Lamentations 2:12-16 says,...Bible reading week 18, day 1

Today's verses are Lamentations 2:12-16, which read,

12 - They say to their mothers, "Where is grain and wine?"  As they faint like a wounded man in the streets of the city, as their life is poured out on their mother's bosom.

13 - How shall I admonish you?  To what shall I compare you, O daughter of Jerusalem?  To what shall I liken you as I comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion?  For your ruin is as vast as the sea; who can heal you?

14 - Your prophets have seen for you false and foolish visions; and they have not exposed your iniquity so as to restore you from captivity, but they have seen for you false and misleading oracles.

15 - All who pass along the way clap their hands in derision at you; they hiss and shake their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem, "Is this the city of which they said, 'The perfection of beauty, a joy to all the earth'?"

16 - All your enemies have opened their mouths wide against you; they hiss and gnash their teeth.  They say, "We have swallowed her up!  Surely this it the day for which we waited; we have reached it, we have seen it."

This is the book of Lamentations so these verses are very depressing.  There is a lot of lament here.  Let's look at it verse by verse this morning.

Verse 12 paints the picture of ultimate helplessness.  You have a mother who is watching her children die because she doesn't have enough food for them.  Even though they have so much more than the man living on the street, they are dying the same way because of Israel's disobedience to God.  The society's innocent are suffering and a mother is giving all she can at the time, comfort, her bosom for them to lay upon as they take their final breathes.  Jeremiah is pulling at our heart strings here for future generations to go a way different than the present Israelites.

Verse 13 is a verse of questions from Jeremiah to the people of Jerusalem.  This version has 4 of them.  These are questions not to ridicule or point the finger at but truly questions from a prophet that loves them and wants to see them turn back to God.  What else can he say?  What else can he do?  How else can he explain this to get their attention?  He is running out of analogies to describe what has happened and what is happening to them now.  

Verse 14 lets us know that there were also false prophets.  These false prophets were painting false realities.  They were listening and following the false prophets rather than the prophets of God like Jeremiah.  We are always going to obey someone.  Human nature is that we would obey the one that seems to brings us the most comfort or the one which delights us rather than the truth at all costs to ourselves.  Instead of denying ourselves, taking up our cross, and following God we indulge ourselves, find our easy chair, and find someone who doesn't require much of us.  Needless to say, false prophets are still around today.

Verse 15 we get a picture of a fallen church today.  Jerusalem once was the city of all cities.  It was highly esteemed.  It was the place to visit.  It was the moral center of the planet.  That was then and this is now.  A fallen church that once was following after God can get the same treatment from the world today.  Some good examples are found in the book of Revelation in chapters 2 and 3.  The outsiders are calling the church and rightfully so "hypocrites" to what they once were.  The church has lost its beauty and its values and its impact and the world is running it over or folding it into its system.  I think we can also look at this on an individual Christian level.  Following false prophets brings about a conformity to the world rather than a distinction from it to witness to it.  

Verse 16 gives us the picture of Satan on the day of Jesus hanging on the cross.  He is full of glee.  He has accomplished his plan to alter God's plan.  He thinks he has won.  He surely has wounded some.  He surely has brought on despair.  People are hanging their heads in shame but we know this is not the end of the story.  Three days later all this changes.  The world and Satan may look at the church this way also.  There is a hatred for the church.  There is an effort to bring the church down.  There seems to be some progress and people are hanging their heads to how things are going.  But...we know the end of the story.  We also know that God's church will continue to grow as His children share the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It may look like the world is winning but the God of the church has a plan that is above all other plans and it will prevail.  

When we get boastful in ourselves, we get vulnerable.  We put a target on our backs to aim at.  The Israelites did this in boasting of themselves and what they could do without following after God.  The church does this today when we veer from His Word.  It reminds me of so many words from the Apostle Paul like 2 Corinthians 10:17.

So let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.

Or how about Galatians 6:14 which reads,

But as for me, I will never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.  The world has been crucified to me through the cross, and I to the world.

Veering from the Word brings upon us spiritual suffering that no physical pleasure can cover up forever or rectify to please God.  Let's be true to God to hold off this lament of pain that comes with disobedience and following after the false prophets of this world.  Let us pray.

"Lord, I hear and feel the pain in Jeremiah's voice.  He is continuing to cry out to the people of God to come back to Him.  They are now physically far from the city they once were in but they are also spiritually far from You.  It mirrors our society today.  Many are far from the structures we have built to worship You but they are also far from receiving Your gift of salvation.  Help us to be strong in You as we continue to proclaim to truth to our world.  Amen."

Pastor Adam