The Book Of Lamentations – Part 44 – Elders Have Been Vanquished By Babylon. We Look At Joy And Music Ceasing. Then We Consider The Great Jewish Contribution In Music - Lamentations 5:14-15 Series

THE BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS – PART 44 – ELDERS HAVE BEEN VANQUISHED BY BABYLON. WE LOOK AT JOY AND MUSIC CEASING. THEN WE CONSIDER THE GREAT JEWISH CONTRIBUTION IN MUSIC - Lamentations 5:14-15

The nation is being surveyed, or rather, the remnant of Judah is lamenting its terrible conditions. We have been looking at some really awful conditions the people were enduring because Babylon was cruel and dehumanised.

Jeremiah was a tender prophet and related well to his people. Throughout his prophecy he had to chastise them often to call the nation to repentance, but his message was rejected and the people went into judgement. Even after that the prophet ministered to the people, and their condition, he describes in lamentations.

In the previous message we saw where the princes were hanged and the young men were made slaves to the Babylonian war machine and cruelly treated. Earlier we saw that women were raped and no consideration whatever was given to the elderly. Our descriptions continue now.

[14]. THE OLD ORDER HAS GONE

{{Lamentations 5:14 “ELDERS ARE GONE FROM THE GATE, YOUNG MEN FROM THEIR MUSIC.”}}

Two more groups are affected. The older and the younger are both caught up in the tyrant’s net. One is associated with wisdom and the other with enjoyment and happiness.

Elders and their association with being found “in the gate”, is a long-standing tradition in Israel. The elderly were respected in that society, unlike ours where they are discarded for the new order of humanism spearheaded by the socialist academics. It is not surprising for all that which pertains to God has been turned on its head in a secular and godless culture. “Many are called but few are chosen.” “The chosen” are getting fewer and fewer.

(a). {{Deuteronomy 21:18-21 If any man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father or his mother, and when they chastise him, he will not even listen to them, then his father and mother shall seize him, and bring him out to THE ELDERS OF HIS CITY AT THE GATEWAY OF HIS HOME TOWN, and they shall say to the elders of his city, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death so you shall remove the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear of it and fear.}}

Sin is the leaven that spreads and affects all strata of society and rebellion is one of the worst. We saw that earlier on in the rebellion of Korah. A rebellious man who will not repent is the cause of much damage and God was severe on bringing that to an end. I don’t wish to go into the morality of the situation here to get sidetracked, but to draw attention to the location of the elders. They are found in the gate.

A proper functioning people are supposed to have wisdom at the top, and God decreed that wisdom belongs to the elderly. {{Job 12:12-13 “Wisdom is with aged men. With long life is understanding. With Him are wisdom and might. To Him belong counsel and understanding.”}} {{Proverbs 20:29 “The glory of young men is their strength, and the honour of old men is their grey hair.”}}

It was decreed that this wisdom be available for people to utilise, so the elders were in the gate of the city as if it was their office. That decree goes right back before Israel even entered Canaan.

(b). {{Ruth 4:1-2 Now Boaz WENT UP TO THE GATE and sat down there, and behold, the close relative of whom Boaz spoke was passing by, so he said, “Turn aside, friend, sit down here,” and he turned aside and sat down. HE TOOK TEN MEN OF THE ELDERS OF THE CITY and said, “Sit down here,” so they sat down.”}}

Counsel was determined at the gate and that is exactly the way Boaz did it. It is a marvellous story that happened not too long after Israel was in Canaan. It is a story of grace in fact. There was a standing command of the Lord here to consider – {{Deuteronomy 23:3-4 “NO AMMONITE OR MOABITE SHALL ENTER THE ASSEMBLY OF THE LORD. None of their descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall ever enter the assembly of the LORD, because they did not meet you with food and water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.”}} It was through grace that Ruth entered the assembly of Israel and became an ancestor of King David. How we need wisdom and it does not come from idiots in politics, or the self indulgent around town, or the socialist academics, or those who think they are something because they are News commentators.