THE BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS – PART 36 – HOPELESS PEOPLE IN A DESPERATE SITUATION. GREAT SADNESS IN THE WORLD - CHAPTER 4:17-19
The next 4 verses move back to the details of the suffering of the survivors and we take this verse by verse -
PART [17]. A HOPELESS SITUATION – DESTITUTE AND ALONE
{{Lamentations 4:17 “Yet OUR EYES FAILED. Looking for help was useless. In our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save.”}}
The eyes of the survivors scanned the horizon and hoped beyond hope that help would come for them but it did not. Their eyes failed in the task, and wasted away. It is the despairing look, and people in despair seem to show that look in their eyes and on their faces. What these people were undergoing was tragic and people would be quick to blame God for it all. Firstly, that God caused it to happen, and secondly, that He seemingly did nothing to assist those who remained after the catastrophe.
We live in a grossly sinful world where the dark forces of the devil twist and turn around events to disfavour the innocent party. On 7 October 2023 Hamas attacked Israel and butchered 1195 people initially and carried off many captives. Since that time the evil of Satan has caused the world to look on Israel as the source of this evil. The United Nations issues resolutions, one after the other against Israel.
The left wing, Socialist media is always trying to highlight someone killed by the Israeli response while ignoring the vile murders and attacks by Hamas and Hezbollah, even upon their own Gazan people. Hamas steals the emergency food convoys and sells the food at exorbitant prices. The world blames Israel for the food shortage while Israel has done so much to get food into Gaza. Politicians such as Prime Minister Albanese and the Green Party of Australia, and Foreign Minister Penny Wong, and some of the American Democrats, support Hamas and constantly condemn Israel for wanting to defend themselves.
It is no surprise that the world is readying itself for judgement and God’s wrath, for God promised long ago to Abraham that those who curse Israel will be cursed. God’s judgement will come swiftly once He has removed His Church and the world plunges into the Tribulation from Revelation 6 onwards. {{1 Thessalonians 5:2-4 for you yourselves know full well that THE DAY OF THE LORD will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then DESTRUCTION WILL COME UPON THEM SUDDENLY like birth pangs upon a woman with child and they shall not escape, but YOU, BRETHREN, ARE NOT IN DARKNESS, that the day should overtake you like a thief”}}
If you do a search on this 2023 event, Google and other search Engines makes sure you get the more radical, anti-Israel results to come up first like the BBC and ABC News, and especially Al Jazeera News. You don’t expect fairness in this world any more. The survivors in Judah realised they could not expect anything. There was no help coming from any quarter. They were alone in their situation and no food aid came to them from any place. They were starving to death in a hopeless situation.
Maybe this is one reason why people neglect the study of Lamentations, because it is too sad or depressing. So is sin. People’s reaction is to turn away and pretend that sin is not part of their lives but it is. A person will never be free of it, and if your sin is not covered by the blood of Christ, then you are going to stand one day before God and be accountable for it. You will never be able to turn away from it.
The people must have been sitting in their misery and recalling a time that was too late now, but back then they would have repented and did what God wanted, but that is hindsight. It was in the past and their stubbornness prevented them repenting and responding to Jeremiah’s preaching. This is what Jeremiah said when the rumblings were on the horizon and the Babylonian army was making its presence felt, ready to invade and overthrow –
{{Jeremiah 37:5-9 Meanwhile, Pharaoh’s army had set out from Egypt; and when the Chaldeans who had been besieging Jerusalem heard the report about them, they lifted the siege from Jerusalem. Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “THUS SAYS THE LORD GOD OF ISRAEL, ‘THUS YOU ARE TO SAY TO THE KING OF JUDAH, WHO SENT YOU TO ME TO INQUIRE OF ME: “BEHOLD, PHARAOH’S ARMY WHICH HAS COME OUT FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE IS GOING TO RETURN TO ITS OWN LAND OF EGYPT. “THE CHALDEANS WILL ALSO RETURN AND FIGHT AGAINST THIS CITY, AND THEY WILL CAPTURE IT AND BURN IT WITH FIRE.”’ “Thus says the LORD, ‘Do not deceive yourselves, saying, “The Chaldeans will surely go away from us, for they will not go.”}}
When Jeremiah spoke time after time, the nation should have repented but did not. Now it was too late. Yes, I am sure they recalled all this with regret. We have all sorts of emotions, and when we try to think how emotions applied to these survivors, it seems beyond us, for it is too strategically deep and painful.
In Jeremiah’s time, the problem for Israel was its own idolatrous sin and rejection of their God. Empires also had their ambitions. There was Egypt and Assyria and Babylon all wanting to rule the Middle East. Today it is Islam. If there was no Islam there would have been no Iran/Iraq war; no ISIS and problems in Iraq; no continuing atrocities in the Middle East and Africa; no headache for Israel. Islam is of Satan, but the world won’t say that.
PART [18]. THERE IS NO HOPE FOR ME, FOR ANY OF US
{{Lamentations 4:18 “THEY HUNTED OUR STEPS so that we could not walk in our streets. OUR END DREW NEAR. Our days were finished for OUR END HAD COME.”}}
The second verse of the four is totally without hope or comfort. It is full resignation to their fate, so dismal and depressing. The beginning of the verse, they hunted our steps” is better than “they lie in wait,” in some versions. Here there are ambushes everywhere in the killing fields. It is horrible.
Christians are usually isolated from the extreme troubles of the world that cause despair and hopelessness because their faith is in a faithful God. However if Christians take the time to look around and watch videos of the poverty and desperation of people, especially in warring countries and in places run by drug lords and Islam and the greediness of man . . . then you can detect the great sadness and resignation of so many people. It is cruel what the world has done to people.
Probably a better way to say it is, it is cruel what people’s sin has done to people. Can you see Jeremiah identifying with the suffering in Israel? Is it not true that we tend to turn away from suffering? I think it is, but our Lord was the opposite. He sought the sufferers for He had the message of life. Thank God for the Christian ministries that reach out to the desperate, suffering people with practical help and the gospel.
PLEASE, people, do not make light of sin or make excuses for it. It is the substance of hell and will be eternally unredeemed in the lake of fire. We might only trust that these people suffering the horrors of war and still being killed might have repented before more died. They rejected Jeremiah but we hope in the end they did not reject God. There is nothing like a devastating tragedy to wake people up to eternal issues.
People in churches need to be honest and read and study their bibles in spite of what some minister might tell them. This is especially true with what is known as eschatology, which is the study of the last things. There is a lot of error around because people do not take the bible literally but listen to those who spiritualise and allegorise scripture. That is an evil thing to do. Hundreds of times the OT prophets tell us of Israel’s restoration. The great prophecies to Abraham will be fulfilled.
In three series I have on SermonCentral, one is on The Day of the LORD, another is on The Restoration of Israel – Isaiah, and one is on The Restoration of Israel – Jeremiah.” These cover so much material in the Old Testament prophecies and help us see exactly what the bible teaches.
There will be a Rapture of the Church because it is clearly taught. That will be followed by the Tribulation which will end after 7 years with the Second Coming of Christ. During the Tribulation, as you read Revelation from chapter 6 onwards, you will see such fear comes on people and such dreadful judgements; it will match what the Jews in Judah were experiencing.
Why is this great Tribulation coming to the world? It is the wrath of a holy God that will be expressed against sin and unrepentance and the indescribable evil of the world. All this will be literal and do not write it off as Augustine did and caused so much damage to the true teachings of the New Testament and Old Testament.
In our Lamentations verse they could cry, “our end has come.” That could very well be the cry of many in the Tribulation period. Read the book (Revelation) please and see that for yourselves. In chapter 6 with the breaking of the second seal and the red horse, peace is taken from the earth and there are wars of all descriptions everywhere. With the third seal and the black horse, there are great famines and death, so typical in some wars. With the breaking of the fourth seal, the pale/green/ashen horse comes forth, and this is described as more killing, pestilences, wild beasts and famines. Just that fourth horse alone sees one quarter of the earth die and to that must be added the wars and famines in the second and third horses. It will be horrendous.
That is why the word REPENT is used so much in scripture. It is vital, for God’s holy righteousness must judge sin – it has to happen – but God provided the means of escape through the awful death of the Lamb of God on the cross. To reject repentance is to reject the Lamb of God’s provision, and that means eternal doom. Examine yourselves to see you are in the faith – 2 Corinthians 13:5
As in Lamentations, the people of the Tribulation will be crying out, “Our end has come” and they hide in caves and hidden areas and call on the mountains to fall on them. Revelation 6:3-8 and Revelation 6:12-17.
Christians living in western nations are seeing their nations in steep decline. At this time I will not elaborate on that but will say that the times are fast approaching when life will become more and more difficult. (2 Timothy 3:1-4). Wicked men and women are on the increase in politics and other authorities, and they are bringing in more wickedness each year; more divisiveness and they have the support of the majority of people in their nations. Wickedness controls the great majority of people and these vote to keep evil advancing.
PART [19]. THE ENEMY’S PURSUIT IS UNTIRING AND CRUEL
{{Lamentations 4:19 “Our pursuers were SWIFTER than the eagles of the sky. They CHASED us on the mountains. They WAITED IN AMBUSH for us in the wilderness.”}}
The third verse in this grouping of 4 is saying how quickly the enemy advances and that there is no relief from their reach. Make no mistake about this – evil will pursue the righteous and evil will hunt down their objects of hate such as the Jews. This has been true all through history, and the Jews have been hunted all through history. I wish people would study more and research more. It is eye-opening to read the persecution of Jews just in the last 2 000 years. I wish people would also read and study Church History. There are some good books on this.
Evil hates good and persecutes it. If the Lord tarries with the Rapture, we are going to see such difficult times descend on us. People think it can’t happen; they are more insulated in the western world; Christians often are sleeping and don’t see the signs of the times. Don’t be overtaken. If you follow the Lord you will be hated of all men. It is a promise. (2 Timothy 3:12-13)
The description in our current verse is not pleasant when the pursuers are relentless; faster than eagles and had ambushes all over. I am not being morbid in this. We know how in times of deep persecution evil men and women are out to destroy God but they themselves will be found fighting an immovable mountain.
This reference to waiting in ambush that ends the verse applies to what Moab did the Judah. It was satanic and we deal with that in verses 21 and 22.
