The Book Of Lamentations – Part 31 – Destruction Has Tarnished The Gold; People As Earthen Vessels - Chapter 4:1-2 Series

THE BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS – PART 31 – DESTRUCTION HAS TARNISHED THE GOLD; PEOPLE AS EARTHEN VESSELS - CHAPTER 4:1-2

Chapter 4 is another Alphabet chapter, and describes practical issues like the Temple’s destruction, boiling of children, pursuers who are relentless, and the total helplessness of the inhabitants. In fact this is a tragic chapter and miserably depressing. It depicts the scene as observed by Jeremiah and he must have been overcome with compassion and sorrow at what was happening all around him. I think of all 5 chapters in the book this one lives up to the name of the book more than the others. We have lament after lament.

Disobedience and sin will never bring happiness or success; they bring misery and tragedy and death. If we could only get people to flee from sin and turn to Jesus Christ for salvation, what a wonderful world this would be. Sin has locked up the world in a prison, and it takes the earthquake of the Lord’s deliverance to release individuals held captive there. For the survivors now in tragic circumstances in a ravished city, Babylon had been the earthquake. I trust the shock impelled those people in repentance and trust in the LORD God. I think many did.

PART [1]. TRAGEDY DESTROYS BEAUTY AND GOODNESS

{{Lamentations 4:1 “HOW DARK THE GOLD HAS BECOME. How the pure gold has changed. THE SACRED STONES ARE POURED OUT at the corner of every street.”}}

There are 22 verses in this chapter as there are in Chapters 5 and 2 and 1. That is because Jeremiah employs a technique based on the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. There are 22 letters in the alphabet and each letter begins a new division (These correspond to our verses in our English bibles. The literary technique strophe is used. It is an alphabet chapter.

Vision and perspective are influenced by circumstances, by the way we project ourselves into situations. When all is bright and happy the gold shines in all its glorious brilliance but when tragedy strikes, or a people has become displaced in the horror of war or disaster, then the influence of that gold has dulled and its attraction has been lost. Jeremiah says the gold has become dark. It is no longer of any priority. There is nothing like tragedy or misfortune to sharpen the reality of perspective.

Then he speaks of the pure gold which has changed. Pure is the best quality but it is no longer attractive when it is tarnished and unappealing. When you are struggling to survive and it is so bad that you resort to cannibalism which is what was happening, then gold has become of little value or appeal.

The Babylonians burnt the city and the temple suffered the flames as well. Some see the tarnished gold as the residue of soot and smoke that covered the gold which was used on parts of the temple. This is the literal understanding of that but there is another sense that could apply.

Israel/Judah, the nation, was the gold that became so tarnished that you had to look intently to discern its dark form. The nation was a precious jewel in its formation and when Israel was a youth the LORD loved him, but the nation turned to the ugliness and darkness of sin and the glory of its complexion became dark and unattractive. People who sit in misery having lost everything, do not find even decent things attractive. The defeated Jews were demoralised and suffering.

In our current world, the things of God are dark to its residents and the beauty of the purity of God is so tarnished that the world considers Christianity some dark form of restrictions and negativity. They see the abuses and greed in mega churches and turn away.

This world has changed the pure gold. Even the church (denominations and groups) has changed the pure gold in increasingly numerous places. This world is truly lost. It has made its trackless paths and can’t find its way. {{Proverbs 16:25 “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.”}} Mankind is on a journey from birth to death. It begins with being born into sin and iniquity and that journey continues until death and the path does not deviate. Only IF the Lord intervenes, will that path be turned 180 degrees and the journey then tracks to heaven. Man thinks he has all the answers and that he is the crown of evolution, but he is a fool, because the one who dismisses God is a fool.

The spiritual life of nations has ebbed and flowed through history according to the life of individuals. In my experience following the Billy Graham crusade in Sydney in 1954, huge numbers attended and there were many conversions and this made New South Wales more godly than it had ever been. That was reflected in community values and education and in society. Society was calmer and more contented and decency prospered, but today many of those who were converted are with the Lord and a new influence covers the land, a godless socialism that hates both Jews and Christians. It has become a wilful evil.