Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

How deserted lies the city,
    once so full of people!
How like a widow is she,
    who once was great among the nations!
She who was queen among the provinces
    has now become a slave.
Bitterly she weeps at night,
    tears are on her cheeks.
Among all her lovers
    there is no one to comfort her.
All her friends have betrayed her;
    they have become her enemies.
After affliction and harsh labor,
    Judah has gone into exile.
She dwells among the nations;
    she finds no resting place.
All who pursue her have overtaken her
    in the midst of her distress.
The roads to Zion mourn,
    for no one comes to her appointed festivals.
All her gateways are desolate,
    her priests groan,
her young women grieve,
    and she is in bitter anguish.
Her foes have become her masters;
    her enemies are at ease.
The Lord has brought her grief
    because of her many sins.
Her children have gone into exile,
    captive before the foe.
All the splendor has departed
    from Daughter Zion.
Her princes are like deer
    that find no pasture;
in weakness they have fled
    before the pursuer.
In the days of her affliction and wandering
    Jerusalem remembers all the treasures
    that were hers in days of old.
When her people fell into enemy hands,
    there was no one to help her.
Her enemies looked at her
    and laughed at her destruction.
Jerusalem has sinned greatly
    and so has become unclean.
All who honored her despise her,
    for they have all seen her naked;
she herself groans
    and turns away.
Her filthiness clung to her skirts;
    she did not consider her future.
Her fall was astounding;
    there was none to comfort her.
“Look, Lord, on my affliction,
    for the enemy has triumphed.”
The enemy laid hands
    on all her treasures;
she saw pagan nations
    enter her sanctuary—
those you had forbidden
    to enter your assembly.
All her people groan
    as they search for bread;
they barter their treasures for food
    to keep themselves alive.
“Look, Lord, and consider,
    for I am despised.”
“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?
    Look around and see.
Is any suffering like my suffering
    that was inflicted on me,
that the Lord brought on me
    in the day of his fierce anger?
“From on high he sent fire,
    sent it down into my bones.
He spread a net for my feet
    and turned me back.
He made me desolate,
    faint all the day long.
“My sins have been bound into a yoke;
    by his hands they were woven together.
They have been hung on my neck,
    and the Lord has sapped my strength.
He has given me into the hands
    of those I cannot withstand.
“The Lord has rejected
    all the warriors in my midst;
he has summoned an army against me
    to crush my young men.
In his winepress the Lord has trampled
    Virgin Daughter Judah.
“This is why I weep
    and my eyes overflow with tears.
No one is near to comfort me,
    no one to restore my spirit.
My children are destitute
    because the enemy has prevailed.”
Zion stretches out her hands,
    but there is no one to comfort her.
The Lord has decreed for Jacob
    that his neighbors become his foes;
Jerusalem has become
    an unclean thing among them.
“The Lord is righteous,
    yet I rebelled against his command.
Listen, all you peoples;
    look on my suffering.
My young men and young women
    have gone into exile.
“I called to my allies
    but they betrayed me.
My priests and my elders
    perished in the city
while they searched for food
    to keep themselves alive.
“See, Lord, how distressed I am!
    I am in torment within,
and in my heart I am disturbed,
    for I have been most rebellious.
Outside, the sword bereaves;
    inside, there is only death.
“People have heard my groaning,
    but there is no one to comfort me.
All my enemies have heard of my distress;
    they rejoice at what you have done.
May you bring the day you have announced
    so they may become like me.
“Let all their wickedness come before you;
    deal with them
as you have dealt with me
    because of all my sins.
My groans are many
    and my heart is faint.”

• Lamentations 1:1-22

How the Lord has covered Daughter Zion
    with the cloud of his anger!
He has hurled down the splendor of Israel
    from heaven to earth;
he has not remembered his footstool
    in the day of his anger.
Without pity the Lord has swallowed up
    all the dwellings of Jacob;
in his wrath he has torn down
    the strongholds of Daughter Judah.
He has brought her kingdom and its princes
    down to the ground in dishonor.
In fierce anger he has cut off
    every horn of Israel.
He has withdrawn his right hand
    at the approach of the enemy.
He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire
    that consumes everything around it.
Like an enemy he has strung his bow;
    his right hand is ready.
Like a foe he has slain
    all who were pleasing to the eye;
he has poured out his wrath like fire
    on the tent of Daughter Zion.
The Lord is like an enemy;
    he has swallowed up Israel.
He has swallowed up all her palaces
    and destroyed her strongholds.
He has multiplied mourning and lamentation
    for Daughter Judah.
He has laid waste his dwelling like a garden;
    he has destroyed his place of meeting.
The Lord has made Zion forget
    her appointed festivals and her Sabbaths;
in his fierce anger he has spurned
    both king and priest.
The Lord has rejected his altar
    and abandoned his sanctuary.
He has given the walls of her palaces
    into the hands of the enemy;
they have raised a shout in the house of the Lord
    as on the day of an appointed festival.
The Lord determined to tear down
    the wall around Daughter Zion.
He stretched out a measuring line
    and did not withhold his hand from destroying.
He made ramparts and walls lament;
    together they wasted away.
Her gates have sunk into the ground;
    their bars he has broken and destroyed.
Her king and her princes are exiled among the nations,
    the law is no more,
and her prophets no longer find
    visions from the Lord.
The elders of Daughter Zion
    sit on the ground in silence;
they have sprinkled dust on their heads
    and put on sackcloth.
The young women of Jerusalem
    have bowed their heads to the ground.
My eyes fail from weeping,
    I am in torment within;
my heart is poured out on the ground
    because my people are destroyed,
because children and infants faint
    in the streets of the city.
They say to their mothers,
    “Where is bread and wine?”
as they faint like the wounded
    in the streets of the city,
as their lives ebb away
    in their mothers’ arms.
What can I say for you?
    With what can I compare you,
    Daughter Jerusalem?
To what can I liken you,
    that I may comfort you,
    Virgin Daughter Zion?
Your wound is as deep as the sea.
    Who can heal you?
The visions of your prophets
    were false and worthless;
they did not expose your sin
    to ward off your captivity.
The prophecies they gave you
    were false and misleading.
All who pass your way
    clap their hands at you;
they scoff and shake their heads
    at Daughter Jerusalem:
“Is this the city that was called
    the perfection of beauty,
    the joy of the whole earth?”
All your enemies open their mouths
    wide against you;
they scoff and gnash their teeth
    and say, “We have swallowed her up.
This is the day we have waited for;
    we have lived to see it.”
The Lord has done what he planned;
    he has fulfilled his word,
    which he decreed long ago.
He has overthrown you without pity,
    he has let the enemy gloat over you,
    he has exalted the horn of your foes.
The hearts of the people
    cry out to the Lord.
You walls of Daughter Zion,
    let your tears flow like a river
    day and night;
give yourself no relief,
    your eyes no rest.
Arise, cry out in the night,
    as the watches of the night begin;
pour out your heart like water
    in the presence of the Lord.
Lift up your hands to him
    for the lives of your children,
who faint from hunger
    at every street corner.
“Look, Lord, and consider:
    Whom have you ever treated like this?
Should women eat their offspring,
    the children they have cared for?
Should priest and prophet be killed
    in the sanctuary of the Lord?
“Young and old lie together
    in the dust of the streets;
my young men and young women
    have fallen by the sword.
You have slain them in the day of your anger;
    you have slaughtered them without pity.
“As you summon to a feast day,
    so you summoned against me terrors on every side.
In the day of the Lord’s anger
    no one escaped or survived;
those I cared for and reared
    my enemy has destroyed.”

• Lamentations 2:1-22

Noted Biblical Scholars, Teachers, and Preachers Comments

Lamentations 1:1 ‘How like a widow’: “Verses 1-11 vividly portray the city like a bereft and desolate woman, as often in other Scriptures (cf. Ezek. 16, 23; Mic. 4:10, 13). a slave. Judah was taken captive to serve as slaves in Babylon.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Lamentations 1:2 ‘lovers … friends … have become her enemies.’: “This refers to the pagan nations allied to Judah and their idols whom Judah ‘loved’ (Jer. 2:20-25). Some later joined as enemies against her (2 Kin. 24:2, 7; Ps. 137:7). She has none to comfort her. This ominous theme is mentioned four other times (vv. 9, 16, 17, 21).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics

Lamentations 1:8 ‘become vile’: “This could refer to either the vile, wretched estate of continued sin and its ruinous consequences through judgment, or to being ‘moved, removed,’ as the LXX and VULGATE translate it. Probably the former is correct, as befits the third and fourth lines, i.e., a despised, shameful, and naked condition in contrast to her former splendor (cf. v. 6b).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics

Lamentations 1:10 ‘enter her sanctuary’: “This was true of the Ammonites and Moabites (Deut. 23:3; Neh. 13:1, 2). If the heathen were not allowed to enter for worship, much less were they tolerated to loot and destroy. On a future day, the nations will come to worship (Zech. 14:16).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Lamentations 1:12 ‘Jeremiah or Jesus?’: “This was the lamentation of Jeremiah. As he saw the desolation oi the beloved city, as he marked the cruelties inflicted by the invaders on the Jewish youth, children, and maidens, and as he foresaw the long years oi bitterness reserved for the captives in Babylon, he felt as if he were peerless in the realm of misery. At the same time, we may take the words out of the mouth of Jeremiah and put them into the mouth of Jesus and suppose them to be spoken by him as he hung on the cross and bore God’s wrath for us.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Lamentations 1:14 ‘yoke of my transgressions … by His hands’: “Once the farmer had put the yoke on the animal’s neck, he would control it with the reins in his hands. So God, who has brought Jerusalem under bondage to Babylon, still controlled His people.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics

Lamentations 1:15 ‘an assembly against me’: “This is not the usual assembly for a solemn feast, but the army of Babylon for destruction. in a winepress. This speaks of forcing blood to burst forth like juice from crushed grapes. Comparable language is used in Revelation 14:20; 19:15 in regard to God’s final wrath.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Lamentations 1:18 ‘The Lord is righteous … I rebelled.’: “The true sign of repentance was to justify God and condemn oneself.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics

Lamentations 1 ‘Challenge’: “Faith is at the foundation of all Christian living, and because faith has to do with the character of God, it is safe from all vacillations of mood. A man may be believing soundly and effectively even when his mood is low, so low that he is hardly aware that he is alive emotionally at all.”

• A. W. Tozer, The Next Chapter after the Last

Lamentations 2:1 ‘How the Lord has’: “Much in Lamentations 2 depicts God’s judgment in vivid portrayals. He covered the Judeans with a cloud (v. 1), withdrew His hand of protection (v. 3), bent His bow and killed with His arrows (v. 4), and stretched out a surveyor’s line to mark walls to be destroyed (v. 8). He will rebuild Jerusalem in the future kingdom (Zech. 2:1—13). The beauty of Israel. This likely refers to Mt. Zion and the temple (cf. Pss. 48:2; 50:2; ls. 60:13; 64:11; Ezek. 16:14; Dan. 11:45). His footstool. This refers to the ark of the covenant as indicated by 1 Chronicles 28:2; Psalms 99:5; 132:7.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Lamentations 2:7 ‘noise in the house of the Lord as on the day of a set feast’: “A shout of triumph in the captured temple resembled the joyous celebrations in the same place at the solemn feasts.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Lamentations 2:14 ‘False and deceptive visions’: “As Jeremiah 23:16, 17 indicates, these lies spoke of peace and comfort, not judgment. Cf. Jeremiah 23:30-40 to see how such lying led to destruction.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Lamentations 2:17 ‘He has fulfilled His word.’ “The enemy who gloats in verses 15 and 16 should recognize that the destruction was the work of a sovereign God. This verse is the focal point of the chapter (cf. Jer. 51:12).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Lamentations 2:19 ‘a plea to weep for themselves’: “Jeremiah spoke these words to Zion in its sad and desolate condition. Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, had wept his eyes dry for the slain of the daughters of his people, and when he had done all he could to pour out tears for poor Jerusalem, he then begged Jerusalem to weep for herself. From this text we learn that it is never too soon to pray. There is no reason you should delay till the morning light. How many young persons imagine that religion is a thing for old age, or at least for maturity? Hour after hour and day after day, the malicious fiend whispers in their ear—’It is too soon; it is too soon! Postpone, postpone, postpone! Procrastinate!’
“Our text also teaches us that it is not too late to cry to the Lord. Further, we cannot pray too intently, for the text says, ‘Arise, cry out in the night.’ God loves earnest prayers; he loves impetuous prayers; he loves fervent prayers. God loves crying-out prayers. Those who do not cry aloud must not expect to get a blessing. God will hear us if we cry out with all our souls and pour out our hearts before him.
“Finally, we cannot pray too simply. Just hear how Jeremiah put it: ‘Pour out your heart like water before the Lord’s presence.’ How does water pour out? The quickest way it can-that’s all; it never thinks much about how it runs. That is the way the Lord loves to have our prayers pour out before him.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Lamentations 2:20 ‘See, O Lord, and consider!’: “The chapter closes by placing the issue before God. women eat their offspring. Hunger became so desperate in the eighteen-month siege that women resorted to the unbelievable—even eating their children (cf. 4:10; Lev. 26:29; Deut. 28:53, 56, 57; Jer. 19:9).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

 

My Thoughts

Lamentations, as a book of the Bible, is written in the same style as Psalm 119, except the fifth chapter.   Lamentations 1-4 are each acrostics, with each segment of the poem starting with each letter of the Hebrew alphabet, alphabetically.  Lamentations 3 may look longer, divided into three verses per poetic segment, but all other chapters are twenty-two verses (Lamentations 5 not written as an acrostic but maintaining the pattern). Note: In Psalm 119, each segment of the acrostic poem is divided into eight verses. Without some English translations noting the Hebrew letter, the acrostic pattern is then lost in translation.

Lamentations 1 speaks of Jerusalem as a deserted widow, full of tears, lonely, no one left to comfort her.  Judah has been sent into exile.

Instead, people who would have never been allowed in the temple have entered God’s sanctuary.  Jerusalem is unclean.

Then Lamentations 1:18 may be the most important verse.  Each of us must confess our sins and understand that God is righteous, and we have rebelled.  We are not conquering heroes coming before God.  We are sinners who if it were not for God’s Grace, we would be unable to be in His presence.

Lamentations 2 continues the lament.  The focus is more toward the women within Jerusalem, rather than Jerusalem being a metaphorical deserted widow.

The women find no place of comfort.  They find no one to protect them and their children.  Even during the siege it is asked if the women should even consider eating their children.  There have been many times where cannibalism is used in order to survive, the Donner party in California as one example.  This might have been the case during Babylon’s siege of Jerusalem.

Then the shift is to false prophets who led the children of Judah astray.

But how does a prosperity gospel peddler get a stronghold?  It is easy.  The false doctrine comes from carefully misinterpretations of Scripture, followed by giving people what they want.  It is easy to lure people when you are selling prosperity without the sweat of the brow or health without the pain.  Some lure people astray by saying that Christians do not suffer.

It is easy to see the falsehood by reading the Scriptures, but you want the easy life so much, you would easily fall for their schemes.

We all want our sins forgiven without ever having to clean up our act.  When we hear God loves us while we are sinners, we do not think we have to repent.  But we do.  We cannot repent on our own.  We must surrender to Jesus and then the Holy Spirit gives us both the desire to repent and the power and strength in which to do so.

The people of Judah heard Jeremiah, but they followed the false prophets who said that God would rescue them without the people ever repenting.

And in great numbers, the world is repeating that folly today.

Some Serendipitous Reflections

“Lamentations 1: 1. Could this disaster have been averted? How so? What do you think made Judah so ‘blind’ and ‘deaf’?
“2. With what rationalizations do people often presume upon God’s favor and goodness? How do nations do the same?
“3. If God in His righteousness brought Judah low, what warning is here for us?
“4. Judah fell because ‘she did not consider her future.’ Are you as a nation or as individuals guilty of the same error? How so? How can effective change be brought about?
“5. What warnings has God given you that you’ve failed to heed? With what result? Could you be living now on ‘borrowed time’?
“6. Could there be a ‘sin oi presumption’ in your life that threatens your prosperity? How is the psalmist’s attitude in Ps 139:23-24 a necessary safeguard? Can you pray that prayer today, and mean it?
“Lamentations 2: 1. What characteristic of God is most strikingly displayed by his treatment of the Daughter of Zion? What does it mean to lose the ‘ear of the Lord’? In what ways have you become casual about sin?
“2. Does God seem like an ‘enemy’ to you right now? Are there any sins with which you have ‘made friends’?
“3. ln this chapter, the poet indicts the ‘false’ prophets who did not expose the sins of Judah. Who are the false prophets we tend to ‘give ear’ to: Politicians? Rock stars? University profs? Commercials? Peer pressure? Psychologists? ‘Health and wealth’ evangelists?
“4. What do the people around you think when prominent ministers or ministries fail? ls God’s reputation tarnished, or polished, when such ministries are put through the fire? Or is God’s reputation separate from the reputation of men and their institutions? How should we react when Christianity receives such ‘bad press’?
“5. If Judah returns to the Lord, of what can she be confident? What comfort can this give you the next time you feel his ‘rod of correction’?
“6. God’s discipline is a ‘severe mercy’. What evidence of mercy can you see in his past discipline of you? Can you trust that his present discipline of you is merciful?”

• Lyman Coleman, et al, The NIV Serendipity Bible for Study Groups

Lamentations 1-2 have one set of questions each.

The second question 3 (Lamentations 2) refers to “Health and Wealth Evangelists”.  I am sure they mean prosperity gospel and faith healers, anyone that twists the true Gospel, but still calls it Christianity.

Substitute whatever group for any reference to a small group or ask who could come to your aid.

If you like these Thursday morning Bible studies, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Thursday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.