The Book Of Lamentations – Part 8 – Destruction Of The Temple, Wall And Gates Of Jerusalem, The Whole Jewish Ceremonies Gone - Chapter 2:6-9 Series

THE BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS – PART 8 – DESTRUCTION OF THE TEMPLE, WALL AND GATES OF JERUSALEM, THE WHOLE JEWISH CEREMONIES GONE - CHAPTER 2:6-9

Jeremiah laments the overthrow of his nation by Babylon’s ruthless army and all around him is destruction. The people had been warned over and over to turn from their sin and repent, but they refused and turned on the prophet in persecution. Jeremiah even advised them to go out to the Babylonians in a defection so their lives would be spared. They again refused, so who is to blame for the distress and misery that happened to them? In these verses we are considering, Jeremiah attributes all this destruction to the LORD and he does that according to the permissive will of God. We continue looking at what the LORD allowed to happen to the nation.

[1]. THE PERMISSIVE WILL OF GOD IS RESPONSIBLE

We continue this list of attributions to the LORD for the destruction that happened to Judah. In the last message we had 15 of them. In our next verse there are 4 more all using the word “HAS”, and it does not stop there, because the verse following has more, and the verse following that has 1.

{{Lamentations 2:6 “HE HAS VIOLENTLY treated His tabernacle LIKE A GARDEN BOOTH. He HAS DESTROYED His appointed meeting place. The LORD HAS CAUSED the appointed feast and sabbath to be forgotten in Zion, and HE HAS DESPISED king and priest in the indignation of His anger.”}}

Violence is attributed to the LORD, as is destruction, and the despising of king and priest. The king was wicked and the priests were persecutors of the true prophets, and also wicked. Jeremiah sets that out in his prophecy. Because God did not intervene against Judah’s enemies, then God is considered to be the perpetrator of all that happened.

How the world today likes to blame God for disaster and tragedy in mockery. I have been told, “How can there be a God when that child is in so much pain?” People want an excuse or reason for the ugliness in the world, but they won’t take the step of recognising the cause of it, which is sin, and turn in repentance to God to become born again with the whole new perspective of eternal values. Whoever is in Jesus Christ is a whole new creation with a whole new understanding.

Most of this verse is taken up with the things pertaining to the Law and the Temple. The Temple was destroyed with Nebuchadnezzar taking an enormous fortune back to Babylon. As a result the appointed feasts were hacked away and there was no sacred place for the remnant in the land to come together. This was all their own doing. They had themselves made the Temple meaningless through idolatry and sin in high places.

Of course Jeremiah would be concerned about the Temple. Why he would be concerned about the King (Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin) and the priests I do not know because they were at the root of the problem. The godly and wonderful King, Josiah, had these three sons who reigned after him and they were so wicked, especially Jehoiakim. It is one of the mysteries why a godly parent/s can have such evil offspring. I know it all goes back to the person’s own sin and standing before God. Still, it is a difficulty.

“Like a garden booth” – one commentator says – [[“We get the thought that the Temple was destroyed and broken up with as much ease as a garden that had failed to please its owner,”]] while another sees it this way – [[“As if it had been no better than a tent or cottage set up in a garden, or vineyard, just while the fruit was gathering, and then to be taken down again.”]]

The Temple was the whole centre of the Jewish identity for the Judeans but they had made a mockery of it and rendered it a worthless thing. It was to be a holy place but Judah made it a nest of vipers with their continual sin. Even the priests followed idols. Little wonder why the LORD threw them all out and allowed their defeat by the enemy.

[2]. THE TEMPLE IS FINISHED, OVERRUN BY THE ENEMY

{{Lamentations 2:7 “The Lord HAS REJECTED HIS ALTAR. HE HAS ABANDONED His sanctuary. HE HAS DELIVERED the walls of her palaces into the hand of the enemy. They have made a NOISE in the house of the LORD as in the day of an appointed feast.”}}

Three more times we have the “HAS”, the action of the LORD against His own. This is the first of the last three three verses attributing the blame for Judah’s destruction to the LORD, but the writer Jeremiah did not believe that. He knew Judah was reaping what it had sown, and Babylon was the harvest that was gathered in. His lament is for what has been lost. He knows it is all covered by the permissive will of God.