Lamentations 4:13-22. Today we will read the second half of the third poem. If you read yesterday the first half of the poem described the situation of the people, we saw from the structure of the poem that the focus was verse 6, the people were living twisted lives, their sin (disobedience and disrespect toward God) was big and the punishment was bigger. In verse 12 even the surrounding nations were amazed.

I said yesterday that some Bible experts like to put verse 12 with 1-11 and others like to put it with 13-22. Remember this is one poem so it doesn’t necessarily have to go with one or the other and I think it connects to both. As I pointed out yesterday, poems are not essays, and they don’t necessarily have parts. This one does seem to have a clear section in verses 1-11 though(the chiasm, see yesterday’s post). Today’s reading goes deeper into the reason that Jerusalem fell. The destruction was ultimately from God but he used Nebuchadnezzar to accomplish it. The inhabitants of the earth were amazed that Jerusalem fell because it’s location was difficult to attack. Even the mighty Babylonian army took 18 months to get inside of the city. While verse 12 expresses the amazement of the world over the fall of Jerusalem (described in verses 1-11) they should not have been and verse 13 tells us why. The prophets and priests were not following God.

In verse 13 the sin (rebellion and disobedience toward God) of the priests and prophets included actually killing people who were honoring God (“the righteous”). If you read through the book of Jeremiah you might remember that the people turned to a false local god named Baal. Part of the “worship” (actions that are supposed to honor a “god”) of Baal involved burning your children alive, an “offering” to Baal. In Jeremiah 2:8 God condemns the prophets and priest through out Israel’s history of following Baal instead of Him. In Jeremiah 23 Jeremiah hints that the prophets of his day might have been doing the same thing. We know that the were offering the human sacrifices (Jeremiah 19:5; 32:35) and it is likely that the prophets and priests were involved (see Jeremiah 19:1 with Jeremiah 19:5 also Jeremiah 32:32 with Jeremiah 32:35). In Jeremiah 19:4 we are also told that innocent blood had been shed in Jerusalem the group there is similar to the group on chapter 32 and again it is likely that priests and prophets were involved.

In verses 14-15 we see that the priests and prophets were eventually rejected by the people who recognized that they had become evil. They wandered in the streets where the people declared that they were “unclean”. That is a term that means unacceptable to God. Evidently many of them fled to surrounding nations but were rejected there too. In verse 16 we see that it was God who scattered them. These men who once had been the most honored in the nation now received no honor. At the end of verse 16 we also see “elders’ mentioned, this is probably a reference to political leaders, the kings advisors. In Jeremiah 26:20-23 we read the story of another prophet who lived at the same time as Jeremiah, Uriah. Uriah made the same sort of predictions as Jeremiah about he destruction of Jerusalem and the need to submit to the Babylonian invaders. In his case then king Jehoiakim sent leaders to kill him. When he fled to Egypt he was hunted down and brought back to the palace where the king executed him personally. In verse 21 we learn that Jehoiakim’s leaders were in on the assassination with him.

In verses 17-20 we see people watching for help. Near the end Zedekiah’s reign he sent and requested help from Egypt. Although Egypt did send some troops they were no match for Nebuchadnezzar’s army. They never even got close to Jerusalem and were repelled back to Egypt. The people were watching “for a nation that could not save” them.

According to Jeremiah 39:3 Nebuchadnezzar’s army finally broke into the city and the leaders of the army set up a “court” at the “Middle Gate”. Gated of a city were where official business was carried out, they were like courthouses, sort of. According to Jeremiah 39:4 when King Zedekaih and his troops saw this they waited until evening and snuck out a different way. They didn’t get far (about 15 miles) and were captured by Nebuchadnezzar’s army in the desert (wilderness, v. 19) near Jericho.

One historian comments that Zedekiah was not well liked by the people. There is little evidence of this in the history contained in the Bible. He was appointed king by the hated Nebuchadnezzar and resisted the people’s push to revolt for a time. He eventually did revolt against Nebuchadnezzar but the result was the siege that took down Jerusalem. Also he ran once the city was taken. It would seem that he was a good candidate for the hatred of the people. Verse 20, though, seems to be talking about Zedekiah in a good light. He is called “the breath of our nostrils” (we might say something like, “You are the air I breathe!”) and “Yahweh’s chosen one” (LORD in all capitals in most English translations of the Old Testament indicates that the proper name of God is being used, Yahweh. The word translated “anointed” is “Messiah”. Anointing is the process of pouring or smearing something on someone. The action was used to show that the person was “chosen” for something. It’s like when a team dumps Gatorade on the coach, they are saying, “He’s the one!”). And according to the end of verse 20 the people had hoped he would be their leader as they lived as an independent nation among the nations. If the people didn’t like him very much it doesn’t show here, though they really had little choice at the time. But he too had fallen to Nebuchadnezzar.

Verse 21 seems to be a bit sarcastic. Edom was a neighboring country also under control of Nebuchadnezzar. In Jeremiah 27 we learned of a meeting early in the reign of Zedekiah when 5 surrounding countries sent representatives to Jerusalem to talk about a revolt against Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah warned all six (including Judah) not to revolt. Edom was one of these countries. The Edomites lived just south and east of the southern tip of the Dead Sea. In the desert canyons and hills. Edomites were descendants of Esau, Jacob’s (Israel’s, see “What’s in a Name”) twin brother. There had been bad blood between the descendants of these two brothers for centuries. Many Bible experts believe the book of Obadiah, a warning of judgment for the Edomites, was written after the fall of Jerusalem in response to their change in loyalty back to Nebuchadnezzar. Because of that loyalty Nebuchadnezzar gave the Edomites grazing land that had belonged to Judah. It is more likely though that the book of Obadiah was written after the Edomites assisted in another invasion 250 years earlier by the Arabs and Philistines (848-841 BC). As you can see, thought, the relationship between the two nations was not good. Edom might be laughing at their old enemy now (v. 21) but their day was coming.

In verse 21 we see that the punishment is compared to a cup of wine. The wrath of God is often described as being in a cup. We also see the picture of the Edomites being so drunk that they ran around naked. In the Old Testament the idea of being naked in public was a symbol of the greatest shame. We see that they had brought this on themselves (“make yourself naked”) by being enemies of the Israelites.

In verse 22 “the Daughter of Zion” (the people of Jerusalem and Judah) is told that her punishment is complete and that the exile will come to an end. Of course the exile wasn’t finished it had at about 50 years to go, but they were there in their exile finally after so many attempts to avoid it, and from God’s point of view it was a done deal. They were behind bars but only until their sentence was fulfilled them they would surely be released and restored. On the other hand Edom, who was celebrating the fall of their old foe, was just as certainly going to be punished for her iniquity (twisted lives) and God would expose their sin (the fact that they had missed God perfect target for their lives).

The people of Judah looked to so many people for leadership and help. Unfortunately they didn’t listen to the few who were giving them the right advise, guys like Jeremiah and Uriah. The false and bad leaders were held accountable for their bad leadership. But the people were still responsible for their disobedient lives, and they too suffered. Suffering for sin isn’t just for “God’s people” either. Edom was held responsible for her disobedience and twisted actions too. As was Nebuchadnezzar. In Romans 1-2 we are told that we are all responsible to see, seek, and serve God. In Romans 1:18 Paul tells the church at Rome that God going to judge all men for their “ungodliness” and “unrighteousness” who wrongly ignore the truth. He goes on in verse 19 that certain things are obvious to us both internally and externally. In verse 20 Paul tells us that God’s unlimited power and his divine nature (the things that make God different from everything else) are obvious as we look at the universe he created. We cannot look at the creation and deny God, not honestly anyway. So all men should be able to “see God”, at least to some extent.

In Romans 1:18-32 we see that mankind chose to reject the truth and go their own way. Because of this God would judge them (us)(v. 18). Paul makes it clear that all mankind is responsible to seek God, not look the other way and to serve God, follow his rules.

In Romans 2:9-16, 25-27 we see that we are all responsible to God, not just the Jewish people to whom he gave the written Law. All of us have at least some of God’s rules in our very conscience and our conscience shows us the reality and rules of God. That is probably what Paul meant in Romans 1:19 when he said God was obvious “within us”.

The bottom line is that God is real. His rules about life are real. There are consequences for breaking the rules. God will judge disobedience for real. But there is an up side, God will forgive, but not arbitrarily. God’s forgiveness will not go against his good and right and pure nature. We saw that he didn’t give the Israelites a pass, he wasn’t going to give the Moabites or the Babylonians a pass either; they would all suffer consequences for their disobedience, disrespect, and rebellion toward him; for breaking his rules.   His forgiveness is based on someone suffering the consequences for our sin. That someone was God himself in the person of Jesus Christ, the real “chosen one” (see Isaiah 53:6, 11). That same servant will one day rule the nations (Revelation 15:13). Today though he can rule in your heart; your life. Jesus promised all who would put their eternity in his hands that he would put in them the Holy Spirit to help them remember his teachings and live for him. Jesus compared this to fresh pure water, like from a spring in the mountains (John 4:14). At the end of the bible in Revelation 22:17 the Holy Spirit and the followers of Jesus invate all who are thirsty, those who want a relationship with God forever to come and drink this “water of life”. Do you want peace with God, come. Do you want eternity with him, come. Come to Jesus today if you already haven’t.

God make us thirsty for you. Help us not ignore the signs you have given us. Help us understand our conscience is a message from you encouraging us to look for more; the more that you have communicated to us in the Bible; the more you have provided through Jesus. I think we are all thirsty. Help many find the pure water that gives us an eternal relationship with you. Help us all find Jesus and turn to him. Thank you for helping me. Help me help others.