The Truth in Print Vol. 20 Issue 2, Mar. 2014

A Publication of the Valley church of Christ,

2375 W. 8th Street, Yuma, AZ 85364 (928-782-5058)

Website Address ~ http://yumavalleychurchofchrist.com

Jeremiah’s Lamentations — Look Who’s Cast into Hell!

The book of Lamentations puts Jeremiah in the city of Jerusalem at the time that it was utterly destroyed in 586 B.C. You may wish to read “Zedekiah Would not Listen” —- http://yumavalleychurchofchrist.com/articles/zedekiah.htm —- to better understand what happened in Jerusalem and Judah during Jeremiah’s days. “Jeremiah And The Unfaithful Remnant” —- http://yumavalleychurchofchrist.com/articles/jeremiah-unfaithfulremnant.htm —- is another recent article belonging to this particular period.

Jerusalem had been destroyed by Babylon and her people killed, tortured and taken captive. They were a people who refused to be ashamed of their sins — incurably sick (cf. Jer. Jer. 17:9-10; 44:15-19). God had afflicted her because of the multitude of her transgressions and her children had gone into Captivity before the enemy (Lam. 1:1-5); all they had was a memory of the precious things they once possessed (1:7); their punishment is now the yoke of their transgressions (Lam. 1:14); the punishment is greater than that of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown in a moment.

In it all God is righteous because they have rebelled against His commandments (1:18, 20); He fulfilled His warnings given in the days of old (2:17) — this was foretold some 800 years before in De. 28:36-37 by Moses (c.1405 B.C.); He did not relent or pardon (3:42); He did it in His fierce anger (1:12); He destroyed the tabernacle and worship places (2:6).

God Despised the King

Lam 2:6 And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the LORD hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest.

Lam 2:9 Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the Gentiles: the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the LORD.

When Nebuchadnezzar came in 606 B.C, king Jehoiakim was killed before they left (Jer. 22:18-19, 36:30). Look who’s cast into hell! (At this time Daniel and his friends were taken). He came again in 597 B.C. and took king Jehoiachin to Babylon (cf. 2 K. 24:12-16, 25:27-30). (Ezekiel and 10,000 were taken at this time). In 586 B.C. King Zedekiah (or Mattaniah) was captured when fleeing, brought to the king of Babylon at Riblah just above Damascus – his sons were slaughtered before his eyes (Look who’s cast into Hell!) – he was blinded — bound in bronze fetters and taken to Babylon and died there (Jer. 39:5-8). This time Jerusalem is destroyed.

Having read of the King’s captivity consider the duty that each king had to make a copy for himself of the Law, read it and learn to fear God thus prolonging his days upon the throne (De. 17:18-20).

Princes

Lament. 1:6 And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer.

Lament. 5:12 Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured. < Look who’s cast into Hell! There is a long list of their iniquities in Ezek. 22: 6-12, 27!

Priests

Eze 22:26 Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.

Lament. 1:19 “I called for my lovers, but they deceived me: my priests and mine elders gave up the ghost in the city, while they sought their meat to relieve their souls.” < Look who’s cast into Hell!

They died in the streets of starvation while looking for food! They should have kept knowledge, sought the law at God’s mouth, but as in Mal. 2:7-9 they departed from the Law, were partial in the law, and caused many to stumble.

God’s Purpose Is Not What the World Thought Would Ever Happen!

Lam 4:11 The LORD hath accomplished his fury; he hath poured out his fierce anger, and hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured the foundations thereof.

Lam 4:12 The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem. < World never thought it would happen!

Lam 4:13 For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her,

God had no more regard for them (Lam. 4:16); their enemies showed them none! Isn’t that the way the world is going to end? The world never thought it would come!

Prophets

Lam. 2:9 Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the Gentiles: the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the Lord.

Lam. 2:14 Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment.

Lam. 2:20 “Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?” < Look at who’s cast into Hell!

What should their prophets have done?

Jer 23:21 I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.

Jer 23:22 But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.

Elders

Lament. 2:10 “The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.”

Lament. 4:16 “The anger of the LORD hath divided them; he will no more regard them: they respected not the persons of the priests, they favoured not the elders.”

Now they keep their mouths shut because they have no respect after all of their deceit, murder, covetousness, partiality and lies. What do you think’s going happen to the virgins mentioned here? What do you think is going to happen to unfaithful “elders” in the church today?

What should the elders have done?

Lam 5:14 “The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick.” They sat at the “gate” for judgment and to put away the evil from among the people (De. 21:19-21; 22:18). Lev 19:32 “Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the LORD.” (C/w Prov. 16:31)

Mighty men

Lament. 1:15 “The Lord hath trodden under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me: he hath called an assembly against me to crush my young men: the Lord hath trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as in a winepress.” < Look at who’s cast into Hell!

Young men

Jer 18:21 “Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle.”

Lament. 2:21 “The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword; thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed, and not pitied.” < Look who’s cast into Hell!

Women

Lament. 2:20 “Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?”

Lament. 4:10 “The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.”

Lament. 5:11 “They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah.”

Virgins

Lament. 1:18 “The Lord is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment: hear, I pray you, all people, and behold my sorrow: my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity.”

Death Comes to Child, Suckling

Lament. 1:5 “Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the Lord hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy.”

Lam 2:12 They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom.

People in general

Eze 22:29 The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.

Eze 22:30 And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.

Eze 22:31 Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord GOD. < Look at who’s cast into Hell!

Who was the real enemy?

Judah’s enemies rejoiced over her destruction but the real enemy was God Himself (cf. Lam. 2:17; 2-3-5). Hell is everywhere in this book! God’s mercy is still there for a few who trust in him (Lam. 3:22-26). And the matter of turning and being restored is stated in Lam. 3:40, along with His power to renew days (5:21).

By Bob Lovelace

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Note: Here are two more articles regarding Jeremiah’s days and Judah: “Zedekiah Would not Listen” and “Jeremiah And The Unfaithful Remnant”.

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