The Book Of Lamentations – Part 32 – Infants Die Of Hunger; Rich And Opulent Now Devastated In The Street; Judah’s Sin Greater Than Sodom - Chapter 4:3-7 Series

THE BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS – PART 32 – INFANTS DIE OF HUNGER; RICH AND OPULENT NOW DEVASTATED IN THE STREET; JUDAH’S SIN GREATER THAN SODOM - CHAPTER 4:3-7

These laments continue and there is some “what was” and “what is now” in this message.

PART [3]. WILD ANIMALS TREAT THEIR OFFSPRING CORRECTLY BUT NOT ISRAEL

{{Lamentations 4:3 “Even JACKALS offer the breast. They nurse their young, but the daughter of my people has become CRUEL LIKE OSTRICHES in the wilderness.”}}

What a comparison this is. The wild jackals act better than defeated Israel is doing. They let the young jackals suckle but the poor infants of Judah are not privileged to that, because the mothers can not do it. They have no milk. The infants would be neglected and dying. As we have seen earlier, and certainly in verse 10, some were eaten.

Jackals are quite awful creatures and I don’t like them even though they come from the hand of God’s creation. They care for their young, but Israel is failing in that. Judah’s young are being eaten. It is said desperate times require desperate action but we see quite clearly that God condemned what was happening. The LORD declared the daughter of His people (a tender term) to be cruel and compared them with ostriches. The jackals feed their young while the ostrich abandons her eggs, some say, but that is because the ostrich lays up to 30 eggs and ignores them until laying is complete, and then it sits on the eggs.

The AV/KJV renders “sea monsters” and elsewhere “dragons” for this word “jackal”, but best is jackals. I think around 1611 in England the animals of the Middle East were improperly understood, as were gemstones and trees.

{{Job 30:29 “I have become a BROTHER TO JACKALS, and a COMPANION OF OSTRICHES.”}} Poor Job describes how he was feeling – like despised and rejected animals. Nevertheless, in all that time he knew that the Lord had not deserted him.

Babylon’s fate is outlined prophetically in Isaiah and this part is descriptive of the animals there after God was to judge Babylon later on – {{Isaiah 13:21-22 “but desert creatures will lie down there and their houses will be full of owls; OSTRICHES also will live there and shaggy goats will frolic there. Hyenas will howl in their fortified towers and JACKALS in their luxurious palaces. Her fateful time also will soon come and her days will not be prolonged.”}}

{{Isaiah 43:20 “The beasts of the field will glorify Me, THE JACKALS AND THE OSTRICHES, because I have given waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert to give drink to My chosen people.”}} This verse is contained in the section dealing with the restoration of Israel when the Lord returns at the Second Coming. The whole land will be changed and the whole of creation will lose the curse that is currently upon it. The desert will bloom – Isaiah 14. The jackals and ostriches will no longer be despised.

Paul spoke about the groaning of creation under the curse and the time that is coming when all creation will be delivered from the curse of sin, and that happens once the Millennium begins. {{Romans 8:18-23 “for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. THE ANXIOUS LONGING OF THE CREATION WAITS EAGERLY for the revealing of the sons of God, FOR THE CREATION WAS SUBJECTED TO FUTILITY, NOT OF ITS OWN WILL, but because of Him who subjected it - in hope that THE CREATION ITSELF ALSO WILL BE SET FREE FROM ITS SLAVERY TO CORRUPTION, into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. WE KNOW THAT THE WHOLE CREATION GROANS AND SUFFERS THE PAINS OF CHILDBIRTH TOGETHER UNTIL NOW, and not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves WAITING EAGERLY for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.”}}

The mothers of the displaced and suffering citizens of Judah don’t care for their young as they are fighting to stay alive themselves. All this Jeremiah saw and it must have torn him apart. How could a mother abandon her child? It happened with the Australian Aborigines but it should not happen to those called by God’s name. The suffering was immense, and the infants paid the price for the sins of the parents.

I won’t add any more to that until we do this verse from chapter 5 – {{Lamentations 5:7 “Our fathers sinned, and are no more. IT IS WE WHO HAVE BORNE THEIR INIQUITIES.”}}

PART [4]. THE PLIGHT OF THE DEFENCELESS INFANT CONTINUES

{{Lamentations 4:4 “The tongue of the infant cleaves to the roof of its mouth because of THIRST. The little ones ask for BREAD, but no one breaks it for them.”}}