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Lamentations Chapter 2
The Lord Has Destroyed Without Pity
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Lamentations 2:1 How hath
the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger,
and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel,
and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger!
This is how it seemed to Jeremiah at
the time. He prophesied of these very things, but when his prophcies
came to pass, it
grieved his soul. He felt that God had abandoned His people and that
God was very angry. We who have lived to see the written word in
both old and new testaments, know of the day of restoration when
Israel as a nation discovers the true Messiah. In fact Jeremiah
prophesied of that time also but as with many of us, when we
actually see bad things happen, we tend to forget the promise of the
good things.
Here is just one of Jeremiah's warnings
to the people of Israel:
- Jeremiah 44:3 Because
of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke me to
anger, in that they went to burn incense, and to serve other
gods, whom they knew not, neither they, ye, nor your fathers.
- 4 Howbeit I sent unto
you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending them,
saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate.
- 5 But they hearkened
not, nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness, to
burn no incense unto other gods.
There were many more warnings from the
prophets of the old testament. More from Jeremiah also. He knew this
day was coming. God warns ahead of time. Idolatry is a dangerous
evil sin. It not only becomes a subsitute for the real God who
created us but it is a fake substitute. Idols can do nothing to save
us in bad times or to bless us in good times. They are lifeless
statues. Evil spirits accomany idol worship perhaps given people a
false religious feeling that is demonic. False religion will lead
them to hell for eternity. That is one reason why God hates it. It
will destroy families, nations and lead to much evil and suffering.
God warns ahead of time. He prefers to
see repentance. He prefers to save, not destroy. We can't blame God
if judgment comes upon any nation because He sends His prophets and
preachers to warn ahead of time.
- Lamentation 2:2 The
Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath
not pitied: he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of
the daughter of Judah; he hath brought them down to the ground:
he hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof.
- 3 He hath cut off in
his fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he hath drawn back his
right hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob
like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about.
- 4 He hath bent his
bow like an enemy: he stood with his right hand as an adversary,
and slew all that were pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of
the daughter of Zion: he poured out his fury like fire.
- 5 The Lord was as an
enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her
palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased
in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.
- 6 And he hath
violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden:
he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the LORD hath
caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion,
and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and
the priest.
- 7 The Lord hath cast
off his altar, he hath abhorred his sanctuary, he hath given up
into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have
made a noise in the house of the LORD, as in the day of a solemn
feast.
- 8 The LORD hath
purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: he hath
stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from
destroying: therefore he made the rampart and the wall to
lament; they languished together.
- 9 Her gates are sunk
into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king
and her princes are among the Gentiles: the law is no more; her
prophets also find no vision from the LORD.
This is how bad judgment was during the
time of Jeremiah. It seems all is lost, there was no hope. That is
why the study of all the bible is important so that we can see the
whole picture. We can see a future time of restoration.
- Jeremiah 46:27
But fear not thou, O my servant Jacob, and be not dismayed, O
Israel: for, behold, I will save thee from afar off, and thy
seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return,
and be in rest and at ease, and none shall make him afraid.
- 28 Fear thou
not, O Jacob my servant, saith the LORD: for I am with thee; for
I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven
thee: but I will not make a full end of thee, but correct thee
in measure; yet will I not leave thee wholly unpunished.
This happened in part after the
Babylonian captivity ended but judgment came again in 70 AD after
the nation's rejection of Jesus Christ. When they became a nation
again in 1948, that started the prophetic time clock again for the
nation of Israel. Even though more trouble was coming, that too will
one day end. One thing about the nation of Israel. No matter how
many times they have lost their nation, it is the only nation that
is guaranteed to survive until the coming of Jesus a second time.
This is not my opinion here. It is in God's written word.
- Lamentations 2:10
The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and keep
silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have
girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang
down their heads to the ground.
- 11 Mine eyes do fail
with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the
earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because
the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the
city.
- 12 They say to their
mothers, Where is corn and wine? when they swooned as the
wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured
out into their mothers' bosom.
- 13 What thing shall
I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken to thee, O
daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to thee, that I may
comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach is great
like the sea: who can heal thee?
Jeremiah weeps and mourns. He doesn't
gloat over this awful suffering of his people.
This verse here speaks of the false
prophets that prophesied that there would not be a judgment coming
upon them for their sins. False prophets bring false hopes. Yet
there is true prophecies that are good but before they come to pass
there is repentance and a change within the hearts of the people.
- Lamentation 2:15 All
that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their
head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that
men call The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth?
- 16 All thine enemies
have opened their mouth against thee: they hiss and gnash the
teeth: they say, We have swallowed her up: certainly this is the
day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it.
Those that hated Israel mocked and made
fun of them when they suffered destruction. That still happens even
today. Israel has always been surrounded by enemies. However, be
careful of mocking because God sees it. Mockers at the calamity of
Israel will be judged also.
- Lamentations 2:17
The LORD hath done that which he had devised; he hath fulfilled
his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he hath
thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused thine enemy
to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thine
adversaries.
- 18 Their heart cried
unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run
down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not
the apple of thine eye cease.
- 19 Arise, cry out in
the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart
like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward
him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in
the top of every street.
- 20 Behold, O LORD,
and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat
their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and
the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?
- 21 The young and the
old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young
men are fallen by the sword; thou hast slain them in the day of
thine anger; thou hast killed, and not pitied.
- 22 Thou hast called
as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of
the LORD'S anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have
swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.
It seemed as if all was lost and
everything was hopeless at that time. Yet there is hope.
- Jeremiah 32:37 Behold,
I will gather them out of all countries, whither I have driven
them in mine anger, and in my fury, and in great wrath; and I
will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to
dwell safely:
- 38 And they shall be
my people, and I will be their God:
- 39 And I will give
them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for
the good of them, and of their children after them:
- 40 And I will make an
everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from
them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts,
that they shall not depart from me.
- 41 Yea, I will rejoice
over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land
assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.
- 42 For thus saith the
LORD; Like as I have brought all this great evil upon this
people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have
promised them.
They did have a restoration of their
nation in 1948 but they are still surrounded by enemies continually.
They still at this time, September 2025, have not as a nation recognized
their Messiah and turned from sin as a nation. That time is still to
come.
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Zechariah 12:10 And I
will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they
shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn
for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in
bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his
firstborn.
When Jesus first returns to save Israel from
the enemies that surround their country, they will recognize that
the one their ancestors rejected and had crucified is the very one
that has come to save their nation. What a day that will be.
The final end for Israel will be glorious.
DC
- Jeremiah 31:31
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new
covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
- 32 Not according
to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I
took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt;
which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto
them, saith the LORD:
- 33 But this
shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel;
After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their
inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their
God, and they shall be my people.
- 34 And they
shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his
brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from
the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for
I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no
more.
Lamentations Chapter 3
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