Summary: Jeremiah looked at a scene of pathos – so many killed. He sees the LORD responsible for that but knew it was the unrepentant people’s fault. God was in great sadness over what happened to these people with faces harder than rock who did not repent.

THE BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS – PART 12 – CRUEL SLAUGHTER BECAUSE OF SIN – A DISTRAUGHT PROPHET – FACES HARDER THAN ROCK - CHAPTER 2:21-22

In the last message Jeremiah was lamenting the sad and horrifying condition of his people, and asking the LORD why He had done that. The people’s own sin actually did this to themselves. The prophet again is laying all this heartbreak ay the LORD’S feet, but he knows why it had happened. He prophesied it over and over in his book.

[1]. THERE WAS NO DISCRIMINATION IN GOD’S JUSTICE

{{Lamentations 2:21 “Young and old lie on the ground in the streets. My virgins and my young men have fallen by the sword. YOU HAVE slain them in the day of Your anger. YOU HAVE slaughtered, not sparing.”}}

For those who have a ready pathos this is a repulsive passage for it tears at the sensibilities of decent human beings. The Babylonian army showed no mercy whatever to the inhabitants of Judah, and in a later scripture, the judgement of God was to fall on Babylon because of the cruel and hateful treatment of the Jews. The Lord termed Nebuchadnezzar as “My servant” but he grossly overstepped his mark and ruthlessly slaughtered the Jews.

Babylon went beyond what God required of it. It was excessively destructive and took too much pleasure in carrying out this divine commission to discipline Judah. They went beyond their mandate. Jeremiah 50 is a chapter that explains so much about this, but we are limited for space and will just quote these verses – {{Jeremiah 50:10-14 “And Chaldea will become plunder. All who plunder her will have enough,” declares the LORD. “Because you are glad, because you are jubilant, O YOU WHO PILLAGE MY HERITAGE; because you skip about like a threshing heifer and neigh like stallions, your mother will be greatly ashamed, she who gave you birth will be humiliated. Behold, SHE WILL BE THE LEAST OF THE NATIONS, a wilderness, a parched land, and a desert. BECAUSE OF THE INDIGNATION OF THE LORD SHE WILL NOT BE INHABITED, BUT SHE WILL BE COMPLETELY DESOLATE. Everyone who passes by Babylon will be horrified and will hiss because of all her wounds. Draw up your battle lines against Babylon on every side, all you who bend the bow. Shoot at her, do not be sparing with your arrows, FOR SHE HAS SINNED AGAINST THE LORD.”}}

Around 700 B.C., some 200 plus years before Judah’s defeat, Isaiah wrote this prophecy about Babylon – {{Isaiah 47:4-7 “Our Redeemer, the LORD of hosts is His name, the Holy One of Israel. “Sit silently, and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans for you will no more be called ‘The queen of kingdoms’. I WAS ANGRY WITH MY PEOPLE. I PROFANED MY HERITAGE AND GAVE THEM INTO YOUR HAND. YOU DID NOT SHOW MERCY TO THEM. ON THE AGED YOU MADE YOUR YOKE VERY HEAVY, yet you said, ‘I shall be a queen forever.’ These things you did not consider nor remember the outcome of them.”}}

God is not mocked and Babylon failed its commission because of its blood-lust cruelty. God will not tolerate it. A big, long list is in God’s hands with the perpetrators of cruelty against God’s people Israel/Jews. There are so many on that list and great will be their recompense at the great white throne on their day of judgement when they stand one by one before the Judge of the earth.

Jeremiah describes this scene of Babylon’s cruelty succinctly. There was no consideration for age or gender. Death was everywhere because of the indiscriminate killing. The human nature is so wicked that it exalts itself in such a situation and the killing lust of the soldiers takes over. They will be held to account though. I know this is a moral issue for some in the horrible reality of war, that killing the enemy is one thing but the wholesale slaughter of a defeated people is another altogether. Deuteronomy 28 prophetically describes a nation that will come against Israel when it departs from the LORD and serves the gods of the nation. {{Deuteronomy 28:49-50 “The LORD will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as the eagle swoops down, a nation whose language you shall not understand, a nation of fierce countenance who SHALL HAVE NO RESPECT FOR THE OLD, NOR SHOW FAVOUR TO THE YOUNG.”}}

The trouble with the Jews was they were a rebellious people and always made trouble for themselves. In other words, they always brought trouble down on their own heads. After Judah’s defeat the effort was made by Babylon to steady the land. This is in Jeremiah’s time. We read this – {{2 Kings 25:22 “Now as for the people whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left in the land of Judah, he appointed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan over them.”}}

Then Gedaliah spoke to the people – {{2 Kings 25:24 Gedaliah swore to them and their men and said to them, “Do not be afraid of the servants of the Chaldeans. Live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will be well with you,”}}. That should have been the security of the survivors and the means of peace. However, it was not to be – {{2 Kings 25:25 “but it came about in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal family, came with ten men and struck Gedaliah down so that he died along with the Jews and the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah.”}}. What a wicked man Ishmael was, part of the old royal family, and related to the vile kings of Judah who brought this destruction on the land. Ismael was a jealous man obviously aspiring to kingship so he murdered the good man Gedaliah.

I know this is off subject but I like to think into situations. This following passage is the way the book of 2 Kings ends – {{2 Kings 25:27-30 “Now it came about in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, that Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the year that he became king, released Jehoiachin king of Judah from prison, and he spoke kindly to him and set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon. Jehoiachin changed his prison clothes, and had his meals in the king’s presence regularly all the days of his life, and for his allowance, a regular allowance was given him by the king, a portion for each day, all the days of his life.”}}

Remember, Jehoiachin was the grandson of the second most godly king of Israel/Judah, king Josiah, (his father being Jehoiakim son of Josiah). Not one black mark is recorded against Josiah. I wonder if Jehoiachin, who was described as a wicked man in these verses – {{2 Kings 24:8-9 “Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Nehushta the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. HE DID EVIL IN THE SIGHT OF THE LORD, ACCORDING TO ALL THAT HIS FATHER HAD DONE.”}} – ever repented in Babylon and came to faith in the LORD as his grandfather had. Jehoiachin had no excuse and great will be his penalty if he stubbornly refused to repent.

Jeremiah’s statement about who did all this is clearly said – “YOU have slain them in the day of Your anger. You have slaughtered, not sparing.” The blame goes to the LORD, but Jeremiah would never do that. He understood the situation. His preaching to the people was the exposure of the nation’s sins and their need to repent urgently lest they be overthrown and be killed. The people refused and even shut up Jeremiah in prison to try to silence his voice. However, once God spoke His judgement, it was too late for the people.

Now, in our Lamentations’ verse lay the scene of rebellion’s harvest – slain, slaughter, none spared not even young women, young men and even children. Everyone refused to listen.

God’s Spirit will not always strive with mankind. He always gives opportunity, often over extended periods of time, such as the 120 years in Noah’s time, but the door will be shut. The Lord’s messengers preach the word and teach about coming judgement, but do many take heed? We know from history that is not the case.

Right now there is warning of God’s coming judgement in the Tribulation, a terrible time described in the book of Revelation. Behold now is the time for repentance, for faith in the Lord to deliver you from the wrath to come – {{1 Thessalonians 1:10 “and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.”}}

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[2]. TERRORS, THE ENEMY, AND THE LORD’S ANGER

{{Lamentations 2:22 "You called, as if to a festival day, My terrors on every side, and there was no one who escaped or survived in the day of the LORD’S anger. THOSE WHOM I BORE AND REARED, MY ENEMY ANNIHILATED THEM.”}}

I breed finches, and where I live, we are plagued by brown tree snakes also called “night tigers”. (Boiga irregularis). I have done everything to keep these “satanic offspring” out of my aviaries but they get in by some unknown means. I am disheartened and angry and very saddened to see those I reared being annihilated by the enemy. In a small way I can understand the mind of God in this regard to see the death results of the enemy – physical and spiritual – as those He cared for and reared now slaughtered and lying in the streets of Jerusalem.

In the first 16 verses in this chapter “He” meaning the LORD, is used 20 times. Everything that happened to Judah is attributed to the LORD and Jeremiah knows exactly everything is in the control of God and according to His directive and permissive wills.

Nevertheless we must place all this in context. The stubbornness of the people and their refusal to repent from so many horrible sins is what brought all this about. The prophet was given his authority from the Lord and it was not going to be an easy one because of the entrenched sinfulness – {{Jeremiah 1:16-17 “and I WILL PRONOUNCE MY JUDGMENTS ON them concerning all their wickedness, whereby THEY HAVE FORSAKEN ME and have offered sacrifices to other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands. Now, gird up your loins, and arise, and speak to them all that I command you. DO NOT BE DISMAYED BEFORE THEM, lest I dismay you before them.”}}

Thus declared Jeremiah – {{Jeremiah 2:19 “Your own wickedness will correct you, and YOUR APOSTASIES WILL REPROVE YOU. Know therefore and see that it is EVIL AND BITTER FOR YOU TO FORSAKE THE LORD your God, and the dread of Me is not in you,” declares the Lord GOD of hosts.”}}

Jeremiah was given a commission which he fulfilled and had to declare that the LORD was correct. Here was the commission – {{Jeremiah 5:1-3 “Roam to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and look now, and take note, and seek in her open squares, - if you can find a man, IF THERE IS ONE WHO DOES JUSTICE, WHO SEEKS TRUTH, THEN I WILL PARDON HER. Although they say, ‘As the LORD lives,’ surely they swear falsely.” O LORD, do not Your eyes look for truth? You have smitten them, but they did not weaken. You have consumed them, but they refused to take correction. THEY HAVE MADE THEIR FACES HARDER THAN ROCK. They have refused to repent.”}}

Imagine going all over the place to do what the Lord asked and not finding just one person who wants the truth and wants justice to be done. What would that do to you? It would be demoralizing while at the same time confirming what the Lord indicated. A righteous man like Jeremiah would put every effort into preaching about the coming calamity and constantly warn the people. He said this of himself – {{Lamentations 3:1 “I AM THE MAN WHO HAS SEEN AFFLICTION because of the rod of His wrath.”}}

THEY MADE THEIR FACES HARDER THAN ROCK

The expression is “harder THAN rock”, not “as hard AS rock”. I was curious as to the hardest rock on earth (excluding diamond on the Mohr scale). I found it to be ECLOGITE: Extreme Toughness. Eclogite is a metamorphic rock rich in garnet and omphacite, and is incredibly tough. Other rock at the top end are quartzite, basalt and granite.

In repentance, Judah’s residents made their faces harder THAN rock in order NOT to repent. What an uphill battle Jeremiah had but God gave them decades to repent and they have no one to blame except themselves.

The rock hard faces and their “always evil” rebellion caused their overthrow, but in the will of God, then the enemy’s actions can be accredited to the LORD. The LORD judged the nation; overthrew the nation; devastated the nation, for there was no other way. Isaiah likened this overthrow to a vineyard of the LORD’s keeping (the vineyard is always a type of Israel), where He did everything possible to make it a healthy vineyard but it remained mutant. Then we read this

Isaiah 5:3-7 “Now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between Me and My vineyard. What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes, did it produce worthless ones? Now let Me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard. I WILL REMOVE ITS HEDGE AND IT WILL BE CONSUMED. I WILL BREAK DOWN ITS WALL AND IT WILL BECOME TRAMPLED GROUND, and I will lay it waste. It will not be pruned or hoed but briars and thorns will come up. I will also charge the clouds to rain no rain on it.” THE VINEYARD OF THE LORD OF HOSTS IS THE HOUSE OF Israel, AND THE MEN OF JUDAH His delightful plant. Thus He looked for justice but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.”}}

That was the problem. Judah was full of injustice, unrighteousness, violence and corruption. The Lord had had enough of the eclogite faces of sin, and His sword of retribution fell by the hand of the Babylonians, and it was cruel and severe.