The Book Of Lamentations – Part 42 – Obtaining Food Could Mean Death; Starvation Caused Oven-Hot Skin; Women Were Raped By Babylon - Lamentations 5:8-11 Series

THE BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS – PART 42 – OBTAINING FOOD COULD MEAN DEATH; STARVATION CAUSED OVEN-HOT SKIN; WOMEN WERE RAPED BY BABYLON - Lamentations 5:8-11

Currently we are in the last chapter of the book with all the grievances written in short statements. All these are sad and we can not begin to understand and appreciate all the things that were done to the inhabitants of Judah and to their survivors. This is a cruel world with prevailing injustices where evil people thrive and the weaker and powerless are downtrodden.

Right now there are awful tragedies against our fellow Christians in some nations of Africa, and Christians in other areas such as China and the Middle East, suffer abuse because of the Name by which they are named. Can we who are in nations of relative freedom understand the suffering of these fellow believers? I don’t think we can and their lives are isolated from us. We don’t appreciate what it is like for them.

Let us continue in our study of the conditions of sadness these overturned inhabitants are enduring because of their sin that matured into tragedy. Please do not be put off by these awful tragedies. They still exist in this world.

There is a word many of us Christians need to understand better as many of us are lacking it. The word is EMPATHY. We must appreciate with compassion and sympathy what fellow members of the Body are experiencing. Are we too selfish to do that? Are we too content with our materialistic lot in life? There is a verse in James that applies to one’s own condition, but may I suggest we let it apply to the conditions of believers who suffer, and therefore, not neglect them – {{James 1:23-24 “For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror, for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he HAS IMMEDIATELY FORGOTTEN what kind of person he was”}}

[8]. THE SLAVES RULE DESPOTICALLY

{{Lamentations 5:8 “Slaves rule over us. There is no one to deliver us from their hand.”}}

I wonder how many have read or watched a play called "The Admirable Crichton" by J. M. Barrie. In that story, a group of aristocrats is shipwrecked on a deserted island, and the butler, Crichton, becomes the leader, as he is the only one with survival skills, reversing the social order.

In that play all is decent in what happened, but in the reverse order in Jerusalem, there was not one touch of decency. Slaves, as despots, ruled over the people and no one was able to deliver them from the suffering they endured.

It is always a despairing situation when you are in a tight spot or are in need, or suffering physical pain or mental anguish, AND there is no light at the end of the tunnel. There is no one to rescue you. These outside influences seem to rule over you.

Of course for the Christian, the Lord Jesus is all he/she needs and even then for some people that is a hard road to walk because they see their problems as being insurmountable.

We must consider the key verse here. There is some uncertainty about what the verse refers to.

Budde suggests that such persons may have seized upon property (Habakkuk 1:6 – “for behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that fierce and impetuous people who march throughout the earth TO SEIZE DWELLING PLACES WHICH ARE NOT THEIRS,”}}) and forced the Jews to earn their bread under them as day-labourers.

Gill makes an observation here for “Servants/slaves have ruled over us” . . .

[[The Targum says, "the sons of Ham, who were given to be servants to the sons of Shem, they have ruled over us;''

This is referring to the prophecy of Noah, Genesis 9:26; or to such as had been tributary to the Jews, as the Edomites; the Babylonians are meant; and not the nobles and principal inhabitants only, but even their servants, had power and authority over the Jews and they were at their beck and command; which made their servitude the more disagreeable and intolerable.]]

It was a galling situation for the Jews in defeat. They had lost everything, even their dignity.

[9]. JUST TRYING TO GET BREAD TO LIVE IS A RISK

{{Lamentations 5:9 “We get our bread AT THE RISK OF OUR LIVES because of the sword in the wilderness.”}}

We continue with this list of “This is what they have done to us.” It is impossible for us to project ourselves into that situation to try to imagine what it would be like. Sometimes we complain about one thing going wrong, but here is a list, and they are not trivial matters, but affect the necessities of life.