YOU and GOD

Today marks the 247^th birthday of this great nation! I can remember July 4, 1976, in Wichita, Kansas, when our family joined other families in commemorating this special day with an all-day preaching and dinner-on-the grounds service. We so enjoyed that day, and though the 200-year-old nation then was (and is) fraught with problems, we were proud to be Americans and were gathering together to seek God’s blessings and intervening grace.  We could not have imagined what America would look like 47 years from that two hundredth birthday. We have mountainous problems, of course, but we have a noble heritage of liberty and justice—and, by God’s grace, we still have freedom of worship, speech, and assembly, though all of these freedoms seem more fragile today than in 1976.

We could never begin to give God adequate praise for the bounty of His blessings. We owe an incalculable debt of gratitude to our forefathers for their wealth of wisdom in establishing this democratic republic that has weathered world wars and a soul-wrenching civil war in its short, 247-year history. We are deeply grateful for the precious blood shed and for the ultimate sacrifice of life made by more than a million people while serving honorably in the armed forces of our nation. Because of their sacrifice, we can still raise “Old Glory” and pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America—one nation, under God, indivisible!

To be sure, fierce foes of liberty are firing their volleys of subversion at this old ship of state. Under the guise of “diversity,” some would banish God from our public forums. We are now asked not to pray to a specific God, and certainly not to invoke His blessings in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, for fear that we might offend the unbelievers.

We dare not surrender this sacred ground to atheism. The best and bravest of our youth gave up their dreams, fortunes, and futures in the defense of this nation, whose God is the Lord.

We unquestionably would die to grant anyone the freedom to deny that our God exists, and to refuse to call upon His name. But do not ask us to give up that precious, life-giving privilege of prayer and practicing faith to accommodate your atheism. Our fathers, sons, and daughters have died for your right to choose unbelief, so we will never surrender our belief for fear of offending you when we call upon the Lord God by His holy name.

That’s America. And, yes, we have become a melting pot, and we are a diversified people, having come from the four corners of the earth to get here. But one thread has held us together for nearly 250 years: our common dependence upon, and belief in, a God who blesses the nation that fears and honors Him.

Long live America.  Long live our freedom. And long live the bastion of liberty in this land, where peoples from every part of the world have come to work and worship, to live and love, and to breathe fresh air. 

I hope this Day of Independence proves to be a very special day for each and every citizen of this great country. May we look back with thanksgiving for God’s special grace to us.  May we look ahead with hope and aspirations for a future hinged upon the limitless promises of His Word to those who honor Him. May we never be ashamed to pray to Him, to acknowledge Him, to confess Him in public and in private. God bless America—today and always.

Food for thought.  Pulitzer Prize winning author David McCullough, in his book 1776, though never mentioning God in that massive work on the War of Independence, could not close without a subtle but sure acknowledgement of His hand at work on behalf of the Revolutionaries. He closes with these words:  “Especially for those who had been with Washington and who knew what a close call it was from the beginning—how often circumstances, storms, contrary winds—the oddities or strengths of individual character—had made the difference. The outcome seemed little short of a miracle.”

Thank you David McCullough! And, miracle it was!  Happy 4^th of July!

“Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the LORD.”

(Ps. 144:15)

Fifty years ago, Ed Christy graduated from Beech Grove High School in Beech Grove, Indiana. After graduation he found a job, and working alongside of him was a man who was a member of Thompson Road Baptist Church, at that time pastored by Dr. Fred Moritz.  One day, Dick Reed, Ed’s co-worker, invited Ed to attend services at TRBC (Thompson Road Baptist Church), and Ed responded saying that he would one day.

Ed had attended a local Methodist church with his family all of his life. He was a “good person” and had felt no need of any further religious experience.  But, one Sunday morning, though it was a rather cold and snowy day, remembering his promise, Ed drove the short distance to the Baptist church.

It so happened that Pastor Moritz was sick on that particular Lord’s Day and the youth pastor was filling the pulpit. He preached, and while the message was going forth the Holy Spirit was doing His work in Ed Christy’s heart. He testifies that the message he heard that day was the first time he had ever heard the gospel plan of salvation. He knew he had not had that personal experience, so when the invitation was extended he responded by going forward to meet a personal worker to whom he said, “I need to be saved.” And so he was. A layman knelt with him, explaining further the simple plan of salvation and encouraging him to by faith ask Jesus to forgive his sins and come into his heart. In a few moments of time, Ed Christy was gloriously saved and a short time later baptized by immersion and joined in membership to the local Baptist assembly where for the first time ever he had heard the gospel proclaimed. But that is just the beginning.

In the course of time, Ed enrolled at Tennessee Temple University, graduating from there with a B.S. in Secondary Education, then he attended and graduated from San Francisco Baptist Theological Seminary with an M.Div. (Masters of Divinity), and finally from Bob Jones University with a Ph.D. in Old Testament. It was at BJU that Ed met Sylvia Carr, a graduate with a nursing degree who at the time was working on staff at the university hospital. Ed had sought the Lord’s will for a life’s partner earnestly, and year after year his friends had intensified their prayers for Ed that he would find God’s choice for him. Sylvia was a “jewel,” and they have been married 37 years and have two grown children and two grandchildren, all living in France. Not by chance, Sylvia had wanted to travel with a Wilds Christian Camp team the summer that Ed met her, but her contract with the university mandated that she remain there for the duration of her commitment, so she “happened” to be there just at the time that she and her future husband would meet. God had that meeting planned and prepared in answer to the effectual, fervent prayers of His people!

When Dr. Christy was attending TTU he was challenged in a missions conference for world missions. He learned from one of the speakers that France had 35,000 villages in which there was no witness for Christ. He listened carefully over a period of time to that still small voice of God’s Spirit speaking to his heart about taking the Goods News to one or more of those villages in France. Sylvia shared that burden with her husband, so the Christys made plans to go to Europe as vocational missionaries. They were led of God to the southeastern city of Bordeaux, France, where God has used them to plant two New Testament churches.  

The work at times has been slow. When Covid-19 made its ugly appearance in France, like churches most everywhere, the in-person meetings were curtailed and “on-line” services were substituted. At the end of June, 2020, an attempt was made to resume on-site services, but the first such service had the Christys and one other person in attendance. So, back to the “virtual” services for a while longer. Not long after that, a young couple called to see if they could attend a service, and Ed said the services were on-line but that they could come to the place where he was transmitting the message if they wanted to.  They came and kept coming, and are now enrolled in the Bible Institute that Ed ministers in near Paris where they are preparing for ministry.

One Sunday morning after in-person services resumed, Ed arrived at the church site to open up finding two adolescents at the front door. Ed asked them if they were from the neighborhood and they said “no” and told the missionary that their parents were coming. When the Dad and Mom arrived, four other children were with them, so their attendance that day swelled by eight! This family still attends and the father has had some ministerial experience. They are, of course, a great blessing!

At present, the church is meeting in a restaurant. Buildings are hard to find and very expensive to rent. When Ed inquired about the restaurant as a meeting place, asking what the rent would be, the proprietor asked Ed what he would be willing to pay, something unheard of! The amount was agreed upon and though not an ideal meeting place it has met a need. Now, however, with forty or fifty or more in attendance on some Sundays it is becoming evident that a larger meeting place is an urgent need.

So, from six people on a Sunday in June of 2020, to forty or fifty people regularly in attendance, the Lord has built and blessed this church in Bordeaux, France. Missionary/pastor Ed Christy shakes his head and says it has really been “nothing we have done, but the Lord has just been bringing people to us.” If you are like me, you cannot help but think of that admonition in Gal. 6:9 where Paul wrote: “And let us not be weary in well doing; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” And it all began 50 years ago when one believer extended a simple invitation to his co-worker to attend a service at his church. Think of the rewards that person will receive at the judgment seat of Christ!

“But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

‘’Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.” Good counsel from the Psalmist’s pen (37:7), but experience has proven that it is often easier said than done. So many examples of disaster have been recorded when it is not heeded, however, that it behooves all who want to go the way of wisdom to think twice before ignoring the admonition to “Wait on the Lord, and keep His way.” (Ps. 37:34)

Abraham and Sarah wearied of waiting upon the Lord to fulfill His promise of a seed who would carry on their family posterity, and through whom God had promised to bless their descendants immeasurably. But their plot to take things into their own hands and involve Sarah’s handmaid, Hagar—using her as an accomplice with Abraham in birthing a son, Ishmael—was fraught with unending, calamitous results. It was all a matter of not being able to do what the Psalmist would later personalize when he wrote: “I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined unto me and heard my cry.” (40:1)

Or, remember Saul, newly anointed, first-ever human king of Israel, who had been instructed by the prophet Samuel to wait at Gilgal for Samuel to arrive there, so that offerings and sacrifices could be made to God? But when Samuel did not arrive just when Saul thought he should have, Saul took it upon himself to offer the burnt offerings. The price he paid for not waiting upon the Lord in that instance was huge. Samuel announced that same day to Saul: “But now thy kingdom shall not continue…because thou hast not kept that which the Lord commanded thee.” Getting out ahead of the plain directives of God is never a good idea, to which Saul’s life sadly testifies. (I Sam.13:8-14)

David, the man after God’s own heart who succeeded Saul as king, learned that lesson the hard way, too. The Ark of God had been in the cities of the Philistines, and the people of Israel had not enquired of God at the Ark in over 20 years. After having been afflicted with severe boils, the Philistines sent the Ark, in the way their “priests” had directed them, to the city of Beth Shemesh—and eventually to Kirjath-jearim, where David and his men retrieved it as they set out to move it to Jerusalem. The problem was, they got ahead of God. Rather than seeking God’s counsel as to how the Ark should be moved, they tried, unsuccessfully, using the methods of the Philistines. In the process of moving it, an Israelite, Uzza, died because he was the wrong man, doing a job that God had given specific instructions for (Numbers 4:15). His death could have been avoided, had David sought to do God’s work in God’s way. But he impatiently forged ahead with what he thought, in all sincerity, was the best, quickest, and easiest way to get the job done.

We’ve all done similar things. Maybe a young preacher, having gone to a Bible school or institute for a couple of years, feels he does not need to finish the requirements for the course that would demand two more years of schooling.  After all, he reasons, Jesus is surely coming soon, souls need to be saved, and “I have the Bible to study—that’s all I need.” So he jumps feet first into the ministry, only to soon find out that he would have been wise to have spent the extra two years in preparation; now, however, with a wife and small child to care for, he cannot possibly see his way to return for more schooling. Sadly, in time, he becomes a ministry “dropout.”

A pastor, a few years into his first pastorate, is restless about how his people are responding to the preaching and teaching of the Word. He doubtless has some good opportunities in this field, and there have been victories, but things are not moving as fast as he had anticipated they would. With very little prayer and patience, he submits his resignation and puts the word out that he is available and seeking a church. Only His heavenly Father knows what might have been in that place, which had at one time looked so promising, with some patient waiting on God.

Many of us, whether in ministry or in secular vocations, are afflicted from time to time with what has been called “Go Fever.” That is when we are so bent on doing a certain thing that we are willing to forge ahead with our plans, in spite of good counsel from the best sources, that we should pause our plans and seek more time for further wise direction.

Such was the case in the ill-fated launch of the Challenger space ship in 1986. The temperature in Houston on January 28, 1986, was a record low of 18 degrees Fahrenheit. The engineer of the rubber O-rings that were critical to the mission had raised concerns with his superiors that those rings might not be able to expand properly, given the extremely low outside temperature.  His caution was not heeded. The mission was ready to launch. Seven astronauts, including the social studies teacher Christa McAuliffe, were suited and in their places. Sadly, 73 seconds into the flight, the world watched as a terrible explosion blew the craft to bits. The entombed astronauts had no expulsion equipment, and all perished in the disaster.  Some later attributed the failed mission to “Go Fever.” Everything was set to launch. There was pressure on NASA to execute another space mission. So, in spite of concern about the possible O-rings failure, the order was given to “Go!” 

How about you? Can you wait for certainty from God that right now is the right time to “Go?” Or, might you have a case of “Go Fever?” That’s between you and God. But if you get out ahead of His clear leading, it could be dreadful.

“Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.” (Ps.27:14)

A boy once asked his father what a preacher does. The Dad replied, “Well, his time is his own, which means he is always on the job. You see, the man who is cursed with punching in a time-clock in the morning is also blessed with the privilege of punching one out in the evening. The preacher teaches, though he must solicit his own classes. He heals, though without pills or knife. He is sometimes a lawyer, often a social worker, something of an editor, a bit of a philosopher, and entertainer; a lecturer, a salesman, a handy decorative piece for public functions, a local representative for every relief movement in the land. He is supposed to be a scholar as well as a promotional man. People come to see him, and he goes to see people continually. And he rejoices with exceeding joy when in the midst of this an opportunity arises to be a genuine personal spiritual help. He visits the sick, marries people, buries the dead, labors to console those who sorrow, and to admonish those who sin, and labors to stay sweet when chided for not calling enough. He plans programs, appoints committees and does their work for them, spends considerable time in keeping people out of each other’s hair, and more time in trying to scramble out himself with the least possible loss. Oh, yes, and between times he prepares a sermon and preaches it on Sunday, to those who do not happen to have any other engagement for the Sunday holiday. Then on Monday he smiles when some jovial chap roars, “What a job—one hour of work a week!” (copied)

Well, we can chuckle (if you are a pastor or know one who is) at this view of the work of the ministry. But there is, of course, a grain or two of truth in it. Paul speaks of the work of the ministry. Jesus prayed “…I have finished the work, which thou gavest me to do.” (John 17:4) Jesus came from heaven on a mission and that mission involved work, much work, climaxing on Calvary when He cried, “It is finished.”

We all have work to do. The consequences of the fall were that by the sweat of his brow man would work the ground, and that sweat and that toil would be the lot of mankind.  Work was not the curse, but labor that would require tiresome toil was. So no matter what your calling, you have a job to do and it will not be finished until God calls you to your eternal rest. The key is knowing what He wants you to do and then putting your hand to the plow and doing it to the best of your ability with a positive attitude. Whoever puts his hand to that plow and looks back is not fit (ready) for the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:62)

Clare Boothe Luce, U.S. Congresswoman from Connecticut, (1943-1947) was 75 years of age when someone asked her if she had any regrets. She answered, “Yes, I should have been a better person. Kinder. More tolerant. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and I remember a girlhood friend of mine who had a brain tumor and called me three times to come and see her. I was always too busy, and when she died I was profoundly ashamed. I remember that after 56 years.”

So, when one considers work and occupying, it is wise to keep in mind that it is not “busy work” that counts, but work that is meaningful and advancing the calling God has given you and with which He has equipped you.  Charles Swindoll in his book Killing Giants, Pulling Thorns said, “Busyness rapes relationships. It substitutes shallow frenzy for deep friendship. It promises satisfying dreams but delivers hollow nightmares. It feeds the ego but starves the inner man. It fills the calendar but fractures the family. It cultivates a program but plows under priorities.”

There is a barrenness in busyness. It involves lots of motion without much movement. It may be the result of a good deal of planning with little or no effort at producing. It is fraught with activity that is minus well directed action. There will be evident many leaves without much if any fruit. It might be the curse of the 21^st century, as we stand here on the precipice of “Artificial Intelligence.” What on earth will we do if in seconds some robot “spits” out a paper or outlines a project that would have required days or weeks to have completed just a few years ago?  How will we then “Look Busy?” How will we then “Keep Busy?”

Some reading this post may remember a grandma who, on a cold winter day, milked cows, slopped hogs, got the children headed toward the country one-room school house, did a washing and hung it out on a backyard line to stiffen up in the winter chill; mopped the floors, what there was of them, got wood in for the pot-belly stove, pressed the Sunday-go-to meeting clothes for the entire family, baked rolls and bread, made the beds, cleaned the oil lamps and refilled them, churned butter, stewed some apples and baked a cake plus one or two pies so that she could serve her guests Sunday dinner. Oh, did we mention that she had to round up calves that had gotten out of the pastures as well as breaking up a fight between the family dog and a stray dog that had wandered into their yards. This is not to mention repairing the breach in the fence, gathering up eggs, checking on the stable, setting the table, cooking supper and then washing the dishes afterwards, mending some socks for two of the boys to wear the next day and sprinkling the clothes, all before asking herself “Where has the day gone?” Finally, the dear woman sits down at the old pump organ and plays, “When We Come to The End of the Day.” (Adapted)

Well, some of us can remember such women of old. I had a grandmother whose husband died leaving her with four small children to rear. She did so by cleaning houses for others. She brought her three girls and her son in the post Great Depression years (all of whom became productive citizens) to adulthood by menial labor at less than minimum wage. ($1 a day!)

“And He called His ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come.” (Luke 19:13)

Picture this hypothetical scene with me: It is mid-19th century and you are living on a large and beautiful plantation in a southern state. Your farm consists of hundreds of acres of good, tillable soil that generates a good income. Your daughters are beautiful and your sons are brilliant, and you have planned to leave a generous inheritance to each of them. Your wife is a charming “southern belle.” Your plantation is self-contained with delicious drinking water from deep artesian wells; and you warm yourself by the side of your hearth where fires fueled by wood hewn in your fruitful forests keep your family warm.

Now, with that pleasant picture in mind, try to imagine with me how you would feel if suddenly, virtually overnight, foreigners came onto your elegant estate and forced you to abandon your home to them. These ruthless strangers proceed to eliminate you, leaving your dear wife without a husband. Your sons they humiliate and your daughters they violate. They confiscate your property, cutting down trees and selling the wood. They commandeer your wells, and your wife and children have to buy a drink from these awful intruders to assuage their thirst. The inheritance that you had worked hard to save up to give to your sons and daughters they have squandered. Your family suffers daily from hunger. There is now no joy at all left in life for your loved ones!

If you think that’s unreal, it’s not! That’s a picture of what happened to Judah when God opened the flood-gates of divine chastisement upon His people and allowed Nebuchadnezzar to come into the holy land to take over. Someone has called the book of Lamentations “the Wailing Wall of the Old Testament.” Chapter 5 draws the conclusion to the sad lament, ending, though, on a note of praise and prayer:

• Their Problem once again, v. 1

“Behold our reproach,” v. 1
“Thou hast utterly rejected us” v. 22
“Thou art very wroth against us” v. 22
The cause of it: sin, vss. 7,18 (Provs.14:3)
The completeness of it: total! vss. 1-18 (Jer.24:9)

• Their Praise, v. 19 (cf. 3:22-25)

For God’s mercies, 3:22a, 23a
For God’s compassions, 3:22b
For God’s faithfulness, 3:23b
For God’s goodness, 3:25
For God’s eternality, 5:19

“When time and history shall be no more; when the earth has melted and vanished and the heavens have been rolled up like a scroll; when the last soul has been judged and assigned his place of eternal abode; when Satan shall have been cast into the Lake of Fire and when sin and sickness, death and disease, sorrow and disappointment, fear and failure, trials and tears shall have vanished, the Lord God will remain still on His throne; and He will rule, King of Kings and Lord of Lords!”

• Their Prayer, v. 21

“Remember us,” 5:1
“Consider us,” 5:1b
“Turn us,” 5:21
“Renew our days,” 5:21

“Guide me O Thou great Jehovah, pilgrim through this barren land; I am weak but Thou art mighty, hold me with Thy powerful hand.”

“It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22,23)

Father’s Day gives us a special opportunity to reflect not only upon our responsibility as a father, but also upon the heritage of Godly fathers and fathers-in-law that many of us have been blessed with. In this post, I want to share some memories of my father-in-law, Marvin Beshears.

Marvin grew up in the Depression years in the Blue Ridge mountains of Western North Carolina. He was one of 9 children, and though we marvel today at the lush landscape of those mountains, eking out an existence was a daily, toilsome task for Marvin and his parents and siblings. He was able to finish eighth grade in school before he felt a need to devote his full energies to helping his parents with the support of their large family.

When World War II called upon Marvin to serve his country, he reported for a routine physical but failed the exam—the doctor declaring that with his heart in the condition it was in, he would be doing good to make it back home.  Marvin never, in the ensuing 60 years or so that he lived following that exam, had any problems with his heart. He was not to be denied, though, in his effort to lend a hand to the war effort, so he went to the Virginia shipyards where he was employed in painting U.S. battle ships. It was there, on a radio broadcast, that he heard Rev. Charles E. Fuller of the Old-Fashioned Revival Hour from Los Angeles preach to and plead with soldiers—who were about to ship out for their foreign field assignments—to accept Christ as Savior. Marvin accepted Fuller’s invitation, invited Christ into his heart there in the shipyards, and would never be the same.

Returning to North Wilkesboro, NC, after the war, Marvin was employed in a factory as a painter. He also was a farmer of sorts, and in time became a pastor of an assembly of believers, a church he would shepherd for more than  50 years. He also had a local radio ministry and visited nursing homes weekly, as well as prisons when he had the opportunity. In that Northwestern North Carolina community, he was known as a “man of God,” and it has been said that his handshake on a deal was as good as any signature on a contract. He was a shrewd businessman in his own right, and though he never received a salary for his ministry, he was able to leave not only a good name as an heritage but also some material blessings for his posterity when he passed away in his mid-80s. He and his wife sacrificed to send their children (three of the five) to Bob Jones University. Their older son, Alphred attended BJU for a year before enlisting in the Marine Corps, after which he was deployed to Vietnam. Marvin’s ceaseless prayers for his soldier son—in his prayer place in the woods near his home—were answered, and “Al” returned from Vietnam but, sadly, died of leukemia in his early 30s.

Marvin and Carrie (his wife) celebrated their 50^th wedding anniversary in 1991. I feel blessed beyond measure to have been a part of this special family and to have married Ellen, Marvin’s second child, whom I met when she was a freshman at BJU. Marvin’s nickname for Ellen was “fairy,” and she accompanied him to prisons and nursing homes with her accordion, on which she played hymns for the services he led.  On the occasion of their 50^th wedding anniversary, I wrote the following poem as a tribute to Marvin and Carrie. The title is “Golden Reflections”:

“Down where the Blue Ridge mountains rise,

With lofty peaks toward azure skies,

A lanky man and slender maid,

Their holy marriage vows did trade.

They both drank deep from life’s sweet cup,

With grace, their Father filled it up;

Their song of praise and lifelong story:

“To our great God be all the glory!”

Five children did this couple rear,

And each was taught the Lord to fear.

One was a soldier strong and brave,

Who loyal, fearless duty gave.

He served his God and country true,

And prayers to Heaven brought him through.

Yet death did claim him for his own,

And Al did lay his armor down.

Oldest of the five was June,

Sweet as summer’s happy tune;

Loyal to her Mom and Dad,

Never made them one day sad.

After June came Ellen “fairy,”

Gentle girl and lovely, very!

She the church piano played

While her daddy preached and prayed.

Next in line came Brenda “Po,”

Pride and joy her folks did show;

Caring, kind and giving she,

Youngest of the sisters three.

Finally came a second son,

Greg was full of life and fun;

Builder with his hands is he,

Craftsman skilled all would agree.

As years on years flew by each faster,

The Cricket Church had but one pastor;

“Brother Marvin” was his name,

And preaching Jesus was his fame.

In Church of God or on the air,

He calls his fellow man to prayer;

And pleads for sinners to repent,

He is God’s man from Heaven sent.

His help-meet dear of fifty years,

Has been his stay through toil and tears;

She’s always been close by his side,

And ever faithful does abide.

Their children bless their names today,

And all who know them join to say,

“Wishes all and tidings merry,

Brother Marvin and Sister Carrie!”

ALS/September, 1991

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)