Lamentations 4

CHAPTER 4THEME: Elegy 4This fourth lamentation is a meditation. Sitting amidst the debris and ashes of Jerusalem, Jeremiah describes the horror of the destruction of his city and the carrying into captivity of the people by Nebuchadnezzar. It is so terrifying that I might be tempted to shun giving such a doomsday message. But we need to face up to the fact that God is a righteous God as well as a God of love. God judges sin, and He is righteous in doing so. Judah did not receive full judgment because of the mercies of God. Habbakuk said, “…in wrath remember mercy” (Hab_3:2). God never forgets to be merciful. There is always a way out for God’s people if they will come God’s way.

Lamentations 4:1

Jeremiah is comparing gold to the young men of Zion. The fine young men of Judah who were like gold vessels are now like earthen vessels of clay. They have been broken. That is the terrifying thing about warfare: it eliminates the finest young men of a nation. We are a proud people in this country. Even Christians are told that they need to think well of themselves. I heard of a Christian psychologist who teaches that you should get up every morning, look in the mirror, and say, “I love you!” Well, a lot of the saints don’t need to be told thatthey already love themselves! The apostle Paul says that we are not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought. If we don’t think of ourselves more highly than we ought, we will find that we are merely clay vessels. In 2 Timothy Paul likens the believer to a clay vessel. However, the issue is not of what material the vessels are made, but how they are being used. Are we vessels for the Master’s use or for our own use? At the wedding in Cana of Galilee the Lord Jesus had the servants bring out those old beaten water pots, which had apparently been stuck back in a corner until after the wedding. He used those old pots to supply the crowd with drink. He could use those pots, but He had to fill them with water. The water is the Word of God. When we, as old water pots, get filled with the Word of God, God can use us. The young men of Judah had not been serving God, and they were now just broken pieces of pottery. What a tragic picture this is!

Lamentations 4:4

The siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar was a horrible thing. The people suffered inside the city. Instead of surrendering, they held out and saw their little babies die. Shakespeare has Lady Macbeth say: “I have given suck and know How tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me: I would, while it was smiling in my face, Have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums, And dash’d the brains out, had I so sworn as you” (Macbeth, Acts 1, scene 7). That is a bitter awful thing! But don’t point your finger back to the terrible things these people did, for today, my friend, abortion is the murder of little children.

Lamentations 4:5

They had lived in luxury, they had had big supermarkets, but now the shelves of the supermarkets are bare. They no longer can enjoy the conveniences they once hadin fact, they don’t have any at all. Have you ever stopped to think what could happen to the place where you live? Suppose those supermarket shelves which now groan with food were all empty next week when you do your shopping. Suppose you flipped the switch in your home and the lights did not come on. Suppose there was no heat, no air conditioning, no gas for the automobile. A howl of despair would go up in this nation. We would be a helpless people. That’s what happened to Jerusalem. God judged them.

Lamentations 4:6

God judged Sodom and Gomorrah, but God judged Jerusalem more severely. Why was that? Because the sin of Jerusalem was worse than that of Sodom and Gomorrah. Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by homosexuality. That is an awful sin, but there is something worse than that. It is worse for a man to sit in the church pew and hear the gospel and do nothing about it. That might be true of someone reading this book. Jesus Christ died for you. God is merciful to you today, and you have turned your back on Him. When God judges, your judgment will be more severe than for the heathen in Africa or in the islands of the sea. Don’t worry about the heathen out there; worry about yourself. How have you responded to God’s offer of grace in Jesus Christ?

Lamentations 4:7

Boy, they looked good, didn’t they? Religion today looks good. We have new churches todaynew sanctuaries and nice Christian education buildings where we have a place to play volleyball and basketball. We’ve got a baseball team. We have a nice room for banquets. It all looks good on the outside. Now Jeremiah is saying that a Nazarite was one who took a voluntary oath, and many did it. They were complimented; they looked good, you know. But it was all on the outside; their hearts were not changed. While it is wonderful to have beautiful churchesI’m not opposed to them; I’m excited about themit is tragic when the people on the inside are not new creatures in Christ Jesus. They are still doing the same old sins. That is the picture Jeremiah gives us of the people of Judah.

Lamentations 4:9

Even though Jeremiah has witnessed the awful destruction of Jerusalem and those who had died, he says he would rather be dead than alive, for the condition of those who remained was so terrible.

Lamentations 4:10

The same thing took place when Titus destroyed Jerusalem in A.D. 70. The people got so hungry that mothers had to give their own babies to be eaten! We look back and think how horrible this was but today many mothers are having abortions, actually murdering their babies. If we don’t want a baby, we must take responsibility for our actions before a baby becomes a reality. God has made us capable of having babies and when one has been conceived, it is His intention for that child to come into the world. The moment the child is conceived, he is a person and to abort a pregnancy is murder of a human being.

Lamentations 4:13

Because the false prophets and the priests did not tell the people the truth, they were guilty of murderthat is God’s estimate of it. A preacher who won’t preach the Word of God and tell the people how they might be saved is put in this classification. I didn’t say thatGod said it. God says if you don’t give out the Word of God, you are guilty.

Lamentations 4:16

The people paid no attention to the priests who were giving out the Word of God. Jeremiah was a prophet of God, and they paid no attention to him at all. God judged the people for that.

Lamentations 4:17

This is something the modern nation of Israel needs to learn. God did not put them back in the land in 1948; the United Nations made them a nation, and since that time they have never known one minute of peace. There have been wars and threats of war continually. They have not turned to God, and God did not put them back into the land. Don’t misunderstand me, I think the return of the Jews to Israel was a tremendous thing. Dr. W. F. Albright has made this statement: “It is without parallel in the annals of human history that a nation carried into captivity for seventy years should return to resume its national life, and that after nearly six hundred years, this same nation should again be scattered worldwide for nearly two thousand years and retain its identity.” To see how God has dealt with this nation has caused many to turn to Him. The Lord says that the problem was that Judah was looking to Egypt for help, and Egypt was not a help; they were an enemy. The United States should recognize that it is not the war machines we need to give to Israel. We need to give them the Word of God, the Word which they gave to us so many years ago.

Lamentations 4:20

What a picture of that people as they are today! They are scattered among the heathen.

Lamentations 4:22

After the judgment, God promises that He will permanently place them in the land.