The Book Of Lamentations – Part 11 – The Walls Are Broken And Sadness And Tragedy Are Widespread – Jeremiah Questions God - Chapter 2:18-20 Series

THE BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS – PART 11 – THE WALLS ARE BROKEN AND SADNESS AND TRAGEDY ARE WIDESPREAD – JEREMIAH QUESTIONS GOD - CHAPTER 2:18-20

We continue the description of the state of the survivors from the Babylonian invasion and Jeremiah’s communication to them. The book is called Lamentations because the prophet laments all that has happened and the people lament their condition with all things gone.

The last message ended with the people acknowledging the full hand of God in the nation’s downfall. The beginning of healing is when we face reality. Jeremiah preached over and over and they ignored him. Reality was far from them until it came in the form of Nebuchadnezzar and hit them so hard it shook their very being.

The survivors realised their tragedy and the cause of it. There was lamenting everywhere among the people and now their sadness is directed to the broken wall of Jerusalem.

[1]. REMORSE AND REPENTANCE COMES BUT IT IS TOO LATE TO SAVE THE NATION

{{Lamentations 2:18 Their heart cried out to the Lord, “O WALL OF THE DAUGHTER OF ZION, let your tears run down like a river day and night. Give yourself no relief. Let your eyes have no rest.”}}

Here they call on the wall to cry tears day and night so the depth of it is a river. That is to show the intensity of the lamenting. The wall is synonymous with the nation of Judah because the wall was their protection, but the protecting hand of God was withdrawn, so now, all the wall could do is weep. This of course is a picture of the people who weep in their own destruction.

Walls were important in scripture and in all the biblical nations. Walls were protection (who has not known of the Great Wall of China?), but they went even beyond all that.

A city’s wall also spoke of their acceptability in the world of men. It was associated with a nation’s status. Just recall the grandeur of the wall of Babylon built by Nebuchadnezzar II, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Here from “Ancient Mesopotamia” about these walls – [[The thickness of its wall is thirty-two feet; the height thereof between the towers is fifty cubits (75 feet); that of the towers is sixty cubits (90 feet); and the passage on top of the wall is such that four-horse chariots can easily pass one another; and it is on this account that this and the hanging garden are called one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.”]]. The state of Babylon’s wall fitted the status of the grandest leader the world has ever known, “the head of gold,” Nebuchadnezzar.

The verse begins with an act that should have happened years before all this occurred. The people cry out in repentance. There will be no relief in their mourning and they lament in tears streaming from their eyes. What ought to have been their sensitivity to sin long ago now becomes active for them in destruction. The survivors still had time to repent and some did. For those who were slaughtered there was no time and they went to hell. That is the stark reality of it all. Beware in our generation.

The LORD’S wrath was turned on them, but now, will the LORD listen to them in forgiveness? All those overthrown and scattered and also led to Babylon as captives, they tearfully repent of their sin, but will God listen to them? I have no doubt that a merciful God responds to genuine repentance for He is not willing that any should perish, but come to repentance and forgiveness. If only the world would do this, but it won’t. We know prophetically that in these last days sin hardens the world as set concrete and all it has to look forward to is destruction outlined in Revelation 6 onwards. Of course the Lord is plucking individuals as brands from the fire in our age. As I write this, many are being saved in Iran, possibly over one million.

[2]. CRY ALOUD TO THE LORD FOR YOURSELVES AND YOUR LITTLE ONES

{{Lamentations 2:19 Arise, cry aloud in the night AT THE BEGINNING OF THE NIGHT WATCHES. POUR OUT your heart like water before the presence of the Lord. LIFT UP your hands to Him for the life of YOUR LITTLE ONES WHO ARE FAINT because of hunger at the head of every street.”}}

Here is the prophet’s command to the people. People in dire straits cry to the Lord. Even atheists in the very heat of warfare cry to the Lord in some sort of plea. It is hard for us who have never been touched by the tragedy the residents of Judah experienced, and those Christians today in Nigeria, Sudan, Syria, just to mention 3 of them, to appreciate the depth of the ravished soul and body in such calamity. Where do they turn? All is destroyed. Their only refuge is in their Creator, and so the prophet commands them.