Lamentations
1 – 5
Verse 1:3 opens with the underlying premise of Lamentations:
Carried off to a foreign place, Judah
is exiled in misery
and debased by affliction and hard labor;
She cannot find rest living among the pagan nations.
She tried to run and hide, but in her
distress pursuers have overcome her.
This book is one of the more depressing books in the Bible.
You have to understand the period in which it was written around 586bc. If you
remember the reading in Jeremiah, it was the period where Babylon had taken and
destroyed Israel. The torment they are going through is reflected in the
writings.
Verse 2:3 talks about what happened:
Cut down by God’s anger,
the pride and strength of Israel
falls;
He withdrew His right hand and stood back and allowed Israel’s
enemies
to wreak havoc in the land.
God has burned and consumed Jacob
in an insatiable fire.
Israel was handed to their enemies by God and they lost
their protection. As we move through this book we see the “setup” for Jesus
happening. Israel has lost their ability to repent and save themselves. I pray
we are not doing this today, but based on many of the modified gospels being
preached today (namely the prosperity gospel) I fear we may be too late.
Man is like electricity, we follow the path of least
resistance. That is until we hit a shunt, switch or diode, or a path like
Israel’s that is stopped by God. The road God wants us down is not easy, but is
not a complex one either.
Verse 4:10 captures the despair they must have been living:
Just imagine the injustice: loving
mothers
are forced to cook
their babies’ flesh.
Children have become their food!
All because of the destruction
of the daughter of my people.
Turning into cannibals to survive is awful. It’s unclear if
this is an illustration of the despair or if it actually was happening. Either
way the though is unnerving and gives us a glimpse into what happened some 600
years before Roman occupation and Jesus. No wonder they were looking for a
warrior and not who they got!!
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