“For the sins of her prophets…”

The third chapter of Lamentations is really the high point of the book. In the last two chapters Jeremiah returns to a further consideration of the pitiful state of Zion, due to her continuing apostasy. However, these last two chapters are distinct from the first two in that they tell of sincere repentance, and they outline more clearly the coming deliverance “to turn back the captivity” of Israel (4:21,22).

Here we have one of the most moving and horrifying pictures of suffering and famine which inevitably followed the invasion of Judah. There is the terrible portrayal of famine, and consequent cruelty, as those that remained behind struggled frantically to survive (vv 4,5).

Verses 1-12: Contrast of Sons of Zion: Fine Gold to Earthen Pitchers–

The most precious possession — the greatest natural resource of any nation — is its people. Thus, the sons of Zion are symbolised by gold and precious stones. A nation’s vitality is determined by the condition, motivation, and loyalty of its citizens. This was especially true of Judah, for their national economy was as strong as their faithfulness to God. When the sons of Zion were faithful, they were precious in God’s eyes and He became their staff and shield. When they were unfaithful, God became the rod of correction to them, and they became base in His eyes. They were removed from their place of pre-eminence over the nations and like a shattered piece of pottery they were broken and scattered.

In times of stress people often lose whatever “godliness” they might possess. Israel, for example, had become lower than animals with respect to responsibility to their young (2Ki 6:25-29). This is a picture of futility — even depravity, brought about by great tribulation. The city’s inhabitants, once the picture of health, became spiritually and physically “withered”.

“How is the gold become dim!” (v 1): Gold is used throughout the Bible as a symbol of faith — a tried faith in God, as gold that has passed through the fire and been purified (1Pe 1:7; Job 23:10). Thus, gold or faith is the basis for the kingdom of God, both in the past and in the future. In Jeremiah’s time, true faith had all but completely disappeared, and thus the kingdom was removed from the “daughter of Zion” (Ezek 21:25-27). The gold became dim (dark) because of impurities.

Gold was found in abundance in Solomon’s temple, but Nebuchadnezzar’s hordes made short work of it (1Ki 6:22; 2Ki 25:9,10).

“How is the most fine gold changed!” This is a reference to a deed of Solomon, but it is typical of the lack of faith in God common to most men and most times — especially so to Jeremiah’s time. Solomon possessed 300 gold shields (1Ki 10:17) — symbols of faith in God (cp Eph 6:16 — “the shield of faith”). But he unwisely used his wealth to buy leagues with other nations, and thus to glorify the flesh and his own ingenuity. This did not profit him, and after his death Shishak of Egypt removed the remainder of the gold shields during the reign of Rehoboam (1Ki 14:26,27). And Rehoboam replaced the shields of gold with shields of brass — or copper — denoting trust in man. The fine gold was changed!

“The stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street.” Stones are often representative of people; and the type of stone determines the type of person intended. Peter’s profession of faith in the Messiahship of Jesus is called a “rock” (Mat 16:16) — the sturdy foundation of the Holy City (Rev 21:14), the stones of God’s sanctuary or temple — because all the “stones” of that eternal city will have professed the same faith as Peter. They will be “lively (or living) stones” built up around Christ — the “chief cornerstone” (Isa 28:16; Psa 118:22; Acts 4:11), the “rock” in the wilderness (1Co 10:1-4). Thus Jeremiah is here bewailing the righteous.

“How are they esteemed as earthen pitchers” (v 2). Those who might have been precious stones and fine gold instead failed to please God; and they were to be broken, as in Jer 19:11 and Isa 30:14.

Man is an earthen vessel, made by God (Jer 18:6; Rom 9:21). He must be filled — or fill himself — with the “treasure” of God’s knowledge (2Co 4:6, 7), or else he will be destroyed as vessels of wood and earth (2Ti 2:20).

Verses 13-16: Sins of the Leaders

It is natural, when seeking to place the blame for Judah’s apostasy, to turn first to the leaders: the prophets (such as the deceitful Hananiah — Jer 28) and the priests (This is certainly a warning to any of those who aspire to be leaders in the Ecclesia). The “prophets” of Jeremiah’s and Ezekiel’s time spoke smooth words, and promised good fortune for all. They professed a cheery outlook when God’s true prophets foresaw darkness and punishment. Ezekiel warned against such prophets, and promised that they would be held accountable for failing to “declare the whole counsel of God” in warning of punishment to come:

“But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand” (Ezek 33:6).

The true watchman must sound an early warning when sin threatens, even though those he arouses from their slumber may be ungrateful. It is better to risk offending man than to offend God (Acts 4:19; 5:29).

Verses 17-20: Vain Hopes

These verses imply first of all that the common people were in a great measure responsible also for the downfall of Judah. They were deceived by their leaders, it is true; but they willingly allowed themselves to be deceived. They are condemned for their false trust, and for their ears which itched to hear “smooth things” (Isa 30:10).

These verses also stress the vain hopes in which Judah trusted — the nation that could not save them, the ruler that could not save them, the beliefs that could not save them, the false sense of security that could only hasten their doom.

“The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD” (v 20) — To whom was Jeremiah referring? Perhaps there are several answers:

1. Josiah, the last righteous king of Judah, and a type of Christ in many ways, but who had died 608 BC (2Ch 35:25).

2. Zedekiah, Judah’s last king, and the center of their feeble hopes, although a wicked man — who was carried captive.

3. Prophetically: Christ, the only true hope of Israel (Luke 24:21), who was slain (Luke 19:14), leading to the dispersion of 70 AD.

“He was taken in their pits” —

1. The “pit” of nations — from 588 BC to the present time.
2. Death, which Christ suffered (Luke 24:25, 26) to deliver others from the same “pit” (Psa 107:20).

“Of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the heathen” —

1. The Jews’ false hopes in the kingship of Zedekiah.
2. The true hope found in Christ, fulfilled in vv 21,22 — when Israel is cleansed (Zec 13:1).

Verses 21-22: The Cup Passes to Edom

The “daughter of Edom” (v 21) had allied herself with Babylon against Judah (Oba 1:11: Joel 3:19; Psa 137:7). Edom may symbolise “all nations” (in Isa 34 the two are used interchangeably). “Edom”, as “Adam”, is the Hebrew word for “red”, or “flesh”. Thus it is a fitting designation for those last great fleshly powers of Gentile times who will oppress Israel: the Arabs (some of whom occupy the ancient territory of Edom) and the Russian “Reds”. These are the powers to be destroyed by Christ and the “saviours” who come up on Mount Zion (Isa 63:1; Oba 1:21).

“Edom” is said to dwell in the land of Uz. “Uz” signifies “wisdom, advice, counsel” — its citizens were famed for their learning — typical of all Gentile enemies of Israel, who boast in the “wisdom of this world” (Jer 9:23) but are blind to the one “hope of Israel”.

Various Greek texts entitle this elegy “A Prayer”. Other manuscripts add “of Jeremiah”.

Verse 1:

“Remember”: Compare 1:20; 2:20; 3:19. The Lord will remember the sufferings of the Jews. He will also remember the sufferings of the saints — as He did those of Christ (cp Psa 89:50, 51).

As James says, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16). The prayer of Hezekiah is a prime example (Isa 37:14-20). We are commanded to pray, in the same way, for the peace of Jerusalem (Psa 122:6).

“Behold our reproach”: Our shame, disgrace (RSV, NIV), and infamy. From a root word meaning “autumn” or “ripeness” — perhaps signifying here the fulness of iniquity, as the wicked finally reap what has been sown (v 7, notes; Gal 6:7). Jeremiah, true to his feeling for the “hope of Israel”, places himself among those who have sinned grievously. In a true spirit of brotherliness, he accepts partial responsibility for the sins of his countrymen.

Verse 2:

“Our inheritance is turned to strangers”: The inheritance is the promised land (Gen 13:15; Lev 26:5, 6), a land of milk and honey (Exo 3:8; Lev 20:24), given only temporarily and conditionally to the nation of Israel — if they followed God (Jer 3:19).

But the same inheritance is promised eternally to us: still, “our inheritance” may be also “turned to strangers” if we are rejected at the judgment seat (Mat 25:41).

Verse 3:

“We are orphans and fatherless”: God had been the Father to the Jews (Psa 68:5; 103:13; Jer 31:9, 10), but no longer.

Verse 4:

The Jews, as a result of the captivity, are now so degraded that they must buy from usurping strangers what was once their own property.

“We have drunken our water for money”: Judah is forced to buy her water, because she had rejected the true and living “water” (Isa 8:6; 55:1; John 4:10; 7:37); that is, she had rejected God, the fountain of living waters (Jer 2:13, 18; 17:3).

“For money”: Contrast Isa 55:1: “Without money”. This is the invitation of the gospel (Rev 21:6; 22:1, 17), which the Jews had spurned.

Verse 5:

“Our necks are under persecution”: The Jews, a stiff-necked people (2Ch 30:8; Isa 48:4), were down trodden (Psa 66:12; Isa 51:23). Compare 1:14; 3:34; 4:19.

Verse 6:

“We have given the hand”:

1. In submission, as in Jer 50:15.
2. Or in begging: “We have extended the hand.” What a come-down from the days when “Thou shah lend to others, but thou shalt not borrow” (Deut 15:6)!

3. Or in agreement: “We have made a pact with…” (Hillers). Compare Ezek 17:18 and thoughts in Jer 2:18, 36 and Hosea 7:11; 12:1. Perhaps all three ideas may find a place in a comprehensive view of this verse, and of Israel’s many-sided relationship with her neighbors.

“To the Egyptians”: After Josiah’s death (circa 608 BC), Egypt deposed his son Jehoahaz, and crowned Jehoiakin (2Ch 36:3, 4).

“To the Assyrians”: Or to Babylon, which occupied their former lands (cp Jer 2:18). Also, a type of the “Assyrian” from the north in the last days, who will have consolidated all the old empires: Russia!

Verse 7:

“Our fathers have sinned, and are not”: The nation has at last recognized the reason for God’s heavy hand upon them, the same hand which fell upon their fathers. Compare the words of Zechariah, spoken 70 years later:

“Your fathers, where are they?… and they returned and said, Like as the LORD of Hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us” (Zec 1:5, 6).

“We have borne their iniquities”: The Jews, similarly, had in Christ’s time filled up the measure of their fathers’ iniquity (Mat 23:32). Although it is a Scriptural principle that every man bears personal responsibility for his own deeds (Ezek 18:20), it is still true that national sins are often unpunished for a time, and judgment is stored up until a later date, when it all falls at one time (2Ki 24:21; Exo 20:5; Jer 32:18; Gen 15:13-16). Such was the case with the kingdom of Judah.

Verse 8:

“Servants (‘slaves’) have ruled over us”: This always happened when Israel forgot their one true Ruler — Yahweh. They did not heed Joshua’s command to drive out the Canaanites (Josh 16:10), who remained in the land throughout the period of the judges, and mightily oppressed them.

One of the four things which the earth cannot “bear” is “a servant (slave) when he reigneth” (Pro 30:21, 22) — a sad fact evidenced again in Israel’s history when those ruthless Roman “slaves”, the Edomite (Idumean) Herods, reigned!

This verse may also be a reference to the governors who evidently were soon to begin ruling in the land (Neh 5:15).

Verse 9:

“We gat our bread with the peril of our lives

because of the sword of the wilderness”: Contrast this with the fortunes of the Jews who spent 40 years in the wilderness, where they gathered bread each day; they found it as the dew upon the ground! They had “no lack”.

The famine of bread in Jeremiah’s time was only the type of the far worse famine — the famine of God’s word (Amos 8:11, 12). There were still prophets to speak to Israel, but most refused to hear — and thus brought the hardships of a “famine” upon themselves.

Verse 10:

“Our skin was black”: Affliction, persecution, wandering (Song 1:5, 6; Psa 119:83; Lam 4:8), famine (Rev 6:5, 6).

“Like an oven”: Egypt was symbolized by an iron furnace (Deut 4:20). A similar thought is intended here: the fiery persecution of the Jews. Likewise, the Psalmist, in 119:83, pictures himself as a bottle, or a wineskin, blackened by the smoke.

Verse 11:

“They ravished the women in Zion,

and the maids in the cities of Judah”: This was predicted in Deut 28:30, 32 and Jer 6:12. Israel’s latter-day enemies will also do this (cp Zec 14:2); but God sees and remembers (v 1), and such deeds will be punished (as in Isa 13:16; Psa 137:7-9).

Verse 12:

“Princes”: The nation of Israel (which signifies “a prince with El“).

“Princes are hanged up by their hand”: Probably impaling after death. Thus, falling under a curse (Deut 21:23; Gal 3:13).

“The faces of elders were not honoured”: See 4:16.

Verse 13:

“They took the young men to grind”: A low menial task, usually assigned to female slaves (Exo 11:5; Isa 47:2) or other women (Mat 24:41). The Philistines could think of no greater degradation with which to torment their blinded former nemesis-Samson (Judges 16:21).

Verse 14:

“The elders have ceased from the gate”: Counsel (as Ruth 4:1), as well as social and commercial activity (as Job 29:7; Pro 31:23), had ceased.

Verse 15:

“The city of confusion is broken down” (Isa 24:7-11). cp Jer 7:34 and Psa 30:11.

“Our dance is turned into mourning”: Now was the “time to weep” (Eccl 3:4), as Nehemiah was to mourn when he later saw the city lying waste (Neh 2:2, 3).

But “joy cometh in the morning” (Psa 30:5), and “they that sow in tears shall reap in joy” (Psa 126:5, 6).

Verse 16:

”The crown”: In two senses the “crown” had fallen:

The crown is a symbol of royalty, which had been overthrown (Jer 13:18; Ezek 21:26; Psa 89:39; Hos 3:4).

The crown also symbolizes obedience to the Truth (Rev 2:10; 3:11), and dedication and priesthood (Exo 28:36-38).

Verse 17:

See 1:22 and 2:11.

Verse 18:

“Because of the mountain of Zion”: The center of all true Jewish hopes (Isa 2:2-4; 24:23; Psa 133:3).

“The foxes walk upon it”: Compare Psa 63:10. “Jackals” (RSV, NIV), unclean scavengers, representing the unclean nations who “walk upon” the hope of Israel.

Verse 19:

“Thou, O LORD, remainest for ever;

Thy throne from generation to generation”: This is the one means by which the Jews’ sorrowful condition may be changed: God’s kingdom was once on earth (1Ch 28:5; 2Ch 13:8), and it will be re-established (2Sa 7:12-16; Acts 1:6; 14:16) as His throne (Jer 3:17).

Verse 20:

“For ever”: Literally, “for the age” (see, for example, Dr. Thomas’ exposition in Eureka, vol. 1, pp. 127-130). The age is evidently this age: the time of the Gentiles, the prophetic period now drawing to a close.

Verse 21:

A quotation from Jer 31:18.

“Turn Thou us unto Thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned”: True humility at last! A recognition that, as the punishments came from God, so forgiveness must come from Him as well, and repentance and renewal of purpose, by His grace and strength, will follow. It is vain to lament the past if our grief does not help us to make the future better, by seeking help from the one unfailing Source.

“Renew our days as of old”:

“And He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in former years” (Mal 3:3, 4).

Verse 22:

In the Hebrew manuscripts, verse 21 is usually repeated after verse 22 — so as to close the book on a more hopeful note (the same type of repetition is found in printed editions of some Hebrew Bibles at the end of Isaiah, Ecclesiastes, and But a fuller understanding of verse 22 makes such an editorial addition superfluous.

“But Thou hast utterly rejected us;

Thou art very wroth against us”: This verse has been poorly translated. It implies an utter, complete rejection of the Jews for all eternity — which is perhaps what orthodox translators would like — but which is certainly not in harmony with the rest of Scripture (see, for one example, 3:31-33, notes).

Some translators simply render this verse as a question. Note the RSV, the margin of the AV, and Keil. Rotherham translates it:

“For though Thou hast not utterly rejected us,

Thou art wroth with us exceedingly.”

And Goodspeed renders it in this way:

“If Thou wert to reject us completely,

Thou wouldst be going too far in Thine anger against us.”

God would not be going too far for just deserts, but too far according to His previous utterances. Such a proposal would be out of harmony with all the promises of God. Moses said that God would raise unto Israel a leader like unto him, whom they would hear.

They rejected this leader when he came the first time, but their hearts will be turned from stone to flesh when he returns in power and glory; when their pride and self-confidence has been abased before the latter-day enemy, and when God fights for them as in the day of battle. Then shall they open the gates of their hearts unto him:

“Lift up your heads, O ye gates;

even lift them up, ye everlasting doors;

and the King of glory shall come in…

The LORD of Hosts,

He is the King of Glory” (Psa 24:9-10).

Then, shall they say:

“BLESSED IS HE THAT COMETH IN THE NAME OF THE LORD.”

****

O! Mourn ye for Zion, her beauty is faded,

Her joy is departed, her glory is fled:

The light and the hope or her prospects is shaded:

She wanders in darkness, her comforts are dead.

Oh! pray ye for Zion: though sad and forsaken,

Though scorned and derided, despised and forlorn;

The truth of Yahweh, our God, is unshaken,

Her night shall but usher a glorious morn.

Oh! Labor for Zion, though now, in her blindness,

She knows not her Saviour, Messiah, and Lord;

Yet, guided by mercy, the life-tones of kindness

Shall win her full ear to the voice of His word.

Oh watch ye for Zion; the day-spring is breaking,

Her night has been gloomy, but shortly will end:

Her long-promised Shepherd, His lost sheep is seeking,

The heart of the rebellious nation will bend.

Oh! hope ye for Zion; salvation is near,

And brighter than morn’s rosy glow shall be seen;

The great Sun of Righteousness soon shall appear;

The beam of His glory shall gladden the scene.

Rejoice ye for Zion! Yahweh has spoken;

Jerusalem ‘s outcasts shall yet be restored;

The bonds of the fetter-bound slave shall be broken,

And Judah set free at the word of the Lord.

Verse 1:

“How is the gold become dim!”: Gold symbolizes faith — a tried faith in God, as gold that has passed through the fire and been purified (1Pe 1:7; Rev 3:18). Thus, gold — or faith — is the basis of the kingdom of God, both in the past and in the future. In Jeremiah’s time, true faith had all but completely disappeared, and thus the kingdom was removed from the “daughter of Zion” (Ezek 21:25-27). The gold in short, became “dim”.

“How is the most fine gold changed!”: This is a reference to the deeds of Solomon and Rehoboam (see 1Ki 10:17; 14:26, 27).

“The stones of the sanctuary”: “The holy stones” (RSV), perhaps the gems of the breastplate (Exo 28:17-21). This is figurative language; the literal gold and precious stones would never be discarded or ignored by the avaricious Babylonians. What was scattered about in the streets were the young children dying of hunger (see v 2 and 2:19)!

Verse 2:

“How are they esteemed as earthen pitchers”: Those who might have been precious stones and fine gold instead failed to please God, and like cheap pottery they were to be broken, as in Jer 18:2-6; 19:11; and Isa 30:14 (compare 2Ti 2:12).

Verse 3:

As in Isa 1:3 and Jer 8:7, the people of Israel are compared, and that unfavorably, to animals.

“Sea monsters”: By which the AV translators (so also those of the NEB) must have meant whales. But the Hebrew “tannin” may signify several different beasts — either of the water or the land. Since these particular “tannin” give suck to their young, some mammal must be intended here. Suggestions of various translators include “jackals” (RSV, NIV, and as in Isa 13:21), “she-wolves” (Keil), and “wild dogs” (Roth.).

“The daughter of my people is become cruel”: The Jews were compelled by God’s mercy (Exo 34:6, 7) to show mercy to others (Mat 22:37), but they failed, becoming covetous and proud (as in 2Ti 3:2-4), “without natural affection” (Rom 1:31).

“Like the ostriches in the wilderness (‘desert’)”: The ostriches are cannibals, eating their young (cp Job 39:13-18). See Lam 2:20 and 4:10 for the depth of the cruelty of Israel.

Even contemptible beasts of prey suckle their young, but the mothers of Israel under the pressures of the siege and famine behaved like the ostriches, notoriously indifferent toward their offspring (see Deut 58:53, 56, 57).

Verse 4:

See 1:11 and 2:11, 12.

Verse 5:

How fragile and unstable is “high society”, then and now! How sad that so much time and thought and wealth is given over to the cultivation of “good taste” — dress, furnishings, art and food — while the “weightier matters” of truth, justice and mercy are ignored! But some day (and it will be soon) the tables will be turned!

“They that did feed delicately”: “Those who feasted on dainties” (RSV). Isa 3:16-26 and Amos 6:3-7 provide the details for the same general condemnation of Israel: their sumptuous mode of life.

“Scarlet”: The garments of the wealthy (2Sa 1:24), connected with sin in Isa 1:18.

“Dunghills”: Better, “ash heaps” (RSV; NIV). Or “garbage” (Hillers), as though searching for food.

Verse 6:

“For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom”: Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed swiftly (Gen 19:24), but the final pangs of Jerusalem were intense and drawn-out (vv 8-10). Their deeds were the same (Isa 1:9, 10; Ezek 16:46-50), but the responsibility of the Jews was far greater (Amos 3:2; Mat 11:23, 24: see the introductory notes). The lesson is for us too (Heb 2:3; Luke 12:47). We are just as responsible to God — perhaps more so — than were these Jews.

“That was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her”: Sodom was directly destroyed by God. But Jerusalem was left to human hands — a much worse fate, as witnessed by David’s choice of God’s punishment over man’s punishment (2Sa 24:14) and Christ’s reference to Sodom’s judgment (Mat 10:15; 11:24).

Sodom was “overthrown as in a moment”, yet Jude speaks of Sodom and Gomorrah “suffering the vengeance of eternal fire” (v 7). This apparent contradiction is easily explained in that the effect of the fire (ie, absolute annihilation), but not the literal flames, was indeed eternal!

Verse 7:

The former state of Israel. This refers to holiness and dedication — Israel’s former state of mind toward God. Contrast this with v 8.

“Her Nazarites”: “Separated ones” (Num 6). Compare Amos 2:11, 12 and Jer 35 (the Rechabites). The entire nation had once been this way: reverent and healthy (cp David in 1Sa 16:17, Daniel in Dan 1:8-15, and Christ in Song 5:10).

“Polishing”: From a Hebrew word “gazar”, meaning “to divide”.

Verse 8:

“Their visage is blacker than a coal”: Symbolic of distress and depression (Job 30:25-31), mourning and famine (Rev 6:5, 6).

In Joel 2:6, to “gather blackness” means literally to “grow pale” (as in Nah. 2:10 also), in fear of coming judgments.

Verse 9:

Hunger and starvation, being prolonged, were worse than immediate death.

Verse 10:

The privations of the siege bring out the worst in men and women (cp 2:20; Jer 19:9; Lev 26:29; Deut 28:56; 2Ki 6:26-29). The darkness of this scene accentuates the brightness of Zechariah’s “Kingdom” promise, that the streets of this very city Jerusalem will one day be full of boys and girls at play (8:5).

“Sodden”: “Boiled” (RSV).

Verse 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”: Jerusalem was besieged approximately 18 months (2Ki 25:1-3). A literal fire is mentioned in 2Ch 36:19, but fire is also a common symbol of any destruction (Jer 21:14; Deut 32:22).

Verse 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”: Wonderment, as in Deut 29:24-28; Psa 48:4-6; and Rev 18:9,10. The gates of Jerusalem had been saved by Hezekiah’s faith (Isa 36 and 37), but that faith had lasted only as long as that righteous king had lived. The once-fine gold was dim, the faith was gone (v 1). Judah trusted in idols, and thus relinquished her peculiarity and became as other nations, which God destroyed by Sennacherib (2Ki 18:35). The elaborate fortifications which had been built by Uzziah, Hezekiah and Manasseh to protect Jerusalem were useless before the Babylonians.

Verse 13:

“The sins of her prophets,

and the iniquities of her priests”: The “prophets” and priests, supposedly the spiritual leaders of Israel, bore the greatest burden of guilt (Hos 4:6-10; Isa 9:14-16; they caused the people to err) because of their idolatry and injustice.

“That have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her”: As they almost did to Jeremiah (Jer 26:7, 23), and as they did in fact to the other prophets (2Ch 24:21; 2Ki 21:16; Mat 23:31, 37) and to Christ (Luke 23:22, 23).

Verse 14:

“They have wandered (‘staggered’) as blind men in the streets”: They were blind leaders of the blind (Mat 15:14; 23:16), in such a pitiful condition that they did not even realize their “blindness” (cp Rev 3:17).

“They have polluted themselves with blood”: They made no effort to cleanse their ways. They were ministers of God’s sanctuary, which they thoughtlessly polluted (Zep 3:4), worshipping “other gods” (Jer 19:4-6), and polluting at last all the land by their idolatry (Num 35:33).

The only remedy was for God to require their blood, or deaths.

Verse 15:

“They cried unto them”: The “they” are the men of v 14, who could not so much as touch the garments of the prophets and priests. See RSV.

“Depart ye… unclean… touch not”: An allusion to the leprous defilement of Lev 13:45.

“They shall no more sojourn there”: The type of Jew represented by the wicked priests and prophets became despised by his people and refused even by the Gentiles among whom he fled. So again with Jewry’s present religious leaders (Zec 13:3-6).

Verse 16:

“The anger of the Lord hath divided them”: “Scattered” (RSV).

“They respected not the persons of the priests”: The “they” here are the Babylonian invaders. Even the most barbarous of the Gentiles could see the hypocrisy of the Jewish priests (5:12).

Verses 17-20: This section describes the sins of the Common People. They were deceived by their leaders, condemned for false trust and for itching ears which wanted only to hear “smooth things” (Isa 30:10).

Verse 17:

“As for us”: Jeremiah speaks for the commoners, the poor of Israel, those without a shepherd whose part Christ took.

“In our watching we have watched”: Rotherham has, rather descriptively, “In our Watchtower have we watched”. In this verse Jeremiah is recalling actual events during the siege.

“A nation that could not save us”: Egypt (Isa 36:6; Jer 37:7), was neither willing nor able to help Israel when the crunch came — as, in the end, all Gentile nations will be unwilling or unable to help her.

Verse 18:

“They hunt our steps”: See 1:13 and 3:52.

Verse 19:

“Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of heaven”: Eagles are used as a symbol of Babylon in Jer 4:13 and of Rome in Deut 28:49.

“They pursued us upon the mountains”: As they did Zedekiah (Jer 39:4, 5; 52:8, 9).

Verse 20:

“The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD”: To whom was Jeremiah referring? Perhaps there are several answers:

1. Josiah, the last righteous king of Judah, and a type of Christ in many ways, but who had died 608 BC (2Ch 35:25).

2. Zedekiah, Judah’s last king, and the center of their feeble hopes, although a weak and wicked man — who was carried captive (2Ki 25:4-7).

3. As typical of later days, Christ himself, the only true hope of Israel (Luke 24:21), who was slain (Luke 19:14), leading to the dispersion of 70 AD.

“Was taken in their pits”: “Destruction” (Psa 107:20):

1. The “pit” of nations — from 588 BC to the twentieth century, a political “burial”.

2. Death, which Christ suffered (Luke 24:25, 26) to deliver others from this same “pit” (Psa 107:20).

“Of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the heathen”:

1. The nation’s sad, unrealized hopes in the kingship of Zedekiah.
2. The true hope found in Christ, fulfilled in vv 21, 22 — when Israel is cleansed (Zec 13:1).

Verse 21:

The “cup” is passed to “Edom”: compare the notes, 1:15, 21, 22.

“Daughter of Edom”: Which allied itself with Babylon against Judah (Oba 1:11; Joel 3:19; Psa 137:7).

“Edom” may symbolize “all nations” (as in Isa 34, where the two are used interchangeably). “Edom”, like “Adam”, is related to the Hebrew words for “red” (the color of sin) and “flesh” (the seat of sin). Thus it is a fitting symbol for that last great fleshly sin-power to oppose Christ’s kingdom, the Russian “Reds” and their allies — who will be destroyed by the “saviours” upon the mountains of Israel (Oba 1:21; cp Isa 63:1).

Of course, the ancient territory of Edom is currently occupied by the modern nations of Jordan and Saudi Arabia, nations that with their Arab allies may yet play a significant part in the developing affairs of the last days.

“That dwellest in the land of Uz”: “Uz”, the territory of righteous Job (Job 1:1), signifies “wisdom, advice, counsel”. The citizens were famed for their learning, and thus are typical of all Gentile enemies of Israel, who boast in the “wisdom of this world”, but are oblivious to the one “hope of Israel”.

“The cup also shall pass through unto thee”: Judgments, as in Psa 11:6; 75:8; Jer 49:12; Rev 14:10; 16:19 — “rendered double” (Rev 18:6). The exact sentiment was earlier expressed by Jeremiah 25:15.

“Thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked”: The association of drunkenness and self-exposure occurs also in Gen 9:21, 22 and Hab 2:15, 16. In the spiritual sense, Israel had become “drunken” in arrogance and worldliness, and she thereby uncovered the “nakedness” of her sin. Now she sees the same fate awaiting her neighbor Edom.

Verse 22:

“The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished”: Compare Isa 40:2: “Her warfare is accomplished… her iniquity is pardoned…” The Jews have received recompense enough for their sins, and they will now be healed in Christ’s kingdom (Zec 1:13-16, 13:1; Rom 11:23).

“He will no more carry thee away into captivity”: The Israelites, gathered back to the Holy Land (Mic 2:12; Zep 3:19), become the first dominion (Mic 4:6-8), sanctified unto God (Ezek 37:26-28). See also Jer 30:11: 31:10, 31-34; 33:15, 16; Zec 8:4, 5.

“He will discover thy sins”: “He hath stripped the veil from off thy sins” (Roth).

Verses 1-18: DARKNESS, AFFLICTION, DERISION, but “The Lord is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2Pe 3:9).

Verse 1:

“I am the man”: Jeremiah speaks for his nation Israel — God’s “firstborn” (Exo 4:22), who is afflicted, with the purpose of calling back the wicked (Ezek 33:11).

Jeremiah speaks for Jesus as well — and as a type of himself and all the saints, for whom Jesus is the primary example to follow. Jesus was the only-begotten of the Father (John 1:14; 3:16) — and thus the “firstborn”. He was afflicted (Isa 53:4), and he learned obedience by the things he suffered (Heb 5:8; Phi 2:5-8), being rewarded by his Father as the “firstfruits of them that sleep.”

“That hath seen”: “To see” in Hebrew idiom often means ‘to experience’ (Jer 5:12; Psa 16:10; Eccl 8:16).

“That hath seen affliction by (‘under’: RSV) the rod of His wrath”: The rod is an expression for correction (see Job 37:13, where “correction” is the identical word as “rod” here), punishment, and tribulation.

God used Babylon as His rod to punish Israel, just as He had previously needed to use Assyria as the “rod of his anger” (Isa 10:5, 15). Note Rev 11:1 and Lam 2:8, notes — where the punishment of Israel is seen to be only of a limited duration.

Christ suffered because of his fleshly nature, which made him susceptible to temptations and because his death was necessary to save himself as well as others. But the “rod” of God’s correction was not used upon him, for he never sinned. However, those in Christ — the saints, the multitudinous Christ — do feel this rod of correction. The promise to David speaks of the Messiah, and God tells him: “I will be his Father, and he shall be My son…” (2Sa 7:14).

The second part of that verse, however, can scarcely, if at all, be applied to Christ:

“If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men…”

This part of the verse seems definitely to apply to believers in Christ, whom God will correct as children. The Psalmist, in referring to this verse (2Sa 7:14), alluded to its plural application (see Psa 89:30, 32; cp Paul in 2Co 6:18; Gal 3:29).

“The man that has seen affliction” has gained knowledge of some of the deepest facts of life. He can scarcely help being wiser–and more sympathetic and thoughtful of others — than he was before the pain came. And if he thankfully receives the affliction as sent from God, and meant for his good, then he will become by the Divine discipline more righteous than he would ever have been otherwise. The fruitful branch, when it is pruned, becomes even more fruitful.

Verse 2:

“He hath led me, and brought me into darkness”: Most versions have “he has driven me into…” The “darkness” is the darkness of night (1:2), of the grave, and of the eclipse of the Jewish “star” in the “heavens” (2:1). See vv 53-55; compare Amos 5:18.

Verse 3:

“He turned His hand against me all the day”: The Hebrew idiom expresses repeated action. “And I will turn My hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy sin…” (Isa 1:25).

Verse 4:

“My flesh and my skin”: Israel’s fleshly, natural ways; her trust in her own strength and the strength of her Gentile friends, such as Egypt.

“Hath He made old”: The verb means “to waste away”, or “to wear out by rubbing”, and is used of old clothes.

“He hath broken my bones”: Hezekiah compared God with a lion: “As a lion has He broken my bones” (Isa 38:13). (The bones of an old person are easily broken).

Verse 5:

“He hath builded against me”: A siege — vv 7-9.

“Gall”: Bitter sorrow (as in Jer 8:14). Compare Jesus in Psa 69:21 and Mat 27:34 (“Vinegar mingled with gall”). The word appears again in Lam 3:19.

Verse 6:

This whole verse is a direct quotation from Psa 143:3, a psalm of David beseeching God’s help in time of trouble — easily attributable prophetically to the Lord Jesus in the calamity of his crucifixion.

“He hath set me in dark places”: Dark, cave-like sepulchres (cp Psa 88:6).

This may signify either:

1. The grave, “hades”, as in a political death for Israel (cp Ezek 37:2); or

2. A dungeon, as where Jeremiah was detained (v 53; Jer 37:16); or

3. Christ’s death and burial (Mat 27:66).

“As they that be dead of old”: Or, “they that have been dead since ancient times” — Men have always died, due to Adam’s sin (Rom 5:12), from the very beginning; and nations also “die” (Isa 14:9-11), since God rules in them (Dan 4:17, 25) and since only the Kingdom of God will be perpetual.

Verse 7:

“He hath hedged me about”: In the past, God had fenced Israel with a fiery wall of protection (Exo 14:19, 20; Zec 2:5); and He will do so again in the future (Zec 9:8; Isa 4:5; 60:18).

But, during the time of Jeremiah, Israel had sinned grievously, and the hedge became a hedge of thorns (as in Hos 2:6, 7), and a prison (cp Job 19:8), symbolizing God’s purpose of correction with His people (which they cannot alter), leading (eventually) to their return to Him, their Husband.

Every life is surrounded by divine limitations — God hedges us all about, in one way or another. For one there may be physical limitations — of health or disability or advancing age. Another might feel most severely the limitation of poverty; another yet, the lack of education. If we accept our Father’s will, then we will accept, and graciously live with, the “hedges” He has imposed upon us. But if we, fret and grumble and batter against these “fences” and “chains”, then we are rebelling against God and neglecting our unique opportunities to do the good which God has placed within our own power. As one brother expressed it, we must do what we can, with what we have, where we are. We are not responsible for what we cannot do, nor for what we do not have, nor for where we cannot go.

“My chain”: Literally, “fetters of bronze”. Compare “the yoke of my transgression” (1:14). And see also 5:5.

Verse 8:

“Also when I cry and shout, He shutteth out my prayer”: Cp v 44. Also, compare Christ when he was “forsaken” by his Father (Psa 22:1, 2; Mat 27:46).

Verse 9:

“Hewn stones”: Which fit together tight and make a stronger barrier than ordinary stones. “He hath made my paths crooked”: Note also Isa 63:17:

“O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear?”

The true picture is that God was long-suffering for a time, but then He allowed and even encouraged Israel to harden her heart even further. See note, 2:13 (“He hath turned me back”).

Verse 10:

“A bear lying in wait”: One of the 4 world-empires, and a ruler over the Jews, was the Medo-Persian Empire, “a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had 3 ribs in the mouth…” (Dan 7:5).

“As a lion”: The symbol of Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon (Dan 7:4).

Verse 11:

“He hath made me desolate”: Astonished, stupefied, terrified. Note Isa 3:26, Mat 23:38 (“Your house is left unto you desolate”).

Verse 12:

“As a mark (‘target’ — NIV) for the arrow”: God first of all spoke to His people by the prophets, charging them with their sins and “marking” them for judgment. Arrows are often figurative for disease (Job 34:6; Psa 91:5) or other sorrows sent by God (Deut 32:23).

Verse 13:

“He hath caused the arrows (lit., ‘children’) of His quiver to enter into my reins”: Then, after the warnings, came the actual judgments. See Job 6:4; 7:20; 16:12, 13; Psa 38:2.

Verse 14:

Compare 2:15; Psa 22:6. 7; Mat 27:39-44.

“I was a derision (‘laughingstock’ — NIV) to all my people”: Especially, note Christ’s experiences (Psa 69:12) — “His own received him not” (John 1:11); “No prophet is accepted in his own country” (Luke 4:24).

“Their song all the day”: Verse 63; Jer 20:7.

Verse 15:

“He hath filled me with bitterness”: Bitter herbs (Exo 12:8) of sorrow and grief.

“He hath made me drunken with wormwood”: To fulfill Jeremiah’s prophecy (Jer 9:15).

Verse 16:

“He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones”: Gravel and grit from the fire, in the bread baked in ashes — thus implying extreme poverty and hardship. Compare Pro 20:17:

“Bread of deceit is sweet to a man:

but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.”

Jesus figuratively contrasts bread and stones in Mat 7:9.

“He hath covered me with ashes”: mourning at the loss of fleshly strength and glory (cp Jer 6:26; Job 2:8). The RSV and Rotherham have “made me cower in ashes”.

Verse 17:

“And Thou hast removed my soul far off from peace;

I forgat prosperity”: Every good, every form of prosperity had been snatched away. Wherever he looked, he found nothing but chaos and privation and suffering. Compare Psa 120:6, 7.

Verse 18:

“And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD”: It may have seemed this way to Jeremiah and his contemporaries, but this is a hasty statement — as we see from vv 21-25. It may happen to any of us that, when troubles pile up, we might say in our haste and despair that all is vanity (Psa 116:11).

Verses 19-21: THE DESIRED EFFECT: TO SAVE A REMNANT. Through bitterness and suffering and adversity, the Israelite learns to turn to God:

“By the rivers of Babylon,

there we sat down,

yea, we wept,

when we remembered Zion

… How shall we sing the Lord’s song

in a strange land?

If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,

let my right hand forget her cunning;

if I do not remember thee,

let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth;

if I prefer not Jerusalem

above my chief joy” (Psa 137:1, 4-6).

The Jews who returned from the 70 years captivity in Babylon were a much more disciplined, righteous band than those who had been originally carried there. The rebellious, the half-hearted, the greedy and the idolaters had been left behind — often of their own will.

In the same way, when God brings the Jews back to Israel in the period after Christ’s return, He will purge out the rebels (Ezek 20:28; Zec 13:9). The Jews’ will return to their homeland with a renewed spirit, cleansed at last from their heathen associations, and much the better for their 2000 years spent in division and scattering.

Verse 20:

“My soul hath them still in remembrance,

and is humbled in me”: The greatest sorrow in affliction is the remembrance of better times.

Verse 21:

“This I recall in my mind; therefore have I hope”: This is the first gleam of real hope. The righteous remnant of Jeremiah’s time now realizes fully that these judgments are the hand of God — that, if they seek to obey Him, He will watch over them, and help them, and their hardships will become only chastenings from their Father. Indeed, if they were not chastened, they would be illegitimate and not sons (Heb 12:8).

Verses 22-30: THE LORD’S MERCIES, SERVICE, SEPARATION: These few verses demonstrate the attitude of life for Jeremiah and the righteous — in view of God’s hand upon them. In the same sense it is prophetic of the life which Christ led, and the lives of all true believers in the ages since; a reliance upon the Lord’s mercies, a patient faith and hope and a bearing of God’s yoke.

Verse 22:

“The LORD’S mercies”: The word “mercies” in the Old Testament is invariably connected with God’s promises, or covenants. “Mercy” and “covenant” are used alongside one another in Psa 89:28, and in v 1 of that psalm, the author says:

“I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever:

with my mouth will I make known Thy faithfulness to all generations…”

The mercies of God he identifies in vv 3, 4 — and throughout the psalm:

“I have made a covenant with My chosen,

I have sworn unto David My servant,

Thy seed will I establish for ever,

and build up thy throne to all generations.”

“It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed”: Note the lesson of Rom 9:21, 22 — that God is the Maker of His vessels and has absolute power over each one, to destroy or to save.

With special reference to the whole Jewish nation, God has preserved them due to His covenant with Abraham (Gen 12:3). He will never make a full end of them (Jer 30:11), for His own Name’s sake (Ezek 36:22).

Verse 23:

“They are new every morning”: God watches over His servants always. Man must sleep, but God is always awake — never withdrawing His life-giving and life-sustaining Spirit for the benefit of all flesh. The angel of His presence keeps us (Isa 63:9). Weeping may endure for a night, and that night — while we lie in darkness — may seem endless. But in the fresh morning of God’s grace there will come renewal and joy (Psa 30:5).

New every morning is the love

Our wakening and uprising prove;

Through sleep and darkness safely brought,

Restored to life, and power, and thought.

New mercies each returning day

Around us hover while we pray;

New perils past, new sins forgiven,

New time to serve our Lord in Heaven.

The daily round, the common task,

Will furnish all we ought to ask —

Room to deny ourselves; a road

To bring us nearer to our God.

So may we in our waking hours

Our Master serve with all our powers;

And while we serve, O may we be

As thou wouldst have us — more like thee!

Verse 24:

“The LORD is my portion”: This is the exact meaning of the name of Jeremiah’s father, Hilkiah — “Yahweh is my inheritance”. Again, this bears a direct relation to God’s promises, as in Psa 16:5, 10, 11. In conjunction with this is seen the hope of a resurrection to eternal life, first through Christ and then in all those “in Christ”. Along the same lines, compare Deut 4:20; 9:29; 32:9; Eph 1:11.

How comforting it is to remember, in the midst of loss or difficulty, that Yahweh is our “portion”. Jeremiah stood in the midst of a devastated city and a desolate land. All around him, his fellows had lost their “portions” — homes, families, communities, possessions of every sort. Those “portions” that are only natural and material are all reduced to the same vanity at the last, and the man who trusts in them has only wasted his time and guaranteed his ultimate disappointment. But the life that has God for a “portion” has the surety of hope and satisfaction at the last, and contentment even now — at the prospect of that inheritance. We are saved by hope. The process is yet far from complete, but it is our right and privilege to rejoice that our “portion” is in God’s hands, and that our hope will surely appear in the appointed time (Col 3:3, 4).

Verse 25:

“The LORD is good unto them that wait for Him”: The righteous are pictured by Isaiah as saying, in their time of deliverance, “We have waited for him” (Isa 25:9; 30:18). The same thought is found in 1Th 1:9,10. More is implied in these verses, however, than a simple passing of time now in expectation of receiving the promises at Christ’s return. A “watchman” of God was not only to wait, but to observe keenly the signs of the times, and to watch himself and keep his garments unspotted (Isa 21:7-12; Ezek 33:1-9). The Hebrew verb here (in Lam 3:25) is “to wait eagerly”, or “to crave”.

“To the soul that seeketh Him”: “Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him: and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon” (Isa 55:6, 7).

Verse 26:

“Hope”: “Hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it” (Rom 8:24, 25).

“Quietly wait”: With no murmurs or complaints. Job (Job 1:21, 22) and Jesus (Mat 26:63; 27:12; Isa 53:7) were exemplary in such patient waiting.

“The salvation of the LORD”: The same as the name of “Joshua” (or “Jesus” in the Greek). A man should wait for Jesus. The patriarch Jacob did this (Gen 49:18).

Verse 27:

“It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth”: The “yoke”, to be accepted humbly by the faithful (Jer 37:8-12), was the yoke which Christ later offered — meekness and lowliness in the world’s estimation (Mat 11:29).

Also, it is important that we begin to bear this yoke in our youth if possible. Youth is the time for establishing life-long ambitions and habits. It is also the time for high hopes, when we may fail to understand the utter futility of seeking fame and riches. The things learned in our youth will be the most easily remembered when harder times come. For these reasons, Solomon says:

“Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them…” (Eccl 12:1).

Jeremiah himself was called to God’s service at a time when he considered himself as yet “a child” (Jer 1:6, 7), but he soon learned to “put away childish things” (1Co 13:11).

Such an attitude as this is important in view of the nearness of our Lord’s return, as well as the shortness and uncertainty of mortal existence at any time:

“The days of our years are threescore years and ten:

And if by reason of strength they be fourscore years,

yet is their strength labour and sorrow:

for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

So teach us to number our days,

that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (Psa 90:10, 12).

Verse 28:

“He sitteth alone”: The way of true holiness has always meant a separation from the paths of the wicked. Jeremiah was to maintain a distinct and separate life. At last, even the appointed time for approaching his countrymen ceased, and God told him, “Return not unto them” (Jer 15:19). We are commanded to be separate from the ways of the world (Deut 22:10; 2Co 6:14, 17; Heb 7:26; Jam 4:4; 1Pe 2:11, 12; 1Jo 2:15-17; 3:1; 4:5; 5:19; Gal 6:14; John 17:6-9).

“Because He hath borne it upon him”: Literally, “because He (ie, God) has laid the burden upon him.” It would be useless and impractical to remain separate from the world if God had not commanded it and if He had not laid it upon us. From a natural standpoint, the best way to make gains in this life would be by a close association and communion with the world and all its activities. But our aims, and our attitudes, must be different from the world around us.

Verse 29:

“He putteth his mouth in the dust”: Figurative subjection and humility (2Ch 33:12; cp Mic 7:17; Psa 72:9). Here is a man so subdued in obedience, that he will bear whatever God may lay upon him without complaint, because he truly has hope.

“If so be there may be hope”: “There may yet be hope” (RSV, NIV).

Verse 30:

“He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him”: Compare Jesus in Mat 5:39 (principle) and in Mat 26:67 and 1Pe 2:19-24 (practice). Also see Isa 50:6 and Job 16:10.

“He is filled full of reproach”: See Psa 69:9, 20.

Verse 31:

“For the LORD will not cast off forever”: The gospel of the kingdom is intimately connected with the “hope of Israel”, as Paul shows (Acts 28:20). God’s deliverance of the natural Jews from their enemies is related to, and concurrent with, the deliverance (to immortality) of His saints. Note carefully Rom 11:1-6, 25-27; 1Sa 12:22; Jer 31:37; and Hos 14:4.

Verse 32:

“The multitude of His mercies”: See notes, v 22.

Verse 33:

“For He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men”: This “affliction of the sons of men” is tragically necessary, but it gives God no pleasure. Neither does the death of the wicked give Him pleasure (Ezek 18:32; 33:11), for He is not willing that any should perish (2Pe 3:9) — but it is necessary to vindicate God’s holy name. He will be, at last, gracious to those who love Him, but He must of necessity be vengeful upon those who reject Him.

Verse 34:

“To crush under His feet”: A reference to the oppressions of the Babylonian and Assyrian conquerors (Eastern monarchs crushing slaves beneath their feet are common sights on wall murals and decorations in capital cities and palaces). But men may “crush” their fellows underfoot in many other ways as well (cp vv 35, 36).

“The prisoners of the earth”: “prisoners in the land” (NIV) — ie, Israel, the Jews were the apple of God’s eye. Perhaps also a reference to the prisoners of the pit wherein is no water, the prisoners of sin and death and the grave, debtors to the law and the servants of sin (Zec 9:11, 12).

Verse 35:

“To turn aside the right of a man”: Perversion of justice in a court, as was perpetrated upon Jesus.

Verse 36:

“To subvert a man in his cause”: Going further, even the private wrongs, devious and secretive acts, gossip and slander. Even of these… (see Psa 15).

“The Lord approveth not”: Or, by the margin, “the Lord seeth not”, in the sense of Isa 59:15 and Hab 1:13:

“And the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that

there was no judgment.”

“Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil,

and canst not look on iniquity.”

Such verses as these show the way in which God will not see wicked works. In other words, He will not condescend to behold them forever, but will soon make an end of all such deeds.

Verse 37:

“Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass,

when the Lord commanded it not?”:

“My (God’s) counsel shall stand,

and I will do all my pleasure” (Isa 46:10).

God is always watching even the sparrows and controlling all events to His satisfaction. There are no such things as “good luck” or “bad luck” for the saints. Everything is in God’s hands (cp Psa 33:9).

Verse 38:

“Out of the mouth of the Most High proceedeth not evil and good?”: God’s works are all done in goodness. He controls events to benefit Israel and His elect, although this may not always be clearly discernible. Sometimes we may “receive evil” (in the sense of misfortune) for a time (Job 2:10; Jam 5:10), but not above what we are able to bear.

Also, note that the author of evil in this sense is not some supernatural being with horns and hooves and pitchfork. God says, “I create evil” (Isa 45:7). “Shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?” (Amos 3:6).

Verse 39:

“Wherefore doth a living man complain,

a man for the punishment of his sins?”:

1. The nation of Israel, once politically dead (v 6), is alive today because of God’s direction of world affairs (Ezek 37:10). All things are for their benefit.

2. We — who were once “afar off” among the Gentiles, dead in trespasses and sins — have been made “alive” (Eph 2:13; Rom 6:13) in Christ (Gal 2:20), and are now God’s sons (1Jo 3:1-3), enduring chastening (Heb 12). Can we ever complain in view of what we would have been, if God had not called us to the Truth? There is no real misfortune for the child of faith, and there is no ultimate evil, except unrepented sin! Let us then, as Paul did, glory in tribulation… “knowing that tribulation worketh patience: and patience, experience; and experience, hope; and hope maketh not ashamed” (Rom 5:3-5).

Verse 40:

“Let us search and try our ways,

and turn again to the LORD”: see Zec 1:4-6; Hag 1:5; Joel 2:12; Ruth 1:21, 22; Jer 18:11, 12.

It is instructive to observe the progress of the thoughts and feelings of “the man that hath seen affliction”. At first he can see only his misfortune. Then, choosing the wisest course, he calls upon God for deliverance. In doing so, and even before deliverance comes, there comes to him first the reawakening of faith. The sufferer is now able to see God’s mercies everywhere, even in the sufferings he has felt. The contemplation of God’s mercies assures him that his afflictions must be for a purpose, and that they must be temporary. Thus, they must not be complained of. So finally is the suffering servant led to reflection, self-examination, and — if necessary — repentance and rededication.

Verse 41:

“Let us lift up our hearts with our hands unto God in the heavens”: There must be no hypocrisy in prayer (v 48; Psa 86:4; 1Ti 2:8; and Joel 2:12). The blood of Christ must be sprinkled upon our hearts, and our consciences must be washed and purified. External rites and practices are of no value unless they are accompanied by an internal change (Heb 10:22). God — and Christ the righteous judge — can discern our true thoughts and intentions (Heb 4:12, 13).

Verse 42:

“Thou hast not pardoned”: Probably because their transgressions and rebellions have not ceased, and because they have been bitter when suffering chastisement. But they will change their attitudes and their ways, and then God will pardon.

Verse 43:

“Thou hast covered…”:

Compare the thought in 2:1 and the thought in the following verse.

Verse 44:

“Thou hast covered Thyself with a cloud”: The “cloud” is the sins of the people, causing God to hide His face from them (Isa 59:2) — “I will not hear” (Zec 7:13).

Verse 45:

“Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people”: The Jews, a proverb and byword (Deut 28:37); and the saints, of which Paul is an example: “as the filth of the world” (1Co 4:13).

Verse 46:

“All our enemies have opened their mouths against us”: See 2:16, 17 and 4:16,17.

Verse 47:

“Fear and a snare”: The same combination appears in Jer 48:43 and Isa 24:17. “Panic and pit” (Hillers) suggests the alliteration of the original.

“A snare”: The wicked’s own snare (1:13; Pro 1:16-18). “Desolation”: Devastation, “to lay waste” — as in Isa 37:26.

Verses 48, 49: Tears of humble, honest appeal: “Rend your hearts” (Joel 2:13). Compare Christ: “Strong crying and tears” (Heb 5:7). See also Jer 9:13 and Psa 119:136.

“Rivers of water”: Compare 1:16; 2:18; Jer 9:1; Psa 137:1.

“The daughter of my people”: The seed of Abraham. See the words of Christ in Mat 23:37-39.

Verse 49:

“Trickleth down”: Better, “poureth down” (cp 2:18).

Verse 50:

“Till the LORD look down, and behold from heaven”: That is, until God hears the groaning of the prisoners (cp v 34; Psa 102:20). We should “give him no rest…” (Isa 62:6,7; Luke 18:1-8). Also, see Isa 63:15; 64:1. Though God is high and exalted, yet He can have respect for those who are lowly (Psa 113:4-6).

Verse 51:

“Mine eye affecteth mine heart”: “Affect” is translated “abuse” in 1Sa 31:4 and “mock” in Num 22:29. What he saw caused discomfort and grief to his heart.

“All the daughters of my city”: 1:4, 18; 2:10, 21.

Verse 52:

“Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without a cause”: Compare the symbolism in Pro 1:17 and Psa 11:1. Heedlessly, in sport, out of greed. But God has sent them (Jer 16:16). Compare Jeremiah and Jesus: “They hate me without a cause” (Psa 35:19; 69:4; John 15:25).

Verse 53:

“They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me”: As done to:–

1. Jeremiah himself, because of his unpopular warnings (Jer 37:16), and

2. Jesus (Mat 27:66).

Verse 54:

“Waters flowed over my head”:

1. For the Jews, dead among the nations, waters symbolize the powers that oppressed them (Isa 8:7; 17:12; Rev 16:12).

2. Jonah, praying to God from the fish’s belly, says, “The floods have compassed me” (Jonah 2:3). In this state, Jonah typifies the Lord Jesus, three days and nights in the grave (Mat 12:40; 16:4).

3. For Christ and the saints, the “waters” also are “floods of ungodly men” (Psa 18:4).

“I am cut off”: I am as good as dead (Psa 88:5; Isa 53:8).

Verse 55:

“I called upon Thy name, O LORD”:

“I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and He heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and Thou heardest my voice” (Jonah 2:2).

In the same way, Christ knew his Father would not forsake him in the grave:

“For Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption” (Psa 16:10).

Verse 56:

“Thou hast heard my voice: hide not Thine ear at my breathing, at my cry”: An implication throughout of a resurrection to life eternal, the only true hope.

Verses 57-60: This section is typical of the latter days when Gentile enemies enter Israel. Then will Yahweh fight for His city Jerusalem (Zec 14:3). Israel will then mourn for Christ — whom they have slain (Zec 12:10).

“Fear not”: See Isa 41:10, 14; 43:1, 2. Also see Rev 1:17 and Dan 10:12. This beautiful counsel is recalled in the words of Jesus (Mark 5:36) and Paul:

“God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2Ti 1:7).

So much of our lives can be taken up with fears if we allow it… fears for our families, for our livelihoods, fears of violence, fears of disease, fears of death — sometimes, perhaps, nameless fears that paralyse action and stifle prayer. How often we need the reminder of these simple words: “Fear not”. God is for us — so who can be against us?

“Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32).

Verse 59:

“Judge (or ‘uphold’ — NIV) Thou my cause”: God is a righteous and a fair judge, but we know also that He has promised to forgive us our sins and clothe us with His righteousness — if we have truly tried to serve Him with our hearts.

Verse 60:

“Thou hast seen all their vengeance

and all their imaginations against me”: Compare the Assyrian (Isa 10:7), Joseph’s brethren (Gen 50:21), Jesus’s enemies (Acts 2:23), and Russia (Ezek 38:11, 12).

Verse 63:

“Behold their sitting down, and their rising up”: Hatred of God’s people, manifested in all their activities — which is the idiomatic sense of this phrase (Psa 139:2; Isa 37:28; Deut 6:7).

“I am their music”: I am the subject of their derisive, mocking songs (v 14; Job 30:9; Psa 69:12).

Verses 64-66: These verses do not indicate a vengeful, grudging attitude as proper in God’s servants. Rather, they merely illustrate an understanding and respect for God’s purpose as set forth in His word. Judgments are necessary upon the heathen; this is the only way they will be converted (Isa 26:9). “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord” (Rom 12:19; Deut 32:35).

These verses therefore are simply another expression of the sentiments which Christ taught us to pray: “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth…” (Mat 6:10).

Verse 64:

This verse is taken from Psa 28:4, and is repeated by Paul against Alexander the coppersmith in 2Ti 4:14.

Verse 65:

“Give them sorrow of heart”: Literally, “give them a covering”, or a “vail” — which can signify blindness (as Isa 6:10; 2Co 3:15), “strong delusion” (2Th 2:11; Rom 1:28), or drunkenness in battle against the Lord’s hosts (Ezek 38:21).

Verse 66:

“Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the LORD”: God’s dominion is the whole earth, ie, all the land under the whole heaven (Dan 7:27).

In an introductory section we briefly dealt with Jeremiah as a type of Christ. Insofar as the Lamentations portray Jeremiah as a suffering servant, “called” to his mission even from his mother’s womb (Jer 1:5, 9), a “lamb brought to the slaughter” (11:5, 9), who yet prays for his nation and weeps at their sorrows (9:1)… insofar as this, at least, Lamentations is also a prophecy of the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Also (and especially in the long poem — Lam 3) the book does what the Psalms do: it presents a “biography” of Christ centered on his thoughts rather than his deeds.

In the panorama of Jeremiah’s poetic vision, certain verses stand out as “cameos”, or “vignettes”, of Christ. There is not so much a progressive development (indeed, Lamentations scarcely yields itself to this in any case) as there are delicate glimpses, here and there, of “the man who hath seen affliction” (Lam 3:1). Any one such, by itself, may not seem significant; but set them beside one another as so many strokes on a canvas, and finally a poignant picture emerges.

1:12: “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?”

Heedlessly the world passes by, on roads bound for nowhere. They pause only to jeer or to shrug. Almost never are any arrested and convicted by the spectacle of one whose sorrow exceeds the sorrow of all others. Has God indeed afflicted him? Is he suffering the wrath of God?

“And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, And he was numbered with the transgressors (citing Isa 53:12). And they that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads, and saying, Ah, thou that destroyest the Temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself, and come down from the cross” (Mark 15:28-30).

Is it nothing to us, to see such a man? Does the thought of his sufferings arrest us in our headlong flights through this “vanity fair”? Do we examine ourselves? Do we repent? Do we rededicate ourselves? Or do we instead take the bread and the wine with a practical air, a ritual completed, a minor appointment kept and then forgotten until next week? Is it nothing to us?

1:16: “For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water.”

(Compare 2:11, 18; 3:48). Here was a man who was never far from tears, a man who went often to the “house of mourning”, and laid to heart what he learned there (Eccl 7:2). He wept at the tomb of a friend (John 11:35). And he wept over a city grown hard and calloused, a city soon to echo with the cries, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” (Mat 23:37). Can we “weep” with this man? Can we find the wisdom he found in sorrow? Can we, like him, submit our characters to the perfecting process of suffering (Heb 5:7-9)? Can we, as he asked, take up our “crosses” and follow him? Let us spurn forever the false gaiety, and the foolish laughter that masks an empty heart. And let us learn more of this man of sorrow. If we do, then out of our sorrow there will come at last a blessed and lasting joy:

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, “That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy” (John 16:20).

1:17, 18: “His adversaries” are “round about him”… and yet “the LORD is righteous”.

Jesus was not being punished for his own sins, but in his sufferings God was demonstrating that the “flesh of sin” deserves only death. In the death of His sinless Son, God was declaring Himself righteous (Rom 3:25). And He was showing us what we, as sinners, deserve!

Consider the awesome character of this man. His adversaries gather round him, to laugh and mock. He is enclosed by darkness, almost as though forsaken by his Father. And yet this righteous man responds only with a profound and absolute faith. In the wide swirling ocean of dark temptation, the Saviour stands as a rock and a beacon. “Not my will but Thine be done.” “Thou art holy.” “The Lord is righteous.”

1:21: “All mine enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that Thou hast done it: Thou wilt bring the day that Thou hast called, and they shall be like unto me.”

It was starkly and tragically true. Forty years later, the hills surrounding Jerusalem were covered with Roman crosses, and on each one hung a Jew who had rejected his crucified Messiah!

2:22: “Thou didst invite as to the day of an appointed feast my terrors on every side” (RSV).

The “appointed feast” was no doubt the Passover. The time of the Passover came, and the guests arrived at the feast. But, in an enormous irony, the “guests” were “terrors on every side” — bulls and lions and fierce dogs (Psa 22:12,13,16), snarling and tearing and devouring the Passover “lamb”! And Jesus was the “feast”, the “lamb”! “This bread is my body; this cup is my blood.” “For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.”

3:1: “I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.”

“Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted” (Isa 53:4).

3:5: “He hath… compassed me with gall and travail” Psa 69:21; Mat 27:34.

3:6: “He hath set me in dark places.”

And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour (Lk. 23:44).

3:7: “He hath hedged me about”… with thorns?

Jesus was the “ram” caught in the thicket, the sacrifice provided by Yahweh (Gen 22:13, 14), hedged about by a crown of thorns.

3:8: “Also when I cry and shout, He shutteth out my prayer.” “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” (Psa 22:1; Mat 27:46; Mark 15:34).

3:9: “He hath enclosed my ways with hewn stone.”

“And he bought fine linen, and took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock; and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre” (Mark 15:46).

3:12, 13: “He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow. He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.” “They pierced my hands and my feet” (Psa 22:16).

3:14: “I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.”

3:27: “It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.”

The yoke that Jesus bore from his youth was a lifetime of perfect obedience to the will of God. “Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do Thy will, O my God: yea, Thy law is within my heart” (Psa 40:7, 8; Heb 10:7-9). This is why Jesus could say that his yoke was easy, and his burden was light (Mat 11:28, 29)! This is why he could offer it to us to share with him! Because it was a pure delight to do the Father’s will! Is it so with us?

3:28: “He sitteth alone and keepeth silence.”

The perfect man, Jesus Christ, walking not in the way of sinners (Psa 1), who was separate from sinners, holy, harmless, and undefiled (Heb 7:26, 27).

3:29: “He putteth his mouth in the dust.”

Jesus was led away to Golgotha, bearing on his beaten and bloody shoulders the stake on which he as “serpent” would be lifted up (Num 21:9; John 3:14; 12:32). He bore also, in his sorrow, the burden of our sins. He was exhausted, more exhausted than words could tell, and he stumbled and fell. The rough, heavy wooden beam was too much for him. He lay there in the dust. And the words of the curse were emblazoned across the scene:

“Thou art cursed… upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat…” (Gen 3:14).

3:30: “He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled with reproach.”

Compare Isa 50:6; Mat 5:39.

3:31-33: Here, “buried” in an obscure corner of the Old Testament, is God’s reason for the atonement! He does not willingly afflict His children. Although He must cause grief — even to His beloved Son — there is a surpassing and eternal purpose. God causes grief so that He, the Righteous One, might then righteously have compassion on sinners! Who could ask for anything more? Praise be to God!

3:40-42: A righteous man is afflicted, chastened, smitten, and then crucified. Is it nothing to us? What is the result? What should be the result?

“Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD… We have transgressed, and have rebelled.”

A righteous man is crucified, and sinners repent! A righteous man dies, and sinners are born again! “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20).

3:52-57: Here is death, and burial (v 53). But, as with Abel, the “blood” of the righteous calls out of the earth (vv 55, 56) — not this time for vengeance, but for redemption. Let us make that cry ours:

“Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon Thee:

Thou saidst, Fear not.”

Several years ago a black man named Alex Haley, a middle-aged author of no special note, wrote a book entitled “Roots”. It was a fictionalized history purporting to describe the odyssey of Haley’s family from slavery to freedom, covering some 300 years. The book was serialized on American television, becoming an overnight sensation — the most watched program in history. This epic story further encouraged the popular study of “family trees”.

There is great interest today in genealogical research. Enthusiasts delve through dusty tomes in forgotten corners of old libraries and court-houses, in the hope of finding some scrap of an official record to trace their “roots” backward one more step.

Believers in Christ have “cut off the flesh” in baptism, thereby repudiating ties of natural descent. The true sons and daughters of God are reckoned as having been “born in Zion” (Psa 87). Their “mother” is spiritual Jerusalem (Gal 4:26), their brother is Christ, and their family consists of those who do the will of their Father in Heaven (Mat 12:48-50).

There are in reality only two “families” of mankind, and they are delineated in the early chapters of Genesis. Like the feuding Hatfields and McCoys of West Virginia, these two families have had continual enmity toward one another from one generation to the next.

Our “roots”, naturally speaking, are of no special consequence. But our spiritual “roots” are of great consequence. Our eternal fates are bound up in the “family” to which we give allegiance — either the seed of the serpent or the seed of the woman (Gen 3:15). The “roots” of these two families can be traced back to their very beginnings, in the Garden of Eden, and then forward even into the future kingdom. The only “digging” necessary to unearth these “roots” is the careful study of Scripture.

This series outline, with accompanying notes, the most prominent passages tracing these two families through the Bible — especially as they appear in their antagonisms toward each other. Our starting point is Gen 3:15 — where, after the cataclysmic sin in Eden, God addresses the serpent:

“I will put enmity between you (the serpent) and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (RSV).

(Here the RSV helps our understanding by making the pronoun references to the woman’s seed to be masculine.)

With this verse as our starting point, we now begin our journey — a journey which might be subtitled “Genesis 3:15 in All the Bible”.

The writer hopes that this summary might help to redress an imbalance in Christadelphian circles. The imbalance is this: that, while the promises to Abraham and David have received great stress (and rightly so!), the great foundation promise of all the Bible (Gen 3:15) has been comparatively neglected. Perhaps one reason for this neglect is the common assumption that Gen 3:15 is not quoted in the rest of the Bible. But the studies which follow demonstrate that the Edenic promise is a golden thread woven through-out the tapestry of Scripture. Though not directly quoted elsewhere, as are many other Messianic prophecies, it is alluded to many times, and it is at the root of the whole plan of redemption.

One theme that runs through all of Scripture is the great foundation promise given by God in Genesis 3:15:

“I will put enmity between you (the serpent) and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (RSV).

As Christadelphians, we are rightly called “the people of the Book”. All the Bible should be our province of study — we should search all the Scriptures, knowing that in every part they testify of Christ. In him especially was the conflict joined, between the “serpent” of sin and the imperishable “seed” of righteousness. In him, finally and for all, was the battle for Truth won.

“In him the tribes of Adam boast

More blessings than their father lost!”

Among numerous Bible commentaries and translations consulted, several provided some help, especially with alternative renderings, ie:

• Keil and Delitzsch on Lamentations, by C. F. Keil

• Anchor Bible (Lamentations), by Delbert Hillers

• “Speaker’s Commentary” (Lamentations), by R. Payne Smith

• Studies in the Book of Lamentations, by Norman K. Gottwald

• The Companion Bible, by E. W. Bullinger

• Revised Standard Version (RSV)

• New International Version (NIV)

• Rotherham’s Emphasized Bible (Roth.)

In addition, we have consulted Christadelphian writings — both books and magazines — wherever they referred to the Lamentations (which was, unfortunately, not very often). We mention specifically those studies which contribute something to the book as a whole:

• E. F. Higham, “The Lamentations of Jeremiah”, a series running in The Berean Christadelphian from September, 1953 (v ol. 41, no. 9, p. 270) through May, 1954 (v ol. 42, no. 5, p. 154).

• John Lockyer, “The Book of Lamentations”, 4 articles in The Christadelphian, Vol. 115 (July through October, 1978).

• Derek Brook, “The Lamentations of Jeremiah”, The Testimony, Vol. 32, no. 378 (June, 1962), p.202; no. 379 (July, 1962), p. 221.

The words of the hymns pertaining to the “Desolation of Israel” are taken from The Christadelphian Hymn Book of 1874.

In our previous section, we examined some of the verses that prophetically portray Christ in the Lamentations. We know that the sufferings of Christ are a pattern for us. We should never contemplate these sufferings dispassionately, but rather we should enter as intimately as possible into their spirit.

Paul spoke of himself as suffering on behalf of the brethren at Colosse — for which they rejoiced (Col 1:24). He spoke also of both himself and the Colossians “filling up that which is behind (‘completing that which is lacking’ –RSV) of the afflictions of Christ… for his body’s sake, which is the ecclesia.” It seems an extraordinary, even an impossible idea — that Christ’s “perfect” sacrifice is still lacking something! Yet it is true. We, who constitute the “body” of Christ, must fill up the measure of the crucifixion of the flesh with its lusts and desires. We, the “body”, must finish what Christ the “head” began!

“For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation (‘comfort’ — RSV) also aboundeth by Christ… (and if) we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer… and our hope of you is steadfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation” (2Co 1:5-7).

We the apostles, says Paul, suffer because Christ our Lord and Master suffered. And we suffer because we know it is the only pathway to the comforts, the consolations, of his kingdom. And so, Paul continues, ‘we set you, the believers, a pattern for your own lives. We desire that you will follow in our steps — not because we enjoy seeing your afflictions — but rather because, for you as for us, the cross must precede the crown, and it is only through tribulation that any of us shall become as our Lord and enter his kingdom’.

Why else must we endure trials as followers of Christ?

“For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of the affliction we experienced in Asia; for we were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself. Why, we felt we had received the sentence of death…”

How could a merciful God, Who knows and even controls all our circumstances permit a man like Paul — or any other child of His — to fall into such distress?

“… But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead; He delivered us from so deadly a peril, and He will deliver us; on Him we have set our hope that He will deliver us again” (2Co 1:8-10, RSV).

Such a paradox, and yet it is true! Our weaknesses help us draw closer to an All-powerful God; our failures bind us more tightly to One who is all-victorious!

“And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong” (2Co 12:9, 10).

We can scarcely leave this example of Paul without considering one further passage:

“But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death” (Phi 3:7-10).

Saul the Pharisee was an accomplished man, “righteous”, ambitious, proud. He had intelligence, wealth, and an exalted position — all at a young age. The world was his! But all those things that were “gain” to him, all the “pluses” on the balance sheet of his life, all these he gladly threw over — so that he might follow Christ. For Paul the Apostle, there came to be only one ambition in life: “to know Christ”.

But surely (one may ask) this Paul, with 30-odd years “in the Truth”, already knew Christ? So why does he express his desire in such a way — “that I may know Christ”? It is because “knowing Christ” is a lifetime’s goal; there is no plateau where the traveller may safely stop and pitch his tent! To “know” Christ is to know the power of his resurrection, which is, as one brother expressed it, “the moral and spiritual implications of Christ’s death and resurrection”. To “know” Christ is to be made “conformable to his death”, being buried with him in baptism, and then ever after being dedicated to reproducing the life of Christ in one’s own life, in putting to death the lusts of the flesh. To “know” Christ is to be a partaker of his sufferings — this is true and Biblical “fellowship”; it is not easy, but it is the only worthwhile goal of all human existence: “to know Christ and the fellowship of his sufferings”.

Accepting this as our challenge in life, is there anything in the book of Lamentations that exhorts and encourages us along that way?

The Judah of Jeremiah’s day was a nation that appeared to worship God. They pointed to their services in pride — their deeds of “righteousness” were numerous. But their hearts were not in that worship! It was all a vain show and a pretence!

“Trust ye not in lying words, saying ye are the ‘temple’ of the LORD… Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit. Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; and come and stand before Me in this house, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? Is this house, which is called by My Name, become a den of robbers in your eyes?” (Jer 7:4, 8-11).

They were thieves, because they stole service from God. They spent time and money on that which catered to their own lusts, and justified it all by standing periodically in the Temple and “singing” their own righteousness. What hypocrisy! What vanity! What blindness! But are their shortcomings so much greater than ours, that we can afford to feel confident with the comparison?

“Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the LORD which exercise loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD” (Jer 9:23, 24).

Judah was materialistic, infatuated with “the world”, ever seeking more and more money, more and more pleasure, more and more power — “children” in their “playpens”, oblivious to the impending storm. The time of testing came for God’s ecclesia, in the days of Jeremiah, and they failed.

We will fail also, when our time of testing comes, if we have not used these peaceful, prosperous times to study, to pray, to work for God, and to prepare ourselves for what is surely coming on the earth.

Can we sec ourselves — the Ecclesia of God — in Lamentations?

1:2:         “She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: Among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her: All her friends have dealt treacherously with her. They are become her enemies.”

Who are our “lovers” and “friends”? What do we trust in? Our bank accounts? Our homes? Our retirement plans? Our insurance policies?… Or God?

Israel trusted in Gentile alliances, and thought they would give her security. But they deserted her. And when it was too late, she discovered God had deserted her too!

“Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth… Seek ye the kingdom of God… sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Luke 12:15, 31, 33, 34).

Israel’s Gentile alliances had been her undoing. We must guard against similar alliances (2Co 6:14-18). Perhaps the most insidious of such “unequal yokings” are those that masquerade as prudence and diligence in business, and “commendable” ambitions to “get ahead” in education and material things and work promotions. All of these can dull our spiritual sensibilities as surely and quickly as alien courtship and marriage, or the grosser forms of “worldliness” — because they too force us to become more a part of this world than we need be.

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”.

A sorrowful picture, of mourning and despondency. We are reminded of a recent circular letter, signed by a number of English brethren, lamenting the apathetic attitude of the brotherhood. This apathy is reflected, they say, in Bible reading decline, lack of campaign workers, lack of personal witnessing, ever-increasing materialism, declining contributions to the work of the Truth, and falling standards in dress and entertainment. What can be done? Is it already too late? When the Son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth? A “storm” is coming, that will sweep away the “refuge of lies”, the “houses” built on the shifting sands of materialism, and the pseudo-disciples who cry, “Lord, Lord”.

3:19-21: “Remembering mine affliction and my misery… my soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.”

Perhaps our salvation–as a community–will only come through the afflictions of the last days, which are even now looming on the horizon. Trials and afflictions, financial set-backs, and even persecution might accomplish for us what peace and prosperity have not — that is, humble repentance and rededication and trust in God alone, before it is too late.

3:22: “It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not.”

The trials, when they come, will not be for our destruction, if we repent. The trials will serve to turn us back to God, as we in our weakness and ineptitude recognize the only Source of hope and trust.

His compassions then will be like the manna in the wilderness, “new every morning” (v 23). When our bank accounts and our careful plans for tomorrow have all failed, then we may really learn how to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread”, and how to say, “If the Lord will, we will do such-and-such.” When the very fabric of our society begins to crumble, and there is literally no place to hide, then–if not before — we may learn to say, with sincerity: “The LORD is my portion… therefore will I hope in Him” (v 24).

3:27: “It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.”

All these lessons must not be lost on the young, especially. When we are young, we can lay the solid foundations that will sustain us in the years ahead, when trials and hard times and illness will come (Eccl 12:1). But if we squander the opportunities of our youth, we have no guarantees — there may be no second or third chances.

3:31-33: “For the LORD will not cast off for ever: But though He cause grief, yet will He have compassion according to the multitude of His mercies. For He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.”

We may be assured that God will cause us grief to chasten us — so that we might examine, and then amend, our ways. When that chastening comes, will we submit and learn thereby, or will we instead complain? “Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?” (v 39).

We are even now “alive in Christ” (Eph 2:13; Gal 2:20). We are even now God’s children, and our future will be wonderful beyond imagining (1Jo 3:1-3). How could we, of all people, ever complain, even in the midst of trials — which, as Paul says, are no more than light and momentary afflictions (2Co 4:17)?

5:1-4: Is it far-fetched to suppose that, in His mercy, God might bring such reproaches on His Ecclesia before it is too late? Loss of homes and wealth, break-up of families, destitution… But the flesh’s failure can become the Spirit’s successes. And if we as God’s children need the lesson reinforced that we are still “strangers and pilgrims” on the earth, with no permanent dwelling-place, and no “fine prospects” in this wicked generation — then, most assuredly, God will see that it is done.

Jeremiah’s assistant, Baruch, provides an interesting example. Baruch was a faithful servant of God, but (like us?) he was not above a bit of petty grumbling. His complaint (and remember, every complaint is really a complaint against God!) went like this:

“Woe is me now! For the LORD hath added grief to my sorrow;

I fainted in my sighing, and I find no rest” (Jer 45:3).

Baruch was very much like most of us. He wanted to have his cake, and eat it too. He wanted to see God’s purpose fulfilled in the earth, but he wanted a good measure of personal comfort in the meanwhile. In short, he wanted God and “mammon”! God’s answer to Baruch was blunt:

“Behold, that which I have built will I break down, and that which I have planted I will pluck up” (v 4).

Do you think, God said, that everything in this age should minister to your comfort? I have greater purposes to accomplish, and you are just one small piece of a large operation. Do you expect that I’m going to shake the foundations of your world, and topple all worldly institutions, while you escape unscathed?

“And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not: for, behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the LORD: but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest” (v 5).

So it will be for us, brothers and sisters. We live at the end of an age, on the brink of a volcano. A time of testing is coming, to prepare us for Christ’s return, and to teach us that we can place no trust in anything around us, but only in God. Do we seek “great things” for ourselves in this crumbling world? It is already too late. Let us pray God to spare only our lives.

Do we seek comfort now? It is a delusion. Do we somehow have the idea we can recline in our easy chairs and stare at our wide-screen color televisions, until the limousine comes to take us away to the kingdom? It is not to be, and the sooner we are rid of such fantasies the better!

“And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkedness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man” (Luke 21:34-36).

Genesis 3:20

“And Adam called his wife’s name Eve (Heb ‘Chavah’); because she was the mother of all living.” Adam’s wife already had a name — “Isha” (2:23) — a name which fitly described her origin, for it signified “out of man (ish)”. But in view of the great redemptive promise just received, Adam evidently felt she needed a new name — one in keeping with her destiny. What more appropriate than “Life”! Through the woman, by a specially prepared birth, would come a son — the “seed of the woman”. He would (in some way probably only dimly perceived by Adam at this time) destroy the power of death brought by the serpent. Whereas the serpent was the “father” of death, this man-child would become the “father” of life (he is called, prophetically, the “father of eternity” in Isa 9:6), and his mother therefore would be the “mother of all life”!

Genesis 4:1

In no way did Eve lag behind her husband in this expectation of the fulfillment of God’s promise of a Redeemer. In fact, so eager was she for the promised deliverance that she seized upon her firstborn, Cain, as the “seed of the woman”. “I have gotten a man from the LORD” may just possibly be translated; “I have gotten a Yahweh-man!” By this Eve may have meant that this child was the special “seed” promised by Yahweh, the representative of Yahweh, and thus the “Yahweh-man” (we might say “God manifest in the flesh”) commissioned to defeat the serpent and abolish death.

But, alas! Eve’s firstborn proved himself to be instead a son of the serpent, by his enmity against the typical “seed of the woman”, Abel — an enmity which culminated in the death of his righteous brother. Thus Cain, like his “father” the old serpent, showed himself “a murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44; 1Jo 3:12).

The “Seed” passages

It is not often recognized that all the “Seed” passages of Genesis arise out of Gen 3:15. Each fresh reference is an amplification of the previous promises: The “seed of the woman” will be also the “seed” of Abraham (Gen 12), who shall inherit the land of promise (Gen 13), while the natural seed is disinherited (Gen 16). A type of the woman’s seed was Isaac, the “seed of promise” who was miraculously conceived (Gen 21), typically sacrificed (Gen 22), and then given a special bride selected out of the Gentiles on account of her faith (Gen 24).

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Those who regularly use the RSV, which is In some respects a fine translation, should take careful note of Gen 13:15:

“For all the land which you (Abraham) see I will give to you and to your descendants (AV ‘seed’) for ever.”

On this point the RSV is not even internally consistent, since its translation of Gal 3:16 rightly states that this promise was to Abraham and his “offspring” — singular: “referring to one… which is Christ.”

Both “seed” and “offspring” appropriately translate the Hebrew original “zera”, which is itself ambiguous as to number. But the RSV’s interpretive translation, “descendants”, is in direct violation of Paul’s later exposition, and therefore clearly wrong. Only translators totally ignorant of the significance of the Abrahamic promises could make such a blunder.

The same erroneous translation occurs in the RSV of Gen 22:17,18:

“And your descendants (AV: ‘seed’) shall possess the gate of their (AV: ‘his’) enemies. And by your descendants (AV: ‘seed’) shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves.”

This, despite the fact that the New Testament repeatedly interprets this promise as fulfilled in Christ, who destroys his great enemy death by gaining possession over its “gate”, the grave (1Co 15:26,55,56; Rev 1:18; 20:6)!