THE BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS – PART 30 – THESE TWO VERSES LOOK AT GOD’S PROTECTING ANGER AGAINST THOSE WHO PERSECUTE HIS OWN BELIEVERS - CHAPTER 3:65-66
Now we conclude Chapter 3 with the last two verses. They are God’s response to the wicked and the mockers. It is a dangerous thing to be opposed to the Lord and to the righteous children of God. It will bring a sure and certain recompense upon the perpetrator. God is not willing that any should perish but the cynical mockers will not be tolerated.
We are now in the day of grace and mostly God’s hand is stayed where we do not see the direct action against wickedness such as two bears, but the destiny of mockers and sinners is clear.
PART [60]. THEY ARE CURSED DIRECTLY FROM GOD
{{Lamentations 3:65 “YOU WILL GIVE THEM hardness of heart. YOUR CURSE will be on them.”}}
Here in verse 65 it is clearly stated that God will give them hardness of heart, and that they will be cursed by God. This is a statement not a petition. It is the inevitable consequence of their mocking of a saint of God. I don’t think some of us realise how serious it is for anyone to lift up the hand against one of the Lord’s anointed. It will not be tolerated by God, and even though we may not see God’s justifying hand this side of glory against those who do such wickedness against the righteous, then in eternity they will be recompensed by an impartial God.
Verses 64, 65 and 66 all state God’s direct actions against the perpetrators of His people. The reason this will happen is in verse 63 where the LORD is asked to – “Look on their sitting and their rising.” This request to do that, automatically taps into the determined will of God for all such events where the Lord’s own sheep are persecuted and ill-treated, and consequentially verses 64, 65 and 66 set out God’s response. The Lord will avenge the wicked and torturous deeds, and snide remarks and the mocking and the dismissal of God’s precious saints simply because they are God’s. Satan hates God’s people and has at hand millions who do his wishes against the righteous.
How is it that God gives hardness of heart? Does God directly do that, or is it the same procedure that Pharaoh experienced? Many verses in early Exodus say this or similar to this – {{Exodus 7:3 “but I WILL HARDEN PHARAOH’S HEART that I may multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.”}}. There are 17 references to the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart. Did God deliberately make Pharaoh’s heart a robot so he was incapable of making the correct decision?
Absolutely not. At each juncture he was given the choice. You don’t give robots moral choices. What was happening was that God issued the directive to Pharaoh and each time he chose to comply or reject. When he chose to reject he HIMSELF was making his own position more intolerable to comply. His heart was hardened BUT BY HIMSELF. Because it was God’s request he was rejecting, then it is also very correct to say that God hardened his heart because it all came from God. A man and woman who rejects the message of God hardens his/her soul/mind/heart so that it is harder next time to accept what God requires, and initially, that is repentance.
That would be the reason why we have this verse while a person’s being is still tender – {{Ecclesiastes 12:1 “Remember also your Creator IN THE DAYS OF YOUR YOUTH, before the evil days come and the years draw near when you will say, “I have no delight in them.”}}
Related to that there is a similar thought – {{Ecclesiastes 12:6-7 “REMEMBER HIM BEFORE THE SILVER CORD IS BROKEN and the golden bowl is crushed, the pitcher by the well is shattered and the wheel at the cistern is crushed. Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and THE SPIRIT WILL RETURN TO GOD WHO GAVE IT.”}}. A person’s life (spirit) is given by God and can be surrendered to God in submissive obedience, or locked in a person’s own personal prison by the hardness of heart. In the end, whatever the person’s choice, the spirit returns to God and will find itself in either one of two destinies. God pleads – man accepts; God pleads – man rejects. They are the only two choices. Heaven or hell. The New Jerusalem or the lake of fire.
The second part of verse 65 is very full. It speaks of GOD’S CURSE being on them. That is, the curse of God settles on mockers and persecutors of God’s people (going back to verse 63 that all this hinges on). God is not mocked.
In considering the word “CURSE”, we know it has a number of uses in the bible and I wish to explore some of them.
[(a)]. The first use of the word in the bible is connected with the serpent. {{Genesis 3:14 The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, CURSED ARE YOU MORE THAN ALL CATTLE, and more than every beast of the field. On your belly shall you go and dust shall you eat all the days of your life.”}}. It is thought that the serpent originally walked or had some special mode of movement. Of all creatures, it is the snake that bears the greatest curse.
[(b)]. The next use follows straight on and is the reason why our lives can be often physically difficult and arduous in many ways – {{Genesis 3:17-19 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’, CURSED IS THE GROUND BECAUSE OF YOU. In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground because from it you were taken - for you are dust and to dust you shall return.”}}. Sin is the bottom line for all the problems in the world and in our own lives. It comes because of the curse. Every single aspect is affected – weather, food and crop production, health, pestilences, etc.
[(c)]. Cain was cursed from the ground; Ham (Caanan) was cursed. {{Genesis 4:11-13 “NOW YOU ARE CURSED FROM THE GROUND which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. “When you cultivate the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. You shall be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth.” Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is too great to bear!”}}
[(d)]. The next one has ramifications for the whole human race and is one of the most critical “curses” in the bible. Here in 2025 we have nations and people everywhere cursing the Jews and Israel. It is growing enormously quickly. The United Nations is one of the most vile organisations in the world for its constant, venomous attacks on Israel. Make no mistake about all this. Those who curse Israel WILL BE CURSED BY GOD. {{Genesis 12:2-3 “and I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great, and so you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and THE ONE WHO CURSES YOU I WILL CURSE. In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”}} Just to emphasise the point this promise is repeated later on – {{Genesis 27:29 “May peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be master of your brothers, and may your mother’s sons bow down to you. CURSED BE THOSE WHO CURSE YOU, AND BLESSED BE THOSE WHO BLESS YOU.”}}
[(e)]. The Law of Moses contains many aspects of cursing, and we can’t handle all of them so I have just one – {{Leviticus 19:14 “YOU SHALL NOT CURSE A DEAF MAN, nor place a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall revere your God. I am the LORD.”}}
[(f)]. One more I will include here because it is alluded to in the New Testament. I will not discuss it. You can search it out for yourselves – {{Leviticus 20:9 “If there is ANYONE WHO CURSES HIS FATHER OR HIS MOTHER, he shall surely be put to death. He has cursed his father or his mother. His blood-guiltiness is upon him.”}}
[(g)]. We have a story here with dire consequences. How many in the world would be guilty of this offence? It is so common and is linked with blasphemy. Blasphemy is everywhere especially in the USA which, I think, has the worst blasphemers in the world. It is a very serious matter – {{Leviticus 24:11-15 and the son of the Israelite woman BLASPHEMED THE NAME AND CURSED, so they brought him to Moses. (Now his mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.) They put him in custody so that the command of the LORD might be made clear to them. Then the LORD spoke to Moses saying, “Bring the one who has cursed outside the camp, and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head. Then let all the congregation stone him. You shall speak to the sons of Israel saying, ‘IF ANYONE CURSES HIS GOD, THEN HE SHALL BEAR HIS SIN.”}}. Taking the Lord’s name in vain is not far behind! America has a serious problem with that.
[(h)]. I will make this the second last one because it is long enough already. The Law had laid down all the instructions for the Israelites. God set before them BLESSING AND CURSING. If anyone broke any precept or instruction in the Law then he would be cursed by the Law. The purpose of the Law was to make a person righteous but ended up cursing the person because no one could keep the Law in its entirety. At the same time the people turned to the grossest idolatry and that was their undoing. {{Deuteronomy 28:15-19 “It shall come about, if you will not obey the LORD your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that ALL THESE CURSES shall come upon you and overtake you. Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country. Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Cursed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock. Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.”}}. Before entering the land of Canaan blessing and cursing were set before the Nation at Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. Sadly they failed constantly to heed what was laid down there.
[(i)]. Let me give the verse first this time, then a comment – {{Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, HAVING BECOME A CURSE FOR US, for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE”}} - This is probably the most serious mention of curse in the bible. Jesus became a curse for us. Sin condemned us to death as its penalty; became a curse to us. To reverse all that, Christ took the penalty for sin and therefore died for us, the righteous one becoming the guilty One. He took our curse, made it His, and now gives us substitutionary righteousness. That is spelled out in this verse – {{2 Corinthians 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him,”}}
PART [61]. GOD’S FINAL ACTION IN THIS CHAPTER
{{Lamentations 3:66 “You will pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the heavens of the LORD!”}}
In the last 3 verses in this chapter we saw that God is taking direct action against the enemies that would mock and persecute any of His people, this stemming from what verse 63 says. The last verse we looked at in detail stated that God would give them hardness of heart and a curse would be upon them. The verse before that said God would recompense them for what they have done. This is serious because the Lord will not tolerate abuse against His own people, Jews or Christians.
In this last verse of the chapter we are told that an angry God will pursue them, chasing them down to destroy them. This will be the fate of all sinners who hate and take vindictive action against the Lord’s people. How will it be for those who have abused, tortured, murdered and ill-treated any of God’s children? That particularly means the Romans, the Roman Catholic persecutors of the last 800 years, and today, in a terrible way, Islam. This is how it will be – {{Hebrews 10:31 “IT IS A TERRIFYING THING TO FALL INTO THE HANDS OF THE LIVING GOD,}} and add to that “into the hands of a living, ANGRY God,” for that is the fate of all those who have hurt His children.
For a moment let us consider Saul of Tarsus. He would classify himself as the greatest of sinners, the most zealous persecutor of his generation, yet the Lord did not pursue him to destroy him. He pursued him to make him a trophy of grace, the great Apostle to the Gentiles. Paul is one of the most shining examples of grace in the bible, certainly the most outstanding in the New Testament.
The most outstanding trophy of grace in the Old Testament would have to be Mephibosheth. David sought a relative of Jonathon in order to show him mercy for the sake of his killed friend, Jonathon. This is a beautiful story. Mephibosheth was taken from a place of no pasture, from a place of cursing, and brought in to sit at the King’s table.
2 Samuel 9:3-5 The king said, “Is there not yet anyone of the house of Saul TO WHOM I MAY SHOW THE KINDNESS OF GOD?” and Ziba said to the king, “There is still a son of Jonathan who is crippled in both feet,” so the king said to him, “Where is he?” and Ziba said to the king, “Behold, he is in the house of MACHIR the son of AMMIEL in LO-DEBAR.” Then King David sent and brought him from the house of Machir the son of Ammiel, from Lo-debar,”
2 Samuel 9:6-7 and Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, came to David and fell on his face and prostrated himself and David said, “Mephibosheth.” He said, “Here is your servant.” David said to him, “Do not fear, FOR I WILL SURELY SHOW KINDNESS TO YOU FOR THE SAKE OF YOUR FATHER JONATHAN, and will restore to you all the land of your grandfather Saul, and you shall eat at my table regularly.”}}
In those verses there is kindness shown on behalf of another; one who has fallen is lifted up; restoration; elevated to be a recipient of the king’s goodness; and all this is through the undeserved favour of the king to Mephibosheth. We call that grace. The gospel is nicely seen in this incident. The names are very important :
Machir means sold.
Ammiel means people of God
Lo-debar means no pasture or sustenance
Mephibosheth, like every sinner, has been sold – sold and bought by sin. Wickedness owns the sinner. He dwelt among the people of God as sinners, as the unsaved, do. Being with Christians does not make you one. Lo-debar means no pasture. There is only dryness. Those names paint the picture of a sinner in a profitless state. THEN comes along one who will show kindness on behalf of another; for the sake of another. That is the picture of grace.
Jesus Christ reached out to us sinners and brought us into God’s presence, we who were sold in sin in a dry and profitless state. He lifted us up to the King’s table to be in the house of the Lord forever.
The simple teaching for us contained in verse 66, is that God is in control of all under the heavens, but His anger is directed at those who damage, persecute, abuse, mock, and belittle God’s OWN people, both Jews and Israel, and members of the Church. An individual can not lift up his hand against one of the Lord’s anointed and remain blameless.
