Lamentations Chapter 1

How Lonely Sits the City

• Lamentations 1:1  How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary! 

These are the lamentations of the prophet Jeremiah who was called the weeping prophet. He weeps over the apostasy, ruin and destruction of Jerusalem and the people that were once great among all people because they were once strong when God was among them. No one could defeat them at that time. No nation no matter how strong could defeat a nation whose God is the Lord. Now she was described as a widow with no support and no husband, forsaken and alone. This didn't have to be. God never forsook Israel. Israel forsook God. The creator, the savior and the source of their strength was God.

• Lamentations. 1:2  She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies. 
• 3  Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude: she dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest: all her persecutors overtook her between the straits. 

The nations that surrounded them, even the ones they thought were their friends, turned against them. Israel even started worshiping the false gods that their surrounding nations worshiped but those nations turned against them and became their enemies.

God is the only one who will stay faithful to those that serve Him. Our God Jehovah and His Son Jesus our Christ are the only ones that will never forsake those that believe and receive them into their lives. All others will forsake even those that were once friends if is no longer convenient or profiting for them. God is the only one that will never forsake those that do not forsake Him first. Even then, He sends prophets and preachers to warn and bring messages of hope if they just turn around and repent. He is there waiting for any of us who desire to walk in His ways and receive His word. Without His presence though anything goes. His hand of protection may not be there if a nation is totally apostate and has forsaken God their creator.

• Lamentations 1:4  The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness. 
• 5  Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the LORD hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy. 
• 6  And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer. 

They mourned, wept, and sighed. No one was coming to celebrate the feast days that God ordained for them to enjoy and feast in His presence. The enemies surrounding them prosper while they sit alone and forsaken. Like the animals that become weak finding no pasture and no strength against stronger animals that pursue them, they became desolate and forsaken. Again, I repeat, this did not have to be.

Jeremiah did not enjoy seeing this destruction of his nation, even though he was one of the prophets that warned them ahead of time what was going to happen. He still mourned and wept when it did happen.

• Lamenations 1:7  Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and none did help her: the adversaries saw her, and did mock at her sabbaths. 
• 8  Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she is removed: all that honoured her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward. 
• 9  Her filthiness is in her skirts; she remembereth not her last end; therefore she came down wonderfully: she had no comforter. O LORD, behold my affliction: for the enemy hath magnified himself. 

Their enemies mock and hate her. They have no compassion or pity. Anti-Semitism is on the rise again even today. Israel as a nation is surrounded by those that hate her even now. I was told that a large percentage of them are atheists. They no longer believe in God at all. The ones that stand by Israel though are the bible believing, evangelical believers in Jesus Christ. True believers in Jesus and those that believe in the word of God we call the bible, believe God's original promise to Abraham for the nation of Israel still stands. True believers will stand by Israel. No true believer in Jesus will have any anti-Semitism . If they do, they are in error and do not really understand God's plan for that nation. Israel will be restored in the long run.

• Romans 11:25  For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. 
• 26  And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: 
• 27  For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. 
• 28  As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes. 

God's promise to Abraham still stands. We saw a miracle in 1948 after the holocaust. Israel became a nation again. Here is the original promise God made to Abraham:

• Genesis 12:1  Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: 
  2  And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: 
  3  And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. 

The reason all other nations will be blessed through Israel is because Israel through the tribe of Judah was the one God chose to bring the Messiah, the savior, Jesus, God's only Son, through the seed of David to bring God's plan of salvation to all who would receive and believe in Him. Jesus is the only way out of this whole mess human beings have gotten themselves into.

• Lamentations 1:10  The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things: for she hath seen that the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation. 

The temple was destroyed first by the Babylon invasion and then the temple that was rebuilt after the overthrow of Babylon was destroyed in 70AD by the Romans a few years after their rejection of Jesus as the Messiah and His crucifixion. However, because Jesus died for our sins this was meant to be. He rose from the dead and is now sitting at the right hand of God the Father until God sends Him back to the earth to save Israel and reign over the earth. Since He came through the line of David, He is authorized to be the king and rule. Sadly the antichrist will attempt to control the whole world just before the coming of Jesus so they have to be careful not to be fooled into believing the wrong one. Jesus warned this would happen.

• John 5:43  I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. 

This man of sin, the wicked one and representative of Satan himself, will come just before the latter day return of Jesus. This is call the "Time of Jacob's trouble." Jeremiah prophesied this.

• Jeremiah 30:7  Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it. 

These things did happen in the past but only in part. The final time is what we call the great tribulation of the future just before the second coming of Jesus. Sometimes I find myself hoping that time was the time of the holocaust and there would not be another time, but since Jesus has not yet come and set up His kingdom, that time must be yet in the future. Right now it is September 10, 2025.

• Lamentations 1:11  All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul: see, O LORD, and consider; for I am become vile. 
• 12  Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. 
• 13  From above hath he sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them: he hath spread a net for my feet, he hath turned me back: he hath made me desolate and faint all the day. 
• 14  The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand: they are wreathed, and come up upon my neck: he hath made my strength to fall, the Lord hath delivered me into their hands, from whom I am not able to rise up. 
• 15  The Lord hath trodden under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me: he hath called an assembly against me to crush my young men: the Lord hath trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as in a winepress. 

Yet in all this they will be saved. God's word will come to pass even though it looks bad. Every word God said will happen.

• Lamentations 1:16  For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed. 
• 17  Zion spreadeth forth her hands, and there is none to comfort her: the LORD hath commanded concerning Jacob, that his adversaries should be round about him: Jerusalem is as a menstruous woman among them. 
• 18  The LORD is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment: hear, I pray you, all people, and behold my sorrow: my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity. 
• 19  I called for my lovers, but they deceived me: my priests and mine elders gave up the ghost in the city, while they sought their meat to relieve their souls. 
• 20  Behold, O LORD; for I am in distress: my bowels are troubled; mine heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled: abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as death. 
• 21  They have heard that I sigh: there is none to comfort me: all mine enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that thou hast done it: thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called, and they shall be like unto me. 
• 22  Let all their wickedness come before thee; and do unto them, as thou hast done unto me for all my transgressions: for my sighs are many, and my heart is faint. 

Jeremiah recognizes that this has to be. This started back when they were taken over by Babylon. After that they returned home after 70 years but were still under the Persians, Greeks and then Rome. Because of their rejection of Jesus as Christ, they lost their nation completely in 70 AD until 1948 when they became a nation again. I would hope that would be the end of this stuff but there is more to come just before the visable literal return of Jesus to rule the earth first for 1000 years as a test for all who would remain faithful to God. Then Satan is let loose for a season. After that all evil is removed from the earth and all believers in Jesus will rule the earth forever. The book of Revelations tells us more of this along with the prophecies of Daniel. DC

Lamentations Chapter 2