Summary: What is it to be hunted down and thrown into a pit of silence, and then to be sealed there by a stone? These survivors from the Babylonian holocaust describe their feelings. The waters of judgement surged over their heads. Jesus has identified with His people by passing that way Himself.

THE BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS – PART 25 – MERCILESSLY HUNTED DOWN AND SILENCED IN A PIT; WATERS OF JUDGMENT FLOWED OVER THE HEADS - CHAPTER 3:52-54

The laments of the people and of Jeremiah continue through the next three verses, then move into more positive territory as prayer sets the focus. I hope you are finding these messages of value as we set all in context and examine what each verse is telling us.

PART [47]. HUNTED BY THE ENEMIES

{{Lamentations 3:52 “MY ENEMIES HUNTED ME DOWN like a bird without cause.”}}

The lament of the people continues, this time looking at the hunting down of the people. In so many defeats in history, people were slaughtered mercilessly, just to satisfy the blood lust of the soldiers and Satan. It was like St Bartholomew’s’ Day in France when up to 100 000 French Protestants were slaughtered by the demonic mob of Catholic inspired maniacs. I have covered that elsewhere but you can check it for yourself.

I don’t care what the reason, but when an army moves into some place and murders whosever its finds, it is accountable slaughter and will have retribution from God. Babylon did it to the Jews; Rome did it also; Hitler did it; the Roman Catholic church did it periodically through history; Haman tried it but God defeated him; Islamic Gazan Hamas did it in Israel; and in a more subtle way the United Nations does it all the time to Israel. Christians too are hunted down and killed, currently in Africa. We feel for our African brothers and sisters in Christ who are tortured and killed mainly by Islamic racicalism.

The usage of “hunted me down” places this almost in the category of sport where there is indiscriminate killing as the packs race around hunting whatever victims they can find for the lustful satisfaction of killing. It is satanic and Satan is a murderer – {{John 8:44 “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. HE WAS A MURDERER FROM THE BEGINNING, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.”}}. The truth of being hunted down would apply both to Jeremiah and the nation.

Everyone who lifted up even a finger to hunt down the Jews will suffer eternal torment. Israel is the apple of God’s eye and those who make themselves enemies of Israel/Jews make themselves enemies of God. Those who curse Israel will be cursed by God. May we say also that this same principle applied to those who hate and persecute and kill Christians.

It is a little confusing the way this verse ends. “Without cause” could not apply to Judah but would apply to Jeremiah. However I think this verse is the nation’s lament, not so much that of Jeremiah, though both I feel have application. The nation was so guilty of its sins as the prophet’s writings expose over and over, and God warned constantly of the gravity of their condition unless they repented but they refused to do so. They had enormous cause for what happened. They are 100% responsible and guilty to the fullest degree.

PART [48]. SHUT UP AND OUT OF SIGHT

{{Lamentations 3:53 “They have SILENCED ME IN THE PIT and have placed a stone on me.”}}

Dungeon is the word used by the AV and pit in the NASB. Prisoners were sometimes thrown into a great pit that was sealed with a stone to prevent them from escaping. In this lament the Jews of Judah were restrained, silenced and brought under the most exacting servitude. There was no hope for them seemingly. The description is a physical one and not taken literally for these survivors, but that is how it seemed.

Jeremiah’s own personal experience was the fitting image for the nation’s dilemma. The prophet warned the people in {{Jeremiah 38:2 - “Thus says the LORD, ‘He who stays in this city will die by the sword and by famine and by pestilence, but he who goes out to the Chaldeans will live and have his own life as booty and stay alive.’”}} That enraged the wicked king Zedekiah especially when Jeremiah continued – {{“Thus says the LORD, ‘This city will certainly be given into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.’”}}

The officials called for the king to put Jeremiah to death because they claimed he was discouraging the men of war who were left in this city and all the people. They accused Jeremiah of not seeking the well-being of this people, but rather their harm. It is well recognised that God’s people of all ages are falsely accused and blamed for trouble in the land, and disasters. Satan is the accuser of the brethren, and is not tiring in his quest to persecute the righteous ones. He has millions of agents who are not believers and who will rush to condemn God’s children. It is often done on impulse because those not for Christ are against Him. The line of division is plain – for and against and there is no ground of neutrality.

The prophet was then thrown into the cistern of Malchijah to sink in filth and mud. It is a beautiful story the way Ebed-melech rescued him from the pit. This is like Jeremiah being raised from the dead in type. He knew all about the fact of the dungeon from personal experience. {{Jeremiah 38:6 “Then they took Jeremiah AND CAST HIM INTO THE CISTERN of Malchijah the king’s son, which was in the court of the guardhouse, and they let Jeremiah down with ropes. Now in the cistern there was no water but only mud, and Jeremiah sank into the mud.”}}

Joseph was likewise thrown into a pit that was an old well probably as recorded here – {{Genesis 37:22-24 Reuben further said to them, “Shed no blood. Throw him into this pit that is in the wilderness, but do not lay hands on him” — that he might rescue him out of their hands to restore him to his father. It came about, when Joseph reached his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the varicolored tunic that was on him and they took him AND THREW HIM INTO THE PIT. Now the pit was empty, without any water in it.}}

Again, he was “raised” from the “grave” and sold to the Ishmaelites. We must mention also our Lord Jesus Christ who was sealed in a “pit” by a large stone but He was raised from the dead.

The experience of these Jews of the overthrow was as if their lives had been sealed in a pit of no escape. To make sure, a metaphorical stone was placed over them. Yes, the nation brought this destruction upon itself and could not cry foul. What these verses here in this section of Chapter 3 are doing is highlighting the utter helplessness of the people to escape their dire situation, after having come through the slaughter with no prospects ahead of them. Their misery comtinued.

PART [49]. DROWNING IN SORROW

{{Lamentations 3:54 WATERS FLOWED OVER MY HEAD. I said, “I am cut off.”}}

This is a continuation of the previous verse of woes. They are expressions to convey the dismal fate of these survivors of this Babylonian holocaust. Verse 53 was like being shut up in a pit. This one is like one drowning in sorrow, being cut off from any relief. Chapter 3 is actually a long list of laments. Elements from the physical world are incorporated to emphasise their situation.

The imagery of water flowing over the head is not an unknown one in the Old Testament and TWO REFERENCES I will cite. THE FIRST is from Psalm 69 that is a Psalm of Jesus Christ when on the cross. In this Messianic Psalm it has His description and prayers regarding the horrors of Calvary.

{{Psalm 69:1-2 “Save me, O God, for the waters have threatened my life. I have sunk in deep mire and there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters and A FLOOD OVERFLOWS ME.”}}. Drowning must be a terrible death but when it is prolonged with partial drowing bit by bit it must be agonising. That is how it was for the Lord on the cross when He was made sin for us all and endured the penalty sin required or exacted.

This same imagery continues in Psalm 69 – {{Psalm 69:14-15 “Deliver me from the mire, and do not let me sink. May I be delivered from my foes and from the deep waters. MAY THE FLOOD OF WATER NOT OVERFLOW ME AND MAY THE DEEP NOT SWALLOW ME UP and may the PIT not shut its mouth on me.”}}. God will never allow us to enter into the passion of Calvary but only view it externally as through a semi-opaque mirror. We are aided in that by the expressions given to us in Psalms 22 and 69 and of course, Isaiah 53. It is interesting to note that in verse 15 just above, we not only have the overflowing waters but also the pit. Both those pictures are in Lamentations too. The Lord has undergone all that His people have endured. He is compassionate and understands with compassion, as a high priest.

THE SECOND example is from Jonah. Here are the relevant verses – {{Jonah 2:3-5 “for You had cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the current engulfed me. All YOUR BREAKERS AND BILLOWS PASSED OVER ME, so I said, ‘I have been expelled from Your sight. Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple.’ WATER ENCOMPASSED ME TO THE POINT OF DEATH. The great deep engulfed me. Weeds were wrapped around my head.”}}

Jonah again is a very pertinent picture of the Lord Jesus Christ so the imagery is similar to Psalm 69. It also contains the promise of resurrection.

All the passages we have considered contain the dread and helpless condition of one under judgement – Jesus on the cross; Jonah in disobedience; Jeremiah coming under unjust judgement; the Jewish survivors coming out of judgement. In all these cases they share another similarity. The participants earnestly prayed to the Lord and were delivered. There is nothing like helplessness and hitting rock bottom, to turn one’s attention to God.

Before the Babylonians came, the people forsook the LORD and served all the gods of the nations and engaged in the most wicked, immoral idolatry. They despised Jeremiah, persecuted him and followed their gross fallen natures. Then the storm of God’s wrath hit them and reality set in for the survivors and they turned again to God (many of them did). I seriously wonder if some tragic circumstances might have to hit our nations before people will want to listen and face their own sinfulness. Today’s world is no better than Judah was before its tragic overthrow. We know the Tribulation is so close, but I am speaking here, perhaps, of a move by God before that to make people aware of eternal realities.

A man can not turn to God until he has reached the position where he cries out, “I am cut off.” (Lamentations 3:54). Everyone is born cut off from God, born in sin and iniquity. Unless a person is convicted by the Holy Spirit and sees no other way of salvation than through Jesus Christ, he might never turn to God. Sometimes tragedy needs to impel that conversion.

I want to consider a couple of verses from Job when he cried out almost in lament – {{Job 29:2-3 “Oh that I were as in months gone by, as in the days when God watched over me; when His lamp shone over my head, and by His light I walked through darkness.”}}

In his misery, Job cried out and wished he could be transported back some months before his afflictions and pain happened. How we are like that, all of us. “I wish I could go back to better times. I wish I could go back and change my behaviour.” Job walked with God and all was fine before Satan tested him. He knew God watched out for him, and God’s lamp shone above him so that he could walk through the darkness of this world in the light of God.

How that had changed when suffering struck him; when it looked like God’s lamp above him had been extinguished, and there was no light to walk through the darkness of sin. Nevertheless his faith did not fail and he honoured God.

The Judean survivors certainly wished they could go back some months to better times. BUT would they have changed their way in full repentance? I think not. Sin gets such a hold of people and only the power of God’s transformation can change that. Waters had flowed over their heads, the waters of severe judgement, but it was too late for neglect. {{Hebrews 2:3 “how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?”}} Judah neglected the LORD’S salvation and there was no escape for them, so they lived in regret, but some turned to God in repentance.