In 1981, a roaring fire started by an arsonist raged through the downtown area of Lynn, Massachusetts. Hundreds of people, including many elderly folk, were evacuated from their homes. Millions of dollars’ worth of buildings were completely ruined. It was a horrible Thanksgiving nightmare for the town, leaving the core of the city a smoldering heap of ashes. Citizens viewed the ruins with awe; for the people of Lynn, it might have been described as simply “unbelievable!”
That’s exactly how the inhabitants of Jerusalem felt in the wake of the calamity that occurred in 586 B.C., when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, having besieged the glorious city for more than 18 months, broke the walls down and swept into Jerusalem, bringing devastation and destruction to both buildings and bodies.
Jeremiah expresses the feeling that both the Jews and their neighboring nations had when they assessed what had happened (Lam. 4:12): “The kings of the earth and all the inhabitants of the world would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem.”
But, really, they should have believed it! The same thing had happened more than 100 years earlier to Judah’s counterpart, Israel. In a pungent, prophetic passage to the 10 northern tribes, Amos, in like fashion as Jeremiah, delivered God’s message to the nation just before judgment was to come: “I have smitten you with blasting and mildew…I have sent among you pestilence after the manner of Egypt; and I have taken away your horses; and I have made the stink of your camps to come up to your nostrils…yet ye have not returned unto me, saith the Lord: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God.” (Amos 4:9-12)
But they did not return, and God turned them into captivity. And neither did the southern kingdom of Judah return; and therefore, in 586 B.C. God turned them into captivity also, and the judgment was UNBELIEVABLE!
Lamentations 4 is the pathetic picture of the people of God in the wake of the chastening hand of God upon them. The various classes of the population are described here, and a contrast is portrayed between what they once were and what they had become under judgment.
(1) The inhabitants of Jerusalem
• What they once were, v. 2
They were at one time like gold, “worthy persons,” and “precious.” Like precious stones, they were highly prized, treasured, sought after. God called them a “peculiar treasure…above all people…and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.” (Ex. 19:5,6) Hosea said, “When Israel was a child, then I loved him and called my son out of Egypt.” (Hosea 11:1) God affirmed through Amos (3:2): “You only have I known of all the families of the earth.”
• What they had become, vss. 1b,2b
The sons were like earthen pitchers; the daughters like ostriches which leave their eggs on top of the earth to hatch by the heat of the sun: “…she is hardened against her young ones as though they were not hers.” Mothers had sodden their own children (v. 10).
(2) The Nazarites
• What they once were:
They were once purer than snow, whiter than milk, more ruddy than rubies, polished like sapphires.
• What they had become: They had become blacker than coal; their skin cleaved to their bones.
(3) The Prophets and Priests, vss. 13-20
• What they once were:
Spokesmen for God; intermediaries between God and man; examples of purity, leaders in prayer.
• What they had become:
“blind wanderers; polluted sinners, as lepers, unclean.”
(4) The Edomites (enemies of the people of God who were rejoicing in Judah’s plight) 4:21,22
• What they were doing: rejoicing, reveling in gladness for Judah’s misery.
• What they would become: drunken, naked.
(compare Obadiah, 11-15)
And today, God’s people, like Judah and Israel, often turn away from His gracious waiting and warnings. With long-suffering, God waits for us to return to Him. He sends His prophets and preachers to plead with His people to turn from their sin. He sends blasts and mildew, pestilences, fires, floods, and billows of wild-fire smoke.
Sometimes they hear and heed; but often, His flock goes blindly on, crosses the line of God’s patience, and the floodgates of His wrath are opened! When these people have fallen into the hands of a living God and have come under His chastening, we sometimes can only exclaim, “Unbelievable!” Our God is a holy God and will not tolerate sin. He will deal with it if we will not. And when He does, it is both definite and dramatic. These are the word pictures of Lamentations. This is the message of the weeping prophet. It is a message not to be ignored, especially in these last days.
“Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!” (Jer.9:1)
YOU and GOD 