Summary: Such tragedy in Judah but who can help? The broken walls weep. Hunger is everywhere. Women turn to cannibalism. Everyone is badly affected. Jeremiah asks, “Why has the LORD done this to us?” In fact it is sin that is reaping its sowing. The nation was corrupt.

THE BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS – PART 11 – THE WALLS ARE BROKEN AND SADNESS AND TRAGEDY ARE WIDESPREAD – JEREMIAH QUESTIONS GOD - CHAPTER 2:18-20

We continue the description of the state of the survivors from the Babylonian invasion and Jeremiah’s communication to them. The book is called Lamentations because the prophet laments all that has happened and the people lament their condition with all things gone.

The last message ended with the people acknowledging the full hand of God in the nation’s downfall. The beginning of healing is when we face reality. Jeremiah preached over and over and they ignored him. Reality was far from them until it came in the form of Nebuchadnezzar and hit them so hard it shook their very being.

The survivors realised their tragedy and the cause of it. There was lamenting everywhere among the people and now their sadness is directed to the broken wall of Jerusalem.

[1]. REMORSE AND REPENTANCE COMES BUT IT IS TOO LATE TO SAVE THE NATION

{{Lamentations 2:18 Their heart cried out to the Lord, “O WALL OF THE DAUGHTER OF ZION, let your tears run down like a river day and night. Give yourself no relief. Let your eyes have no rest.”}}

Here they call on the wall to cry tears day and night so the depth of it is a river. That is to show the intensity of the lamenting. The wall is synonymous with the nation of Judah because the wall was their protection, but the protecting hand of God was withdrawn, so now, all the wall could do is weep. This of course is a picture of the people who weep in their own destruction.

Walls were important in scripture and in all the biblical nations. Walls were protection (who has not known of the Great Wall of China?), but they went even beyond all that.

A city’s wall also spoke of their acceptability in the world of men. It was associated with a nation’s status. Just recall the grandeur of the wall of Babylon built by Nebuchadnezzar II, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Here from “Ancient Mesopotamia” about these walls – [[The thickness of its wall is thirty-two feet; the height thereof between the towers is fifty cubits (75 feet); that of the towers is sixty cubits (90 feet); and the passage on top of the wall is such that four-horse chariots can easily pass one another; and it is on this account that this and the hanging garden are called one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.”]]. The state of Babylon’s wall fitted the status of the grandest leader the world has ever known, “the head of gold,” Nebuchadnezzar.

The verse begins with an act that should have happened years before all this occurred. The people cry out in repentance. There will be no relief in their mourning and they lament in tears streaming from their eyes. What ought to have been their sensitivity to sin long ago now becomes active for them in destruction. The survivors still had time to repent and some did. For those who were slaughtered there was no time and they went to hell. That is the stark reality of it all. Beware in our generation.

The LORD’S wrath was turned on them, but now, will the LORD listen to them in forgiveness? All those overthrown and scattered and also led to Babylon as captives, they tearfully repent of their sin, but will God listen to them? I have no doubt that a merciful God responds to genuine repentance for He is not willing that any should perish, but come to repentance and forgiveness. If only the world would do this, but it won’t. We know prophetically that in these last days sin hardens the world as set concrete and all it has to look forward to is destruction outlined in Revelation 6 onwards. Of course the Lord is plucking individuals as brands from the fire in our age. As I write this, many are being saved in Iran, possibly over one million.

[2]. CRY ALOUD TO THE LORD FOR YOURSELVES AND YOUR LITTLE ONES

{{Lamentations 2:19 Arise, cry aloud in the night AT THE BEGINNING OF THE NIGHT WATCHES. POUR OUT your heart like water before the presence of the Lord. LIFT UP your hands to Him for the life of YOUR LITTLE ONES WHO ARE FAINT because of hunger at the head of every street.”}}

Here is the prophet’s command to the people. People in dire straits cry to the Lord. Even atheists in the very heat of warfare cry to the Lord in some sort of plea. It is hard for us who have never been touched by the tragedy the residents of Judah experienced, and those Christians today in Nigeria, Sudan, Syria, just to mention 3 of them, to appreciate the depth of the ravished soul and body in such calamity. Where do they turn? All is destroyed. Their only refuge is in their Creator, and so the prophet commands them.

The actions of their hearts will be shown in physical actions, that of crying aloud, pouring out, and lifting up. These are actions of a contrite heart

The people must arise and cry aloud, and pour out their hearts in repentance and pleading and trust in the LORD. They must lift up their hands in intercession for their children, these young ones unable to fend for themselves. There is severe famine. The destruction from Babylon was complete. Hunger is everywhere. What a terrible consequence is sinful rebellion and these people are to live with the results of that.

The start of the verse mentions “at the beginning of the night watches,” and I presume that when the darkness descends on the land, that the weeping begins so it continues all through the night. That would be repeated over and over now in a metaphorical sense, for Israel has been weeping from that time until the present, because it did not own its own land from 497 B.C. until 1947 A.D. and still has no lasting peace.

In World War 2 the churches were filled because people were afraid and felt dread in their lives. So often, only hardship drives people to God. We see that today only in nations in the most terrible conditions where there is death and violence and destruction. As I write this, there are reports of a great time of salvation in Iran, and China has been undergoing a move to God, but facts are uncertain because much of the church is underground.

I wonder how many will react this way in the Tribulation and turn to God through the preaching of the 144 000. Tragedy will turn some to God. Sometimes this is the only way to make people understand.

There is such sadness in the world, and people are disconnected with others and with God. How can we reach the broken hearted with the message that God is a God of consolation and comfort? The Lord’s hand is not shortened in that it can not save. Jesus accepts the weary and heavy laden. We pray the mercy of God right now will gather up the downtrodden ones and bring them into the light of the salvation of His tender care.

[3]. JEREMIAH QUESTIONS THE LORD – THE HORRORS OF CANNIBALISM

{{Lamentations 2:20 “See, O LORD, and look. With whom have You dealt thus? SHOULD WOMEN EAT THEIR OFFSPRING, the little ones who were born healthy? Should priest and prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?”}}

Is it right to question the Lord? Here we have three questions. Nearly always we are limited by our weaknesses and understanding of events. Deep down we know they are all under the hand of God and not one thing operates outside His will for us. Yet, there are times we just don’t see much of the picture and then we question through our lack of understanding. There is questioning with concern and poor vision, and there is the questioning of unbelief. Those who are the Lord’s never question through unbelief. That belongs to the unsaved.

One verse we often have to hang our lives on and hold fast to that is this one here – {{Romans 8:28 “We know that God causes ALL THINGS TO WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”}} Paul did not just write that verse in isolation BUT WROTE IT IN CONTEXT. This is the conclusion that all things are working out for good for all God’s own precious people who love Him. Paul had so much heartache and tragedy but he knew God works everything out.

We look at that context and it is this – {{Romans 8:26-27 “In the same way the Spirit also HELPS OUR WEAKNESS for we do not know how to pray as we should, but THE SPIRIT HIMSELF INTERCEDES for us with groanings too deep for words, and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”}} It is our weakness that misunderstands the will of God; our lack of complete knowledge and our failure to see that completed masterpiece of God. When verse 29 says “All things” it is ALL things.

Because we wriggle around in misunderstanding we may question our situation and feel displeasure at the events that affect us. It may even seem as if the Lord has deserted us or drawn a thick curtain between us and God. No matter what the event, we are not discarded or abandoned to our own failures. (One stanza from my poem “Faithfully He is Watching”)

Not forsaken nor abandoned -

Not left destitute at all;

Not as orphans will He leave us,

Blindly in this world to fall.

Pathways may track desert wastelands;

Clouds obscure the light at times.

We may think our God’s forgotten

When our path through heartache winds.

Often frailty wants to surface -

Shows the weakness of our trust;

We may be so fickle-minded,

But our God is always just.

Underlying all this that concerns us, is the critical factor Paul introduces – “the Spirit” – for the Spirit knows how weak we are, often racked with questions and problems, and the inability to understand our own situation. These Roman verses are powerful ones. I don’t intend delving into then here (see the Romans messages) but must add this – “BUT THE SPIRIT HIMSELF INTERCEDES FOR US WITH GROANINGS TOO DEEP FOR WORDS.” God knows our questionings and the problems of understanding, but the Spirit takes all this up for us.

Isn’t it fantastic to know Someone stands beside you to represent you and plead on your behalf. I knew this personally when I had to have strong legal representation and there were barristers to help. I was incapable. They were not. Neither is God incapable of ministering comfort and help when we need it. {{Hebrews 4:14-16 “Since then we have A GREAT HIGH PRIEST who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who cannot SYMPATHISE WITH OUR WEAKNESSES, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and MAY FIND GRACE TO HELP IN TIME OF NEED.”}}

We return to the questions asked by Jeremiah after he called on the LORD to take a look and see what was happening. There is not the slightest doubt that Jeremiah would think that the LORD was unaware of anything. The idea that the “gods” had deficiencies and memory lapses and were engaged carnally, is straight from paganism and especially so in Greek and Roman idolatry.

[QUESTION 1]. Three questions are asked and we assume the tender heart of Jeremiah was affected by what he was observing. The first of these goes to the core of just which people were affected. It was the descendants of Jacob, not some heathen idolatrous nation on the borders God was dealing with. God’s actions hit right at His own people called by His name, but it was His people who rejected that Name and named themselves after the pagan gods of the nations. Jeremiah exposed constantly the sin of his people in his prophecy, and in Lamentations, after Jerusalem’s destruction, that sin is admitted by the people in contrition, but it does not stop Jeremiah’s lamentation making God aware of His action.

[QUESTION 2]. The next question concerned behaviour; why should a woman eat her own baby in order to survive. This is cannibalism under desperation as opposed to cannibalism practised by the Melanesians, the Polynesians and the Dravidian Aborigines of Australia. This was not the first time in Israel that there was cannibalism, and the incident with Solomon and the two women is a notable example. What Jeremiah was witnessing was a great travesty to him, and his question seems to suggest God might have gone too far in allowing these conditions, but with certainty, the prophet understood what was behind it all. It was the sin of the nation. Maybe God could have given them a light punishment, but would that have had any effect? The Lord knew it would not have had any result.

[QUESTION 3]. The third and last question was even more applicable to Jeremiah’s own heart, and it is, why should the priests and prophets be slain in the very sanctuary of the Lord? There was no more sacred place that the sanctuary but heathens trampled it and desecrated it. Jeremiah was a prophet and knew that service well.

BUT WHO REALLY DESECRATED THE SANCTUARY?

Before the Babylonians came the sanctuary was already desecrated for nearly all priests acted corruptly. Earlier on Jeremiah wrote this about what happened – {{Lamentations 2:7 “THE LORD HAS REJECTED HIS ALTAR. HE HAS ABANDONED HIS SANCTUARY. He has delivered the walls of her palaces into the hand of the enemy. They have made a noise in the house of the LORD as in the day of an appointed feast.”}}

Jeremiah chastised the priests and prophets often but I will confine the references to two – {{Jeremiah 2:8 The priests did not say, ‘Where is the LORD?’ AND THOSE WHO HANDLE THE LAW DID NOT KNOW ME. The rulers also transgressed against Me, and THE PROPHETS PROPHESIED BY BAAL and walked after things that did not profit.”}}

{{Jeremiah 5:30-31 “An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: The prophets prophesy falsely, and THE PRIESTS RULE ON THEIR OWN AUTHORITY, AND MY PEOPLE LOVE IT SO, but what will you do at the end of it?”}} Jeremiah was a priest himself so he knew the corruption in the priesthood and the way the false prophets operated. It was these wicked people who desecrated the sanctuary, and God had abandoned it before the Babylonians arrived.

The words in Jeremiah just quoted contain “and MY PEOPLE LOVE IT SO.” The love people have for sinning is disgraceful. The term “My people” applies to the Jews, but I am looking wider in this application. The present world loves sinning. Worse that that, it loves those who are sinning and supports them in these terrible things. Ours is a world of increasing wickedness and it deepens as the Rapture draws nigh.

In the Tribulation following the Rapture it says “As it was in the days of Noah”:- {{Luke 17:26-27 “Just as it happened IN THE DAYS OF NOAH, so it shall be also in the days of the Son of Man: they were eating and they were drinking. They were marrying and they were being given in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark, AND THE FLOOD CAME AND DESTROYED THEM ALL.”}}

The question that we ask is this, “What was it like in the days of Noah?” Well here is the answer – {{Genesis 6:5 “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually,”}}. Can you imagine that? That is wickedness beyond comprehension when every intent and thought of a person was evil continually. That is what it is going to be in the Tribulation. [[IN THE DAYS OF NOAH, so it shall be also in the days of the Son of Man]]. No wonder the Lord takes His people out of the way before all this happens. No wonder the judgement will fall as it did in Noah’s time when he was taken out of the way. That is leading up to the Second Coming.

The last mention of mercy in the Old Testament scriptures is this – {{Habakkuk 3:2 “LORD, I have heard the report about You and I fear. O LORD, revive Your work in the midst of the years. In the midst of the years make it known. IN WRATH REMEMBER MERCY.”}} God had delivered His wrath and Jeremiah felt the effects of it , but I think his questions to the LORD might have been along the line of NOW remembering mercy to this devastated nation.