Psalm 150 (continued, part 18)
C.To Moab—48 D.To Ammon, Moab, Edom, Syria, Kedar, and Elam—49
In 582, Nebuchadnezzar's army invaded Moab, destroyed the people and the cities, and left desolation behind. The reason for this judgment was Moab's pride (48:7, 29–30) and complacency (v. 11). The Moabites were certain that their god Chemosh would protect them (vv. 7, 13, 35, 46) and that no army could scale the heights to reach them on their secure plateau (v. 8).
The image in verses 11–13 pictures Moab as a selfsatisfied nation, feeling very secure, like wine aging in a jar and becoming tastier. Because the nation had been comfortable and self-sufficient, they were unprepared for what happened. The Babylonians emptied the wine from jar to jar and then broke the jars! (See v. 38 for another broken jar image.) Instead of sitting on their mountainous throne, the nation had to come down and grovel on the parched earth (vv. 17–18). The horn and the arm are both symbols of strength (v. 25), but Moab's horn was cut off and her arm broken. She had no strength.
The Ammonites boasted that their fruitful valley was secure because mountains protected it on three sides (v. 4), but that couldn't stop the invasion. God had decreed judgment for proud Ammon, and nothing they trusted could prevent the invasion.
Once again, however, we see the goodness and mercy of the Lord in promising to restore the fortunes of the Ammonites when He restores the fortunes of Israel and Judah in the future kingdom. God restores them, not because of their own merits, but because they share in the glories that Israel will experience when King Jesus sits on David's throne. "Salvation is of the Jews" (John 4:22).
The wine image is picked up again in verses 26–27. The nation was drunk from the cup that God gave her (25:15–16, 27–29), and like someone at a drunken party, she was vomiting and wallowing in her own vomit. It isn't a pretty picture. The image then changes to that of a dove hiding in a cave, wondering what will happen next (48:28). The Babylonians are pictured as an eagle swooping down on its prey (v. 40; see Deut. 28:49; Ezek. 17:3); a dove is no match for an eagle.
Judgment on Edom (49:7–22) The Edomites had descended from Jacob's elder brother Esau, whom God bypassed for the blessing, giving it to Jacob (Gen. 25:19–34; see Gen. 36). The Edomites weren't friendly to the Jews, but their common enemy, Babylon, caused Edom to join the "Jerusalem summit" in the days of Zedekiah (Jer. 27:3).
The remarkable thing is that Jeremiah wept over the fall of Moab (Jer. 48:31) and lamented like a flutist at a funeral (vv. 36–38). Certainly his grief is evidence of the compassion God has for people who are destroyed because of their sins against the Lord. God has "no pleasure in the death of [the wicked]" (Ezek. 18:32; see 18:23; 33:11) and does all He can to call them to repentance before judgment falls.
You will want to read the prophecy of Obadiah and see how the two prophets agree. Since we don't know when the book of Obadiah was written, we aren't sure whether Jeremiah borrowed from Obadiah or vice versa. The prophets occasionally quoted one another, an evidence that the same God was the author of their messages. Furthermore, there are a number of parallels between Isaiah and Jeremiah.
There is no escape (Jer. 48:44–46; see Amos 5:19). Flee from the army, and you'll fall into a pit. Climb out
Edom's judgment would be like a harvest where
Jeremiah 49
Judgment on Elam (49:34–39) The Elamites were a Semitic people who were neighbors of the Babylonians. (Along with this paragraph, they are mentioned in Gen. 14:1; Isa. 11:11; 21:2; 22:6; Jer. 25:25; Ezek. 32:24; Dan. 8:2.) Their country was located beyond the Tigris River across from Babylon, and it eventually became part of the MedoPersian Empire. God gave Jeremiah this prophecy about 597 BC, during the reign of Zedekiah.
nothing would be left for the gleaners (49:9–10; Lev. 19:10; Deut. 24:21). God would do a thorough job the first time. Like the other nations, Edom would have to drink of the cup (Jer. 49:12) because of her pride and rebellion against the Lord (v. 16). With their cities in the rocks, such as Petra, they thought they were impregnable (vv. 16–18), but they would be destroyed like the cities of the plain, Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19).
Nebuchadnezzar would come upon Edom like a lion bounding out of the thick growth around the Jordan River, and he wouldn't spare the flock (Jer. 49:19–21). He would come like an eagle and so frighten the Edomites that they would agonize like women in travail (v. 22; see 48:40–41). The people of Edom were noted for their great wisdom (49:7; Job 2:11), but they wouldn't be able to devise any plan that would save them from the invasion of the Babylonian army.
Since the Elamite soldiers were known for their archery, God promised to break their bows (Jer. 49:35). He compared the Babylonian army to a storm that would not only blow from all directions but also scatter the people in all directions (v. 36). Whenever a nation was defeated, the victors would set up their king's throne in the city gate (1:15; 39:3; 43:8–13), and that's what God promised to do in Elam (49:38). He would let them know that He was King.
The Lord ended this description of judgment with a promise of mercy. Why He chose to restore Egypt, Moab, Ammon, and Elam is not explained, but they will share in the kingdom because of God's grace.
In the midst of wrath, the Lord remembers mercy (Hab. 3:2) and shows compassion for the widows and orphans (Jer. 49:11; see Ex. 22:21–24; 23:9; Lev. 19:33; Deut. 10:18; 27:19). But Edom's pride would bring her low, as pride always does.
As you studied these chapters, perhaps you became weary of reading the same message: Judgment is coming and there's no escape. There's a sameness about what God said about these nine nations, and if we aren't careful, that sameness can produce "tameness" and cause us to lose a heart sensitive to the Lord's message.
Judgment on Syria [Damascus] (49:23–27) The prophet Isaiah condemned Damascus, the capital of Syria (Isa. 17). Amos accused the Syrians of treating the people of Gilead like grain on a threshing floor (Amos 1:3–5). God would judge them for their inhumanity and brutality to His people.
Keep in mind, however, that these prophecies were written about real men, women, and children, and that what Jeremiah wrote actually came true. Whole civilizations were wiped out because of their sins, and eventually Babylon itself was destroyed. This means that multitudes of people died and went into an eternity of darkness.
According to Jeremiah, hearing the news of the approaching Babylonian army, the people of Damascus would become as troubled as the restless sea, as weak and shaky as a sick patient, and as full of pain as a woman in travail (Jer. 49:23–24). They would abandon their ancient cities and try to escape, but their best young men would be killed in the streets and their fortress would be burned to the ground.
God sees what the nations do, and He rewards them justly. What King Hezekiah said about the Lord needs to be emphasized today: "O Lord Almighty, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth" (Isa. 37:16 niv). Joshua called Him "the Lord of all the earth" (Josh. 3:11), and both Jesus and Paul called Him "Lord of heaven and earth" (Luke 10:21; Acts 17:24). God never gave the law of Moses to any of the nations that Jeremiah addressed, but He still held them accountable for the sins they committed against Him and against humanity. Because of the witness of creation around them and conscience within them, they were without excuse (Rom. 1:17–32, especially v. 20) and guilty before God.
This message is brief, but it carries power. How much does God have to say to convince people that His wrath is about to fall?
Judgment on Kedar and Hazor (49:28–33) These are two desert peoples. Kedar was related to Ishmael (Gen. 25:13). We aren't sure of the origin of Hazor, which is not to be confused with the city of that name in northern Palestine (Josh. 11).
These two nomadic Arab nations lived by raising sheep and camels. When Nebuchadnezzar attacked them in 599–598 BC, however, they lost everything. Once again, we meet the phrase "fear is on every side" (Jer. 49:29; see 20:3). These two Arab nations were guilty of living at ease, isolating themselves from others, and manifesting pride and arrogant self-confidence (49:31). They didn't need God, and they didn't need the help of any other people! When Nebuchadnezzar arrived on the scene, they learned how foolish they had been.
In recent history, the nations haven't acted any better than the ones recorded in Jeremiah 46—49. Innocent blood is shed legally as millions of babies are aborted in their mothers' wombs. International terrorism, genocide, exploitation of people and material resources, war, crime, the abuse of children, and a host
Jeremiah 50
times and then is destroyed by the Lord. There are many parallels between Jeremiah 50—51 and Revelation 17—18, and I suggest you read all four chapters carefully.
of other sins have stained the hands of nations with blood. What will they do when the Judge becomes angry and starts to avenge the innocent?
"It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Heb. 10:31).
Jeremiah wrote this prophecy during the fourth year of Zedekiah (594–593) and gave the scroll to Baruch's brother Seraiah to read in Babylon and then throw into the Euphrates (Jer. 51:59–64). Since Seraiah was an officer in Zedekiah's cabinet, he had access to things officially diplomatic. This would have been the last of Jeremiah's "action sermons," performed without Jeremiah, symbolizing the complete destruction of the great Babylonian Empire.
Notes 1 Quoted in Miracle at Philadelphia, by Catherine Drinker Bowen (Boston: Lime, Brown and Company, 1966), 126. Italics are in the original. 2 The phrase in the KJV "this is the day of the Lord" (Jer. 46:10) should not be interpreted to mean "the day of the Lord" that will occur in the end times. The battle Jeremiah described took place in 605 and is known as the Battle of Carchemish, named for a town on the Euphrates River. 3 The New English Bible translates it "King Bombast, the man who missed his moment." 4 The phrase "make a full end" is found in Jeremiah 4:27; 5:10, 18; 30:11; and Ezekiel 11:13. The NIV translates it "completely destroy." God knows how much discipline to give His people, and He never makes a mistake. He keeps His eye on the clock and His hand on the thermostat. 5 Madmen in Jeremiah 48:2 is the name of a Moabite city. It's not the English word for men who are mad.
Jeremiah 50—51 is something like an extended declaration coupled with a conversation. Usually it's the Lord speaking through His prophet, but occasionally we hear the Jewish people speaking and the Lord answering them. God speaks to and about Babylon; He also speaks to the invading army; and He speaks to the exiles of Judah. Three movements are in this declaration: God declares war on Babylon (50:1–28); God assembles the armies against Babylon (50:29— 51:26); and God announces victory over Babylon (51: 27–58). Jeremiah's prophecy about Babylon has both a near and a far fulfillment. The Medes and Persians captured Babylon in 539 (see Dan. 5), but they didn't destroy the city. Cyrus issued a decree that the Jews could return to their land (Ezra 1:1–4), which many of them did in three stages: in 538 (Ezra 1—6), 458 (Ezra 7—10), and 444 (book of Nehemiah). It was Alexander the Great who finally destroyed Babylon in 330 and left it a heap of ruins. Since Babylon symbolizes the anti-God world system, however, the ultimate fulfillment is recorded in Revelation 17—18. Remember, the prophets often looked at "two horizons," one near and one far, as they spoke and wrote about the future.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN Jeremiah 50—51 BABYLON IS FALLEN!
After all, we are not judged so much by
how many sins we have committed but
by how much light we have rejected.
Vance Havner1 A
E.To Babylon—50—51
fter declaring the destiny of the Gentile nations (Jer. 46—49), the prophet now focused on Judah's hateful enemy, the empire of Babylon. Jeremiah devoted 121 verses to the future of nine nations and 44 verses to the defeat and destruction of Jerusalem. When we count the number of verses in Jeremiah 50 and 51, however, he devoted 110 verses to the fall of Babylon. It is an important subject indeed!
God Declares War on Babylon (50:1–28) "Announce and proclaim!" is the commandment. "Raise the signal!" God declared war on Babylon and announced that her great god Bel (also called Marduk) was about to be shamefully defeated.
God declared war on both Babylon and the gods of Babylon. The word translated "idols" means "wooden blocks," and the word translated "images" means "dung pellets." The Lord didn't think much of their gods! The invaders would come from the north just as Nebuchadnezzar came from the north to conquer Judah (1:11–15).
In Scripture, the city of Babylon is contrasted with the city of Jerusalem—the proud city of man versus the Holy City of God. In Hebrew, the name babel means "gate of God," but babel is so close to the word balal ("confusion") that it's associated with the famous tower of Babel and the confusion of human languages (Gen. 11:1–9). The founder of Babylon was Nimrod (10:8–10), "a mighty hunter before the Lord" (v. 9 niv). Some students interpret this to mean "a mighty rebel against the Lord."2 Babel/Babylon is a symbol of rebellion against God, the earthly city of human splendor opposing the heavenly city that glorifies God. All of this culminates in the Babylon of Revelation 17:1— 19:10, "Babylon the Great" that symbolizes the anti-God system that controls the world in the end
God speaks to and about the Jews (v. 4–10). He saw them as lost sheep without a shepherd, a flock greatly abused both by their leaders and their captors. While the immediate application is to the return of the exiles from Babylon, the ultimate reference includes the gathering of the Jews in the latter days. God warned the people to flee from Babylon so as not to be caught in the judgment that would fall (Isa. 48:20; Rev.
Jeremiah 50—51
them! The phrase "plead their cause" speaks of a court case. Jehovah was defense attorney, judge, and jury, and He found Babylon guilty.
18:4). He would bring the Medes and the Persians against Babylon and give them total victory.
God speaks to Babylon (vv. 11–13). Now we find out why God was destroying this great empire. To begin with, the Babylonians were glad that they could devastate and subjugate Judah. Yes, Babylon was God's tool to chasten His sinful people, but the Babylonians went too far and enjoyed it too much. They acted like a joyful calf threshing the grain and getting his fill! Any nation that cursed the Jews will ultimately be cursed by God (Gen. 12:1–3). As they treated Judah, so God will treat them (see Jer. 51:24, 35, 49).
Now the Lord told Babylon what to expect on the day of their judgment. The first picture is that of a sword going through the land and cutting down the people (vv. 35–38). God's sword will even attack the waters and dry them up (v. 38). Why? Because it is "a land of idols" (v. 38 niv), and God wanted to reveal that the idols were nothing. Like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, nothing will be left. Babylon will become a haven for animals and birds, and the city will never be restored.
God speaks to the invading armies (vv. 14–16). Just as Babylon had been God's tool to chasten Judah, so the invaders (Cyrus with the Medes and Persians, and later Alexander with his Greek army) would be God's weapon to defeat Babylon. God spoke to the invading armies and commanded them to get their weapons ready and shout for victory, because they would win the battle. This was no ordinary war; this was the "vengeance of the Lord" (v. 15 niv).
The Lord directed the Babylonians' attention to the great army that He had called from the north—a cruel army without mercy, whose march sounded like the roaring of the sea (v. 42). This report paralyzed the king of Babylon. Like a hungry lion, looking for prey (see 49:19–21), Cyrus (and then Alexander) will attack Babylon, and nobody will be able to resist. God's chosen servant will always succeed. The Lord's judgment on Babylon will be like the winnowing of the grain: "Great Babylon" will be blown away like chaff along with its idols!
God speaks about the Jews (vv. 17–20). Once more Jeremiah used the image of the scattered flock. Assyria had ravaged Israel (the northern kingdom), and Babylon had ravaged Judah (the southern kingdom), but now God would punish Babylon as He had Assyria. (Assyria fell to a Babylonian-Median alliance in 609.) God will bring His people back to their own land, where the flock may graze safely and peacefully. The prophet then looked down to the latter days when God will wipe away the nation's sins and establish His new covenant with them. We see the "two horizons" of prophecy again.
God speaks to the Jews (51:5–10). God assured His people that He hadn't forsaken ("widowed") them, and He ordered them a second time (50:8) to get out of Babylon when the opportunity arises. When Cyrus opened the door for them to go home, about fifty thousand Jews returned to Judah to restore Jerusalem and the temple. Babylon had been a "winecup" (see 25:15) in God's hands, making the nations act like drunks (Rev. 18:3), but now the cup would be smashed and Babylon's power broken. "Wail over her!" (Jer. 51:8 niv) finds a fulfillment in Revelation 18:9ff. Anybody who pinned his or her hope on Babylon was doomed to disappointment, but so is anyone today who pins his or her hope on this present world. "The world is passing away" (1 John 2:17 nkjv). To whom does "we" in Jeremiah 51:9 refer—to the Jews or to Babylon's allies who deserted her? Since the "us" in verse 10 refers clearly to the Jews and their vindication, it is likely that the exiles are speaking in verse 9, because Jeremiah had instructed them to be a blessing while living in Babylon (29:4–14). No doubt many of the Jews did seek the Lord, confess their sins, and trust His promise of deliverance. Some of them certainly prepared their sons and daughters to return to the land. They had the truth about Jehovah God and would have shared it with their captors, but the Babylonians preferred to taunt the Jews instead of listen to them discuss their religion (Ps. 137).
God speaks to the invaders (vv. 21–27). The Lord was in command of the invasion, and His orders were to be carried out explicitly. Babylon the rod (Isa. 10:5) was itself shattered. Babylon was caught in God's trap and couldn't escape God's weapons. Their fine young men would be slaughtered like cattle, for the day of judgment for Babylon had come.
The Jewish remnant speaks (v. 28). We hear the exiles who had fled the city and arrived in Judah as they report the fall of Babylon. The ultimate sin of the Babylonians was the burning of the temple, and for that sin the ultimate total destruction of their city was their punishment.
God Gathers the Armies against Babylon (50:29— 51:26) The first command had been "Declare among the nations!" But now the command was "Call together the archers!" God ordered the armies of the Medes and Persians (and later the Greeks) to shoot to kill and allow no one to escape.
God speaks to Babylon (51:11–23). He warned them to get their weapons ready, set up their standards on the walls, and post their watchmen, because the invasion was about to begin. "Your end has come, the time for you to be cut off" (Jer. 51:13 niv). They had been weaving the luxurious tapestry of their power and
God speaks to Babylon (50:31—51:4). He told them that He was against them because of their pride (50:31–32) and because of the way they had made the Jews suffer unnecessarily (v. 33). The exiles couldn't free themselves, but their Strong Redeemer would free
Jeremiah 51
vindicate them (v. 36). The Lord described vividly what would happen to Babylon: The ruins of the city would become the haunt of animals and birds, a perpetual cemetery for the people slain in the invasion, a slaughterhouse where people would die like so many cattle, sheep, and goats.
wealth on the loom, but now God would cut it off and put an end to their plans (v. 13 niv).3
The enemy soldiers would swoop down on the Babylonians like locusts and prove the utter helplessness of the gods of Babylon. Jeremiah revealed the stupidity of making and worshipping idols (vv. 15–19), and he magnified the greatness of the one true and living God (see 10:12–16; Isa. 40:12–26).
Sheshach in verse 41 is a code name for Babylon (25:26) following a system where the last letter of the alphabet is substituted for the first, the next to the last for the second, and so on. Why Jeremiah used a code name for the enemy in one sentence and then the real name in the next sentence isn't easy to understand.
God speaks to His general (51:20–24).4 Just as Assyria had been God's "rod" (Isa. 10:5–19), so His chosen commander (Cyrus, and later Alexander) would be His "hammer" to break the power of Babylon. The word "break" (shatter) is used nine times in this passage. They would pay Babylon back with the same treatment Nebuchadnezzar had given others. There is a law of compensation in God's working in history, and the Lord will enforce it.
Nevertheless, the enemy army would cover Babylon just as the sea covers the land (51:42), but when "the tide is out," a desert will be left behind. The Babylonian "monster" may have swallowed up God's people, but the Lord would force it to disgorge them (v. 44), and the new king (Cyrus) would permit God's people to return home. "The wall of Babylon shall fall" (v. 44) literally came true under Alexander, but "the wall came down" when Cyrus decreed that the exiles could go back to Judah and rebuild their temple.
God speaks to Babylon (51:25–26). The city of Babylon sat on a plain, but in the sight of the nations, it was a huge destroying mountain that loomed on the horizon of history. By the time God was through with it, however, Babylon would be nothing but an extinct volcano ("a burnt mountain," Jer. 51:25). Nobody would even excavate the ruins to find stones to build with; the city would be deserted and desolate forever.
For the third time, God ordered His people to get out of Babylon (v. 45; see 50:8; 51:6) and not to linger (51:50; see Gen. 19:16). Neither should they be afraid of the rumors they would hear about, which were about to happen. They didn't need to be afraid of the vain Babylonian idols that could do nothing to hinder them. Heaven and earth will sing songs of praise when Babylon falls (Jer. 51:48; Rev. 18:20ff.). The Jews speak and God replies (vv. 51–58). The exiles felt disgraced before the world because of what the Babylonians had done to the temple in Jerusalem. If the Lord wasn't strong enough to protect His house, how could He ever be strong enough to defeat Babylon? If they left Babylon, they would go home only to ruin and shame. During the years of their captivity, those who had obeyed Jeremiah's instructions (Jer. 29:4–14) probably enjoyed fairly comfortable lives. Thus, they would be exchanging security for danger and plenty for want.7
God Announces Victory over Babylon (51:27–58) Throughout this prophecy, God has frequently announced the fall of Babylon, but this closing section seems to focus on God's total victory over the enemy.
God describes the victory (vv. 27–33). God's armies were prepared, the commanders were ready, and the battle began; but the Babylonian army was helpless! They lay on the walls exhausted; their courage had failed them. The city was in flames, and the bars of the gates were broken. Nothing kept the enemy from entering the city and doing to it what the Babylonians had done to Jerusalem.5
The Babylonians had an effective courier system and could quickly send messages to the various parts of their vast empire. In fact, Jeremiah described the runners meeting and exchanging messages for the king: "The river crossings have been seized!" "The marshes are set on fire!" "The soldiers are terrified!" "The city has been captured!" (see vv. 31–32 niv). It was God's harvest, and Babylon was on the threshing floor.6
God, however, made it clear that there was no future in Babylon, for He had determined to destroy the city. "For the Lord [is a] God of recompenses" (51:56). If His people remained in Babylon, they would suffer the fate of the city. If they obeyed the Lord and returned home, they would experience a new beginning under the blessing of the Lord.
God speaks to the Jews (vv. 34–50). First, the Jews reminded the Lord what Nebuchadnezzar had done to them (vv. 34–35). Like a vicious monster, he had picked up Judah as if it were a jar filled with food, swallowed down the food, vomited it up, and then broken the jar! He had chewed them up and spit them out! Now the Jews wanted the Lord to repay the Babylonians for all the suffering they had caused the people of God.
It's a matter of walking by faith and not by sight, trusting God's Word instead of our own human evaluation. The exiles saw the high walls and huge gates of the city and concluded that such fortifications would repel any enemy, but they were wrong. Those walls and gates would become only "fuel for the flames" when the invaders arrived on the scene (v. 58 niv).
"Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city!" (Rev. 14:8). And Babylon is still fallen!
God's reply was encouraging: Like a court advocate, He would take their case, plead their cause, and
Jeremiah
ferred the pleasant messages of the false prophets to the strong words of God's true servant, because the human heart wants to rest, not repent. It wants peace, but it wants it without having to deal with the basic cause of unrest—unbelief.
1 Dennis J. Hester, compiler, The Vance Havner Quotebook (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1986), 124. 2 Some Hebrew scholars connect the name Nimrod with the word marad, which means "to rebel." Certainly the building of the Tower of Babel was an act of rebellion against the Lord. Nimrod chased and conquered other peoples the way a hunter chases and catches game. 3 King Hezekiah used a similar image (Isa. 38:12). Our lives are a weaving that one day will end, and God will cut it off the loom. 4 Some commentators see the hammer as Babylon, but Jeremiah 51:24 seems to require something or someone other than Babylon; otherwise Jeremiah would have used "you" instead of "they." 5 Remember, this didn't happen when Cyrus took Babylon, for his army was in the city before the Babylonians even knew it. He had diverted the waters of the Euphrates and entered under the gates. It was Alexander the Great whose army destroyed Babylon in 330. 6 Before the farmers threshed their grain, they would stamp down the earth to make sure it was hard. This may be the image here: God was stamping down the nation and preparing to cut them down like so much grain in the field. 7 The Jews often wanted to go back to Egypt, because there they had plenty of food and security, even though they were slaves. It's tragic when people sacrifice fulfillment for comfort.
The people of Israel resisted God's messengers and challenged their authority from the time of Moses to the days of the apostles. It's difficult to name a prophet or apostle who didn't suffer persecution. If Jeremiah showed up today at the United Nations or some senate or parliament and spoke as he did to the leaders of Judah, he would probably be laughed at and thrown out. But it's a dangerous thing to be a "popular preacher" who has no enemies and pleases everybody. "Prophets are almost extinct in the religious world today," said Vance Havner. "The modern church is a 'non-prophet' organization."1
3. True patriotism isn't blind to sin. Charles Jefferson wrote:
He [Jeremiah] loved his country so passionately he was willing to die for it as a traitor. He loved his country so intensely that he would not leave it even after Jerusalem was in ruins.2
Imagine a patriot like Jeremiah being called a traitor! Yet many a courageous leader who has dared to expose lies and call a nation to repentance has been called a traitor and publicly abused.
POSTLUDE
A true Christian patriot isn't blind to the sins of the nation but seeks to deal with those sins compassionately and realistically. Both Jesus and Jeremiah were true patriots when it came to giving an honest diagnosis of the diseases of the "body politic" and offering the only correct solution. They didn't heal the wounds of the people slightly and say, "Peace, peace." They both recognized that a nation's greatest problem is not unemployment, inflation, or lack of defense; it's sin. The nation that doesn't deal with sin is wasting time and resources trying to solve national problems, which are only symptoms of the deeper problem, which is sin.
Defeat doesn't finish a man—quitting does. A man is not finished when he's defeated. He's finished when he quits.
Richard M. Nixon J
eremiah died an old man, probably in Egypt, and like the grave of Moses, his burial place is a mystery. The brave prophet has long turned to dust, but the words that he wrote are still with us, because God's Word endures forever.
He wrote a long and difficult book, and we haven't been able to deal with everything he wrote. However, you can't help but glean from his life and ministry some clear and important lessons that apply to all of God's people today.
4. God's servants occasionally have their doubts and failings. Jeremiah was weak before God but bold before men. He wasn't afraid to tell God just how he felt, and he listened when God told him what he needed to do. Though he once came quite close to resigning his office, he stuck with it and continued to serve the Lord.
1. In difficult days, we need to hear and heed the Word of God. Since hindsight always has twenty-twenty vision, it's obvious to us that the leaders of Judah did a very stupid thing by resisting what Jeremiah told them to do. Judah had sinned its way into trouble and judgment, and they thought they could negotiate their way out, but it didn't work. What they needed was faith in God's Word and obedience to God's will. Had they confessed their sins, turned to God, and submitted to Nebuchadnezzar, they would have saved their lives, their temple, and their city.
Jeremiah was a prophet of the heart. He wasn't content to give a message that dealt with surface matters; he wanted to penetrate the inner person and see the heart changed. He boldly told the people that the days would come when they wouldn't remember the ark or feel a need for it. In fact, the days would come when they would be part of a new covenant that would be written on the heart and not on tables of stone. This was radical religion, but it was God's message just the same.
2. True prophets of God are usually (if not always) persecuted. The civil and religious leaders of Judah pre-
Any servant of God who tries to reach and change
Jeremiah
mere "furniture" of religion that was external and impotent.
hearts is a candidate for sorrow and a sense of failure. But God knows our hearts and sustains us.
I could go on, but the point is obvious: Jeremiah became like Jesus because he shared "the fellowship of his sufferings" (Phil. 3:10). In the furnaces of life, Jeremiah was "conformed to the image of [God's] Son" (Rom. 8:29). Jeremiah may not have realized that this process was going on in his life, and he might have denied it if it were pointed out to him, but the transformation was going on just the same.
5. The important thing isn't success; it's faithfulness. By today's human standards of ministry, Jeremiah was a dismal failure. He preached to the same people for over forty years, and yet few of them believed him or obeyed his message. He had few friends who stood with him and encouraged him. The nation he tried to save from ruin abandoned their God and plunged headlong into disaster. His record wouldn't have impressed the candidate committee of most missions or the pastoral search committee of the average church.
7. God is King, and the nations of the world are under His sovereign control. Nothing catches God by surprise. The nations that defy Him and disobey His Word eventually suffer for it. People who claim to know Him but who refuse to obey also suffer for it. In fact, the greater the light, the greater the responsibility. No nation was blessed the way God blessed the people of Israel, but that blessing brought chastening because they sinned against a flood of light.
Jeremiah may have thought he had failed, but God saw him as a faithful servant, and that's all that really counts. "Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful" (1 Cor. 4:2 nkjv). He could have quit, but he didn't. As V. Raymond Edman used to say, "It's always too soon to quit."
6. The greatest reward of ministry is to become like Jesus Christ. When Jesus asked His disciples who people said He was, they replied, "Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others say Jeremiah or one of the prophets" (Matt. 16:14 nkjv). What a compliment it would be to have people say, "Jesus Christ is like you!"
It's a solemn responsibility for a people to claim to know God and profess to do His will. It isn't enough for a nation to put "In God We Trust" on its currency, to mention God in its pledge to the flag, or to "tip the hat to God" by quoting the Bible in political campaign speeches. It's righteousness, not religion, that exalts a nation. What pleases the Lord is that we "do justly … love mercy … and … walk humbly with [our] God" (Mic. 6:8).
The similarities between Jesus and Jeremiah are interesting. Their approaches to teaching and preaching were similar, using "action sermons" and a great deal of imagery from everyday life and from nature. Both spoke out against the commercial "surface" religion practiced in the temple. Both were accused of being traitors to their people, and both suffered physically, even being arrested, beaten, and confined. Both wept over Jerusalem. Both were rejected by their relatives. Both knew what it was to be misunderstood, lonely, and rejected. Both emphasized the need for faith in the heart, and both rejected the
The same Lord who enabled Jeremiah can enable us. The same world that opposed Jeremiah will oppose us. It's time for God's people to be decisive.
1 Dennis J. Hester, compiler, The Vance Havner Quotebook (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1986), 179. 2 Charles E. Jefferson, Cardinal Ideas of Jeremiah (New York: Macmillan, 1928), 192.
L A M E N T A T I O N S
G e n e s i s E x o d u s L e v i t i c u s N u m b e r s D e u t e r o n o m y J o s h u a J u d g e s R u t h
J o n a h M i c a h N a h u m H a b a k k u k Z e p h a n i a h H a g g a i Z e c h a r i a h M a l a c h i
1 S a m u e l 2 S a m u e l 1 K i n g s 2 K i n g s 1 C h r o n i c l e s 2 C h r o n i c l e s E z r a N e h e m i a h
E s t h e r J o b P s a l m s P r o v e r b s E c c l e s i a s t e s S o n g o f
J e r e m i a h Lamentations E z e k i e l D a n i e l H o s e a J o e l A m o s O b a d i a h
S o l o m o n I s a i a h
Name. The Hebrew title of the book is the first word of the text—'ekah—which is translated "how?" (see 2:1; 4:1). The title in the English Bible comes from the Latin Vulgate lamentia, "funeral dirges." The book consists of five laments that Jeremiah wrote after the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem in 587–86 BC. Lamentations is found in the third part of the Hebrew Bible, the Megilloth (scrolls), which also includes the Song of Solomon, Ruth, Esther, and Ecclesiastes. In the English Bible, it follows the book of Jeremiah.
OUTLINE Key theme: Suffering sometimes comes from the
chastening hand of God. Key verses: Lamentations 2:17; 3:22–25
I. THE NATION'S DISGRACE (1:1–22)
II. THE CITY'S DESTRUCTION (2:1–22)
III. THE PROPHET'S DISTRESS (3:1–66)
Author. Tradition assigns the book to the prophet Jeremiah, "the weeping prophet." During his forty years of ministry, he sought to persuade the leaders of Judah to turn back to God and avoid national judgment, but they persisted in breaking God's covenant. When Babylon invaded Judah, Jeremiah begged the leaders to surrender and thus spare the people, the city, and the temple, and they arrested him as a traitor. But the prophet's words proved true, and the Babylonian army took the city and destroyed it and the temple.
IV. THE LORD'S DISCIPLINE (4:1–22)
V. THE JEWISH REMNANT'S DECLARATION
(5:1–22)
One evidence that Jeremiah wrote the book is the presence of similar phrases in both Lamentations and the prophecy of Jeremiah. Some of them are: "my eyes flow with tears" (1:16; 2:18; 3:48; Jer. 9:1,18; 13:17; 14:17); "laughingstock" (3:14; Jer. 20:7); "terrors on every side" (2:22; Jer. 6:25; 20:4, 10; 46:5; 49:5, 29); and "destruction" and "wound" (2:11, 13; 3:47–48; Jer. 4:6, 20; 6:1, 14; 8:11, 21). Lamentations reads as though it were written by an eyewitness, and Jeremiah certainly qualified.
Lamentations
repeated part of it in 26:1–11. As for the third false hope—the intervention of Egypt—it was pure illusion. (See Lam. 4:17; 5:6; Isa. 31; Jer. 37:5–7; Ezek. 29:16.) Abraham had sought refuge in Egypt and gotten into trouble (Gen. 12), and during their wilderness journey, Israel had repeatedly wanted to go back (Ex. 14:11; 16:1–3; 17:3; Num. 14:1–5). But whenever Israel put faith in Egypt, the nation always proved to be a broken reed.
he basic theme of these five laments is the tragedy of the destruction of Jerusalem, a judgment God sent because His people had rebelled against Him and rejected His warnings (2 Chron. 36:11–21). So critical is this historic event that it's recorded four times in the Old Testament: 2 Kings 25; 2 Chron. 36:11–21; and Jeremiah 39 and 52. Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian army first invaded Judah in 605 BC to punish King Jehoiakim, who had broken his covenant and revolted against Babylon. At that time Daniel and his three friends, along with many other Jews, were deported to Babylon. The army returned in March of 597 when they looted Jerusalem and deported more people. The actual siege of Jerusalem began on January 15, 588 BC; on July 18, 586, the walls were breached, and on August 14, the city was set ablaze.1 Each year on this date, the Jews remember the event and read Lamentation aloud in their synagogues.
We must keep in mind that God's chastening is an expression of His love (Heb. 12:1–13), a tool He uses to mature His children. A judge punishes a criminal in order to uphold the law, but a father chastens a child in order to build character into the child and assure the child of his love.
The Covenant Judah expected the Lord to protect the royal dynasty and keep the covenant He made with David, but they didn't want Him to keep the covenant He made with the nation before they entered the Promised Land (Lev. 26; Deut. 28—30). Israel's title to the land came through the Abrahamic covenant (Gen. 12:1–3; 13:14–18), but their possessing and enjoying the land depended on their obedience to the covenant in Lev. 26 and Deut. 28—30. The Lord made it very clear that Israel's obedience to this covenant would guarantee protection from their enemies, abundant blessing on their efforts, and peace and joy from the Lord. But if they disobeyed, one judgment after another would come to the people, until the Lord would take them off their land drive them to a foreign country. As we study Lamentations, we shall meet the very judgments that were predicted in Lev. 26 and Deut. 28—30. The Lord is always faithful to His covenant, either to bless the obedient or chasten the disobedient. His Word will never fail.
In writing this book, Jeremiah expressed his own sorrow at the destruction of the Holy City and the beautiful temple of the Lord. It looked to him as though forty years of faithful ministry were wasted, for the people didn't heed his messages. Using numerous similes and metaphors, Jeremiah described the terrible plight of the people, and he prayed to the Lord for assistance and deliverance. At the same time, he wrestled with the Lord over what He had allowed to happen, knowing fully that the sins of the people were to blame (1:5, 8; 5:7, 16). They had violated the terms of the covenant, knowing full well what the consequences would be (Lev. 26; Deut. 28—30; see 2 Kings 17:13–15; 2 Chron. 36:15–16). Jeremiah had warned that if Judah persisted in rebelling, God would send the Babylonians (Jer. 1:13–16; 4:5–9; 5:15; 6:22–26; 10:22; 50:41–43), and Isaiah had preached the same message (Isa. 13—14; 43:14ff.; 47:1ff.). But it was reasonable for a sensitive man of God like Jeremiah to raise theological questions as he beheld the ruins of the Holy City. Where was God? Did He no longer love His people, His house, and the city of Jerusalem? At the same time, the Jews exiled in Babylon were expressing similar feelings (Ps. 137). But the people of Judah had held to three false hopes: the Davidic dynasty, the sacred temple, and help of Egypt. God had made a covenant with David that his house would never perish and that one of his descendants would forever sit on his throne (2 Sam. 7). The Jewish people thought this meant that nothing could happen to David's throne (Lam. 4:20; 5:16). This covenant was ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ (Luke 1:30–33, 67–75; Acts 2:29–36). David's house (family) didn't come to an end, for Joseph, husband to Mary, was descended from David (Luke 1:26–27).
The Laments Except for chapter 5, these laments are acrostics in which successive verses follow the order of the Hebrew alphabet.2 (Ps. 119 is another example.) There are twenty-two letters in the Hebrew alphabet, and the twenty-two verses of chapters 1, 2, and 4 follow this alphabetical pattern. In chapter 3, which has sixty-six verses, three lines are assigned to each letter. Even though chapter 5 has twenty-two verses, it is not an acrostic. Jeremiah used the acrostic pattern perhaps as an aid to memorizing these laments. In the Hebrew text, 3:1 is the central verse of the book, and it certainly expresses the theme. Lamentations 3:22–39 is the spiritual heart of the book and records one of the great testimonies of faith found in Scripture. The familiar hymn "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" by Thomas O. Chisholm is based on verse 23. The fall of Jerusalem, the destruction of the temple, and the captivity of the nation were unbearable crises to the Jews, and they had every right to express their sorrow. But at the same time, Jeremiah called upon his people to be sorrowful
Judah's second false hope was that the Lord would not permit anything to happen to His holy temple. "Trust … not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, … the temple of the Lord are these" (Jer. 7:4). The entire message Jeremiah delivered in the temple focused on this false hope of Judah, and Jeremiah
Lamentations 1
2:36–37; 27:1–11; 37:5–10). The nation had been "married" to Jehovah at Mount Sinai, so the Lord considered her actions the equivalent of adultery. She had rejected the Lord, her allies had abandoned her, and therefore she had no comfort (vv. 2, 9, 16–17, 21). The Lord had set aside the nation of Israel for Himself and she was not "reckoned among the nations" (Num. 23:9), but now she had been taken into captivity and had to dwell with the Babylonians. God had given Israel rest in her own land (Ex. 33:14; Deut. 3:20; Josh. 1:13–15; 21:44), but she would have no rest in Babylon (Deut. 28:65). Year after year, the pilgrims had made their way to the city to celebrate the great feasts (Lev. 23), but now the roads were empty and there was nothing to celebrate. The priests had no temple, the people had no joy, and the virgins wept because there were no men available to marry them.
for their sins, confess them, and return to the Lord (3:37–51; chap. 5). Note that chapters 1, 2, and 3 end with prayers and that all of chapter 5 is a prayer.
Jeremiah and Jesus When Jesus asked His disciples who people said He was, among their answers was "Jeremiah" (Matt. 16:13–14). The ministries of both Jeremiah and Jesus were rejected by the people, and both men wept over the city of Jerusalem because they knew that destruction was coming. Both were hated without cause (Lam. 3:52; John 15:25; Ps. 69:4), and both were ridiculed by the leaders (Lam. 3:14; Ps. 69:12). Jeremiah was rejected by his family (Jer. 11:18–23) and Jesus by His family (John 7:1–8). Both Jeremiah and Jesus emphasized a "heart religion" and not just ritual, and both taught by means of visual images and used common objects and activities to instruct the people. The Jewish leaders rejected the messages of both Jeremiah and Jesus, and the prophet ended up in Egypt and Jesus on a Roman cross. In their day, both were considered miserable failures, but history has proved that both were right.
I. The Nation's disgrace (1:1–22)
The people of Judah shouldn't have been surprised at what happened to the nation and the city, because both Isaiah and Jeremiah had announced the coming invasion of the Babylonian army. In the terms of the covenant (Deut. 28—30), Moses had warned Israel that God would chasten them if they disobeyed. When she was faithful to God, Israel had been the "head," the chief nation; but now Babylon would be the "head" and Israel the "tail" (v. 5; Deut. 28:44). Israel's army would be defeated (Deut. 28:25) and the people would go into exile (Deut. 28:32). Why did God chasten Judah? Because of "the multitude of her transgressions" (v. 5; see 8–9, 18–20). Two facts stand out in this book: The nation had sinned and deserved chastening, and God was the one who chastened them (1:12–15,17; 2:1–8,17; 3:1,37–38,43–45; 4:11). When the enemy broke through the walls, the leaders fled like frightened deer, but they were caught and condemned (Jer. 38:14–28; 39:1–7). Had King Zedekiah listened to Jeremiah, the people, the city, and the temple would have been saved, but the king trusted his allies instead of the Lord (2 Chron. 26:2). Jerusalem became unclean (v. 8) and like a harlot was shamefully exposed (v. 17; Jer. 13:20–27). The people kept on sinning and didn't consider that their sins would lead to discipline and destruction (Deut. 32:28–29). "The wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23). The enemy entered the temple precincts (Deut. 23:3) and took Israel's sacred treasures, and the people had to use their wealth to buy the bare necessities of life.
The Nation's Disgrace (1:1–22) The plight of the city (vv. 1–11). The Jewish people were proud of the city of Jerusalem, for it was their capital city and the home of their holy temple (Ps. 48; 84; 87; 122; 125; 137). The Jebusites originally controlled Zion, but David and Joab wrested it from them (2 Sam. 5:6–10; 1 Chron. 11:4–9). Though it was called "the city of David" (1 Kings 8:1; 2 Chron. 5:2), it was the Lord who was enthroned on Zion (Ps. 9:11; Isa. 8:18). Zion was "the mountain of the Lord" (Isa. 2:3). For this reason, the Jews thought their city was impregnable, particularly because the Lord's house was there. But God would rather His city and temple be destroyed by pagans than to have His name disgraced by the wicked lives of His people.
The image is that of a beautiful princess who has been violated and disgraced and left alone to lament her plight. The city is called "the daughter of Zion" (1:6; 2:1, 4, 8, 10, 13, 18), "the daughter of Judah" (1:15; 2:2), and "the daughter of Jerusalem" (2:13, 15).3 At one time, she cared for a large family, but now she was a lonely widow for whom nobody seemed to care (Ex. 22:22–24; Deut. 24:19–21; Isa. 1:17). Had God forgotten to protect the widows (Deut. 10:18)? She was desolate (vv. 4, 13), a word used to describe Tamar after she had been raped (2 Sam. 13:20). Once she was a princess who had collected tribute from other nations, but now she was a vassal nation herself and forced to give up her treasures ("pleasant things"; vv. 7, 10–11). Instead of trusting the Lord, Judah had trusted many "lovers" and "friends"—the heathen nations allied with her—but they had failed her, and now she was forsaken. Judah not only turned to other nations for help, but she even worshipped their gods (Jer.
The plea of the city for sympathy and help (vv. 12–19). Note the repetition of "the Lord" in this passage. The Lord afflicted Jerusalem (vv. 12–14a); the Lord delivered Jerusalem into enemy hands (v. 14b); the Lord trampled the people under the feet of the enemy (v. 15); the Lord commanded the enemy to attack (v. 17); and "the Lord is righteous" (v. 18). The prophet knew that God was in control of history and that the Babylonian army was serving Him. The enemy showed no mercy as the anger of the Lord was poured out during the invasion (1:12; 2:1, 3, 6, 21; 3:43; 4:11). God's anger is a holy anger, directed against sin.
Lamentations 1—2
50—51). But this prayer may also include God's promise that after seventy years, the Jews would be set free from captivity and allowed to return to their land and rebuild Jerusalem and the temple (Jer. 25:1–14; see Dan. 9:20–27). Now that they were in trouble, the Jews were turning back to God's Word. It's too bad they didn't pay attention to that Word much earlier and keep the trouble from coming! "Do to them as you have done to us!" is not exactly a Christian prayer, but it represented their true feelings (see Ps. 137:7–9).
According to the law of Moses, if a priest's daughter was guilty of immorality, she was burned to death (Lev. 21:9). Israel was a kingdom of priests (Ex. 19:6), but she had betrayed the Lord and consorted with idols.
Along with the image of fire, Jeremiah used other pictures to describe the terrible plight of the people. They were caught in a net like animals (v. 13; Ezek. 12:13) and left desolate and faint. The people who had been freed from bondage by the Lord were now under the yoke of a pagan foreign nation (v. 14). Both Jeremiah (Jer. 27—28) and Moses (Deut. 28:48) had warned them about yokes. Sin always promises freedom but brings bondage. The people were trodden underfoot and crushed, like grapes in a winepress (v. 15; see Rev. 14:17–20). The nation was drinking the cup of judgment as Jeremiah had warned (Jer. 25:15ff.). Their joy was turned into tears (v. 16; 2:11; 3:48), but nobody offered them comfort or dried their tears. Jeremiah had wept copiously because of the sins of his people (Jer. 9:1, 18; 13:17; 14:17), but they wouldn't listen to God's Word.
The City's Destruction (2:1–22) That the God of Israel would ever permit the Gentiles, and especially the Babylonians, to enter and destroy Jerusalem and the temple was something inconceivable to the Jewish people (see Hab. 1). By ignoring the covenant and depending on the presence of the temple and its sacred furnishings, especially the ark, the leaders and most of the people had replaced living faith with dead superstition. However, this was not the first time Jerusalem had been invaded. As a warning to His sinful people, the Lord had allowed other enemies to enter the city and plunder it: Egypt (1 Kings 14:25–26; 2 Kings 23:31–35), Israel, the northern kingdom (2 Kings 14:13–14; 2 Chron. 25:22–24), and the Philistines and Arabs (2 Chron. 21:16–17). Had Israel listened to her prophets and returned to the Lord, she would have been spared the humiliation and suffering of destruction and deportation.
II. The City's Destruction (2:1–22)
Once again, the sufferers called out for any passing stranger to show them sympathy and bring them help (v. 18), but nobody could save them. The rulers of Judah had sought help from their Gentile allies, especially Egypt and Assyria, but their friends and lovers had failed them and did not keep their promises. Isaiah had told them not to trust Egypt (Isa. 31), and Jeremiah had echoed that same message (Jer. 2:18, 36). What a tragedy it is when God's people look to the world for help instead of seeking the face of the Lord!
The cloud of anger (vv. 1–9). In the previous chapter, we found the word anger only once (v. 12), but in this chapter the word comfort is found only one time (v. 13), while anger and wrath are found eight times (vv. 1 [twice], 2, 3, 4, 6, 21, 22). The nation had once followed a cloud of glory in the wilderness (Ex. 13:21), and the glory of God had filled the tabernacle (Ex. 40:34) and the temple (1 Kings 8:11); but now God had sent them a cloud of His anger. Not only was there a storm cloud of judgment, but Zion was cast down like a falling star, thrown down her buildings and walls and brought down the nation and its leaders (vv. 1–2). "His footstool" refers not only to Zion itself (Ps. 99:5, 9) but also to the temple (Ps. 132:7) and the ark of the covenant, the throne of God that stood in the Holy of Holies (1 Chron. 28:2).
The Babylonian soldiers had no mercy for religious leaders, like the priests, or for older people, like the elders (v. 19; 2:10; 4:16; 5:12, 14). The priests were fed from the offerings of the people, but there could be no more offerings; and the elders were cared for by the younger people who had either been slain or deported to Babylon. All this was a fulfillment of the warnings in the covenant (Deut. 28:32, 50). Food became so scarce that mothers killed and ate their own children!
The prayer of the city (vv. 20–22). Each of the first three chapters ends with a prayer (1:20–22; 2:20–22; 3:50–66), and the entire fifth chapter is a prayer. The sufferers had cried out to God, "O Lord, behold my affliction" (v. 9), and to the passersby, "Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like my sorrow" (v. 12), and now they pray, "Behold, O Lord; for I am in distress" (v. 20). They were tormented in their bodies, but even more in their hearts, for they had sinned. If they left the city, they would be slain by the sword; if they remained in the city, they would starve to death. (See Ezek. 7, especially v. 15.) Not only did Judah's allies ("lovers, friends") refuse to help them, but they even rejoiced that the kingdom of Judah and the city of Jerusalem had been taken by the Babylonians. (See Ps. 35:15; Jer. 48:27; 50:11.) Their prayer was that the Lord would "bring the day that He had announced" through the prophets, the day when Babylon would be defeated (Isa. 13—14; Jer.
God also put a cloud between Himself and His people so that their prayers would not reach Him (3:44). He had told Jeremiah not to pray for the people because they were so wicked that they were beyond his intercession (Jer. 7:16; 11:14; 14:11). In fact, it was futile for them even to pray for themselves (11:11). God had dishonored ("polluted") His people and their leaders in a way that couldn't be hidden. All the nations could see what the Lord had done to the people and the city.
"Every horn" in verse 3 means "every strength," that is, everything that Israel trusted: their king, their leaders, their walled city, and even their religion. The "right hand of God" represents His great power (Ex. 15:6, 12; Ps.
Lamentations 2
to deceitful physicians (6:14; 8:11), empty wind (5:13), peddlers of chaff (23:28), selfish shepherds (23:1–4), and toxic people spreading deadly infection (23:15 niv).
17:7; 44:3; 74:11), but that power had been withdrawn. Instead of using His right hand to defeat the enemy, God used it to chasten His people (v. 4). God "swallowed up" His people in terrible judgment (vv. 2, 5), although the attacking nations took credit for the victory (v. 16).
The false prophets refused to expose the sins of the people and call the nation to repentance. The prophet Ezekiel, with the captives in Babylon, compared them to men who whitewashed the wall instead of exposing its weaknesses and repairing it (Ezek. 13:10–16; 22:28). But even today we have religious leaders like these false prophets, people who want to be popular with the crowd instead of pleasing to God. Instead of getting their messages from God's Word, they dream up their own messages and lead people astray. Jesus called them "wolves in sheep's clothing" (Matt. 7:15) and Paul used similar language (Acts 20:28–31).
Jeremiah described the destruction of the buildings, especially the palaces, strongholds, and the temple itself (v. 5). The Babylonians treated the temple like a booth in a garden and not like the dwelling place of the Lord, but the Jews hadn't done much better. They polluted the sanctuary by their sin and hypocrisy (Isa. 1), and this led to the destruction of the temple. The altar and other furnishings were gone, the priests were gone, and there could be no more observance of the high and holy days. The outer and inner walls of the city, and the city gates, were destroyed as well. When the Jews built their temple, they used measuring lines to be sure they were accurately following God's plans, but now the Lord had used a measuring line to be just as accurate in destroying the temple and the city (Isa. 28:17; Amos 7:7–8).
One of the deepest cuts of all was the mockery of the Gentiles who walked past the devastated city (vv. 16–17). The Jews were proud of Jerusalem and called it "the perfection of beauty" (v. 15; Ps. 48:2; 50:2; Ezek. 16:14), but now it was a heap of rubble. The Gentiles vented their hatred against the Jews. "This is the day we have waited for," they shouted jubilantly, forgetting that God promised to curse all those who cursed His people (Gen. 12:1–3). All that the pious Jews could reply was, "The Lord has done what He purposed; He has fulfilled His word which He commanded in days of old" (v. 17 nkjv). Israel knew the terms of the covenant and had violated them. Now they were paying the price of having their own way and rejecting the messengers of the Lord.
The summary in verse 9 declares that the Jews had lost everything that was precious to them: the gates and walls, the leaders, the law, and the prophets. God sent no vision to the people to show them what to do. How gracious God had been to His people in giving them so many blessings (Rom. 9:1–5)! But they had taken these blessings for granted and now had lost them.
The suffering people (vv. 10–17). Both old (elders) and young (virgins), male and female, felt the suffering together. Instead of sitting at the gate in honor and managing the affairs of the city, the elders sat on the ground as in mourning, too overwhelmed to utter a word. The virgins (1:4) walked about in sorrow, with their eyes to the ground, knowing that they would never be married and have children. As Jeremiah beheld the suffering of the little children in the streets, he was consumed with agony and wept copiously. (See 4:3,6, 10.) If Israel had obeyed the covenant, there would have been no invasion and the people would have enjoyed plenty of food and drink (Deut. 28:1–14; Lev. 26:1–13). But now there was a famine so severe, the mothers even killed and ate their own children (Lam. 4:10; Deut. 28:56–57).
The plea for help (vv. 18–22). But God's people don't live on explanations; they live on promises. The people knew they were guilty of breaking the covenant, so all they could do was turn to the Lord and cry out to Him. The promise of forgiveness and restoration was also a part of God's covenant (Lev. 26:27–29; Deut. 28:53–57; 30:1–10), and seventy years later, God would bring His people back to their land (Jer. 25:1–14; Dan. 9:1ff.). Meanwhile, all they could do was cry out for mercy to the God whose Word they had spurned.
The sight of the suffering children broke their hearts, because it's the children who too often suffer most from the sins of the parents. The priests and prophets had sinned, and many of them were slain; but the children were innocent and deserved no punishment. Israel was suffering in the day of God's anger because they had sinned away the day of God's grace. God was calling various terrors to come to Jerusalem, just as if He were inviting them to a feast. The feast was an image of judgment. (See Jer. 51:39; Ezek. 39:17–20; Rev. 19:17–21.) The people were starving, but God's terrors were feasting on the people.
The suffering was so intense that the prophet ran out of things to say and comparisons to make (v. 13). He could neither comfort the people nor himself. God would have buried the nation's sins in the depths of the sea (Mic. 7:19), but instead, their wound was as deep as the sea and incurable. What had caused such calamity and tragedy? The spiritual leaders had given the people a false message and they had believed it (v. 14; 4:13). For forty years, Jeremiah had openly opposed the false prophets who proclaimed, "Peace, peace when there is no peace" (Jer. 6:14; 8:11). They preached a popular message that the people wanted to hear (5:12; 14:13–16; 27:8–9; 28:1–17), while Jeremiah proclaimed the true message of the Lord and was rejected and persecuted. Jeremiah compared the false prophets
God's ear is open to the cries of His people, but He doesn't answer until His hand is finished with the discipline He promised (Heb. 12). "The Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Heb. 10:30–31).
Lamentations 3
being." But the prophet experienced no "shalom," for peace and prosperity were far from him and his people (v. 17). He recorded the depths of his despair in verse 18 when he cried out, "My splendor is gone! Everything I had hoped for from the Lord is lost!" (nlt). The glory of the city had vanished and along with it, the hope in the heart of God's suffering servant. But this cry of despair was the turning point in Jeremiah's lament, for now he focused on the Lord and not on himself and he said, "I have hope" (v. 21).6
The Prophet's Distress (3:1–66)4 After describing in the first two laments the plight of the city and the people, the prophet now in this central chapter describes his own personal pain and distress. The pronouns "he" and "his" (referring to God) and "I" and "me" (referring to the prophet) are prominent in these sixty-six verses that form the heart of the book. Lamentations 3:1 is the central verse of the book, and verses 21–39 comprise the "theological heart" of the chapter and the book. From 1:1 to 3:18, Jeremiah has described "hopelessness," but verses 19–39 focus on the hope that we have in God, no matter how desperate our situation might be. Jeremiah speaks for himself, but as he does, he also reflects the feelings and faith of the godly remnant of Jews who heard God's Word and sought to obey Him.
III. The Prophet's Distress (3:1–66)
The Lord's promises (vv. 19–39). Jeremiah turned from contemplating his misery to remembering God's mercy. He still experienced pain and sorrow, but he also called to mind the faithfulness of the Lord, and this gave him hope (vv. 19–21). The pessimistic American newspaper editor Henry L. Mencken called hope "a pathological belief in the occurrence of the impossible," but no true child of God could accept that definition. A. W. Tozer said it better when he called hope "the divine alchemy that transmutes the base metal of adversity into gold." (See 1 Peter 1:6–8.) The realization of God's mercy, compassion, and faithfulness generated hope in Jeremiah's soul, and his contemplation of trouble became a confession of faith. Because the Lord loves us, He chastens us (Heb. 12:5–11), but He doesn't consume us; He disciplines, but He doesn't destroy.
The prophet's pain (vv. 1–18). Babylon was the rod of God's wrath to the Jewish nation (Isa. 14:3–8), but the sufferings of the people and the destruction of the city and the temple were the great causes of pain in Jeremiah's life. These tragic events would not have occurred if the people had listened to him and obeyed God's will. Jeremiah had faithfully proclaimed God's message for forty years, and yet the nation had turned a deaf ear. Is it any wonder he suffered?
The rod of discipline was bad enough, but the darkness made it even worse (v. 2). In Scripture, darkness is often a picture of defeat and despair (Ps. 107:10, 14; Isa. 9:2) because sitting in darkness is like dwelling with the dead (v. 6). The hand of God was against him (Ps. 32:4; 82:5), and the result of all this suffering was that Jeremiah looked very old (v. 4; see Job 16:8–9). He felt confined, hemmed in by walls, and hindered by chains (vv. 5–7).5 Even worse, when he looked up to pray, Jeremiah felt like God had slammed the door on him (v. 8; see v. 44). God was like a bear and a lion, and Jeremiah felt mangled and dragged away (vv. 10–11). The lion was a symbol of Babylon (Jer. 4:7; 5:6). God was like an enemy and His arrows were aimed at His servant (vv. 12–13; see Job 6:4; 7:20).
Unbelief causes us to look at God through our circumstances, and this creates hopelessness; but faith enables us to look at our circumstances through the reality of God, and this gives us hope. A radio listener once sent me a little rhyme that has encouraged me on more than one occasion.
Look at yourself and you'll be depressed. Look at circumstances and you'll be distressed. Look at the Lord and you'll be blessed!
If the Lord is "our portion" (Ps. 73:26; 142:5), then we are strengthened by that which cannot be used up or destroyed. God is our eternal source of strength, hope, and blessing (Ps. 46:1). Our circumstances change, and so do our feelings about them, but God is always good, loving, merciful, and kind, and He never changes. "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever" (Heb. 13:8 nkjv). To build life on that which is always changing is to invite constant unrest and disappointment, but to build on the changeless and the eternal is to have peace and confidence.
Now that Jeremiah's words had been fulfilled, you would think the people would have respected him and listened to him, but they didn't. They ridiculed him and sang disrespectful songs about him (v. 14; see v. 63; Jer. 20:7–18). Once again, he was like the Lord Jesus, who was also ridiculed by the people (Ps. 69:12). We expect the Gentiles to mock the Jews (1:21; 2:15), but we don't expect the Jews to mock their own prophet. Jeremiah compared it to tasting the bitter herbs at the Passover feast or drinking bitter gall (vv. 15, 19; see Job 16:13; 20:25; Ps. 69:21). Myrrh mixed with wine was used as an anesthesia to deaden pain, but what Jeremiah "drank" only made his pain worse. Bitterness and brokenness went together, for he felt like a man with a mouth full of broken teeth and gravel! Most mourners put ashes only on their heads, but he was covered with ashes (v. 16).
As Jeremiah contemplated the character of God, he realized that the best thing he and his people could do was to wait patiently and silently for the Lord to work and accomplish His will in His time (vv. 25–28). God is gracious, God is great in faithfulness, and God is good—no matter how we feel or what we see. But it isn't enough just to sit and wait; we must also seek the Lord and draw closer to Him (vv. 25, 40). As for the children and youths who were suffering, even they could learn from this experience and grow up to be
A familiar word on the lips of Jewish people is shalom, which means "peace, prosperity, health, well-
Lamentations 3—4
prayer revealed a man with a broken heart who couldn't stop weeping over the sins of the people (see 1:16; 2:11, 18–19). Though the nation was but "scum and refuse" in the eyes of the Gentiles, the prophet knew that Israel was still God's chosen people, bound to Him by the very covenant they had broken. They had forsaken Him, but He would not forsake them, even though He chastened them severely. He had been longsuffering toward them but they had refused to heed His warnings (2 Chron. 36:11ff.).