Summary: This section begins the lament – the utterance of sadness and failure. There are 9 verses of lament here and this Part deals with 2 of them. Was the LORD responsible for Judah’s suffering? It is a sad thing but sinfulness always brings misery and suffering upon the participants.

THE BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS – PART 4 – JUDAH IS REJECTED AND TRODDEN DOWN – MY GREAT PAIN – CHAPTER 1:11-15

Our study in this remarkable book continues as we try to understand the grief of the defeated people and of Jeremiah himself who was overcome by sorrow for is nation. The nation had its choice and many opportunities were given to them but they flouted God’s messages through the prophet. We will begin with the sadness of destruction.

PART [A]. THE AFTERMATH OF TOTAL DESTRUCTION

{{Lamentations 1:11 All her people GROAN seeking bread. They have given their precious things for food to restore their lives themselves. “See, O LORD, and look, for I am despised.”}}

Jeremiah’s lamentations on behalf of the nation where he stands in the people’s place, is the focus of this verse. The aftermath for those who survive is awful, as it always is after terrible wars. We do not need to elaborate for we have seen such suffering even in our own lifetimes.

People don’t take sin seriously, and don’t pay heed to the consequences of sin. If they did then they would flee to God, repent and be born again. Maybe the worse time in human history for the aftermath of war will come in the Tribulation after peace is removed from the earth – {{Revelation 6:3-4 When He broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come,” and another, a red horse, went out, and to him who sat on it, IT WAS GRANTED TO TAKE PEACE FROM THE EARTH, and that men should slay one another, and a great sword was given to him.”}}

Following that there will be great famine and pestilences and death and 25% of the world’s population will perish under the third and fourth horses of Revelation chapter 6. Now at the end of the Church Age with the Rapture so close, then these terrible happenings will be soon on the earth and what the prophet wrote long ago is in sharp focus – {{Malachi 4:1 “For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze,” says the LORD of hosts, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.”}} Jesus also references this terrible time – {{Matthew 3:7 “When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to FLEE FROM THE WRATH TO COME?”}}

Jeremiah describes the people seeking food. They are groaning because of hunger. War always shuts down production of food resulting in starvation, and not only that, huge extortioners can provide food for a great cost to the consumer. Just to get food, the people have forfeited all their precious things. They have nothing. I hate extortioners, these blood-sucking people who make profit at people’s expense and in desperate, tragic circumstances. They are in the rank of the lowest individuals.

Jeremiah writes, “See, O LORD, and look, for I am despised.” He does not mean him but he means the nation. All around the known world Judah is despised, looked down on and condemned. The plea is to the LORD, and probably for the first time in ages, these people are expressing genuineness. Some people have to lose all before they can ever realise what they have really lost. Only then can they take steps to return to the LORD. We can only hope that many of these Jews finally had their lives united to their God, even though it took tragedy for that to happen.

Why do people not heed warnings? Imagine a man who is a heavy drinker and he begins to have some pains and a few minor problems all happening at once. His friends caution him he ought go see a doctor and have tests but he refuses and time passes. Then he has a medium heart attack and is then under a doctor’s care. It is almost too late for him. He refused to listen to the warnings. That is how Judah was, and when the destruction came, it was too late.

PART [B]. THE SAD TRUTH OF THE MATTER, IS MY GREAT PAIN/SORROW

{{Lamentations 1:12 “Is it nothing to all you who pass this way? Look and see if there is ANY PAIN LIKE MY PAIN which was severely dealt out to me, which THE LORD INFLICTED on the day of His fierce anger.”}}

We come to a verse which in times past was very well known especially from the AV – {{“Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold, and see if there be ANY SORROW LIKE UNTO MY SORROW, which is done unto me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.”}} The pathos the verse encloses, is almost felt, as it is so deep. Jeremiah expresses the deep sighing of the suffering people.

Reality was clearly expressed by the recognition that all this came from the LORD and though unstated, it would be correct, I feel, to say the people recognised this to be the result of their sin. God is not mocked for whatever a person sows, that he/she also reaps.

There is one great difference here between the people of that time and the people to come. These Jews recognised it was God’s hand in wrath that did this to them, and as a result, I think many of them repented. In the Tribulation, the people will know it is God’s wrath upon them, but they will not repent – {{Revelation 6:16-17 and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb for THE GREAT DAY OF THEIR WRATH HAS COME, and who is able to stand?”}}

{{Revelation 9:20-21 “The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues, DID NOT REPENT of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood which can neither see nor hear nor walk, and they did not repent of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their immorality, nor of their thefts.”}}

It is a sad thing when men will not recognise His hand in all He has created. I am always amazed at the great exactness and order in creation. Deluded evolutionists try to tell us that all came about by random chaos. A big bang does not lead to laws of physics and the immense complexity of life. The human body (as any creature is) has a perfect symmetry and design and function. We don’t have people running around with a leg or half formed limbs poking out of some part of their body. Everything is programmed by God in the whole genetic sequencing.

The bottom line is that one day all will meet God. Born again Christians will be face to face with their Saviour in unparalleled joy, while the unsaved will stand before a God of wrath in judgement at the great white throne in eternal separation. God has given His stamp on creation for all to see and acknowledge God and turn to Him. There is no excuse.

Today is the day of repentance. Today is the day to get right with God.

In the past I used to hear one say that this verse applied to the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. “See if there be any sorrow like My sorrow.” I suppose, as an application, it is not incorrect, though the verse is not a prophetic one.

One distressing aspect of the verse is that those who pass by Jerusalem can’t be bothered to think about what happened there. They don’t want to get involved with the sorrow of others. The honest person thinks about it and why it happened. That is what we should do. We will be overtaken in our nations and won’t know why it’s happening. When God is refused and rejected and mocked, it will have consequences.

[[“What the mourning city felt most keenly was that her unparalleled sufferings were met with an unparalleled indifference.” (Ellicott)]] Indifference to the sufferings of others is bad. Thank God we have a Great High Priest who is touched by our sufferings and trials. Most of the world shows little compassion to the suffering though some organisations do. Two notable Christian ones are Voice of the Martyrs and The Barnabas Fund.

PART [C]. GOD IS BLAMED FOR ALL THE SORROW (HIS PERMISSIVE WILL)

{{Lamentations 1:13 “From on high HE SENT FIRE INTO MY BONES, and it prevailed over them. He has spread a net for my feet. He has turned me back. He has made me desolate, faint all day long.”}}

There follows from this point on, the great lament for sins and the resultant penalty. This lament, some say, is Jeremiah weeping over the sins of the nation, but there are two other possibilities: that of Zion weeping for her children, and the survivors also weeping for their plight. In a broad sense all three possibilities could be relevant, but I think the true weeper, and the sad regretful lament comes from Zion, weeping for her children, that is, the loss of her citizens and the destruction of her structures.

There are 4 direct statements about what the LORD did. It can’t possibly apply to Jeremiah, but it does to the nation. God sent, spread, turned back, and made desolate.

That is not unlike this verse describing the infanticide by satanic Herod – {{Matthew 2:17-18 That which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled then saying, “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, RACHEL WEEPING FOR HER CHILDREN, and she refused to be comforted because they were no more.”}} In this passage Rachel represents the nation, so it is the nation weeping for the loss of her little ones.

PART [D]. JUDAH REDUCED TO WEAKNESS, UNABLE TO STAND

{{Lamentations 1:14 “The yoke of MY TRANSGRESSIONS is bound. By His hand they are knit together. They have come upon my neck. He has made my strength fail. The Lord has given me into the hands of those against whom I am not able to stand.”}}

In these verses I will consider throughout that it is Zion/Judah who is in great mourning for its destruction. The 9 VERSES will be considered one by one.

FIRST VERSE OF LAMENT: Right at the start of the verse there is an admission of sin, “my transgressions,” and that is always the starting point. We must acknowledge our sin before the Lord and never attempt to cover it up. He who attempts to hide sin is not wise.

In the first sentence, the exact meaning is unknown but Ellicott says this – [[“The verb is not found elsewhere, but was probably a technical term for the twisting of the thongs by which the yoke was fastened, the “yoke” in this case being the transgressions of Judah,”]]

Transgressions had bound the nation and fixed the yoke so strongly in place that there was no turning from it. It was the LORD who had weaved those ropes/leather thongs by His own hand. The LORD is 100% responsible for what happened to Judah, but the nation itself was 100% responsible for that having to be done.

“They have come upon my neck” is the recognition that this was done externally. The LORD caused it to happen. There is no space now for excuses. The verse continues that the LORD caused their strength to fail (though again we know that was their fault. They are only receiving the rewards of their transgression.)

The last part of the verse continues the LORD’s action against them. He delivered them to the enemy – the Babylonians – and the defeat was so crushing, they could not stand. Over and over they were warned by Jeremiah, and earlier by Isaiah and Haggai, that they would be delivered up if they did not repent, but they refused to listen.

PART [E]. REJECTED AND CRUSHED

{{Lamentations 1:15 “The Lord has REJECTED all my strong men in my midst. He has called an appointed time against me to CRUSH my young men. The Lord has TRODDEN the virgin daughter of Judah as in a wine press.”}}

SECOND VERSE OF LAMENT: The young men are the strong men. By claiming they were rejected it means they were not able to stand in the battle. They were overwhelmed, or as another scripture puts it, they were like women. This verse refers to the Egyptians in defeat – {{Isaiah 19:16 “In that day the Egyptians will become like women and they will tremble and be in dread because of the waving of the hand of the LORD of hosts which He is going to wave over them.”}} The prophets speak of the time when the Lord will judge Egypt and then save them so that Egypt and Assyria will become the three chief nations on the earth.

{{Isaiah 19:21-25 “Thus the LORD will make Himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the LORD in that day. They will even worship with sacrifice and offering and will make a vow to the LORD and perform it. THE LORD WILL STRIKE EGYPT, STRIKING BUT HEALING SO THEY WILL RETURN TO THE LORD, and He will respond to them and will heal them. IN THAT DAY there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria and the Assyrians will come into Egypt and the Egyptians into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. IN THAT DAY ISRAEL WILL BE THE THIRD PARTY WITH EGYPT AND ASSYRIA, A BLESSING IN THE MIDST OF THE EARTH, whom the LORD of hosts has blessed saying, “BLESSED IS EGYPT MY PEOPLE, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.”}}

The battle is the Lord’s but if the Lord turns His back then His people will face defeat. The descriptive word here – “crush” (1:15) – means a humiliating total defeat; squashed by the enemy. Then another description – trodden (1:15) – and that is the extraction of juice from the wine grapes. Men stamp on the grapes in a large vat and the juice is expelled and runs out to be collected. The image is of Judah being squashed with the life blood squirting out while being crushed. It is the Lord trampling the winepress. A much greater trampling of the winepress of the wrath of God is coming at the Second Coming – {{Revelation 14:19 “The angel swung his sickle to the earth, and gathered the clusters from the vine of the earth, and threw them into the great WINE PRESS OF THE WRATH OF GOD, and the wine press was trodden outside the city, and blood came out from the wine press, up to the horses’ bridles, for a distance of two hundred miles.”}}

There was no hope for them without repentance. Sometimes the Lord has to take more drastic measures to make men listen to His demands for repentance so they may enter such a delightful life. Judgement will always come, though. Those who don’t heed will perish.