THE BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS – PART 26 – GOD’S DELIVERANCE FROM THE LOWEST PIT AND JEREMIAH’S PERSECUTION - CHAPTER 3:55-57
In the last message we were studying the descriptive verses depicting the suffering experienced by Jeremiah, but in language that could have applied also to the survivors who were is dire straits. Verse 54 spoke of the water that flowed over the head, a feeling as if drowning. The verse before that spoke of a great silencing such as being sealed in a pit.
Here in our opening verse, the same idea of the pit gets mentioned again. We have looked at the deep turmoil of David and of our blessed Saviour as it is described in Psalms 22 and 69. The deep waters and the water flowing over the heads as if drowning in in those Psalms as was the experience of Jonah. We continue with our study.
PART [50]. I NEED YOUR HELP FROM THE PIT, THE LOWEST PIT
{{Lamentations 3:55 “I called on Your name, O LORD, out of the lowest pit.”}}
Around the last 18 to 20 verses of this chapter we have been looking at the laments of the people trying to describe their suffering. However mixed with that would be the feelings also of Jeremiah and from verse 55 to 63 the focus seems to be on Jeremiah’s sufferings when he was being persecuted. Earlier we saw how they threw him into the pit/dungeon, probably a deep one to punish and silence him, for the king and the priests and false prophets hated him and wanted to eliminate him but God preserved him and he ended up being thrown into this foul smelling cistern, but the word of God can not be bound, and the Lord delivered him out of all his troubles.
It would be hard to match this verse with the suffering Jews in Judah, and I judge it belongs to Jeremiah’s rejection, scorn and suffering. Did the Jews in Jerusalem call to the LORD in their oppression when surrounded by enemies but still unconquered? Perhaps some did. It became more vital later on. I still think it is Jeremiah in focus.
Terrible lies were told against Jeremiah; then this happened – {{Jeremiah 37:15-16 “Then the officials were angry at Jeremiah and beat him, and they put him in jail in the house of Jonathan the scribe, which they had made into the prison. For Jeremiah had come into the dungeon, that is, the vaulted cell, and Jeremiah stayed there many days.”}}. The prophet was beaten and cast into the dungeon. This man of God was true to the living word of God, and to do so, and in our day too, will bring persecution and worse. Rise up, O men of God, and put your armour on! The world may treat you badly but do not be daunted.
Not long after that incident the prophet again was cast into the pit/dungeon – {{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.”}}
That experience was not unlike the Lord contained in His prayer on Calvary – {{Psalm 69:14 “DELIVER ME FROM THE MIRE, and DO NOT LET ME SINK. May I be delivered from my foes and from the deep waters.”}}. One great fear I have is being in deep water where there is no standing place and I would sink, and sometimes I think of the Titanic passengers there hopelessly in the deep waters. Nothing under my feet – how unsettling is that! Can we possibly meditate on what it meant for Jesus to utter that cry in His heart from the cross? How did the weight of our sins cause Him to sink? “Mire” was mentioned, something like loose mud, a bit like quicksand. You go deeper and deeper and despair takes over.
Why did Jesus endure all that? Why did He go to the cross in the first place? {{Hebrews 12:2 “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, WHO FOR THE JOY SET BEFORE HIM endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”}} For the first time in history, the whole redeemed Church will be gathered in the Rapture and found seated in heaven described in Revelation 4 and 5. {{Revelation 5:11-12 “I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders, and the number of them was MYRIADS OF MYRIADS, AND THOUSANDS OF THOUSANDS, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honour and glory and blessing,”}}
The verse began with, “I called on your name, O LORD,” and that is always the correct avenue when we are in distress. David, Jeremiah, Jonah and the Lord all called on the name of the LORD when trouble tried to drown them in the deep waters, and in the pit of sinking. In any sort of trouble that must be our first course of action. Some Christians appear to make it so ONLY when they have exhausted all other avenues, but it must be the first. It is our Lord who cares and succours His children and delights in His servants calling on Him.
PART [51]. PLEASE, O LORD, HEAR MY PRAYER
{{Lamentations 3:56 You heard my voice, “Do not hide Your ear from my prayer for relief, from my cry for help.”}}
In these last 11 verses, it seems difficult to ascribe these sayings either to Jeremiah or the nation. Are we to understand that right after their destruction, then the people all earnestly prayed to the LORD, when before their overthrow they were totally corrupt in God’s sight? I know the prophet, Jeremiah is identifying with his people and these verses seem to be a combined list of expressions coming from the prophet speaking on behalf of the people. They are also represented in Jeremiah’s experience.
My best understanding is that these verses represent Jeremiah’s intercession on behalf of the nation now destroyed. The words are heavily influenced by the position of the prophet himself. I shall consider each of these verses as the prophet’s true condition, but at the same time, adopting an intercessory role for the people who remain.
Verse 56 is the fact that a prayer was heard, and that prayer was, “Do not hide Your ear from my prayer for relief, from my cry for help.” Who uttered that prayer? Well, in line with the way I think it plays out, it is Jeremiah’s prayer on behalf of the people. Have you ever been in a situation where you are so beaten by circumstances, that even to try to pray is a heaviness too great? The great shock of defeat jolted the people into reality and there is absolutely no one to turn to except the LORD. They are coming to reality and returning to the LORD but it is Jeremiah who leads in prayer.
The prayer itself is a request for relief – probably relief from suffering and from the enemy. Jeremiah was not praying for himself in fear of his life because he knew he would be preserved. He knew God’s hand was on him and God had revealed all these things to him – {{Jeremiah 39:11-14 Now Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon gave orders about Jeremiah through Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard, saying, “TAKE HIM AND LOOK AFTER HIM, AND DO NOTHING HARMFUL TO HIM, BUT RATHER DEAL WITH HIM JUST AS HE TELLS YOU,” so Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard sent word, along with Nebushazban the Rab-saris, and Nergal-sar-ezer the Rab-mag, and all the leading officers of the king of Babylon. They even sent and took Jeremiah out of the court of the guardhouse and entrusted him to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, to take him home, so he stayed among the people.}}
That is an interesting passage for we learn that Jeremiah was still held as prisoner in the guardhouse, and considered to be a traitor to the cause because he advised the people to defect so their lives would be saved. God had His hand on His servant and waited until the appropriate time to release him. Today many of the Lord’s saints are being held captive and many horribly slaughtered by Islam in Africa and the Middle East. There is no doubt that in that guardhouse Jeremiah called to the Lord and he was delivered so that he retained a ministry among a desperate, displaced people.
I think it is very likely that those who had defected to the Babylonians so their lives were saved, mentioned the ministry of Jeremiah to the army and officers in the army, and that the prophet told them to go out to the army and their lives would be saved. That is how Babylon knew of Jeremiah. As Jeremiah was, Christians are considered troublemakers and enemies because today they tell people “to defect” to God from this immoral, sinful world about to be judged. There is this parallel to the times of Jeremiah. Turn to the Lord and be saved, for sudden destruction is coming. They cry, Peace, Peace,” but suddenly the destruction will fall on them.
PART [52]. THE LORD DRAWS NEAR WHEN A SERVANT CALLS – WHISPERS “DO NOT BE AFRAID”
{{Lamentations 3:57 “You drew near when I called on You. You said, “Do not fear.”}}
Jeremiah is the centre of this verse. He had so much on his mind and so many conflicts. Firstly the governing authorities hated him because he upbraided them for the sinfulness they perpetrated in Jerusalem. It reminds me right now in the start of 2025, the things we are hearing about New York. The ungodliness there and the battle to overcome it (February), and the opposition from the judiciary and Governor and the entrenched elite will be a difficult one.
This world is hardening in iniquity and cementing itself into a position of no return. The progression of sin always does that. We saw it happen at Babel in Nimrod’s time, then in Sodom. Earlier we saw it in the flood. The Northern Kingdom became so vile the Assyrians were assigned by God to destroy it. In our Lamentations setting, it was Judah’s turn. Jerusalem faced that also after the Lord was crucified and this current world is grossly evil, and corruptness is festering as a boil ready to burst, and it shall.
Secondly, the authorities did their best to silence the reprimand from Jeremiah so they turned on him and they resorted to persecution, beatings, and locking him up and throwing him into pits and cisterns. A certain Leticia James of our time has been trying to do the same thing against Donald Trump.
Thirdly they branded Jeremiah a traitor only because he was doing what was right for the physical salvation of the people. Look at this advice – it is lengthy but it caused further hate to come Jeremiah’s way, that is, further persecution for him because of his faithfulness –
{{Jeremiah 38:17-23 Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “Thus says the LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel, If you will indeed GO OUT TO THE OFFICERS of the king of Babylon, then you will live, this city will not be burned with fire, and you and your household will survive. ‘But IF YOU WILL NOT GO OUT to the officers of the king of Babylon, then this city will be given over to the hand of the Chaldeans; and they will burn it with fire, and you yourself will not escape from their hand.’” Then King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “I dread the Jews who have gone over to the Chaldeans, lest they give me over into their hand and they abuse me.” But Jeremiah said, “They will not give you over. Please obey the LORD in what I am saying to you, that it may go well with you and you may live, “but if you keep REFUSING TO GO OUT, this is the word which the LORD has shown me: ‘Then behold, all of the women who have been left in the palace of the king of Judah are going TO BE BROUGHT OUT to the officers of the king of Babylon; and those women will say, “Your close friends have misled and overpowered you. While your feet were sunk in the mire, They turned back.” ‘They will also BRING OUT all your wives and your sons to the Chaldeans, and you yourself will not escape from their hand, but will be seized by the hand of the king of Babylon, and this city will be burned with fire.’”}}
This is strange behaviour from the King. He was fearful of those who had defected to the Babylonian army orchestrating some sort of revolt against him, yet he had no fear from being captured by Babylon because he did not expect it. The false prophets fed him all these lies that the city would not fall. He chose the foolishness of the false prophets and priests against the godly wisdom of Jeremiah.
Exactly like that is the world. The advice of God’s discerning ones is dismissed while humanist advisors and frauds delude our nations through the governments. I have to say that right now (2025), a lot of advisors and cabinet positions in the USA are filled by Christians or Christian sympathisers. Australia has none, but rather, Christ haters. I think Britain, France and Canada, just to name three, are much the same.
That is a serious passage delivered by the prophet’s speaking the word of the LORD. It was the test of obedience and common sense. Early in his ministry Jeremiah called for a national repentance and this is part of what he said – {{Jeremiah 2:37 “From this place also YOU SHALL GO OUT with your hands on your head, for the LORD has REJECTED THOSE IN WHOM YOU TRUST, and you shall not prosper with them.”}} The case was clear; either they would go out willingly in surrender to the Babylonians and be safe, or they would go out as captives, that is, those who survived.
YES! Jeremiah called and the LORD heard of course, and drew near to Jeremiah as verse 57 says, and the LORD said, “DO NOT FEAR,” which is a common expression in the bible. “Do not fear,” or “Do not be afraid,” or “Fear not,” are assurances from God for His frightened servants. God is so faithful to us, so merciful and kind. He tells us not to fear, no matter what the circumstances are. When we call, he will draw near.
I checked the NASB for those expressions and “Do not fear” is used 8 times; “Fear not” is used 1 time and “Do not be afraid” is used 17 times. Surely, it is a message God wants us to know. It was Jeremiah’s comfort, and is ours also especially when the storms of life engulf us and we become afraid. Call on the Lord and He will draw near and comfort you with, “Do not fear!”
