Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
I was going to skip a post on this chapter because Jeremiah is so graphic in his description of the destruction of both the city and its people. I thought...what could I say? Maybe this: "And because the people refused to hear, the Lord brought the destruction foretold on Jerusalem?" As I read through the chapter a few times, however, I began to see many applications for us.
Chapter 2 of Lamentations depicts absolute destruction and devastation for Judah and the city of Jerusalem....Everything the people loved and trusted in was destroyed. God's people either died of starvation, or by the sword, or were carried off to Babylon in chains as slaves.
Every "horn" of Israel was cut-off. Every horn means every strength. The people had no refuge. NONE. Not in the walls around the city, not in the army, not in their temple, not in their religious rituals, not in their homes, not in their leaders or in their kings. They were trapped like animals, killing and eating their own children for sustenance. "The Lord has swallowed up and has not pitied." If the people left the city they were slain by the sword if they remained in the city they died of starvation. They had nowhere to turn and no one willing to help them. All their allies had abandoned them.
Jeremiah makes it clear from his writing that he knew it was not the Babylonians who were were really in charge...they were servants of the Lord God...doing His bidding. This was God's chosen people...His beloved...they had been given so much. They took all their blessings for granted. They enjoyed the gifts but did not worship the Giver. To them had been given the oracles of God and to them had been given the privilege of representing Him to the world. They were very accountable. God kept His word...to bless them when they obeyed and to chasten or discipline them when they did not. They had not obeyed. Judgment time had come...just as had been promised ...their little ones were fainting from hunger at the top of every street. The suffering was so intense that Jeremiah says this about it: "What shall I compare with you, that I may comfort you,"...He had run out of descriptions and says that their wound was as deep and wide as the sea. If only they hadn't listen to the false prophets...if only they had turned...now the cloud of His anger was over head.
Hebrews 10:30-31 For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The LORD will judge His people.”31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
So what are the applications for us.
Whatever else we might deem important in this life pales in comparison to what we do with Jesus. The only thing that is important is our relationship with Him...everything else will either burn or be destroyed..It is the one thing WE CAN take with us. It is the one thing that can and does save us. We run after so many things in this life...Run after Him..spend your time with Him and His word. It is the one and only thing that is necessary...
Another one that screamed out at me was that our children really do suffer when we as parents sin. Jeremiah cried copiously for the babies and the young children that were killed or were starving in the streets. Sometimes our sin affects many of those around us. The leaders of Jerusalem refused to listen and led Israel astray by telling them what they wanted to hear, not exposing there sin and not calling them to repentance.. Consequently the entire nation were either killed or went into servitude.
Jeremiah did not get offended. He grieved not for himself and his own pain and suffering but for the people he preached to and prayed for. The very people who rejected him and persecuted him. Jeremiah did not allow offense to get in the way of love and obedience. What an example that is to us. Girls, sometimes we can get so embroiled in conflict by getting offended that we really grieve the Spirit of God and put stumbling blocks in the paths of those whom the Lord wants to reach. It is not about us...It is about Christ...we are here for one purpose to glorify and magnify Him. God wants us to overcome evil with good...to put on love..to owe no one anything but love....to put off offense...to commit ourselves to Him who judges righteously...to let our gentleness be made known. (getting the picture) Surrender to His Spirit and allow His love...His fervent love...to be poured out on those around you.
Jeremiah's ministry in terms of converts was not a success, BUT he wept for God's people, suffered for telling them the truth, did not get offended and was rewarded by being identified with Jesus...WOW...see Matthew 16:13-14. Jeremiah suffered...was despised and rejected...was a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief and instead of it making him bitter he surrendered and obeyed and allowed it to make Him more like His Lord.. You could meditate on that one for a long long time. Think of it the next time you are offended or search your heart and find unforgiveness there. Remember always "it is about Him".
Last one...God suffers long but God does discipline those that are His...consequence and judgment come if turning does not occur.
Love
Mom...who loves Jeremiah!
Lamentations 2
1 How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion
With a cloud in His anger!
He cast down from heaven to the earth
The beauty of Israel,
And did not remember His footstool
In the day of His anger.
2 The Lord has swallowed up and has not pitied
All the dwelling places of Jacob.
He has thrown down in His wrath
The strongholds of the daughter of Judah;
He has brought them down to the ground;
He has profaned the kingdom and its princes.
3 He has cut off in fierce anger
Every horn of Israel;
He has drawn back His right hand
From before the enemy.
He has blazed against Jacob like a flaming fire
Devouring all around.
4 Standing like an enemy, He has bent His bow;
With His right hand, like an adversary,
He has slain all who were pleasing to His eye;
On the tent of the daughter of Zion,
He has poured out His fury like fire.
5 The Lord was like an enemy.
He has swallowed up Israel,
He has swallowed up all her palaces;
He has destroyed her strongholds,
And has increased mourning and lamentation
In the daughter of Judah.
6 He has done violence to His tabernacle,
As if it werea garden;
He has destroyed His place of assembly;
The LORD has caused
The appointed feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion.
In His burning indignation He has spurned the king and the priest.
7 The Lord has spurned His altar,
He has abandoned His sanctuary;
He has given up the walls of her palaces
Into the hand of the enemy.
They have made a noise in the house of the LORD
As on the day of a set feast.
8 The LORD has purposed to destroy
The wall of the daughter of Zion.
He has stretched out a line;
He has not withdrawn His hand from destroying;
Therefore He has caused the rampart and wall to lament;
They languished together.
9 Her gates have sunk into the ground;
He has destroyed and broken her bars.
Her king and her princes are among the nations;
The Law is no more,
And her prophets find no vision from the LORD.
10 The elders of the daughter of Zion
Sit on the ground and keep silence;
They throw dust on their heads
And gird themselves with sackcloth.
The virgins of Jerusalem
Bow their heads to the ground.
11 My eyes fail with tears,
My heart is troubled;
My bile is poured on the ground
Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,
Because the children and the infants
Faint in the streets of the city.
12 They say to their mothers,
“ Where is grain and wine?”
As they swoon like the wounded
In the streets of the city,
As their life is poured out
In their mothers’ bosom.
13 How shall I console you?
To what shall I liken you,
O daughter of Jerusalem?
What shall I compare with you, that I may comfort you,
O virgin daughter of Zion?
For your ruin is spread wide as the sea;
Who can heal you?
14 Your prophets have seen for you
False and deceptive visions;
They have not uncovered your iniquity,
To bring back your captives,
But have envisioned for you false prophecies and delusions.
15 All who pass by clap their hands at you;
They hiss and shake their heads
At the daughter of Jerusalem:
“ Is this the city that is called
‘ The perfection of beauty,
The joy of the whole earth’?”
16 All your enemies have opened their mouth against you;
They hiss and gnash their teeth.
They say, “We have swallowed her up!
Surely this is the day we have waited for;
We have found it, we have seen it!”
17 The LORD has done what He purposed;
He has fulfilled His word
Which He commanded in days of old.
He has thrown down and has not pitied,
And He has caused an enemy to rejoice over you;
He has exalted the horn of your adversaries.
18 Their heart cried out to the Lord,
“ O wall of the daughter of Zion,
Let tears run down like a river day and night;
Give yourself no relief;
Give your eyes no rest.
19 “ Arise, cry out in the night,
At the beginning of the watches;
Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord.
Lift your hands toward Him
For the life of your young children,
Who faint from hunger at the head of every street.”
20 “ See, O LORD, and consider!
To whom have You done this?
Should the women eat their offspring,
The children they have cuddled?[a]
Should the priest and prophet be slain
In the sanctuary of the Lord?
21 “ Young and old lie
On the ground in the streets;
My virgins and my young men
Have fallen by the sword;
You have slain them in the day of Your anger,
You have slaughtered and not pitied.
22 “ You have invited as to a feast day
The terrors that surround me.
In the day of the LORD’s anger
There was no refugee or survivor.
Those whom I have borne and brought up
My enemies have destroyed.”
With a cloud in His anger!
He cast down from heaven to the earth
The beauty of Israel,
And did not remember His footstool
In the day of His anger.
2 The Lord has swallowed up and has not pitied
All the dwelling places of Jacob.
He has thrown down in His wrath
The strongholds of the daughter of Judah;
He has brought them down to the ground;
He has profaned the kingdom and its princes.
3 He has cut off in fierce anger
Every horn of Israel;
He has drawn back His right hand
From before the enemy.
He has blazed against Jacob like a flaming fire
Devouring all around.
4 Standing like an enemy, He has bent His bow;
With His right hand, like an adversary,
He has slain all who were pleasing to His eye;
On the tent of the daughter of Zion,
He has poured out His fury like fire.
5 The Lord was like an enemy.
He has swallowed up Israel,
He has swallowed up all her palaces;
He has destroyed her strongholds,
And has increased mourning and lamentation
In the daughter of Judah.
6 He has done violence to His tabernacle,
As if it werea garden;
He has destroyed His place of assembly;
The LORD has caused
The appointed feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion.
In His burning indignation He has spurned the king and the priest.
7 The Lord has spurned His altar,
He has abandoned His sanctuary;
He has given up the walls of her palaces
Into the hand of the enemy.
They have made a noise in the house of the LORD
As on the day of a set feast.
8 The LORD has purposed to destroy
The wall of the daughter of Zion.
He has stretched out a line;
He has not withdrawn His hand from destroying;
Therefore He has caused the rampart and wall to lament;
They languished together.
9 Her gates have sunk into the ground;
He has destroyed and broken her bars.
Her king and her princes are among the nations;
The Law is no more,
And her prophets find no vision from the LORD.
10 The elders of the daughter of Zion
Sit on the ground and keep silence;
They throw dust on their heads
And gird themselves with sackcloth.
The virgins of Jerusalem
Bow their heads to the ground.
11 My eyes fail with tears,
My heart is troubled;
My bile is poured on the ground
Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,
Because the children and the infants
Faint in the streets of the city.
12 They say to their mothers,
“ Where is grain and wine?”
As they swoon like the wounded
In the streets of the city,
As their life is poured out
In their mothers’ bosom.
13 How shall I console you?
To what shall I liken you,
O daughter of Jerusalem?
What shall I compare with you, that I may comfort you,
O virgin daughter of Zion?
For your ruin is spread wide as the sea;
Who can heal you?
14 Your prophets have seen for you
False and deceptive visions;
They have not uncovered your iniquity,
To bring back your captives,
But have envisioned for you false prophecies and delusions.
15 All who pass by clap their hands at you;
They hiss and shake their heads
At the daughter of Jerusalem:
“ Is this the city that is called
‘ The perfection of beauty,
The joy of the whole earth’?”
16 All your enemies have opened their mouth against you;
They hiss and gnash their teeth.
They say, “We have swallowed her up!
Surely this is the day we have waited for;
We have found it, we have seen it!”
17 The LORD has done what He purposed;
He has fulfilled His word
Which He commanded in days of old.
He has thrown down and has not pitied,
And He has caused an enemy to rejoice over you;
He has exalted the horn of your adversaries.
18 Their heart cried out to the Lord,
“ O wall of the daughter of Zion,
Let tears run down like a river day and night;
Give yourself no relief;
Give your eyes no rest.
19 “ Arise, cry out in the night,
At the beginning of the watches;
Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord.
Lift your hands toward Him
For the life of your young children,
Who faint from hunger at the head of every street.”
20 “ See, O LORD, and consider!
To whom have You done this?
Should the women eat their offspring,
The children they have cuddled?[a]
Should the priest and prophet be slain
In the sanctuary of the Lord?
21 “ Young and old lie
On the ground in the streets;
My virgins and my young men
Have fallen by the sword;
You have slain them in the day of Your anger,
You have slaughtered and not pitied.
22 “ You have invited as to a feast day
The terrors that surround me.
In the day of the LORD’s anger
There was no refugee or survivor.
Those whom I have borne and brought up
My enemies have destroyed.”
1 comment:
I went to read this and then realized I'd already read it...didn't recognize the title! I am so glad that my refuge is not in myself but in the Lord. I'd be bankrupt and starving in seconds if that were not true. Life lived in sin is no life at all... ~ love rll
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