Lamentations 4:16-22 says...Bible reading week 23, day 3

Our verses of the day are Lamentations 4:16-22, which read,

16 - The presence of the LORD has scattered them, He will not continue to regard them; they did not honor the priests, they did not favor the elders.

17 - Yet our eyes failed, looking for help was useless; in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save.

18 - They hunted our steps so that we could not walk in our streets; our end drew near, our days were finished for our end had come.

19 - Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the sky; they chased us on the mountains, they waited in ambush for us in the wilderness.

20 - The breath of our nostrils, the LORD's anointed, was captured in their pits, of whom we had said, "Under His shadow we shall live among the nations."

21 - Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, who dwells in the land of Uz; but the cup will come around to you as well, you will become drunk and make yourself naked.

22 - The punishment of your iniquity has been completed, O daughter of Zion; He will exile you no longer.  But He will punish your iniquity, O daughter of Edom; He will expose your sins!

Jeremiah is continuing to give imagery detail of this exile of the people of Israel to the people of Babylon.  Because of not honoring what is holy, they were scattered and not regarded.  Because the people of Israel where looking to some other country to save them then their God, they fell to the countries that were pursuing to overtake them.  It makes me think of all the times I have looked for some other country or some other entity to help or save me over what is given by God in the Scriptures.  I look to the government or I look to some quick fix or get rich scheme to be the answer to my problem rather than the wisdom that God has given us on how we are to live.  For some reason we think that someone else has a better plan than God and therefore we get trapped into the consequences of these false ideals.

Their adversaries hunted them down and chased them and waited in ambush to capture them.  They put them in pits where all they could do was cry out.  They couldn't walk in their streets any longer and escape was not possible because the enemy was very fast and cunning.  Israel realizes that they are in "this pit" because God said that is where they would be, under the nations of others, if they did not follow after Him.  God's word, the Bible, gives us not only instruction but also warnings.  The Bible gives us the wide and the narrow.  The Bible gives us heaven and hell.  The Bible gives us the gift and the wages.  The Bible does not hide what happens if we do not follow after Him.  The Bible also describes in detail what Satan is like and how he operates.  We cannot stand in ignorance to sins' consequences if we claim to be people who follow after the God of the Bible.  He shows us both sides of the coin.

This God who is disciplining the people of Israel for not following after Him now turns to the enemy and addresses them.  They are not off the hook.  They may seem to be rejoicing and glad, the daughter of Edom, for their conquest over the daughter of Zion, but it will be short lived.  "The cup will come around."  They will also experience the consequence of their sins.  God is an equal wrath dispenser.  His cup of wrath against sin will also fall on the bad guys too.  This God that they don't acknowledge will have the final say in everything.  It makes me think of our Vacation Bible School salvation points and the first one is:

God Rules:  The Bible tells us that God created everything, including you and me, and He is in charge of everything.

The laments of the Israelites are in concert with the laughs of the Edomites but God's justice will rule over all no matter what side someone is on.  We all fall under the wrath of God against sin but God loves the world so much that He provided through His love, His grace through the life, death, resurrection, ascension and coming again of His only Son, Jesus Christ.  What will we experience from God ultimately?  Let us pray.

"Lord, may we realize that You are in charge and therefore it is so important to read and do what You say.  Even if at times we are in lament of not following after You that we would not keep laughing at Your will for our lives.  May our lament lead to repentance and confession to be people who experience living life as Your anointed.  Amen."

Pastor Adam