Introduction: In our first study, Jeremiah described Jerusalem's great sins and the great suffering that resulted from them. Jeremiah's heart is truly broken over the sins of God's people. Too bad God's people were not remorseful and repentant over their own sins, for all of this judgment could have been avoided had they been.
When we studied the book of Jeremiah, we found that God's people were told they were going to go through a time of judgment because of their sins. Had they repented, the judgment would have been stopped before it ever started, but they would not repent. In fact, they could not understand why God was so upset with them.
They had been deceived by their own sin. What used to be darkness to them now appeared as light. What used to be sin to them now seemed to be righteousness. The Apostle Paul wrote in Hebrews 3:13, "But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." The Gospel did not harden these people. The Word of God did not harden these people. Sin hardened these people into what they became. They were hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Such was the case with God's people in Jeremiah's day. They had become so accustomed to their sinful lifestyles that they could no longer see that it was wrong.
During chastening, God's people could be blessed if only they would choose to do right. Chastening is simply an opportunity to learn how to be blessed by God. Sadly, many Christians quit when chastening comes, asking the same question those in Jeremiah asked, "...Wherefore hath the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?" (Jeremiah 16:10)
Now, the city is laid waste, the people have been taken captive, and Jeremiah pleads with God. In this study of Jeremiah's second lamentation, Jeremiah describes the Lord's wrath against Jerusalem and his own anger over the city's desperate condition.
1. Jerusalem's crisis.
- The nation's agony,"The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Judah; he hath brought them down to the ground: he hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof. He hath cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about. He hath bent his bow like an enemy: he stood with his right hand as an adversary, and slew all that were pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: he poured out his fury like fire. The Lord was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation." (Lamentations 2:2-5) The Lord's anger consumes the land like a raging fire.
- The city's agony, "(1) How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger!...(8-9a) The LORD hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: he hath stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying: therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together. Her gates are sunk into the ground...(13) What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee?...(15-17) All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men call The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth? All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee: they hiss and gnash the teeth: they say, We have swallowed her up: certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it. The LORD hath done that which he had devised; he hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries." (Lamentations 2:1, 8-9a, 13, 15-17) The Lord humiliates the "too-proud-to-repent" city of Jerusalem by:* Knocking down her walls.
* Sinking her gates.
* Wounding her deeply.
* Her enemies scoffing and jeering her.- The temple's agony, "And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the LORD hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest. The Lord hath cast off his altar, he hath abhorred his sanctuary, he hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have made a noise in the house of the LORD, as in the day of a solemn feast." (Lamentations 2:6,7) The tabernacle has now been broken down as though it were a simple garden shelter. All the festivals are no longer observed.
- The people's agony:* Their displacement, "...her king and her princes are among the Gentiles:..." (Lamentations 2:9b) The king and the princes are now in exile.
* Their darkness, "...the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the LORD...Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment." (Lamentations 2:9c & 14) The law of God is no longer observed, and the prophets no longer receive visions from the Lord.
* Their despair, "The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground." (Lamentations 2:10) The leaders sit on the ground in silence. Note that they have "girded themselves with sackcloth." This was the outward symbol of mourning.
* Their deaths, "Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city. They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom." (Lamentations 2:11,12) The little children are dying in the streets.- The people's anguish, "Their heart cried unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease. Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street." (Lamentations 2:18,19) Jeremiah admonishes the people of the city to cry out and pray for deliverance. He encouraged them to turn to the God they had rejected for nearly 500 years.
2. Jerusalem's cry. - Lamentations 2:20-22
"Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord? The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword; thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed, and not pitied. Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the LORD'S anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed."
- In utter despair and anguish, Jerusalem calls out to the Lord, "Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom thou hast done this..." (Lamentations 2:20a)
- Two questions are asked in this prayer:* "Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long?" (10 1/2 inches)
* "Shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?"- Suddenly, the people are consumed and concerned with the reputation of the Lord. It is amazing how when judgment comes, God is put on trial for the things He's done. Such was the case here.
Conclusion: The people could have repented, but they did not. Everything that came to them could have been avoided had they done right. When you're in this position, don't shake your finger in God's face for the judgment that has come because of your sin. Sit back, and take it, and realize it's your fault, not His.