The Book Of Lamentations – Part 4 – Judah Is Rejected And Trodden Down – My Great Pain – Chapter 1:11-15 Series

THE BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS – PART 4 – JUDAH IS REJECTED AND TRODDEN DOWN – MY GREAT PAIN – CHAPTER 1:11-15

Our study in this remarkable book continues as we try to understand the grief of the defeated people and of Jeremiah himself who was overcome by sorrow for is nation. The nation had its choice and many opportunities were given to them but they flouted God’s messages through the prophet. We will begin with the sadness of destruction.

PART [A]. THE AFTERMATH OF TOTAL DESTRUCTION

{{Lamentations 1:11 All her people GROAN seeking bread. They have given their precious things for food to restore their lives themselves. “See, O LORD, and look, for I am despised.”}}

Jeremiah’s lamentations on behalf of the nation where he stands in the people’s place, is the focus of this verse. The aftermath for those who survive is awful, as it always is after terrible wars. We do not need to elaborate for we have seen such suffering even in our own lifetimes.

People don’t take sin seriously, and don’t pay heed to the consequences of sin. If they did then they would flee to God, repent and be born again. Maybe the worse time in human history for the aftermath of war will come in the Tribulation after peace is removed from the earth – {{Revelation 6:3-4 When He broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come,” and another, a red horse, went out, and to him who sat on it, IT WAS GRANTED TO TAKE PEACE FROM THE EARTH, and that men should slay one another, and a great sword was given to him.”}}

Following that there will be great famine and pestilences and death and 25% of the world’s population will perish under the third and fourth horses of Revelation chapter 6. Now at the end of the Church Age with the Rapture so close, then these terrible happenings will be soon on the earth and what the prophet wrote long ago is in sharp focus – {{Malachi 4:1 “For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze,” says the LORD of hosts, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.”}} Jesus also references this terrible time – {{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?”}}

Jeremiah describes the people seeking food. They are groaning because of hunger. War always shuts down production of food resulting in starvation, and not only that, huge extortioners can provide food for a great cost to the consumer. Just to get food, the people have forfeited all their precious things. They have nothing. I hate extortioners, these blood-sucking people who make profit at people’s expense and in desperate, tragic circumstances. They are in the rank of the lowest individuals.

Jeremiah writes, “See, O LORD, and look, for I am despised.” He does not mean him but he means the nation. All around the known world Judah is despised, looked down on and condemned. The plea is to the LORD, and probably for the first time in ages, these people are expressing genuineness. Some people have to lose all before they can ever realise what they have really lost. Only then can they take steps to return to the LORD. We can only hope that many of these Jews finally had their lives united to their God, even though it took tragedy for that to happen.

Why do people not heed warnings? Imagine a man who is a heavy drinker and he begins to have some pains and a few minor problems all happening at once. His friends caution him he ought go see a doctor and have tests but he refuses and time passes. Then he has a medium heart attack and is then under a doctor’s care. It is almost too late for him. He refused to listen to the warnings. That is how Judah was, and when the destruction came, it was too late.

PART [B]. THE SAD TRUTH OF THE MATTER, IS MY GREAT PAIN/SORROW

{{Lamentations 1:12 “Is it nothing to all you who pass this way? Look and see if there is ANY PAIN LIKE MY PAIN which was severely dealt out to me, which THE LORD INFLICTED on the day of His fierce anger.”}}

We come to a verse which in times past was very well known especially from the AV – {{“Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold, and see if there be ANY SORROW LIKE UNTO MY SORROW, which is done unto me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.”}} The pathos the verse encloses, is almost felt, as it is so deep. Jeremiah expresses the deep sighing of the suffering people.