin and unrepentant wickedness. Let us be warned. The same is going to come on our world very soon.
In the remainder of verse 1 there are two comparisons, one to a widow and the other to a princess. Judah was like a widow who was alone having been cut off from her husband. The world knew too. The city now is like a princess who is reduced to forced labour. It is all woeful. The bleakness and despair is now the city’s lot, she who had thriving throngs.
In verse 2 the prophet speaks of the city but this is understood even wider for the nation. The picture we have is abject misery, sorrow and remorse. The pain is deep.
Weeping in the darkness of the night is so dismal. The city and nation had lost all; its pride reduced to scorn and contempt. A more miserable state you could not find. To get us to understand what had happened, Jeremiah speaks of the weeping in the night of Israel's remorse and the current state was the tears still on the cheek. It is bitterness and a raw wound.
Israel/Judah had many lovers. These were the pagan deities that were worshipped. Israel was married to idols and these were her lovers. The false idols were now gone and nothing remained. Idolatry exacted a powerful price and left its adherents poverty stricken. Satan and his demons deal terribly with those who follow them, and when they are destroyed, gloat over them. Sinners are left with no comfort for there is no comfort in separation from God. {{Matthew 8:12 “but the sons of the kingdom shall be cast out into the outer darkness. In that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”}}
Also there is no loyalty among groups who are steeped in idolatry. The expression, “No honour among thieves,” is similar to this. Those nations whose gods Judah followed, dealt treacherously with Israel, and with each other, and thought nothing of it. They turned on her without any consideration. Judah had no friends. Partners in crime become enemies in crime when a falling out happens.
In talking about following idols we have God’s warning – {{Jeremiah 10:1-5 “Hear the word which the LORD speaks to you, O house of Israel. Thus says the LORD, “DO NOT LEARN THE WAY OF THE NATIONS, and do not be terrified by the signs of the heavens although the nations are terrified by them. THE CUSTOMS OF THE PEOPLES ARE DELUSION because it is wood cut from the forest, the work of the hands of a craftsman with a cutting tool. They decorate it with silver and with gold. They fasten it with nails and with hammers so that it will not totter. THEY ARE LIKE A SCARECROW IN A CUCUMBER FIELD, and they cannot speak. They must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them, for they can do no harm, nor can they do any good.”}}
Because Judah followed the idols of the nations that are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, then Judah itself has become a scarecrow in the cucumber field of the world. It always amazes me how the heathen can fashion an image out of wood or stone and then bow down to it and claim it is their god. That being so, are the idols of the modern world any different?
PART [B]. JUDAH UNDER HARSH AFFLICTION AMONG THE NATIONS
{{Lamentations 1:3 “Judah has gone into exile under AFFLICTION, and under HARSH SERVITUDE, she dwells among the nations, but she has found NO REST. All her pursuers have overtaken her in the midst of DISTRESS.”}}
Some people will not watch a play or movie or read a book if they know it is sad with lots of pathos. Perhaps this is the reason why nearly everyone avoids Lamentations.
Verse 3 certainly is a reason for lament. There is a lot in this verse. “Under affliction” and “harsh servitude are strong expressions. Did God intend that to happen?
The LORD commanded Ezekiel to speak to the nation to justify what God had done – {{Ezekiel 20:5-8 and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “On the day when I chose Israel and swore to the descendants of the house of Jacob and made Myself known to them in the land of Egypt, when I swore to them, saying, I am the LORD your God, on that day I swore to them to bring them out from the land of Egypt into a land that I had selected for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands. I said to them, Cast away, each of you, the detestable things of his eyes, AND DO NOT DEFILE YOURSELVES WITH THE IDOLS OF EGYPT. I am the LORD your God.’ “THEY REBELLED AGAINST ME AND WERE NOT WILLING TO LISTEN TO ME. They did not cast away the detestable things of their eyes, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt. THEN I RESOLVED TO POUR OUT MY WRATH ON THEM, TO ACCOMPLISH MY ANGER AGAINST THEM IN THE MIDST OF THE LAND OF EGYPT,”}}
The sad thing about Israel was its constant companionship with idolatry. They even brought idols from Egypt when the exodus happened. They never relinquished idolatry and all the prophets over hundreds of years preached to bring the nation to its senses but they would not listen. Hosea who ministered in the Northern Kingdom had this to say:- {{Hosea 4:16-19 “Since Israel is stubborn like a stubborn heifer, can the LORD now pasture them like a lamb in a large field? EPHRAIM IS JOINED TO IDOLS. LET HIM ALONE. Their liquor gone, they play the harlot continually. THEIR RULERS DEARLY LOVE SHAME. The wind wraps them in its wings, and THEY WILL BE ASHAMED because of their sacrifices.”}}
What was true for Ephraim (Israel, Samaria) was also true for Judah. All were joined to idols with superglue. The shame of verse 19 came upon them all. In destruction there was shame and Jeremiah lived with that shame all around him.
Nebuchadnezzar was very harsh on the people, far in excess of what God intended when he appointed him as “My servant” – {{Jeremiah 27:6 “And now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, MY SERVANT, and I have given him also the wild animals of the field to serve him.”}} As a result the people suffered excessively, but God also judged His servant, Nebuchadnezzar, for the way he treated Judah.
The verse continues that Judah dwells among the nations, but there is no rest or spiritual contentment. This, in the main, has continued right to the present. Israel (both original kingdoms) is scattered near and far.
There is one interesting thing I ponder about but only God knows. Over the 27 centuries, the Jews who were displaced from Ephraim and Judah integrated with the nations and only some of them remained with their Jewish ethnicity. Over time it was lost. Who is a Jew? To have a descent that is not from Jacob, are you technically a Jew?
How many are descendants of Jacob and do not know it, lost for up to 27 centuries? The number could be huge. When Israel is restored, for the nation will be, when the Lord returns at the Second Coming, are all these dispersed descendants of Israel, still part of – {{Romans 11:26-27 and thus all Israel will be saved just as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion. He will remove ungodliness from Jacob. And this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.”}}
Distress is an awful thing but when you are pursued in distress probably with the aim of killing you, it is an horrendous thing. That was what it was like for defeated Judah. Jeremiah could identify with that sorrow.
A lament is a cry of sorrow and grief - "their pitiful laments could be heard throughout the ward"; Synonyms: lamentation, plaint, wail; Type of: complaint (formerly) a loud cry (or repeated cries) of pain or rage or sorrow in a song or hymn of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead child, for example.” (From an Internet definition.) Jeremiah’s lament for his nation was real.
We continue with this sad but informative book next time.
