Summary: With Israel’s defeat, all means were used against them in the name of hate. Ambushes and murder from Edom was despicable. God had not overlooked it. The end of Chapter 4 has Edom in God’s sights so the evil done to Israel will come hard on their own heads.

THE BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS – PART 37 – WE LOOK AT THE CRIMES OF EDOM; THEIR EVIL AGAINST ISRAEL - CHAPTER 4:20-22

This is the last of the descriptions of the plight of the refugees. Their lot was a very sad one indeed. Verses 17 to 20 are a set of four that look at the awful conditions of the survivors in their starvation and misery.

PART [20]. THE SURVIVORS HOPED FOR RELIEF

{{Lamentations 4:20 The breath of our nostrils, the LORD’s anointed, WAS CAPTURED IN THEIR PITS, of whom we had said, “Under his shadow we shall live among the nations.”}}

The previous verse describes how the inhabitants were hunted down and ambushes were used for that purpose - {{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 ambush pits caught the people as wild animals and there was heavy breathing from the pursuit. This verse is a difficult one to understand exactly, but this quote from CBSC helps to clarify the text - [[The breath of our nostrils] Pe. remarks that the phrase is an ancient one, being found in the Tell el Amarna letters (fifteenth century b.c.). Cp. Seneca (ad Neronem de Clementia, I. 4) “He (the Emperor) is the breath of life, which these many thousand (subjects) draw.” As regards its application to Zedekiah individually we are to remember that whatever may have been his personal weaknesses (and he was weak rather than vicious), he was the one on whom the whole of the people’s hopes depended for the continuance of their national life.”]]

The ending of the verse is possibly this suggestion given by CBSC - [[“Of whom we said …” The reference may very possibly be to a hope entertained by the fugitives that by escaping to the mountainous region of Moab or Ammon they might maintain in some sort, their national existence under Zedekiah.”]]

Displaced people are very sad and today many displaced Christians exist in Nigeria and Sudan and more places of terrible persecution. My government in Australia does next to nothing to help persecuted and ravished Christians overseas, especially in Africa, but delights to bring their persecutors to the country as immigrants. That is why numbers of Moslems have increased enormously in recent times. In the past 3 years 1.8 million from the Middle East were brought to Australia including so many Palestinians no one else would import. They are already marching in the streets calling for the Jews to be killed and to be gassed, but police will do nothing about it. They would rather arrest a Christian praying in a public place. That happens.

PART [21]. EDOM WILL RIDE HIGH BUT NOT FOR LONG

{{Lamentations 4:21 “Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, who dwells in the land of Uz, but THE CUP WILL COME AROUND TO YOU AS WELL. You will become drunk and make yourself naked.”}}

Why would Jeremiah mention here Edom? Of all the surrounding nations Edom was the vilest. These people, originally descended from Esau, were wicked and callous towards the Jews in their defeat.

The most thorough explanation of their guilt is recorded in Obadiah and I will write the quote that is the reason why Edom will have to drink the cup of its own destruction:

{{Obadiah 1:10 “Because of VIOLENCE TO YOUR BROTHER JACOB, you will be covered with shame, and you will be cut off forever. “}}. Esau and Jacob were brothers, sons of Isaac, hence the reference to brother. Esau became Edom and they were always a nation of hate against Israel/Judah. In Jerusalem’s defeat, Edom attacked them with violence. Maybe what most people recognise today about Edom is the archeological site of Petra, in the clefts of the rocks (red ones).

{{Obadiah 1:11 “On the day that you stood aloof, on the day that strangers carried off his wealth, and foreigners entered his gate and cast lots for Jerusalem - YOU TOO WERE AS ONE OF THEM.”}}. The strangers were Babylon, but Edom also helped themselves and did what the Babylonians were doing. They were violent robbers.

{{Obadiah 1:12 “DO NOT GLOAT over your brother’s day, the day of his misfortune, and DO NOT REJOICE over the sons of Judah in the day of their destruction. Yes, DO NOT BOAST in the day of their distress.”}}. Edom is told what not to do because that is what it did! It had already done those terrible things. Obadiah was probably written around the time of Babylon’s invasion and possibly a bit before that. They were not to take delight in the pain of another, especially their relatives the descendants of Isaac, but Edom was so wicked, it made no difference. Edom delighted in the destruction of Judah and took the opportunity to pillage and murder. Christians find to hard to understand that position but the world is full of hate and vengeance.

{{Obadiah 1:13-14 “DO NOT ENTER THE GATE OF MY PEOPLE in the day of their disaster. YES, YOU, DO NOT GLOAT over their calamity in the day of their disaster, and do not loot their wealth in the day of their disaster, and DO NOT STAND AT THE FORK OF THE ROAD TO CUT DOWN THEIR FUGITIVES, and DO NOT IMPRISON their survivors in the day of their distress.”}}. From this we learn Edom entered Jerusalem to execute its theft and violence. They gloated at the distress of Judah and ill-treated the Jews. They stationed themselves at the forks of the roads to kill all the escaping refugees. They looted their wealth and imprisoned other survivors. What a vile people these Edomites were. God had it all on record and somewhere I used the statement, “what goes around, comes around.” This is true of the punishment that God was going to send on Edom, His retribution.

A mention of Edom’s disgrace is in the Psalms - {{Psalm 137:7 “Remember, O LORD, against the sons of Edom the day of Jerusalem, who said, “RAZE IT, RAZE IT TO ITS VERY FOUNDATION.”}}. This verse begin with the word “Remember”, and God who never forgets, did not forget Edom; nor will He forget all those who have cried similar hate against the Jews and continue to do so. The fate of the Palestinians is sealed, as is Iran (Ezekiel 38), as is the fountain of hate known as The United Nations, as is the constant hate coming from the leading Australian politicians against Israel. God is not mocked. Those who curse Israel will be cursed. That means they are held accountable and judged.

Biblical prophecy is serious business, not a fairy tale or entertainment. Biblical prophecy involving Israel has not been transferred to the Church so as to negate Israel. The apple of God’s eye is not going to be gouged out by men who dishonour the great promises for Israel. {{Zechariah 2:8 For thus says the LORD of hosts, “After glory He has sent me against the nations which plunder you, for he who touches you, TOUCHES THE APPLE OF HIS EYE.”}} If you want to gain God’s great displeasure, then excise Israel from the scriptures along with all the hundreds of unfulfilled prophecies regarding them while the times of the Gentiles still exist. {{Joshua 21:45 “NOT ONE of the good promises which the LORD had made to the house of Israel failed. All came to pass.”}}

Peter takes up the same theme to answer those who think God has forgotten, or has written Israel off – {{2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance,”}}. The Rapture is promised but we do not see it. The Lord is not slow and those who study such matters see it all in place about to happen very soon. See my posting on SermonCentral - https://sermoncentral.com/sermons/an-examination-of-the-rapture-of-the-church-part-1-of-4-ron-ferguson-sermon-on-rapture-267058

The Peter verse we just quoted speaks of the Lord not being slow about His promises BUT the following verse says this – {{2 Peter 3:10 “BUT THE DAY OF THE LORD will come like a thief in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.”}}. The verse references the Day of the LORD which is about to burst of this world straight after the Rapture, and occupies large sections of the Minor and Major Prophets and all of Revelation from Chapter 6 onwards.

The world goes about its business as if God does not exist. The world has cut God away in its humanism and increasing socialist and communist belief system, and has even legislated against God. The world did that once before when God was dismissed and made irrelevant, but sudden unexpected disaster overtook them (and will do so again) in these verses that speak of the Second Coming – {{Matthew 24:37-39 “The coming of the Son of Man will be just like THE DAYS OF NOAH, for as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away - SO SHALL THE COMING OF THE SON OF MAN BE.”}}. The world today is starting to behave like the days of Noah; godlessness, indifference, arrogant, stubborn and haters of decency and it will steeply worsen.

Edom perpetrated horrible things on Judah at the time of her downfall, but God promised just (righteous) punishment against Edom for all that. The cup of punishment was to come around to Edom, and that came swiftly. I fear for this world because it is so dismissive of God and so hateful, and so callous towards Christians and Jews. I will quote some Jeremiah verses – {{Jeremiah 49:10 “But I HAVE STRIPPED ESAU BARE, I have uncovered his hiding places so that he will not be able to conceal himself. His offspring has been destroyed along with his relatives and his neighbours, and he is no more.”}}. The wording here is in the past tense even though, at the time of writing, it had not happened. That happens quite often in prophecy as God expresses it in the past tense because the matter is so certain. Prophecy never fails.

{{Jeremiah 49:13 “For I have sworn by Myself,” declares the LORD, “that BOZRAH WILL BECOME AN OBJECT OF HORROR, a reproach, a ruin and a curse, and all its cities will become perpetual ruins.”}}. Bozrah was the capital of Edom. This time Jeremiah writes in the present tense.

{{Jeremiah 49:16-17 “As for the terror of you, the arrogance of your heart has deceived you, O you who live in the clefts of the rock, who occupy the height of the hill. Though you make your nest as high as an eagles, I WILL BRING YOU DOWN FROM THERE,” declares the LORD. “And Edom will become an object of horror. Everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss at all its wounds.”}}. Along with the prophet Obadiah, Jeremiah is the other one who is so clear about the destruction that was to come on Edom. The word is inspired by God. All God’s promises will happen literally as is written. Do not allegorise or dismiss the scriptures of what is to happen. It is very disappointing that the Reformers followed the Catholic line, which in turn followed the error of Augustine.

PART [22]. ISRAEL WILL CONTINUE WHILE EDOM WILL BE A PERPETUAL WASTE

{{Lamentations 4:22 “The punishment of your iniquity HAS BEEN COMPLETED, O daughter of Zion. He will exile you no longer, BUT HE WILL PUNISH YOUR INIQUITY, O DAUGHTER OF EDOM. He will expose your sins!”}}

There is one huge difference here between Judah/Israel and Edom. Both were punished dramatically, but Israel will continue while Edom will be forever ended from being the nation it once was. Edomites did continue such as the New Testament Herods, but as a strong nation, God ended Edom.

What a blessing it was to hear that the daughter of Zion has completed the punishment due to her. Judah was thrashed by the LORD but it is now ended. In all the judgements of God, there is a beginning and an ending. In Noah’s time, the punishment began when God shut the door of the Ark and it ended when the Ark set itself on solid ground.

In the time of the Tribulation it will begin when the first seal is broken and Antichrist comes – {{Revelation 6:1 I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, “COME,”}} AND the full end is at the Second Coming when Jesus Messiah steps onto the Mount of Olives – {{Zechariah 14:4 “And in that day HIS FEET WILL STAND ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south.”}}

The Lord Jesus Christ was punished for our sins. It began when He was betrayed by Judas and it ended with this statement – {{John 19:30 When Jesus therefore had received the sour wine, He said, “IT IS FINISHED!” and He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.}}. This could be looked at in another way, in a broader picture, to say Christ’s sacrifice and death ended with His resurrection for without the resurrection, there was no efficacy to the sacrifice.

In the punishment of the Tribulation it begins with the breaking of the first seal when the Antichrist is revealed – {{Revelation 6:1-2 I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, “Come,” and I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering, and to conquer.”}}. This man, the most wicked ever to exist, filled with Satan, comes to conquer the whole world but does it dramatically without war or any conflict (white horse). The punishment of judgements of the Tribulation also has an end – {{Revelation 15:1 “I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels who had seven plagues which are the last, BECAUSE IN THEM THE WRATH OF GOD IS FINISHED.”}}

Judah’s punishment was completed but the sad history of Israel showed it went through this twice again. Under the Romans it happened in AD 70 and AD 135. The 135 AD overthrow of Jerusalem could be said not to have an end (yet) for Israel was been in dispersion since that time, though there has been an ingathering of some in unbelief since 1948. The full end will come when the Lord returns to His people in His Second Coming to the Mount of Olives.

In Lamentations 4:22 above there is a phrase, “He will exile you no longer.” We must carefully understand that phrase. Because we know of what happened in AD 70 and 135, then we have to conclude that Jeremiah is writing in reference to the shortened time frame before the First Advent, and the 70 years of captivity, he was not aware of as far as I know.

So much for Israel. Now for Edom, that horrible people full of sin and hate. The verse promised punishment and exposure of sin. This sinful nation boasted its impregnability situated as they were in the clefts of the rocks. However, when you are dealing with the wrath of God, there is no safety, not on the plain or in rocky fortresses.

This was mentioned earlier to happen in the Tribulation – even the hidden places will not hide them from the wrath of God - As in Lamentations, the people 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. What can be said to this generation? This is it, although addressed to Pharisees and Sadducees it applies to all! {{Matthew 3:7 When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”}}

The ending of this verse is “He will expose your sins,” talking to Edom. Almost all versions use that translation but the AV/KJV says, “he will discover thy sins.” Back in its time of Shakespearian language, this was a correct usage of “discover”. When sins are forgiven God covers then, but when they are declared, found out, exposed, the sins are “un-covered”, that is “dis-covered,” not covered, and they will meet punishment.

In speaking again of Moab Jeremiah here writes inspirationally what the LORD gave him - (NASB) {{Jeremiah 49:10 “But I have stripped Esau bare, I HAVE UNCOVERED HIS HIDING PLACES so that he will not be able to conceal himself. His offspring have been destroyed along with his brothers and his neighbours, and he no longer exists.”}}

Most commentators take the view that Edom in this verse is referencing the enemies of Israel and of the Church, that is, an open reference to all that opposes, to all enemies. I can’t go along with that because the verse follows straight on from verse 21 directly speaking of Edom. I am sure the prophet speaks of physical Edom. Too much allegory is applied to prophetic writings and it is wrong.

That brings us to the end of Chapter 4 and we move to the final chapter next time.