Lamentations 4

Introduction

We’ve been studying the book of Lamentations for four weeks now. And we’ve seen how the author of the book — who may have been Jeremiah — has been lamenting before the Lord, calling out to him because of everything that has happened to the author himself and to the people of Jerusalem.

The background to the book, as you know, was the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in 587BC. Some years before, Babylon invaded the land of Judah; and Judah became subject to Babylon. Then Zedekiah, the king of Judah, rebelled against Babylon. And so, king Nebuchadnezzar sent his army to besiege Jerusalem. The siege lasted from the ninth to the eleventh year of Zedekiah’s reign and the people suffered terribly when they ran out of food. And eventually the city fell to Babylon and the Babylonians destroyed the temple and most of the buildings in the city and they destroyed the wall around it and they took most of the people into exile. The high priest and other officials were killed.

And so, Jerusalem, the city of God, was left in ruins. All of its glory, its splendour, was gone. And the author of Lamentations lamented before the Lord and cried out to him.

In chapter 1 he described how this city, which was once full of people, was now deserted. The roads to Jerusalem mourned, because no one walked along them anymore. Jerusalem’s foes had become her master and all the splendour of the city had departed. The enemy had laid hands on all Jerusalem’s treasures; and pagan nations had entered the Lord’s holy sanctuary. The people groaned and searched for food, because of the famine in the city. And the author depicted Jerusalem as saying: ‘This is why I weep and my eyes overflow with tears. No-one is near to comfort me, no-one to restore my spirit.’

And so, the author described what had happened to Jerusalem. And he also made clear that this happened to Jerusalem and its people because the Lord was angry with them for their many sins. He said that because of her many sins, the Lord brought grief on her. And he also wrote about the day of God’s fierce anger. You see, over the generations, the people turned from the Lord and they disregarded his word and they disobeyed his will. He sent them prophets to summon them to repent, but their hearts were hard and they would not repent. And so, eventually, the Lord did what he said he would do and he sent enemy soldiers against them to punish them for their waywardness in the hope that they would humble themselves before him, confess their sins, and return to him. And if they returned to him, they would have discovered all over again that he is merciful and gracious and slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and that he doesn’t treat us as our sins deserve, because he’s willing to remove them from us as far as the east is from the west. If they returned to the Lord, the Lord would freely pardon them. But for now, and because of their persistent rebellion, the Lord was disciplining them.

In chapter 2 the author re-iterated again and again that it was the Lord who had afflicted them. He had covered them with the cloud of his anger. He had hurled down their splendour. He had swallowed up their dwellings. He had torn down their strongholds. He had brought the kingdom and its leaders down to the ground. He had become like an enemy to them.

And yet, in chapter 2 the writer also made clear that the one who had afflicted them was also the LORD their God. And that meant he had bound himself to them with a promise to be their God and to take care of them. Even though God sent this disaster on them, he still cared for them and he would again show them pity. And so, the author wrote about the day of the Lord’s anger. So, his anger was not for ever. It was not everlasting. It was temporary. It lasted a day. But his steadfast love for his people is from everlasting to everlasting. It never ends. The day of his anger will pass, but his steadfast love is for ever.

And when trouble and affliction happens to us, how can we reassure ourselves that God still loves us? We can reassure ourselves by remembering that he sent his Only Begotten Son to die for us and for our salvation and to bear in his body the punishment we deserve so that all who believe in him receive forgiveness and peace with God no matter what we have done wrong. He loved us so much that he sent his Son to save us.

And then, in chapter 3, it got more personal, didn’t it? Instead of writing about the suffering of the people of Jerusalem, the author wrote about his own suffering. He began: ‘I am the man who has seen affliction’. And he went on from there to describe his own personal suffering. He said: God has driven me away. God has made me walk in darkness. God has turned his hand against me. He has made my skin and my flesh grow old. He has besieged, not the city, but me. He has made me dwell in darkness. He has walled me in. And so on. He described his own personal suffering.

And when it seemed that his suffering was too much for him to bear, he found a rock to stand on which gave him hope for the future. And the rock he found to stand on was the character of God. He wrote: ‘Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.’ God’s character — his steadfast love and compassion and faithfulness – gave him a reason for hopefulness. And whenever you’re suffering, you need to do as the writer did and remind yourself of God’s steadfast love and his compassion and his faithfulness. You need to remind yourself of God’s great love for you and how he did not spare his Son, but how he gave him up to death for you. And since that’s the case, then how will he not also, along with him, graciously give you all that you need?

But we also saw last week that the writer’s suffering foreshadows the suffering of our Saviour. He is the man who has seen affliction, when he came to earth as one of us and took upon himself our sin and guilt and bore the punishment of God in our place. And because of his suffering on our behalf, we receive the hope of everlasting life in the new and better world to come, where there will be no more crying or sorrow or suffering or pain, but only perfect peace and rest and happiness for ever when we see the glory of God in the face of Christ our Saviour.

Today we come to chapter 4; and the Bible commentators point out that it’s more of the same. It’s more of the same because once again we have an acrostic poem, so that the first letter of each of the twenty-two verses begins with each successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet which only has 22 letters. And it’s more of the same, because once again the author describes the suffering of the people of Jerusalem. However, it’s not all doom and gloom, because right at the end, the author has a word of encouragement for God’s suffering people.

The chapter can be divided into three main parts: verses 1 to 11 and verses 12 to 20 and verses 21 and 22. In the first part, the focus is on Jerusalem’s affliction. In the second part, he describes the failure of the prophets and of the priests and of the king. And the third part is about the different destinies of Edom and Jerusalem.

Verses 1 to 11

And the chapter begins with the word ‘How’ which we’ve seen before. The Hebrew word for ‘How’ is a word for expressing shock and unbelief. And so, he’s saying: Can you believe it? Can you believe what’s happened to Jerusalem?

He then said that the gold has lost its lustre and the fine gold has become dull. He may be referring to the gold which once lined the interior of the temple and which made the temple on earth reflect the glory of heaven above. But the gold has lost its lustre and it has become dull in the sense that it’s no longer there. The once bright, shining walls have become dull. And the sacred gems have been scattered at the head of every street. We can imagine the invaders, grabbing hold of these gems in their arms; and on the way out of the city, some have fallen from their arms and onto the ground.

Some commentators believe that when he mentions sacred gems in verse 1, he’s actually referring to the people. The people are like sacred gems, because they were once precious in the eyes of the Lord. But now they are suffering in the streets of the city. He then continues to write about them in verse 2, where he describes the precious sons of Zion who were once worth their weight in gold. But now they are regarded as pots of clay. Clay pots were worthless. They are like our cardboard containers, which we crush and throw away without giving them a second thought. And so, the writer is saying that the people of the city are regarded as worthless by the Babylonians.

He then describes the effect of the famine on the people by contrasting the people to jackals and by likening them to ostriches. Female jackals, he says, will offer their breasts to nurse their young. By contrast, he goes on to say, ‘my people have become heartless’. He means that, because of the famine in the city, they’re unwilling to give food to their children. It’s become a case of every man for himself. Normally, they would feed their children. But now they are so desperate for food, they will not share what they have with their children. And so, he likens them to ostriches which were renowned in those days for being cruel to their young. Ostriches would leave their nests unattended. They would abandon their young. And the people of Jerusalem had done the same. He says that because of thirst, the infant’s tongue sticks to the roof of its mouth. So, the babies are dying of thirst and no one will give them anything to drink. And the children beg for bread, but no-one will give them any. Food had become so scarce and the people were so hungry that parents preferred to feed themselves instead of their children. That’s how desperate they had become. Hunger was making them inhuman.

But in verse 5 he refers now to those who once ate delicacies and who once dressed themselves in fine purple garments. But they too are suffering. They are destitute in the streets and they now lie on ash heaps. He probably means that they’re scavenging for food among the rubbish tips.

And in verse 6 he is a sense pauses to reflect on what he has witnessed and he compares what they’re suffering to what the people of Sodom suffered. The word translated ‘punishment’ is actually the word for sin. And it can be used to refer, not only to sin, but to the punishment which sin deserves. And so, he’s really saying that the sin and the punishment the people were suffering is greater than the sin and the punishment the people of Sodom suffered. Their sin was greater because they had God’s law to guide them, unlike the people of Sodom. The people of Sodom sinned in ignorance, whereas the people of Jerusalem sinned knowingly. They knew they were breaking God’s law. And therefore they were more blameworthy than the people of Sodom. And their punishment was greater, because the suffering of Sodom was over in an instant when God rained down burning sulphur on them and destroyed the city, whereas the suffering of Jerusalem went on for week after week after week. They suffered over a long period of time.

He then refers to their princes or leaders in verse 7. They were once brighter than the snow and whiter than milk. He perhaps means they were well-dressed and clean. And the skin on their bodies was once more ruddy than rubies and their appearance was like sapphires. He means they were were in good health. But now they are blacker than soot. He perhaps means they’re dirty because they’ve been scavenging for food. Or perhaps the lack of food and the stress they were under had made their skin look dark and old. No one recognises them in the street, because their appearance has changed so much. Their skin has shrivelled and it has become dry. And the writer reflects once again that those who were killed by the sword were better off than the people in Jerusalem. A quick death is easier to bear than the long slow death that comes because of a famine. They are racked with hunger. They waste away.

In verse 10 he goes back to the mothers. Once their hands were compassionate. They dealt with their children tenderly. They would wipe their noses and wash their cuts and kiss buises. But now, because of hunger, they’re prepared to cook their children as food. He’s not saying they killed their children, but that they were willing to eat the flesh of their children who had died because of the famine.

And just as he paused in verse 6 to reflect on what he had witnessed, he once again pauses for reflection in verse 11. It seems clear to him that this has happened to them because of the fierce anger of the Lord. God has given full vent to his wrath. He has poured out his anger. He has kindled a fire in Jerusalem that has consumed its foundations. And if its foundations have been destroyed, then the whole city has been destroyed.

Application

And so, God has done it. And why has God done it? Look back again to verse 6: he’s done it as his punishment on them for their sin.

And so, once again we’re reminded that, while not all suffering is due to our sin, some suffering can be due to our sin. Because of what happened to Jerusalem, we can say that sometimes our suffering is caused because we have done something wrong. If God’s people sin, and continue in it, without confessing it or turning from it, God may well afflict us with suffering. But he does this to his people, not because he hates us, but because he loves us and he wants to discipline us so that we will turn from our sin and return to him.

And so, when any of us suffers, we should pay attention to our conscience, because our conscience will tell us if we have done wrong and if there are sins we need to confess. It may be that our conscience is clear and we have nothing wrong. In that case, God is letting us suffer for some other reason. And God’s reasons are always good. But if our conscience tells us that we have done wrong, then we must turn from our sin and return to the Lord. And when we do, we will discover that he’s been waiting for us all along. He’s been longing for us to return to him so that he might freely pardon us because of Christ and turn his smiling face upon us once again. After all, look how our writer refers once again in verse 11 to the LORD. So, the LORD their God, their covenant God, has done this to them. And though he may be angry, with his disobedient people, he is still their God and he’s still committed to them to love them and to forgive them.

Our final song tonight is William Cowper’s hymn, God moves in a mysterious way. He writes:

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.

The Lord is always smiling on his people. We may not always see his smile, because he sometimes sends trouble into our lives. But after the trouble has passed, there it is once again: the Lord’s smiling face, which smiles on us because of Christ who has made peace for us with God for ever.

Verses 12 to 20

In the second part of today’s chapter — verses 12 to 20 — the writer describes the failure of the prophets and of the priests and of the king.

He says in verse 12 that the kings of the earth and the people of the world did not believe that enemies could enter the gates of Jerusalem. He means that they had heard about God’s great power. They had seen how, years before, the king of Assyria had to retreat from Jerusalem. It seemed to them that Jerusalem was under the Lord’s protection and it would never fall. But lo and behold, the Babylonians had done what seemed impossible. And according to verse 13, the impossible was made possible because of the sins of who? Back in chapter 1, he referred to the sins of the people generally. But now he refers in particular to the sins of the prophets and of the priests.

He says about them in verse 13 that they shed within Jerusalem the blood of the righteous. It’s possible that all he means is that they are blameworthy for the suffering of the people, because the prophets and priests failed to do their duty which was to warn the people about God’s judgment and to summon them to repent of their sins. Because they did not preach the word of the Lord, the people continued in their sin. And as a consequence, God afflicted his people. It’s possible that’s what he means. But it’s perhaps more likely that he means that they were guilty of silencing true prophets like Jeremiah. We read in Jeremiah 26 that Jeremiah was threatened with death for proclaiming the word of the Lord. And in the same chapter, we read that the prophet Uriah was killed for preaching God’s word to God’s people. And so, false prophets and priests stood in opposition to those like Jeremiah and Uriah who spoke the truth. In this way, the blood of righteous men was shed by the false prophets and priests, who preached ‘peace, peace’ when there was no peace and who killed the true prophets who were telling the people to repent and to return to the Lord.

And in verse 14 the writer says about the false prophets and priests that they grope through the streets like men who are blind. By saying they are ‘like men who are blind’, he’s telling us that they were not really blind. They weren’t physically blind. But they were spiritually blind. And he says about them that they were so defiled with blood that no-one dared touch their garments. He means perhaps that eventually the people realised that they were worthless guides. And so, they shunned them the way they would shun people who were ceremonially unclean. And so, men cried out to them to go away, because they were spiritually unclean. And it seems that no one wanted them around and even the people in other nations told them that they could stay there no longer. He’s perhaps referring to the way some of them were taken into exile to other nations. But they weren’t welcomed there. He says in verse 16 that the Lord scattered them. When once the Lord watched over his prophets and priests the way a shepherd watches over his sheep, now the Lord was driving them away. They were no longer shown any honour.

And then, in verse 17, the writer says that the eyes of the people in Jerusalem have failed while they looked in vain for help. Their eyes failed from tiredness, because they had spent so much time on their look-out towers, watching for someone to come and rescue them. They peered off into the distance for some sign that someone was coming to rescue them. The Babylonians were stationed outside the wall, laying seige to the city. And the people inside were starving and thirsty. And they were longing for someone to rescue them.

We know from Jeremiah 37 that they were counting on Egypt to help them. In fact, the Egyptian army had once marched towards Jerusalem and the Babylonians withdrew briefly. But at that time the Lord announced through Jeremiah that Pharaoh’s army would return to Egypt without rescuing them and the Babylonians would continue their siege. And that’s exactly what happened. And so, as our writer says in verse 17, they were waiting for a nation that could not save them.

He says in verse 18 that men stalked them at every step so that they couldn’t walk in the street. He probably means that the Babylonians were keeping a close watch on them. No one felt safe. And therefore it seemed to them that their end was near and their days were numbered. Our pursuers, he says in verse 19, were swifter than eagles. They chased them over the mountains and lay in wait for them in the desert. He’s perhaps referring now to the time when King Zedekiah and his men tried to escape, but the Babylonians chased after them and caught up with them near the city of Jericho. Zedekiah was taken to the king of Babylon who gave orders for Zedekiah’s sons to be killed before his eyes. And once his sons were dead, the Babylonians put out his eyes so that the last thing he saw was his dead sons. And they bound him with chains and took him away to Babylon. And so, as our writer says, the Babylonians were swifter than eagles and caught up with Zedekiah and his men.

In verse 20, our writer refers to Zedekiah as the Lord’s anointed. He was the Lord’s anointed because kings were anointed with oil to signify how they had been set apart by God. He also refers to the king as their very life breath. He means the king gave the life of the nation. When he was doing well, the nation did well. But this king was caught in their traps. The people thought they would always live securely under the shadow of their king. But Zedekiah could not save them. Egypt could not save them. The false prophets and priests could not save them.

Application

But the good news of the gospel is that we have a prophet and a priest and a king who can save us and who can give us everlasting life in the presence of God. Jesus Christ, God’s Only Begotten Son, is our prophet, priest and king.

As our prophet, he proclaims the word of God to God’s people so that we might know God’s willingness to pardon us for our sins and shortcomings. When he was on the earth, he declared the word of the Lord in person. Now, from his throne in heaven, he declares the word of the Lord through his preachers whom he sends throughout the world to call on people everywhere to turn from their sins in repentance and to turn to him for salvation.

And as our priest, he offered himself as the perfect, once-for-all sacrifice for sins when he died on the cross. And so, he paid for our sins with his life and he shed his blood to cleanse us of our guilt. And therefore he has made peace for us with God. And now he stands before the Father in heaven to represent us and to intercede for us and to ensure that we receive all the benefits of his atoning sacrifice.

And as our king, he is seated at God’s right hand in heaven and he rules over all things in heaven and on earth. He’s extending his kingdom throughout the world through the reading and preaching of his word and he is shielding us by his mighty power.

And so, the Lord Jesus Christ, our great prophet, priest and king, is able to save us completely and forever. And he rescues us from sin and satan and death and he promises us to keep us safe and secure for ever in the new Jerusalem to come where God will dwell in our midst and where we will be happy for ever. The false prophets and the priests and the king could not save the people of Jerusalem. But the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Only Begotten Son and our prophet, priest and king, is able to save completely those who come to God through him. And that’s why we should always trust in him and in him alone for peace with God and for the free gift of eternal life.

Verses 21 and 22

In the final two verses of the chapter, the writer tells us about the different destinies of Edom and Jerusalem.

It might surprise us that he mentions Edom and not Babylon. However, the Edomites were long-standing enemies of Israel. They were the descendants of Esau, who was the brother of Jacob. And just as the two brothers struggled against one another, so the two nations struggled against one another. For instance, in Numbers 20 we read how the people of Israel were travelling to the Promised Land. They wanted to go through the land of Edom and asked for permission to do so. But the Edomites refused. Then, in 2 Kings 8, when the people of Judah were ruling over Edom, the Edomites rebelled against them. So, once against the struggled against each other. And we also read about the Edomites in Psalm 137. The psalm is about the time when the people of Judah were in exile in Babylon. And in the psalm, the exiles complained to the Lord because the people of Edom sided with the Babylonians when they were destroying Jerusalem. They were happy to see the suffering of Judah.

And so, here in Lamentations 4, the writer says: ‘Rejoice and be glad, O Daughter of Edom.’ But he’s being sarcastic, isn’t he? We know he’s being sarcastic, because he goes on to say that the cup will be passed to them. He means that the cup of God’s wrath will be passed to them. And it will make them stagger like drunk men and they will be stripped naked and exposed to shame. He then goes on to say about them in verse 22 that the Lord will punish their sins and he will expose their wickedness.

So, for now, the people of Jerusalem were being punished for their sins. And while it was happening, the Edomites were glad and they rejoiced. They were glad when they saw God’s people suffer. But the day will come when God will make the Edomites suffer. The day will come when God will pour out his wrath on them. And the day will come, according to verse 22, when God’s punishment of Jerusalem will end. And the writer announces that God will not prolong the exile of his people.

And so, God’s anger on his people is temporary. It’s short-lived. It lasts for a day. And since that was the case, God’s people in exile could be encouraged that the day would come when their punishment would be over and the Lord would let them return to the Promised Land to rebuild the city of Jerusalem and to wait for the Christ to come, who is the Saviour of the world.

Conclusion

And what our writer has said about Edom and Jerusalem foreshadows what God will do at the end of this present age when Christ our Saviour comes again.

While God may be angry with his believing people for our unconfessed sins in this life, his anger lasts only for a day. It’s temporary. But his love for his believing people is from everlasting to everlasting. It will never end. And so, when Christ comes again to bring this troubled life to a close, he will bring his people into that new and better world where there will be no one and nothing to trouble us. Our exile in this world will end and he’ll bring us into the Promised Land of eternal life in the new heavens and earth. And we’ll rejoice in the presence of God for ever.

However, for the spiritual descendants of Edom — for those who refuse to believe in Christ in this life and who remain outside his kingdom — there is only a message of condemnation and of everlasting punishment. The destiny of those who stay outside Christ’s kingdom is to drink from the cup of God’s wrath for ever and for ever without any relief. For them there is only eternal punishment. But for those who believe, there’s the promise of eternal life.

And we would have been among those who did not believe if it were not for God’s kindness to us in Christ Jesus, because not only did he send his Son to be our great prophet, priest and king, but he also graciously and freely enabled us to believe in his Son for salvation. And so, he rescued us from satan’s dominion, where we once belonged, and he added us to Christ’s kingdom by enabling us to repent and believe the good news. And in his kingdom there is forgiveness and peace with God and the sure and certain hope of the resurrection and of everlasting peace and joy and life in the presence of Christ our Saviour in the new Jerusalem to come.