The Book Of Lamentations – Part 34 – The Unexpected Happened And Corruption Everywhere - Chapter 4:12-13 Series

THE BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS – PART 34 – THE UNEXPECTED HAPPENED AND CORRUPTION EVERYWHERE - CHAPTER 4:12-13

In our last message we looked at a whole lot of misery for the survivors of the Babylonian holocaust. That was one of the saddest messages we could give. However contained in it would be strong warnings about the evil of disobedience and rejecting God. This new message changes direction. It becomes more reflective as Jeremiah states his case.

PART [12]. UNTOUCHABLE – OR WERE THEY MISTAKEN?

{{Lamentations 4:12 “THE KINGS OF THE EARTH did not believe, NOR DID ANY OF THE INHABITANTS OF THE WORLD, that the adversary and the enemy could enter the gates of Jerusalem.”}}

Urban myths abound. The ancient people are not stupid as modern humanists believe. The humanists think they are the pinnacle of creation, the repository of all intelligence and knowledge. The people of Jeremiah’s era, from far away lands knew the stories of the LORD’S protection of His heritage and that it was nearly impossible to defeat Judah and Jerusalem. Ever since King David back some 500 years, no one had ever trashed Jerusalem. Therefore, it was not likely to happen because it had not happened!

But it did! These people of the ancient world did not factor into the equation that God is holy and will not forever tolerate sin. His own people had corrupted themselves abominably and became worshippers of heathen idols more than the heathens themselves. God had to rebuke the Northern Kingdom of Ephraim/Samaria or Israel, in this way – {{Hosea 4:16-17 “Since Israel is stubborn like a stubborn heifer, can the LORD now pasture them like a lamb in a large field? EPHRAIM IS JOINED TO IDOLS. Let him alone.”}}

They were stuck like superglue to their idols, but the Southern Kingdom was even worse. This is a longer passage but it is God’s condemnation written in Jeremiah matching two sisters, Israel and Judah. In it just look and see how treacherous Judah was:-

Jeremiah 3:6-10 “Then the LORD said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen what faithless Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she was a harlot there, and I thought, ‘After she has done all these things, she will return to Me’, but she did not return, and her TREACHEROUS sister Judah saw it. I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a writ of divorce, yet her TREACHEROUS sister Judah did not fear, but she went and was a harlot also, and it came about because of the lightness of her harlotry, that she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees. Yet in spite of all this, her TREACHEROUS sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but rather in deception,” declares the LORD.”}}

This honourable and righteous King Josiah, the next best king following David, was king almost at the end of Judah’s tenure. His righteousness contrasted with the wickedness of his subjects. Josiah must have been grieved at the state of the nation following all the godly reforms he established. The people were so sinful they rejected all claims by the LORD, just like our world today rejects the Lord God and will meet a similar fate as did the Judeans. Josiah was a remarkable man, remaining faithful in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation.

There is a point in those verses that is very meaningful to me as it touches on the longsuffering and patience of God. It is these words here – {{I thought, ‘After she has done all these things, she will return to Me’, but she did not return,”}}. Israel set up the golden calves with Jeroboam and practised idolatry and that went on for maybe 300 years. Not one king in the Northern Kingdom was a godly man. Jehu was more decent than all the other wicked kings.

In all that time God waited in the hope that Israel/Samaria would return once it had realised its wickedness, but it never happened. (In God’s omniscience, He very well knew the end from the beginning). Decade after decade there was no change, and in the end God had had enough. I think that was a lovely thought of the perseverance of God because some of God’s children go off the rails, and the Lord is patient, desiring that the wayward one will return in repentance. The Holy Spirit assists in that mightily.

We can all be beset by sin and lose our way, but with the pleading of the Lord and the conviction of the Holy Spirit, only the reprobate would not return.

It says that Judah polluted the land with idolatry and committed spiritual adultery. In fact it was getting worse with the worship of the Queen of Heaven and the sacrificing of the children to the bull god Moloch. Jeremiah details a lot of these grossly wicked practices. I can see a downward trend – rapidly – in our western nations today. In fact homosexuality is now everywhere and encouraged. I am sickened by it in my nation. It is “in your face” all the time. We are as Sodom and the great Tribulation awaits our vile nations.