When a child comes to a loving parent and says, “I’m sorry, I’ll never do it again”, the compassionate parent picks up the child, holds the child in a close, comforting embrace and whispers words of loving forgiveness. The defiance and arrogance cease in the child. Humbled regret is expressed by the lamenting child. The parent assures the child of their loving relationship through forgiveness. A fresh start begins. All is well.
Lamentations is about grief; it is about forgiveness; it is about holding intention and an openness to possibility. It is about a great turning – a shift in consciousness and way of being. The people grieve whatwas which was destroyed while learning to grab and cling to the Hope from God of what will be. The lament begins a reversal in thinking.
We have learned that the “lament” is an important aspect of our lives and is just as crucial to us as breathing. To lament is the final act of humbling ourselves in a posture that empties all that is human desires within to receive and be filled with all that is holy—God! We learn in our lament that life is larger than our pain and current physical reality. God is and always will be our only Hope. God does not fail us in His compassion toward us. His unfailing, relentless love for us never quits or gives up on us.
The Word of God, inspired and delivered by God to mankind has been preserved for communicating who God is and how He specifically speaks deeply into our lives. All things considered; to study Lamentations along with the book of Jeremiah, almost makes Lamentations irresistible when you intimately know the One who wants us to love Him back! Be still, let go, and know God.
Lamentations 5, The Message
Give Us a Fresh Start
1-22 “Remember, God, all we’ve been through. Study our plight, the black mark we’ve made in history. Our precious land has been given to outsiders, our homes to strangers. Orphans we are, not a father in sight, and our mothers no better than widows. We have to pay to drink our own water. Even our firewood comes at a price. We’re nothing but slaves, bullied and bowed, worn out and without any rest. We sold ourselves to Assyria and Egypt just to get something to eat. Our parents sinned and are no more, and now we’re paying for the wrongs they did. Slaves rule over us; there’s no escape from their grip. We risk our lives to gather food in the bandit-infested desert. Our skin has turned black as an oven, dried out like old leather from the famine. Our wives were raped in the streets in Zion, and our virgins in the cities of Judah. They hanged our princes by their hands, dishonored our elders. Strapping young men were put to women’s work, mere boys forced to do men’s work.
The city gate is empty of wise elders. Music from the young is heard no more. All the joy is gone from our hearts. Our dances have turned into dirges. The crown of glory has toppled from our head. Woe! Woe! Would that we’d never sinned! Because of all this we’re heartsick; we can’t see through the tears. On Mount Zion, wrecked and ruined, jackals pace and prowl. And yet, God, you’re sovereign still, your throne intact and eternal. So why do you keep forgetting us? Why dump us and leave us like this? Bring us back to you, God—we’re ready to come back. Give us a fresh start. As it is, you’ve cruelly disowned us. You’ve been so very angry with us.”
WHAT DO WE LEARN—WHO DO WE RESPOND TODAY?
There is nothing you have done or suffered the consequences for that will keep you from the love of God and His forgiveness. God made a Way to come back to the Truth of who He is and wants to be in us—Life forevermore. That Way, Truth and Life is all wrapped in the Person of Jesus Christ, His Son. Jesus, “The Word made flesh” came down from His throne in heaven and willingly lived a humble life on earth teaching us who God is, how much He loves us and wants us to love Him back with how to love each other. Jesus healed, comforted, while reclaiming humans from a life of hopelessness. “Come and see God!” was the mantra of the day.
All was wonderful and right with Jesus. But sin still stood in the Way. Sin has always stood between God and mankind. Sin was a debt that was too much to pay by human efforts. So, Jesus volunteered to be the perfect, once and for all sacrifice, the One and Only candidate who could because of being without sin himself. He willingly and painfully laid down on a cruel cross, nailing our sins on that cross through His body who took all our sins upon Himself. Jesus paid it all, in full, for all the sins of the world.
God sent Jesus to earth for this very purpose. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
Believe. Lament with repent, calling on the Name of Jesus for forgiveness. Jesus forgives and we are saved for eternity. God said. It’s done. Our sins to be remembered no more. After lament and repent comes hope and fresh new way of thinking and behaving! Get ready for a fresh start!
Lord,
Indeed, your mercies are new and fresh with each new day to be alive here on earth. You are Hope! You bring Life with new, higher ways of thinking which leads to more holy ways of behaving. You forgive sin completely, so much so that you forget we ever sinned. We do not forget which hopefully helps us to “sin more more”! But when I do, you forgive and set me right once more. That’s how you made us and that’s how you love us. I love how you love. Teach me your ways and help me to internalize Your Word into my being so I will sin less. You are God and I am not. I’m yours, Lord, all that I am and all that I’m not but want to be. Yes, I believe. No turning back, no turning back.
In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen
Now, let us worship! Singing, “It is Well with My Soul”!
If you get your just deserts, you get what you deserve. The consequence you get could be good or bad, but the phrase usually has a negative connotation. For example, if you did something bad and then something bad happened to you in return, you got what you justly deserved.
In the book of Deuteronomy, God is very specific in what actions He will take for their behaviors. God’s blessings will flow from their heart-felt obedience. Suffering the consequences of disobedience is also described as a curse. God also makes it clear what will happen if His Chosen, those He loves dearly and wants to bless, do not obey what He has laid out as the best way to live for their own good.
Jeremiah’s lament continues in this chapter. He brings together several vivid images to describe the “just desserts” for disobedience with what the people endured in the siege and fall of Jerusalem. When you read Deuteronomy 28-30, we see that these very calamities were announced in the terms of the covenant with God from the beginning, so the Jews should not have been surprised when they got was coming to them for their evil deeds. But, they were…in shock.
Lamentations 4, The Message
Waking Up with Nothing
Oh, oh, oh . . . How gold is treated like dirt, the finest gold thrown out with the garbage, Priceless jewels scattered all over, jewels loose in the gutters.
2 And the people of Zion, once prized, far surpassing their weight in gold, Are now treated like cheap pottery, like everyday pots and bowls mass-produced by a potter.
3 Even wild jackals nurture their babies, give them their breasts to suckle. But my people have turned cruel to their babies, like an ostrich in the wilderness.
4 Babies have nothing to drink. Their tongues stick to the roofs of their mouths. Little children ask for bread but no one gives them so much as a crust.
5 People used to the finest cuisine forage for food in the streets. People used to the latest in fashions pick through the trash for something to wear.
6 The evil guilt of my dear people was worse than the sin of Sodom— The city was destroyed in a flash, and no one around to help.
7 The splendid and sacred nobles once glowed with health. Their bodies were robust and ruddy, their beards like carved stone.
8 But now they are smeared with soot, unrecognizable in the street, Their bones sticking out, their skin dried out like old leather.
9 Better to have been killed in battle than killed by starvation. Better to have died of battle wounds than to slowly starve to death.
10 Nice and kindly women boiled their own children for supper. This was the only food in town when my dear people were broken.
11 God let all his anger loose, held nothing back. He poured out his raging wrath. He set a fire in Zion that burned it to the ground.
12 The kings of the earth couldn’t believe it. World rulers were in shock, Watching old enemies march in big as you please, right through Jerusalem’s gates.
13 Because of the sins of her prophets and the evil of her priests, Who exploited good and trusting people, robbing them of their lives,
14 These prophets and priests blindly grope their way through the streets, grimy and stained from their dirty lives, Wasted by their wasted lives, shuffling from fatigue, dressed in rags.
15 People yell at them, “Get out of here, dirty old men! Get lost, don’t touch us, don’t infect us!” They have to leave town. They wander off. Nobody wants them to stay here. Everyone knows, wherever they wander, that they’ve been kicked out of their own hometown.
16 God himself scattered them. No longer does he look out for them. He has nothing to do with the priests; he cares nothing for the elders.
17 We watched and watched, wore our eyes out looking for help. And nothing. We mounted our lookouts and looked for the help that never showed up.
18 They tracked us down, those hunters. It wasn’t safe to go out in the street. Our end was near, our days numbered. We were doomed.
19 They came after us faster than eagles in flight, pressed us hard in the mountains, ambushed us in the desert.
20 Our king, our life’s breath, the anointed of God, was caught in their traps— Our king under whose protection we always said we’d live.
21 Celebrate while you can, O Edom! Live it up in Uz! For it won’t be long before you drink this cup, too. You’ll find out what it’s like to drink God’s wrath, Get drunk on God’s wrath and wake up with nothing, stripped naked.
22 And that’s it for you, Zion. The punishment’s complete. You won’t have to go through this exile again. But Edom, your time is coming: He’ll punish your evil life, put all your sins on display.
WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND TODAY?
It breaks the heart of God when we turn from Him, all that is good, to live a disobedient way of life. God knew we needed help. He knew we needed a Rescuer who would save us from our own natural propensity to disobey. We can never be good on our own. We need God’s power behind us, His knowledge within us. And for sure, we need help to avoid our “just desserts”. God knew that.
So, God, in His Sovereignty and wisdom, mercy and grace, gave us His Son, to pay for the punishment for our disobedience, our “just desserts” so to speak, for all our sins. Jesus, the One and Only Son who came to earth, the Only Perfect One qualified without sin, sacrificed all He had for all we needed—mercy and grace—and a pardon for our sin. Our “just desserts” for our sins was paid in full.
Mercy is the act of withholding deserved punishment, while grace is the act of endowing and showing unmerited favor. In His mercy, God does not give us punishment we deserve, namely hell; while in His grace, God gives us the gift we do not deserve, namely heaven.
We can now cease our lamenting over our sins by repenting to Jesus and be saved forever, our sins to be remembered no more! We stand in praise to the One and Only who gave us what we do not deserve—forgiveness for all our sin. This is amazing grace and power-filled mercy! How can we walk away from this?
Mercy and grace are two sides of a coin – and the coin is love. In the author’s own words, mercy is a compassionate love to the weak, and grace is a generous love to the unworthy. Humans are weak and unworthy – we all need God’s mercy and grace. Mercy takes us to the path of forgiveness, while grace leads us to reconciliation. Jesus is the Way to True reconciliation with God who gives us eternal Life.
“God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
Believe. Repent. Be saved forever. God’s Holy Spirit will come to live in all who believe and love Him back with power to obey that is beyond human efforts. But when we slip and fall, and we will because we are human, rely on God who picks us right back up with His guiding hand. To be honest with God is to be intimate with Him. We love Him because He first loved us, says John.
Lord,
Lamenting over what we have done is remembering the pain we caused by our own actions. Rejoicing is being set free by your sacrificial act of love for my sins. I am so grateful for you, dear Jesus, who set us right with God by your mercy and grace. Continue to transform me to be all you created me to be.
When we worship God, we find hope no matter the current circumstances or feelings. Great is Thy Faithfulness came to be from reading Lamentations 3! Let us sing from our hearts right now!
Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father There is no shadow of turning with Thee Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be
Great is Thy faithfulness Great is Thy faithfulness Morning by morning new mercies I see All I have needed Thy hand hath provided Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me
Summer and winter and springtime and harvest Sun, moon and stars in their courses above Join with all nature in manifold witness To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love
Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow Blessings all mine with 10, 000 beside
Great is Thy faithfulness Great is Thy faithfulness Morning by morning new mercies I see All I have needed Thy hand hath provided Great is Thy faithfulness Great is Thy faithfulness Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me
Jeremiah reveals his deep pain but still has “a grip on hope” that can only come from God. The sufferings of the people and the destruction of the city and temple were the great causes of pain for Jeremiah. These tragic events would not have occurred if the people had listened to him and obeyed God’s will. Jeremiah had faithfully proclaimed God’s message for forty years, yet the nation had turned a deaf ear. But great is God’s faithfulness, mercies new each morning!
Lamentations 3, The Message
God Locked Me Up in Deep Darkness
1-3 I’m the man who has seen trouble, trouble coming from the lash of God’s anger. He took me by the hand and walked me into pitch-black darkness. Yes, he’s given me the back of his hand over and over and over again.
4-6 He turned me into a skeleton of skin and bones, then broke the bones. He hemmed me in, ganged up on me, poured on the trouble and hard times. He locked me up in deep darkness, like a corpse nailed inside a coffin.
7-9 He shuts me in so I’ll never get out, handcuffs my wrists, shackles my feet. Even when I cry out and plead for help, he locks up my prayers and throws away the key. He sets up blockades with quarried limestone. He’s got me cornered.
10-12 He’s a prowling bear tracking me down, a lion in hiding ready to pounce. He knocked me from the path and ripped me to pieces. When he finished, there was nothing left of me. He took out his bow and arrows and used me for target practice.
13-15 He shot me in the stomach with arrows from his quiver. Everyone took me for a joke, made me the butt of their mocking ballads. He forced rotten, stinking food down my throat, bloated me with vile drinks.
16-18 He ground my face into the gravel. He pounded me into the mud. I gave up on life altogether. I’ve forgotten what the good life is like. I said to myself, “This is it. I’m finished. God is a lost cause.”
It’s a Good Thing to Hope for Help from God
19-21 I’ll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness, the taste of ashes, the poison I’ve swallowed. I remember it all—oh, how well I remember— the feeling of hitting the bottom. But there’s one other thing I remember, and remembering, I keep a grip on hope:
22-24 God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out, his merciful love couldn’t have dried up. They’re created new every morning. How great your faithfulness! I’m sticking with God (I say it over and over). He’s all I’ve got left.
25-27 God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits, to the woman who diligently seeks. It’s a good thing to quietly hope, quietly hope for help from God. It’s a good thing when you’re young to stick it out through the hard times.
28-30 When life is heavy and hard to take, go off by yourself. Enter the silence. Bow in prayer. Don’t ask questions: Wait for hope to appear. Don’t run from trouble. Take it full-face. The “worst” is never the worst.
31-33 Why? Because the Master won’t ever walk out and fail to return. If he works severely, he also works tenderly. His stockpiles of loyal love are immense. He takes no pleasure in making life hard, in throwing roadblocks in the way:
34-36 Stomping down hard on luckless prisoners, Refusing justice to victims in the court of High God, Tampering with evidence— the Master does not approve of such things.
God Speaks Both Good Things and Hard Things into Being
37-39 Who do you think “spoke and it happened”? It’s the Master who gives such orders. Doesn’t the High God speak everything, good things and hard things alike, into being? And why would anyone gifted with life complain when punished for sin?
40-42 Let’s take a good look at the way we’re living and reorder our lives under God. Let’s lift our hearts and hands at one and the same time, praying to God in heaven: “We’ve been contrary and willful, and you haven’t forgiven.
43-45 “You lost your temper with us, holding nothing back. You chased us and cut us down without mercy. You wrapped yourself in thick blankets of clouds so no prayers could get through. You treated us like dirty dishwater, threw us out in the backyard of the nations.
46-48 “Our enemies shout abuse, their mouths full of derision, spitting invective. We’ve been to hell and back. We’ve nowhere to turn, nowhere to go. Rivers of tears pour from my eyes at the smashup of my dear people.
49-51 “The tears stream from my eyes, an artesian well of tears, Until you, God, look down from on high, look and see my tears. When I see what’s happened to the young women in the city, the pain breaks my heart.
52-54 “Enemies with no reason to be enemies hunted me down like a bird. They threw me into a pit, then pelted me with stones. Then the rains came and filled the pit. The water rose over my head. I said, ‘It’s all over.’
55-57 “I called out your name, O God, called from the bottom of the pit. You listened when I called out, ‘Don’t shut your ears! Get me out of here! Save me!’ You came close when I called out. You said, ‘It’s going to be all right.’
58-60 “You took my side, Master; you brought me back alive! God, you saw the wrongs heaped on me. Give me my day in court! Yes, you saw their mean-minded schemes, their plots to destroy me.
61-63 “You heard, God, their vicious gossip, their behind-my-back plots to ruin me. They never quit, these enemies of mine, dreaming up mischief, hatching malice, day after day after day. Sitting down or standing up—just look at them!— they mock me with vulgar doggerel.
64-66 “Make them pay for what they’ve done, God. Give them their just deserts. Break their miserable hearts! Damn their eyes! Get good and angry. Hunt them down. Make a total demolition here under your heaven!”
WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?
We sing a new song today because of God’s Son, Jesus, who is our Hope, Redeemer and Lord of our lives. Matt Redman wrItes and sings a similar song of hope through the faithfulness of God:
You Never Let Go
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death Your perfect love is casting out fear And even when I’m caught in the middle of the storms of this life I won’t turn back I know You are near
And I will fear no evil For my God is with me And if my God is with me Whom then shall I fear? Whom then shall I fear?
Oh no, You never let go Through the calm and through the storm Oh no, You never let go In every high and every low Oh no, You never let go Lord, You never let go of me…
Believe, Repent, Be saved with Hope for life eternal.
In Jesus Name, Amen! I believe!
And I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on A glorious light beyond all compare And there will be an end to these troubles But until that day comes We’ll live to know You here on the earth
And I will fear no evil For my God is with me And if my God is with me Whom then shall I fear? Whom then shall I fear?
Oh no, You never let go Through the calm and through the storm Oh no, You never let go In every high and every low Oh no, You never let go Lord, You never let go of me
Yes, I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on And there will be an end to these troubles But until that day comes Still I will praise You, still I will praise You
Yes, I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on And there will be an end to these troubles But until that day comes Still I will praise You, still I will praise You
Oh no, You never let go Through the calm and through the storm Oh no, You never let go In every high and every low Oh no, You never let go Lord, You never let go of me Oh, You never let go, You never let go
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” writes Paul to the Roman church. When we read the whole chapter (Romans 3) this truth is expanded to help all people understand the faithfulness of God to all that is right, holy and good for us who believe Him. Paul writes from the beginning of this letter; “the Jews have been entrusted with the very words of God. What if some were unfaithful? Will their unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness? Not at all!” God is faithful no matter what we do. We have a choice to reflect who God is or not.
Our behavior of faithfulness to God helps others see God faithfulness to all who believe and follow in His ways. Jeremiah writes in this Lament that through bad, horrible times of suffering because of all sins of all people, God is faithful. God turns his back on sin but he does not turn His back on people who cry out to Him, seeking Him with all their hearts. The cry of the prophet to God’s people is to seek Him with all your hearts—And God will find us.
If Jeremiah has taught us anything at all through the trials of exile and destruction, it is this: Our sin cuts us off from God and all His promises and blessings until we turn back to Him. God does what He says He will do to bring us back to Him. God, indeed, walked away from the Holy Temple built by human hands but He is still God. We learn that the sin of trying to put God in a box and bring Him out only on special occasions and feasts with empty, sin-filled hearts caused God’s exit! What man had built for Him was destroyed by the sins of mankind that had replaced respect, awe, and fear of God.
God cannot be contained. God is everywhere and anywhere He wants to be. God is present and omnipresent. God is all knowing. God, however, cannot and will not be where sin resides for God is holy. God is Truth. He cannot lie. Knowing His created like He does, God made a plan to redeem us once and for all eternity. That plan was Jesus, The Word made flesh, who came to seek and to save all lost humans and pay the debt of all sin once and for all who believe. Yes, I used “all” more than once for emphasis because God’s desire is for all to be saved from sin. God wants to come to us and abide in us. God loves us beyond our human thinking! How can we walk out on a love like this?
Jeremiah tells God’s people how to repent:
Give out heart-cries to the Master, dear repentant Zion. Let the tears roll like a river, day and night, and keep at it—no time-outs. Keep those tears flowing!
As each night watch begins, get up and cry out in prayer. Pour your heart out face-to-face with the Master.
In today’s words:Get real, believe in Jesus’ power and authority to forgive, repent and be saved forever. In Jesus Name, Amen
Our lament is in not believing and following our sin nature for far too long.
Lamentations 2, The Message
God Walked Away from His Holy Temple
Oh, oh, oh . . . How the Master has cut down Daughter Zion from the skies, dashed Israel’s glorious city to earth, in his anger treated his favorite as throwaway junk.
2 The Master, without a second thought, took Israel in one gulp. Raging, he smashed Judah’s defenses, ground her king and princes to a pulp.
3 His anger blazing, he knocked Israel flat, broke Israel’s arm and turned his back just as the enemy approached, came on Jacob like a wildfire from every direction.
4 Like an enemy, he aimed his bow, bared his sword, and killed our young men, our pride and joy. His anger, like fire, burned down the homes in Zion.
5 The Master became the enemy. He had Israel for supper. He chewed up and spit out all the defenses. He left Daughter Judah moaning and groaning.
6 He plowed up his old trysting place, trashed his favorite rendezvous. God wiped out Zion’s memories of feast days and Sabbaths, angrily sacked king and priest alike.
7 God abandoned his altar, walked away from his holy Temple and turned the fortifications over to the enemy. As they cheered in God’s Temple, you’d have thought it was a feast day!
8 God drew up plans to tear down the walls of Daughter Zion. He assembled his crew, set to work and went at it. Total demolition! The stones wept!
9 Her city gates, iron bars and all, disappeared in the rubble: her kings and princes off to exile—no one left to instruct or lead; her prophets useless—they neither saw nor heard anything from God.
10 The elders of Daughter Zion sit silent on the ground. They throw dust on their heads, dress in rough penitential burlap— the young virgins of Jerusalem, their faces creased with the dirt.
11 My eyes are blind with tears, my stomach in a knot. My insides have turned to jelly over my people’s fate. Babies and children are fainting all over the place,
12 Calling to their mothers, “I’m hungry! I’m thirsty!” then fainting like dying soldiers in the streets, breathing their last in their mothers’ laps.
13 How can I understand your plight, dear Jerusalem? What can I say to give you comfort, dear Zion? Who can put you together again? This bust-up is past understanding.
14 Your prophets courted you with sweet talk. They didn’t face you with your sin so that you could repent. Their sermons were all wishful thinking, deceptive illusions.
15 Astonished, passersby can’t believe what they see. They rub their eyes, they shake their heads over Jerusalem. Is this the city voted “Most Beautiful” and “Best Place to Live”?
16 But now your enemies gape, slack-jawed. Then they rub their hands in glee: “We’ve got them! We’ve been waiting for this! Here it is!”
17 God did carry out, item by item, exactly what he said he’d do. He always said he’d do this. Now he’s done it—torn the place down. He’s let your enemies walk all over you, declared them world champions!
18 Give out heart-cries to the Master, dear repentant Zion. Let the tears roll like a river, day and night, and keep at it—no time-outs. Keep those tears flowing!
19 As each night watch begins, get up and cry out in prayer. Pour your heart out face-to-face with the Master. Lift high your hands. Beg for the lives of your children who are starving to death out on the streets.
20 “Look at us, God. Think it over. Have you ever treated anyone like this? Should women eat their own babies, the very children they raised? Should priests and prophets be murdered in the Master’s own Sanctuary?
21 “Boys and old men lie in the gutters of the streets, my young men and women killed in their prime. Angry, you killed them in cold blood, cut them down without mercy.
22 “You invited, like friends to a party, men to swoop down in attack so that on the big day of God’s wrath no one would get away. The children I loved and reared—gone, gone, gone.”
Sometimes hearing about and helping others through tragic circumstances brings a sense of gratitude to us in a spiritual way because we consider that for a moment all is well with us and we are have more than we thought in our own reserve. God can use our “wellness” to come alongside others who are not well.
We are going to dive into Lamentations together. I’m praying wellness for us as we study the lament after the devastation of the city of Jerusalem. This book of Lamentations, probably written by the prophet Jeremiah, is a dark but beautiful book that reflects the pain of injustice and human loss. It’s filled with crushing emotions: anger, desperation, fear, loneliness, hopelessness. If you are personally wounded when reading Lamentations, you may feel strangely understood and comforted. I know, weird, right?!
Lament is a passionate expression of grief or sorrow. To lament is to also having regret and remorse for past actions that led to tragic consequences. Jeremiah will symbolically express frustration over Jerusalem’s slide from order to chaos.
Let’s begin!
Lamentations 1, The Message
Worthless, Cheap, Abject!
Oh, oh, oh . . . How empty the city, once teeming with people. A widow, this city, once in the front rank of nations, once queen of the ball, she’s now a drudge in the kitchen.
2 She cries herself to sleep each night, tears soaking her pillow. No one’s left among her lovers to sit and hold her hand. Her friends have all dumped her.
3 After years of pain and hard labor, Judah has gone into exile. She camps out among the nations, never feels at home. Hunted by all, she’s stuck between a rock and a hard place.
4 Zion’s roads weep, empty of pilgrims headed to the feasts. All her city gates are deserted, her priests in despair. Her virgins are sad. How bitter her fate.
5 Her enemies have become her masters. Her foes are living it up because God laid her low, punishing her repeated rebellions. Her children, prisoners of the enemy, trudge into exile.
6 All beauty has drained from Daughter Zion’s face. Her princes are like deer famished for food, chased to exhaustion by hunters.
7 Jerusalem remembers the day she lost everything, when her people fell into enemy hands, and not a soul there to help. Enemies looked on and laughed, laughed at her helpless silence.
8 Jerusalem, who outsinned the whole world, is an outcast. All who admired her despise her now that they see beneath the surface. Miserable, she groans and turns away in shame.
9 She played fast and loose with life, she never considered tomorrow, and now she’s crashed royally, with no one to hold her hand: “Look at my pain, O God! And how the enemy cruelly struts.”
10 The enemy reached out to take all her favorite things. She watched as pagans barged into her Sanctuary, those very people for whom you posted orders: keep out: this assembly off-limits.
11 All the people groaned, so desperate for food, so desperate to stay alive that they bartered their favorite things for a bit of breakfast: “O God, look at me! Worthless, cheap, abject!
12 “And you passersby, look at me! Have you ever seen anything like this? Ever seen pain like my pain, seen what he did to me, what God did to me in his rage?
13 “He struck me with lightning, skewered me from head to foot, then he set traps all around so I could hardly move. He left me with nothing—left me sick, and sick of living.
14 “He wove my sins into a rope and harnessed me to captivity’s yoke. I’m goaded by cruel taskmasters.
15 “The Master piled up my best soldiers in a heap, then called in thugs to break their fine young necks. The Master crushed the life out of fair virgin Judah.
16 “For all this I weep, weep buckets of tears, and not a soul within miles around cares for my soul. My children are wasted, my enemy got his way.”
17 Zion reached out for help, but no one helped. God ordered Jacob’s enemies to surround him, and now no one wants anything to do with Jerusalem.
18 “God has right on his side. I’m the one who did wrong. Listen everybody! Look at what I’m going through! My fair young women, my fine young men, all herded into exile!
19 “I called to my friends; they betrayed me. My priests and my leaders only looked after themselves, trying but failing to save their own skins.
20 “O God, look at the trouble I’m in! My stomach in knots, my heart wrecked by a life of rebellion. Massacres in the streets, starvation in the houses.
21 “Oh, listen to my groans. No one listens, no one cares. When my enemies heard of the trouble you gave me, they cheered. Bring on Judgment Day! Let them get what I got!
22 “Take a good look at their evil ways and give it to them! Give them what you gave me for my sins. Groaning in pain, body and soul, I’ve had all I can take.”
WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?
Jeremiah’s audience are the Jews in Babylonian exile who are lamenting the destruction of Jerusalem. Notice that in the middle of the lament, they finally admit that they were wrong. “God has right on his side. I’m the one who did wrong.
I must ask myself, what does God have to allow to happen in my life until He has my attention so He can help me realize what I am doing wrong—the sins that offend Him?
The NIV Quest Study Bible advises us to look for themes of tragic reversal—despair to hope, repentance to renewal—for individuals, cities and nations. Notice also the book’s careful construction. God is not finished with His people yet. God is not finished with you and me.
The Jewish people were proud of Jerusalem, for it was their capital city and the home of their holy temple. But their hearts had turned away from God. the Jews thought their city was impregnable, particularly because the Lord’s house was there. But God would rather His city and temple be destroyed by pagans than to have His name disgraced by the wicked lives of His people.
Now that they were in trouble, the Jews were turning back to God’s Word. Unfortunately, they didn’t pay attention to that Word earlier to keep the trouble from coming. But regret is seeping into their being with remorse building as they remember their sins against God.
Lord,
I confess, there are times I brush aside the sin of judgement on those who hurt me. I have unholy thoughts of wanting to fight back, to get even. Then I realize that is not what you want and I move on. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Forgive us our sins. You are the One and Only who forgives our sins and remembers it no more. I rely on your compassions that fail not” and on your eternal love because of Jesus in me. Continue to transform me by correcting me. Do what you must, but be gentle. I have no regrets for coming to you. I want to live with no regrets. No turning back, no turning back…
If you have been reading with me, you will realize that we are at the end of the writings of Jeremiah. He may have been nicknamed the “weeping prophet,” but by reading we commiserate with Him because of all that God’s rebellious people experienced. We understand Jeremiah’s lament and weeping. When loved ones are lost from God and end up with great suffering because of their rebellion, we who believe weep with them! Right? (By the way, I pray for all who read Daily Manna.)
God’s anger is justified and comes from a place of compassion for His people. He disciplines to pull them out of harm and back to Him. His people conformed completely to the world around them behaving aggressively in all kinds of evil ways, leaving all that is good that God wanted to give them. As we have read, we look over the situation and judge them with our thoughts; “Why would you leave your God who loves you so much?” “Why disobey God’s ways and follow all that is evil when evil leads to death and destruction?” “Why the rebellion against a God who gives?”
Ah, then we realize we cannot be so critical or be judges of what they fell for when we fall for evil ourselves. Yes, judge not, for the world today is offering the same temptations on a beautiful platter of pride and arrogance. We are told we are not enough, hammered down, harassed, and coerced until we comply with worldview thinking and behaving because we think that is easier. But where does that lead us?
We learn from God through Jeremiah what happens when we are out of step with Him, turning our backs on all that is good from God, while in complete rebellion against all that is God. And that is a terrible place to reside as opposed to abiding with the God who knows our name and simply wants us to love Him back. God is the Giver of Life eternal. God is our Healer, Provider and Protector who sent His Son to save us. Why?
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
So, conforming to this world leads us down a road that is traveled by many who arrogantly think they don’t need God. Are you one of them?
Jeremiah 52, The Message
The Destruction of Jerusalem and Exile of Judah
Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he started out as king. He was king in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother’s name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah. Her hometown was Libnah.
2 As far as God was concerned, Zedekiah was just one more evil king, a carbon copy of Jehoiakim.
3-5 The source of all this doom to Jerusalem and Judah was God’s anger. God turned his back on them as an act of judgment.
Zedekiah revolted against the king of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar set out for Jerusalem with a full army. He set up camp and sealed off the city by building siege mounds around it. He arrived on the ninth year and tenth month of Zedekiah’s reign. The city was under siege for nineteen months (until the eleventh year of Zedekiah).
6-8 By the fourth month of Zedekiah’s eleventh year, on the ninth day of the month, the famine was so bad that there wasn’t so much as a crumb of bread for anyone. Then the Babylonians broke through the city walls. Under cover of the night darkness, the entire Judean army fled through an opening in the wall (it was the gate between the two walls above the King’s Garden). They slipped through the lines of the Babylonians who surrounded the city and headed for the Jordan into the Arabah Valley, but the Babylonians were in full pursuit. They caught up with them in the Plains of Jericho. But by then Zedekiah’s army had deserted and was scattered.
9-11 The Babylonians captured Zedekiah and marched him off to the king of Babylon at Riblah in Hamath, who tried and sentenced him on the spot. The king of Babylon then killed Zedekiah’s sons right before his eyes. The summary murder of his sons was the last thing Zedekiah saw, for they then blinded him. The king of Babylon followed that up by killing all the officials of Judah. Securely handcuffed, Zedekiah was hauled off to Babylon. The king of Babylon threw him in prison, where he stayed until the day he died.
12-16 In the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon on the seventh day of the fifth month, Nebuzaradan, the king of Babylon’s chief deputy, arrived in Jerusalem. He burned the Temple of God to the ground, went on to the royal palace, and then finished off the city. He burned the whole place down. He put the Babylonian troops he had with him to work knocking down the city walls. Finally, he rounded up everyone left in the city, including those who had earlier deserted to the king of Babylon, and took them off into exile. He left a few poor dirt farmers behind to tend the vineyards and what was left of the fields.
17-19 The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars, the bronze washstands, and the huge bronze basin (the Sea) that were in the Temple of God, and hauled the bronze off to Babylon. They also took the various bronze-crafted liturgical accessories, as well as the gold and silver censers and sprinkling bowls, used in the services of Temple worship. The king’s deputy didn’t miss a thing. He took every scrap of precious metal he could find.
20-23 The amount of bronze they got from the two pillars, the Sea, the twelve bronze bulls that supported the Sea, and the ten washstands that Solomon had made for the Temple of God was enormous. They couldn’t weigh it all! Each pillar stood twenty-seven feet high with a circumference of eighteen feet. The pillars were hollow, the bronze a little less than an inch thick. Each pillar was topped with an ornate capital of bronze pomegranates and filigree, which added another seven and a half feet to its height. There were ninety-six pomegranates evenly spaced—in all, a hundred pomegranates worked into the filigree.
24-27 The king’s deputy took a number of special prisoners: Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the associate priest, three wardens, the chief remaining army officer, seven of the king’s counselors who happened to be in the city, the chief recruiting officer for the army, and sixty men of standing from among the people who were still there. Nebuzaradan the king’s deputy marched them all off to the king of Babylon at Riblah. And there at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king of Babylon killed the lot of them in cold blood.
Judah went into exile, orphaned from her land.
* * *
28 3,023 men of Judah were taken into exile by Nebuchadnezzar in the seventh year of his reign.
29 832 from Jerusalem were taken in the eighteenth year of his reign.
30 745 men from Judah were taken off by Nebuzaradan, the king’s chief deputy, in Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-third year.
The total number of exiles was 4,600.
* * *
31-34 When Jehoiachin king of Judah had been in exile for thirty-seven years, Evil-Merodach became king in Babylon and let Jehoiachin out of prison. This release took place on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month. The king treated him most courteously and gave him preferential treatment beyond anything experienced by the political prisoners held in Babylon. Jehoiachin took off his prison garb and from then on ate his meals in company with the king. The king provided everything he needed to live comfortably for the rest of his life.
WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?
This would not have happened if only one of the kings had listened to Jeremiah’s message. What can we learn from Jeremiah’s ministry?
In difficult days, we need to hear and heed the Word of God. Since hindsight always has twenty-twenty vision, we can see that the leaders of Judah did a very stupid thing by resisting what Jeremiah told them to do.
Had they confessed their sins, turned to God, and submitted to Nebuchadnezzar, they would have saved their lives, their temple, and their city.
True prophets of God are usually (if not always) persecuted. The civil and religious leaders of Judah preferred the pleasant messages of the false prophets to the strong words of God’s true servant, because the human heart wants to rest, not repent. It wants peace but without having to deal with the basic cause of unrest—unbelief.
God’s servantsoccasionally have their doubts and failings. Jeremiah was weak before God but bold before men. Jeremiah was a prophet of the heart. He wasn’t content to give a message that dealt with surface matters; he wanted to penetrate the inner person and see the heart changed.
Any servant of God who tries to reach and change hearts is a candidate for sorrow and a sense of failure. But God knows our hearts and sustains us.
God is King,and the nations of the world are under His sovereign control. Nothing catches God by surprise. The nations that defy Him and disobey His Word eventually suffer for it.
Being out of step with the God who created all, is in all and knows what we need before we need it is not the place to be. Paul explains the process of daily abiding in God;
“So, here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” Romans 12:1-2, MSG
NEED TO KNOW
The same Lord who enabled Jeremiah can enable us. The same world that opposed Jeremiah will oppose us. The time has come for God’s people to be decisive. Who is on the Lord’s side?
Lord,
Thank you for all the lessons of Jeremiah that we needed to read and understand for growing in your character with grateful attitudes. I repent of rebellious thoughts and ask for what you want in my life and behavior. Help me to think more like you so I will behave more like you. Most of all, help me to love others they way you love us—without conditions.
History should not be only about when an event happened that changed the world, but more about why it happened with what was learned from it. Unfortunately, history repeats itself because humans are a flawed creation since the fall of Adam and Eve. We are in need of extreme, divine help from a perfect, all-knowing God who is for us, not against us. We need God who so loves that at the right time sent His Son, Jesus to save us once and for all.
But until that day comes, God’s people who have turned their backs on Him, must deal with God’s anger and discipline through hurricanes of war that sweep over the land in order to cleanse His people of their sins that send them into captivity. God is honest with His people. God is Truth and cannot lie. He tells them of their sins, warns them of the consequences, but to no avail.
Only a remnant of His people who still believe hold on until God does His work in and through the land to rescue them. The people are in bondage to their captors. God makes a way for their release and return so they can come home.
Jesus is the Way for us to be released from our sins that bind us so we can come home to God forever. May we learn from history so we avoid the hurricanes of hate that sin produces and live in Truth who is Jesus/God/Holy Spirit we can trust—in all honesty!
Jeremiah 51, The Message
Hurricane Persia
1-5 There’s more. God says more:
“Watch this: I’m whipping up A death-dealing hurricane against Babylon—‘Hurricane Persia’— against all who live in that perverse land. I’m sending a cleanup crew into Babylon. They’ll clean the place out from top to bottom. When they get through there’ll be nothing left of her worth taking or talking about. They won’t miss a thing. A total and final Doomsday! Fighters will fight with everything they’ve got. It’s no-holds-barred. They will spare nothing and no one. It’s final and wholesale destruction—the end! Babylon littered with the wounded, streets piled with corpses. It turns out that Israel and Judah are not widowed after all. As their God, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, I am still alive and well, committed to them even though They filled their land with sin against Israel’s most Holy God.
6-8 “Get out of Babylon as fast as you can. Run for your lives! Save your necks! Don’t linger and lose your lives to my vengeance on her as I pay her back for her sins. Babylon was a fancy gold chalice held in my hand, Filled with the wine of my anger to make the whole world drunk. The nations drank the wine and they’ve all gone crazy. Babylon herself will stagger and crash, senseless in a drunken stupor—tragic! Get anointing balm for her wound. Maybe she can be cured.”
* * *
9 “We did our best, but she can’t be helped. Babylon is past fixing. Give her up to her fate. Go home. The judgment on her will be vast, a skyscraper-memorial of vengeance.
Your Lifeline Is Cut
10 “God has set everything right for us. Come! Let’s tell the good news Back home in Zion. Let’s tell what our God did to set things right.
11-13 “Sharpen the arrows! Fill the quivers! God has stirred up the kings of the Medes, infecting them with war fever: ‘Destroy Babylon!’ God’s on the warpath. He’s out to avenge his Temple. Give the signal to attack Babylon’s walls. Station guards around the clock. Bring in reinforcements. Set men in ambush. God will do what he planned, what he said he’d do to the people of Babylon. You have more water than you need, you have more money than you need— But your life is over, your lifeline cut.”
* * *
14 God-of-the-Angel-Armies has solemnly sworn: “I’ll fill this place with soldiers. They’ll swarm through here like locusts chanting victory songs over you.”
* * *
15-19 By his power he made earth. His wisdom gave shape to the world. He crafted the cosmos. He thunders and rain pours down. He sends the clouds soaring. He embellishes the storm with lightnings, launches the wind from his warehouse. Stick-god worshipers look mighty foolish! god-makers embarrassed by their handmade gods! Their gods are frauds, dead sticks— deadwood gods, tasteless jokes. They’re nothing but stale smoke. When the smoke clears, they’re gone. But the Portion-of-Jacob is the real thing; he put the whole universe together, With special attention to Israel. His name? God-of-the-Angel-Armies!
They’ll Sleep and Never Wake Up
20-23 God says, “You, Babylon, are my hammer, my weapon of war. I’ll use you to smash godless nations, use you to knock kingdoms to bits. I’ll use you to smash horse and rider, use you to smash chariot and driver. I’ll use you to smash man and woman, use you to smash the old man and the boy. I’ll use you to smash the young man and young woman, use you to smash shepherd and sheep. I’ll use you to smash farmer and yoked oxen, use you to smash governors and senators.
24 “Judeans, you’ll see it with your own eyes. I’ll pay Babylon and all the Chaldeans back for all the evil they did in Zion.” God’s Decree.
25-26 “I’m your enemy, Babylon, Mount Destroyer, you ravager of the whole earth. I’ll reach out, I’ll take you in my hand, and I’ll crush you till there’s no mountain left. I’ll turn you into a gravel pit— no more cornerstones cut from you, No more foundation stones quarried from you! Nothing left of you but gravel.” God’s Decree.
* * *
27-28 “Raise the signal in the land, blow the shofar-trumpet for the nations. Consecrate the nations for holy work against her. Call kingdoms into service against her. Enlist Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a field marshal against her, and round up horses, locust hordes of horses! Consecrate the nations for holy work against her— the king of the Medes, his leaders and people.
29-33 “The very land trembles in terror, writhes in pain, terrorized by my plans against Babylon, Plans to turn the country of Babylon into a lifeless moonscape—a wasteland. Babylon’s soldiers have quit fighting. They hide out in ruins and caves— Cowards who’ve given up without a fight, exposed as cowering crybabies. Babylon’s houses are going up in flames, the city gates torn off their hinges. Runner after runner comes racing in, each on the heels of the last, Bringing reports to the king of Babylon that his city is a lost cause. The fords of the rivers are all taken. Wildfire rages through the swamp grass. Soldiers desert left and right. I, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, said it would happen: ‘Daughter Babylon is a threshing floor at threshing time. Soon, oh very soon, her harvest will come and then the chaff will fly!’
* * *
34-37 “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon chewed up my people and spit out the bones. He wiped his dish clean, pushed back his chair, and belched—a huge gluttonous belch. Lady Zion says, ‘The brutality done to me be done to Babylon!’ And Jerusalem says, ‘The blood spilled from me be charged to the Chaldeans!’ Then I, God, step in and say, ‘I’m on your side, taking up your cause. I’m your Avenger. You’ll get your revenge. I’ll dry up her rivers, plug up her springs. Babylon will be a pile of rubble, scavenged by stray dogs and cats, A dumping ground for garbage, a godforsaken ghost town.’
* * *
38-40 “The Babylonians will be like lions and their cubs, ravenous, roaring for food. I’ll fix them a meal, all right—a banquet, in fact. They’ll drink themselves falling-down drunk. Dead drunk, they’ll sleep—and sleep, and sleep . . . and they’ll never wake up.” God’s Decree. “I’ll haul these ‘lions’ off to the slaughterhouse like the lambs, rams, and goats, never to be heard of again.
* * *
41-48 “Babylon is finished— the pride of the whole earth is flat on her face. What a comedown for Babylon, to end up inglorious in the sewer! Babylon drowned in chaos, battered by waves of enemy soldiers. Her towns stink with decay and rot, the land empty and bare and sterile. No one lives in these towns anymore. Travelers give them a wide berth. I’ll bring doom on the glutton god-Bel in Babylon. I’ll make him vomit up all he gulped down. No more visitors stream into this place, admiring and gawking at the wonders of Babylon. The wonders of Babylon are no more. Run for your lives, my dear people! Run, and don’t look back! Get out of this place while you can, this place torched by God’s raging anger. Don’t lose hope. Don’t ever give up when the rumors pour in hot and heavy. One year it’s this, the next year it’s that— rumors of violence, rumors of war. Trust me, the time is coming when I’ll put the no-gods of Babylon in their place. I’ll show up the whole country as a sickening fraud, with dead bodies strewn all over the place. Heaven and earth, angels and people, will throw a victory party over Babylon When the avenging armies from the north descend on her.” God’s Decree!
Remember God in Your Long and Distant Exile
49-50 “Babylon must fall— compensation for the war dead in Israel. Babylonians will be killed because of all that Babylonian killing. But you exiles who have escaped a Babylonian death, get out! And fast! Remember God in your long and distant exile. Keep Jerusalem alive in your memory.”
51 How we’ve been humiliated, taunted and abused, kicked around for so long that we hardly know who we are! And we hardly know what to think— our old Sanctuary, God’s house, desecrated by strangers.
52-53 “I know, but trust me: The time is coming” —God’s Decree— “When I will bring doom on her no-god idols, and all over this land her wounded will groan. Even if Babylon climbed a ladder to the moon and pulled up the ladder so that no one could get to her, That wouldn’t stop me. I’d make sure my avengers would reach her.” God’s Decree.
54-56 “But now listen! Do you hear it? A cry out of Babylon! An unearthly wail out of Chaldea! God is taking his wrecking bar to Babylon. We’ll be hearing the last of her noise— Death throes like the crashing of waves, death rattles like the roar of cataracts. The avenging destroyer is about to enter Babylon: Her soldiers are taken, her weapons are trashed. Indeed, God is a God who evens things out. All end up with their just deserts.
57 “I’ll get them drunk, the whole lot of them— princes, sages, governors, soldiers. Dead drunk, they’ll sleep—and sleep and sleep . . . and never wake up.” The King’s Decree. His name? God-of-the-Angel-Armies!
58 God-of-the-Angel-Armies speaks:
“The city walls of Babylon—those massive walls!— will be flattened. And those city gates—huge gates!— will be set on fire. The harder you work at this empty life, the less you are. Nothing comes of ambition like this but ashes.”
* * *
59 Jeremiah the prophet gave a job to Seraiah son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, when Seraiah went with Zedekiah king of Judah to Babylon. It was in the fourth year of Zedekiah’s reign. Seraiah was in charge of travel arrangements.
60-62 Jeremiah had written down in a little booklet all the bad things that would come down on Babylon. He told Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, read this out in public. Read, ‘You, O God, said that you would destroy this place so that nothing could live here, neither human nor animal—a wasteland to top all wastelands, an eternal nothing.’
63-64 “When you’ve finished reading the page, tie a stone to it, throw it into the River Euphrates, and watch it sink. Then say, ‘That’s how Babylon will sink to the bottom and stay there after the disaster I’m going to bring upon her.’”
WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?
God assured His people that He hadn’t abandoned them, and He ordered them a second time to get out of Babylon when the opportunity arises. When Cyrus opened the door for them to go home, about fifty thousand Jews returned to Judah to restore Jerusalem and the temple. God was always in control. God is still in control. God has never relinquished his control and sovereignty.
Trust God not the circumstances! Some of God’s people thought it would be safer to stay with their captors! But if His people remained in Babylon, they would suffer the fate of the city. If they obeyed the Lord and returned home, they would experience a new beginning under the blessing of the Lord.
Do what God says! Dear Friends, it’s a matter of walking by faith and not by sight, trusting God’s Word instead of our own human evaluation. The exiles saw the high walls and huge gates of the city and concluded that such fortifications would repel any enemy, but they were wrong. Those walls and gates would become only fuel for the flames when the invaders arrived on the scene.
Lord,
May we trust wholly in you and lean on your understanding with obedience—even when hope seems unreachable. You are our hope, our Rescue, our life eternal. I love you with all my heart, mind, and soul. Lead me and I will follow.
“Get out, no way!” is a popular vernacular when expressing unbelief at what is currently happening in front of you or what is being said to you. Words that follow are usually words of shocking surprise and can be good or bad. Either way, what is happening is hard to believe—at first.
Most of the time, when God comes and intervenes His actions come with a warning. He knows us so well and knows we need forewarning. Whether we heed the warning or not, what God says He will do, He will do. This is what we have learned from the prophet Jeremiah over the last fifty chapters: If God says it, believe it! If He says, Get out then GET OUT!
Jeremiah 50, The Message
Get Out of Babylon as Fast as You Can
1-3 The Message of God through the prophet Jeremiah on Babylon, land of the Chaldeans:
“Get the word out to the nations! Preach it! Go public with this, broadcast it far and wide: Babylon taken, god-Bel hanging his head in shame, god-Marduk exposed as a fraud. All her god-idols shuffling in shame, all her play-gods exposed as cheap frauds. For a nation will come out of the north to attack her, reduce her cities to rubble. Empty of life—no animals, no people— not a sound, not a movement, not a breath.
4-5 “In those days, at that time”—God’s Decree— “the people of Israel will come, And the people of Judah with them. Walking and weeping, they’ll seek me, their God. They’ll ask directions to Zion and set their faces toward Zion. They’ll come and hold tight to God, bound in a covenant eternal they’ll never forget.
6-7 “My people were lost sheep. Their shepherds led them astray. They abandoned them in the mountains where they wandered aimless through the hills. They lost track of home, couldn’t remember where they came from. Everyone who met them took advantage of them. Their enemies had no qualms: ‘Fair game,’ they said. ‘They walked out on God. They abandoned the True Pasture, the hope of their parents.’
8-10 “But now, get out of Babylon as fast as you can. Be rid of that Babylonian country. On your way. Good sheepdogs lead, but don’t you be led. Lead the way home! Do you see what I’m doing? I’m rallying a host of nations against Babylon. They’ll come out of the north, attack and take her. Oh, they know how to fight, these armies. They never come home empty-handed. Babylon is ripe for picking! All her plunderers will fill their bellies!” God’s Decree.
11-16 “You Babylonians had a good time while it lasted, didn’t you? You lived it up, exploiting and using my people, Frisky calves romping in lush pastures, wild stallions out having a good time! Well, your mother would hardly be proud of you. The woman who bore you wouldn’t be pleased. Look at what’s come of you! A nothing nation! Rubble and garbage and weeds! Emptied of life by my holy anger, a desert of death and emptiness. Travelers who pass by Babylon will gasp, appalled, shaking their heads at such a comedown. Gang up on Babylon! Pin her down! Throw everything you have against her. Hold nothing back. Knock her flat. She’s sinned—oh, how she’s sinned, against me! Shout battle cries from every direction. All the fight has gone out of her. Her defenses have been flattened, her walls smashed. ‘Operation God’s Vengeance.’ Pile on the vengeance! Do to her as she has done. Give her a good dose of her own medicine! Destroy her farms and farmers, ravage her fields, empty her barns. And you captives, while the destruction rages, get out while the getting’s good, get out fast and run for home.
* * *
17 “Israel is a scattered flock, hunted down by lions. The king of Assyria started the carnage. The king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, Has completed the job, gnawing the bones clean.”
18-20 And now this is what God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel, has to say: “Just watch! I’m bringing doom on the king of Babylon and his land, the same doom I brought on the king of Assyria. But Israel I’ll bring home to good pastures. He’ll graze on the hills of Carmel and Bashan, On the slopes of Ephraim and Gilead. He will eat to his heart’s content. In those days and at that time”—God’s Decree— “they’ll look high and low for a sign of Israel’s guilt—nothing; Search nook and cranny for a trace of Judah’s sin—nothing. These people that I’ve saved will start out with a clean slate.
* * *
21 “Attack Merathaim, land of rebels! Go after Pekod, country of doom! Hunt them down. Make a clean sweep.” God’s Decree. “These are my orders. Do what I tell you.
22-24 “The thunderclap of battle shakes the foundations! The Hammer has been hammered, smashed and splintered, Babylon pummeled beyond recognition. I set out a trap and you were caught in it. O Babylon, you never knew what hit you, Caught and held in the steel grip of that trap! That’s what you get for taking on God.
25-28 “I, God, opened my arsenal. I brought out my weapons of wrath. The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, has a job to do in Babylon. Come at her from all sides! Break into her granaries! Shovel her into piles and burn her up. Leave nothing! Leave no one! Kill all her young turks. Send them to their doom! Doom to them! Yes, Doomsday! The clock has finally run out on them. And here’s a surprise: Runaways and escapees from Babylon Show up in Zion reporting the news of God’s vengeance, taking vengeance for my own Temple.
29-30 “Call in the troops against Babylon, anyone who can shoot straight! Tighten the noose! Leave no loopholes! Give her back as good as she gave, a dose of her own medicine! Her brazen insolence is an outrage against God, The Holy of Israel. And now she pays: her young strewn dead in the streets, her soldiers dead, silent forever.” God’s Decree.
31-32 “Do you get it, Mister Pride? I’m your enemy!” Decree of the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies. “Time’s run out on you: That’s right: It’s Doomsday. Mister Pride will fall flat on his face. No one will offer him a hand. I’ll set his towns on fire. The fire will spread wild through the country.”
* * *
33-34 And here’s more from God-of-the-Angel-Armies:
“The people of Israel are beaten down, the people of Judah along with them. Their oppressors have them in a grip of steel. They won’t let go. But the Rescuer is strong: God-of-the-Angel-Armies. Yes, I will take their side, I’ll come to their rescue. I’ll soothe their land, but rough up the people of Babylon.
35-40 “It’s all-out war in Babylon”—God’s Decree— “total war against people, leaders, and the wise! War to the death on her boasting pretenders, fools one and all! War to the death on her soldiers, cowards to a man! War to the death on her hired killers, gutless wonders! War to the death on her banks—looted! War to the death on her water supply—drained dry! A land of make-believe gods gone crazy—hobgoblins! The place will be haunted with jackals and scorpions, night-owls and vampire bats. No one will ever live there again. The land will reek with the stench of death. It will join Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors, the cities I did away with.” God’s Decree. “No one will live there again. No one will again draw breath in that land, ever.
* * *
41-43 “And now, watch this! People pouring out of the north, hordes of people, A mob of kings stirred up from far-off places. Flourishing deadly weapons, barbarians they are, cruel and pitiless. Roaring and relentless, like ocean breakers, they come riding fierce stallions, In battle formation, ready to fight you, Daughter Babylon! Babylon’s king hears them coming. He goes white as a ghost, limp as a dishrag. Terror-stricken, he doubles up in pain, helpless to fight, like a woman giving birth to a baby.
44 “And now watch this: Like a lion coming up from the thick jungle of the Jordan, Looking for prey in the mountain pastures, I’ll take over and pounce. I’ll take my pick of the flock—and who’s to stop me? All the so-called shepherds are helpless before me.”
45-46 So, listen to this plan that God has worked out against Babylon, the blueprint of what he’s prepared for dealing with Chaldea:
Believe it or not, the young, the vulnerable—mere lambs and kids—will be dragged off. Believe it or not, the flock in shock, helpless to help, watches it happen. When the shout goes up, “Babylon’s down!” the very earth will shudder at the sound. The news will be heard all over the world.
WHAT WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?
Consider this information from Warren Wiersbe, Bible Scholar and Commentator:
“In Scripture, the city of Babylon is contrasted with the city of Jerusalem—the proud city of humanity versus the Holy City of God. In Hebrew, the name “babel” means “gate of God,” but babel is so close to the word balal (“confusion”) that it’s associated with the famous tower of Babel and the confusion of human languages (Gen. 11:1–9).”
Jeremiah’s prophecies extend to the “last days” just before Jesus comes back again.
“Babel/Babylon is a symbol of rebellion against God, the earthly city of human splendor opposing the heavenly city that glorifies God. All of this culminates in the Babylon of Revelation 17:1—19:10, “Babylon the Great” that symbolizes the anti-God system that controls the world in the end times and then is destroyed by the Lord.”
So, this is more than conquering Babylon and returning the captives to their home in Jerusalem. It is representative of God versus Evil. We know from reading the end of the Book, that God wins! We win by accepting Jesus Christ as our forever Savior and Lord! “Get out!” Yes, believe it and we are saved for eternity from all that evil will try to do to win a war that is already won by God because of His Son, Jesus Christ. He is King of kings and Lord of lords, right now and will be forevermore.
Leave the captivity of self, of thinking you know it all, to really knowing the One and Only who loves you more than you could ever love yourself. This knowing begins with believing, asking for forgiveness, then following where His Holy Spirit leads. Get out of the darkness and come into the Light of Truth, love, mercy and grace that lasts forever—beyond our lifetimes on earth! This is God who wants a relationship with us!
Lord,
There is so much to learn each day, that it is hard to put down Your Book that teaches volumes of wisdom, ways to salvation, while being in Your Holy Presence. Thank you, thank you, thank you for saving our souls and making us whole. Continue to transform me.
In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen
EPILOGUE
God’s chosen servant will always succeed. The Lord’s judgment on Babylon would be like the winnowing of the grain: “Great Babylon” would be blown away like chaff along with its idols.
What will it take to break us? What does it mean to be “broken”?
What does God have to allow to happen in and around us to get our attention?
It seems when all is going well, we praise ourselves by letting others know what we have done. We begin to trust in our own thoughts and understanding of every situation and circumstance. We only invite people into our circle who will approve and affirm whatever we say and do. We push away those who don’t believe in us. So, I’m wondering; when we rely fully on ourselves, aren’t we worshiping ourselves?
We are broken.
Jeremiah 49, The Message
You’re a Broken-Down Has-Been
49 1-6 God’s Message on the Ammonites:
“Doesn’t Israel have any children, no one to step into her inheritance? So why is the god Milcom taking over Gad’s land, his followers moving into its towns? But not for long! The time’s coming” —God’s Decree— “When I’ll fill the ears of Rabbah, Ammon’s big city, with battle cries. She’ll end up a pile of rubble, all her towns burned to the ground. Then Israel will kick out the invaders. I, God, say so, and it will be so. Wail Heshbon, Ai is in ruins. Villages of Rabbah, wring your hands! Dress in mourning, weep buckets of tears. Go into hysterics, run around in circles! Your god Milcom will be hauled off to exile, and all his priests and managers right with him. Why do you brag of your once-famous strength? You’re a broken-down has-been, a castoff Who fondles his trophies and dreams of glory days and vainly thinks, ‘No one can lay a hand on me.’ Well, think again. I’ll face you with terror from all sides.” Word of the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies. “You’ll be stampeded headlong, with no one to round up the runaways. Still, the time will come when I will make things right with Ammon.” God’s Decree.
Strutting Across the Stage of History
7-11 The Message of God-of-the-Angel-Armies on Edom:
“Is there nobody wise left in famous Teman? no one with a sense of reality? Has their wisdom gone wormy and rotten? Run for your lives! Get out while you can! Find a good place to hide, you who live in Dedan! I’m bringing doom to Esau. It’s time to settle accounts. When harvesters work your fields, don’t they leave gleanings? When burglars break into your house, don’t they take only what they want? But I’ll strip Esau clean. I’ll search out every nook and cranny. I’ll destroy everything connected with him, children and relatives and neighbors. There’ll be no one left who will be able to say, ‘I’ll take care of your orphans. Your widows can depend on me.’”
12-13 Indeed. God says, “I tell you, if there are people who have to drink the cup of God’s wrath even though they don’t deserve it, why would you think you’d get off? You won’t get off. You’ll drink it. Oh yes, you’ll drink every drop. And as for Bozrah, your capital, I swear by all that I am”—God’s Decree—“that that city will end up a pile of charred ruins, a stinking garbage dump, an obscenity—and all her daughter-cities with her.”
14 I’ve just heard the latest from God. He’s sent an envoy to the nations: “Muster your troops and attack Edom. Present arms! Go to war!”
15-16 “Ah, Edom, I’m dropping you to last place among nations, the bottom of the heap, kicked around. You think you’re so great— strutting across the stage of history, Living high in the impregnable rocks, acting like king of the mountain. You think you’re above it all, don’t you, like an eagle in its aerie? Well, you’re headed for a fall. I’ll bring you crashing to the ground.” God’s Decree.
17-18 “Edom will end up trash. Stinking, despicable trash. A wonder of the world in reverse. She’ll join Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors in the sewers of history.” God says so.
“No one will live there, no mortal soul move in there.
19 “Watch this: Like a lion coming up from the thick jungle of the Jordan Looking for prey in the mountain pastures, I will come upon Edom and pounce. I’ll take my pick of the flock—and who’s to stop me? The shepherds of Edom are helpless before me.”
20-22 So, listen to this plan that God has worked out against Edom, the blueprint of what he’s prepared for those who live in Teman:
“Believe it or not, the young, the vulnerable— mere lambs and kids—will be dragged off. Believe it or not, the flock in shock, helpless to help, will watch it happen. The very earth will shudder because of their cries, cries of anguish heard at the distant Red Sea. Look! An eagle soars, swoops down, spreads its wings over Bozrah. Brave warriors will double up in pain, helpless to fight, like a woman giving birth to a baby.”
The Blood Will Drain from the Face of Damascus
23-27 The Message on Damascus:
“Hamath and Arpad will be in shock when they hear the bad news. Their hearts will melt in fear as they pace back and forth in worry. The blood will drain from the face of Damascus as she turns to flee. Hysterical, she’ll fall to pieces, disabled, like a woman in childbirth. And now how lonely—bereft, abandoned! The once famous city, the once happy city. Her bright young men dead in the streets, her brave warriors silent as death. On that day”—Decree of God-of-the-Angel-Armies— “I’ll start a fire at the wall of Damascus that will burn down all of Ben-hadad’s forts.”
Find a Safe Place to Hide
28-33 The Message on Kedar and the sheikdoms of Hazor who were attacked by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. This is God’s Message:
“On your feet! Attack Kedar! Plunder the Bedouin nomads from the east. Grab their blankets and pots and pans. Steal their camels. Traumatize them, shouting, ‘Terror! Death! Doom! Danger everywhere!’ Oh, run for your lives, You nomads from Hazor.” God’s Decree. “Find a safe place to hide. Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has plans to wipe you out, to go after you with a vengeance: ‘After them,’ he says. ‘Go after these relaxed nomads who live free and easy in the desert, Who live in the open with no doors to lock, who live off by themselves.’ Their camels are there for the taking, their herds and flocks, easy picking. I’ll scatter them to the four winds, these defenseless nomads on the fringes of the desert. I’ll bring terror from every direction. They won’t know what hit them.” God’s Decree. “Jackals will take over the camps of Hazor, camps abandoned to wind and sand. No one will live there, no mortal soul move in there.”
The Winds Will Blow Away Elam
34-39 God’s Message to the prophet Jeremiah on Elam at the outset of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah. This is what God-of-the-Angel-Armies says:
“Watch this! I’ll break Elam’s bow, her weapon of choice, across my knee. Then I’ll let four winds loose on Elam, winds from the four corners of earth. I’ll blow them away in all directions, landing homeless Elamites in every country on earth. They’ll live in constant fear and terror among enemies who want to kill them. I’ll bring doom on them, my anger-fueled doom. I’ll set murderous hounds on their heels until there’s nothing left of them. And then I’ll set up my throne in Elam, having thrown out the king and his henchmen. But the time will come when I make everything right for Elam again.” God’s Decree.
WHAT DO LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?
What a monumental example of what it is like to turn your back on God, leaving God behind to trust only in self with self-made idols as their own ways and means to live life. A person completely in love with self alone, adores his/her own accomplishments, and lords it over everyone who does not agree by murdering them is broken. They have a broken relationship with God.
God causes a clean sweep of the prideful arrogant with a promise…”the time will come when I make everything right again”.
I would rather be a broken-down-has-been than an arrogant fool. To be broken, laying down self before God is actually the best place to be. Broken is where God’s best work begins.
King of kings and Lord of lords,
That time came to make things right with you, dear Jesus! Thank you for saving my soul, picking up the pieces of my brokenness and making me whole by your salvation! Continue to transform me to be more like you and less like me.
“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” James 4:6
God levels the playing field by allowing those full of pride to suffer the consequences of their own behavior. Pride-filled people who have succeeded in life begin to think they are in control of life. They begin to put others down who get in their way—until someone more powerful comes along and knocks them off their self-made throne of arrogance. We see it happen in all walks of life. We see in happen to leaders of towns, cities, and nations. Leaders of small countries play “king of the hill” often while trying to make a name for themselves. These kinds of leaders are self-serving as opposed to serving the people of their country who pay their salary.
We see it happen in the church among congregations of believers. As humans, we place our pastor on a pedestal of honor because he has been chosen by God to speak for God. We begin to think he can do no wrong. If we are not careful, we as the listeners to God’s message begin to think the messenger is God. When we do this, the conditions and environment are formed in such a way that the pastor begins to think he is God, too. This temptation is tremendously great among pastors still today. It is evident from God’s Word that God hates “legendary pride” and deviant arrogance. There are over 30 passages that tell us how much God hates pride-filled people.
The more filled with pride we are, the less filled we are with Christ.
“Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” Proverbs 16-18
Yes, pride in the hall of fame is the precursor to the great fall of shame. Jeremiah relates the details of Moab’s fall from riches to rubble.
Jeremiah 48, The Message
Get Out While You Can!
1-10 The Message on Moab from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel:
“Doom to Nebo! Leveled to the ground! Kiriathaim demeaned and defeated, The mighty fortress reduced to a molehill, Moab’s glory—dust and ashes. Conspirators plot Heshbon’s doom: ‘Come, let’s wipe Moab off the map.’ The city of Madmen will be struck mute, as killing follows killing. Listen! A cry out of Horonaim: ‘Disaster—doom and more doom!’ Moab will be shattered. Her cries will be heard clear down in Zoar. Up the ascent of Luhith climbers weep, And down the descent from Horonaim, cries of loss and devastation. Oh, run for your lives! Get out while you can! Survive by your wits in the wild! You trusted in thick walls and big money, yes? But it won’t help you now. Your big god Chemosh will be hauled off, his priests and managers with him. A wrecker will wreck every city. Not a city will survive. The valley fields will be ruined, the plateau pastures destroyed, just as I told you. Cover the land of Moab with salt. Make sure nothing ever grows here again. Her towns will all be ghost towns. Nobody will ever live here again. Sloppy work in God’s name is cursed, and cursed all halfhearted use of the sword.
11-17 “Moab has always taken it easy— lazy as a dog in the sun, Never had to work for a living, never faced any trouble, Never had to grow up, never once worked up a sweat. But those days are a thing of the past. I’ll put him to work at hard labor. That will wake him up to the world of hard knocks. That will smash his illusions. Moab will be as ashamed of god Chemosh as Israel was ashamed of her Bethel calf-gods, the calf-gods she thought were so great. For how long do you think you’ll be saying, ‘We’re tough. We can beat anyone anywhere’? The destruction of Moab has already begun. Her choice young soldiers are lying dead right now.” The King’s Decree— his full name, God-of-the-Angel-Armies. “Yes. Moab’s doom is on countdown, disaster targeted and launched. Weep for Moab, friends and neighbors, all who know how famous he’s been. Lament, ‘His mighty scepter snapped in two like a toothpick, that magnificent royal staff!’
18-20 “Come down from your high horse, pampered beauty of Dibon. Sit in dog dung. The destroyer of Moab will come against you. He’ll wreck your safe, secure houses. Stand on the roadside, pampered women of Aroer. Interview the refugees who are running away. Ask them, ‘What’s happened? And why?’ Moab will be an embarrassing memory, nothing left of the place. Wail and weep your eyes out! Tell the bad news along the Arnon river. Tell the world that Moab is no more.
21-24 “My judgment will come to the plateau cities: on Holon, Jahzah, and Mephaath; on Dibon, Nebo, and Beth-diblathaim; on Kiriathaim, Beth-gamul, and Beth-meon; on Kerioth, Bozrah, and all the cities of Moab, far and near.
25 “Moab’s link to power is severed. Moab’s arm is broken.” God’s Decree.
The Sheer Nothingness of Moab
26-27 “Turn Moab into a drunken lush, drunk on the wine of my wrath, a dung-faced drunk, filling the country with vomit—Moab a falling-down drunk, a joke in bad taste. Wasn’t it you, Moab, who made crude jokes over Israel? And when they were caught in bad company, didn’t you cluck and gossip and snicker?
28 “Leave town! Leave! Look for a home in the cliffs, you who grew up in Moab. Try living like a dove who nests high in the river gorge.
29-33 “We’ve all heard of Moab’s pride, that legendary pride, The strutting, bullying, puffed-up pride, the insufferable arrogance. I know”—God’s Decree—“his rooster-crowing pride, the inflated claims, the sheer nothingness of Moab. But I will weep for Moab, yes, I will mourn for the people of Moab. I will even mourn for the people of Kir-heres. I’ll weep for the grapevines of Sibmah and join Jazer in her weeping— Grapevines that once reached the Dead Sea with tendrils as far as Jazer. Your summer fruit and your bursting grapes will be looted by brutal plunderers, Lush Moab stripped of song and laughter. And yes, I’ll shut down the winepresses, stop all the shouts and hurrahs of harvest.
34 “Heshbon and Elealeh will cry out, and the people in Jahaz will hear the cries. They will hear them all the way from Zoar to Horonaim and Eglath-shelishiyah. Even the waters of Nimrim will be dried up.
35 “I will put a stop in Moab”—God’s Decree—“to all hiking to the high places to offer burnt sacrifices to the gods.
36 “My heart moans for Moab, for the men of Kir-heres, like soft flute sounds carried by the wind. They’ve lost it all. They’ve got nothing.
37 “Everywhere you look are signs of mourning: heads shaved, beards cut, Hands scratched and bleeding, clothes ripped and torn.
38 “In every house in Moab there’ll be loud lamentation, on every street in Moab, loud lamentation. As with a pottery jug that no one wants, I’ll smash Moab to bits.” God’s Decree.
39 “Moab ruined! Moab shamed and ashamed to be seen! Moab a cruel joke! The stark horror of Moab!”
* * *
“Terror and pit and trap are what you have facing you, Moab.” God’s Decree. “A man running in terror will fall into a trap. A man climbing out of a pit will be caught in a trap. This is my agenda for Moab on doomsday.” God’s Decree.
45-47 “On the outskirts of Heshbon, refugees will pull up short, worn out. Fire will flame high from Heshbon, a firestorm raging from the capital of Sihon’s kingdom. It will burn off Moab’s eyebrows, will scorch the skull of the braggarts. That’s all for you, Moab! You worshipers of Chemosh will be finished off! Your sons will be trucked off to prison camps; your daughters will be herded into exile. But yet there’s a day that’s coming when I’ll put things right in Moab.
“For now, that’s the judgment on Moab.”
WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?
Moab is portrayed as a self-satisfied nation, feeling very secure, like wine aging in a jar and becoming tastier. Because the nation had been comfortable and self-sufficient, they were unprepared for what happened. The Babylonians emptied the wine from jar to jar and then broke the jars! What the Moabites thought they had was all gone. The arm is a symbol of strength, but Moab’s arm was broken. She had no strength.
God’s compassion. Remarkably, Jeremiah wept over the fall of Moab and wailed like a flutist at a funeral. Certainly, his grief shows us evidence of the compassion God has for people who are destroyed because of their sins against Him. God says “Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?” (Ezek. 18:23), and He does all He can to call them to repentance before judgment falls.
No escape from sins of pride!“Flee from the army, and you’ll fall into a pit. Climb out of the pit, and you’ll be caught in a trap”. Escape from the trap, and you’ll be engulfed by a fire. Escape from the fire, and you’ll be captured and taken away to Babylon. Sinners need to face the fact that they have no place to hide when God begins to judge (Rev. 20:11–15).
For lost sinners today, their only hope is faith in Jesus Christ, who died for the sins of the world. They need to flee for refuge to Christ (Heb. 6:18)—the only hope for their souls.
Jesus, Our Hope—Our One and Only Hope! Believe and be saved from self!
Run from pride at all costs! Run to Jesus. Be like Jesus! (See Philippians 2)
Receive complements from people with praise to God for working through us!
Lord,
Thank you for saving us from ourselves. Thank you for pulling us back from pride with your example of humble living. Continue to transform me until I am more like you and less like me.
Daily Manna (Coffee with Jesus) 