lamentations 5: Lord, Bring us back to you

 In Lamentations 5, we read:

Our parents sinned and are no more,
    and now we’re paying for the wrongs they did.
Slaves rule over us;
    there’s no escape from their grip.
We risk our lives to gather food
    in the bandit-infested desert.

We lament our sins, but we also lament the consequences of our sins:
    
On Mount Zion, wrecked and ruined,
    jackals pace and prowl.
And yet, God, you’re sovereign still,
    your throne intact and eternal.
So why do you keep forgetting us?
    Why dump us and leave us like this?
Bring us back to you, God—we’re ready to come back.
    Give us a fresh start.
As it is, you’ve cruelly disowned us.
    You’ve been so very angry with us.”

The Lord has been angry with us to the point we can't eat

lamentations 4: what happened to kindly women?

 In lamentations 4 we read:
3 Even wild jackals nurture their babies,
    give them their breasts to suckle.
But my people have turned cruel to their babies,
    like an ostrich in the wilderness.

4 Babies have nothing to drink.
    Their tongues stick to the roofs of their mouths.
Little children ask for bread
    but no one gives them so much as a crust.

10 Nice and kindly women
    boiled their own children for supper.
This was the only food in town
    when my dear people were broken.

11 God let all his anger loose, held nothing back.
    He poured out his raging wrath.
He set a fire in Zion
    that burned it to the ground.

The hunger during Babylonian siege was so great that "nice and kindly" women killed their own babies for food.
The prophet laments for the priests too:


13 Because of the sins of her prophets
    and the evil of her priests,
Who exploited good and trusting people,
    robbing them of their lives,

14 These prophets and priests blindly grope their way through the streets,
    grimy and stained from their dirty lives,
Wasted by their wasted lives,
    shuffling from fatigue, dressed in rags.

15 People yell at them, “Get out of here, dirty old men!
    Get lost, don’t touch us, don’t infect us!”
They have to leave town. They wander off.
    Nobody wants them to stay here.
Everyone knows, wherever they wander,
    that they’ve been kicked out of their own hometown.

The people of the Lord called to be saints are now profanated - made worse than common people.

lamentations 3: Can the Lord lock me into darkness?

 In Lamentations 3 we read:

1-3 I’m the man who has seen trouble,
    trouble coming from the lash of God’s anger.
He took me by the hand and walked me
    into pitch-black darkness.
Yes, he’s given me the back of his hand
    over and over and over again.


we are used to read that the way of the Lord brings us to light; but here, it is the opposite: the Lord took me into darkness.

    
4-6 He turned me into a skeleton
    of skin and bones, then broke the bones.
He hemmed me in, ganged up on me,
    poured on the trouble and hard times.
He locked me up in deep darkness,
    like a corpse nailed inside a coffin.

even worse: "the Lord locked me up in darkness like a corpse inside a coffin".

13-15 He shot me in the stomach
    with arrows from his quiver.
Everyone took me for a joke,
    made me the butt of their mocking ballads.
He forced rotten, stinking food down my throat,
    bloated me with vile drinks.

16-18 He ground my face into the gravel.
    He pounded me into the mud.
I gave up on life altogether.
    I’ve forgotten what the good life is like.
I said to myself, “This is it. I’m finished.
    God is a lost cause.”

We are used to think that our Hope is in the Lord, but here, the prophet says that "God is a lost cause".
However, the prophet remembers that "It’s a Good Thing to Hope for Help from God":

    
It’s a Good Thing to Hope for Help from God
19-21 I’ll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness,
    the taste of ashes, the poison I’ve swallowed.
I remember it all—oh, how well I remember—
    the feeling of hitting the bottom.
But there’s one other thing I remember,
    and remembering, I keep a grip on hope:

In desperation, let me remember who the Lord is. One thing to remember: God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out,    his merciful love couldn’t have dried up.

    
22-24 God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out,
    his merciful love couldn’t have dried up.
They’re created new every morning.
    How great your faithfulness!
I’m sticking with God (I say it over and over).
    He’s all I’ve got left.

25-27 God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits,
    to the woman who diligently seeks.
It’s a good thing to quietly hope,
    quietly hope for help from God.
It’s a good thing when you’re young
    to stick it out through the hard times.

28-30 When life is heavy and hard to take,
    go off by yourself. Enter the silence.
Bow in prayer. Don’t ask questions:
    Wait for hope to appear.
Don’t run from trouble. Take it full-face.
    The “worst” is never the worst.

I am used to ask questions in the middle of suffering (am I the cause of all this?), but here, the prophet says: "don't ask questions, wait for hope to appear".

    
31-33 Why? Because the Master won’t ever
    walk out and fail to return.
If he works severely, he also works tenderly.
    His stockpiles of loyal love are immense.
He takes no pleasure in making life hard,
    in throwing roadblocks in the way:

55-57 “I called out your name, O God,
    called from the bottom of the pit.
You listened when I called out, ‘Don’t shut your ears!
    Get me out of here! Save me!’
You came close when I called out.
    You said, ‘It’s going to be all right.’

58-60 “You took my side, Master;
    you brought me back alive!
God, you saw the wrongs heaped on me.
    Give me my day in court!
Yes, you saw their mean-minded schemes,
    their plots to destroy me.

61-63 “You heard, God, their vicious gossip,
    their behind-my-back plots to ruin me.
They never quit, these enemies of mine, dreaming up mischief,
    hatching malice, day after day after day.
Sitting down or standing up—just look at them!—
    they mock me with vulgar doggerel.

64-66 “Make them pay for what they’ve done, God.
    Give them their just deserts.
Break their miserable hearts!
    Damn their eyes!
Get good and angry. Hunt them down.
    Make a total demolition here under your heaven!”


All the Bible teaches me to call to the Lord in the middle of my anguish. Am going to remember it? Hope so.

lamentations 2: lament for Jerusalem

 In Lamentations 2, the Lord makes the destruction of Jerusalem:


God Walked Away from His Holy Temple

7 God abandoned his altar, walked away from his holy Temple
    and turned the fortifications over to the enemy.
    As they cheered in God’s Temple, you’d have thought it was a feast day!

8 God drew up plans to tear down the walls of Daughter Zion.
    He assembled his crew, set to work and went at it.
    Total demolition! The stones wept!


We know that the Babylonian army caused the destruction, but they are not cited in this poem. The Lord is the One who makes everything.



    
9 Her city gates, iron bars and all, disappeared in the rubble:
    her kings and princes off to exile — no one left to instruct or lead;
    her prophets useless — they neither saw nor heard anything from God.

10 The elders of Daughter Zion sit silent on the ground.
    They throw dust on their heads, dress in rough penitential burlap—
    the young virgins of Jerusalem, their faces creased with the dirt.

11 My eyes are blind with tears, my stomach in a knot.
    My insides have turned to jelly over my people’s fate.
    Babies and children are fainting all over the place,

12 Calling to their mothers, “I’m hungry! I’m thirsty!”
    then fainting like dying soldiers in the streets,
    breathing their last in their mothers’ laps.

    
20 “Look at us, God. Think it over. Have you ever treated anyone like this?
    Should women eat their own babies, the very children they raised?
    Should priests and prophets be murdered in the Master’s own Sanctuary?

21 “Boys and old men lie in the gutters of the streets,
    my young men and women killed in their prime.
    Angry, you killed them in cold blood, cut them down without mercy.

So far, everything is happening through the Lord, but in the next verse, the Lord invites "friends" to a party:

    
22 “You invited, like friends to a party, men to swoop down in attack
    so that on the big day of God’s wrath no one would get away.
    The children I loved and reared—gone, gone, gone.”

We see that Jeremiah (very likely) is very upset with the Lord, although he understands that the Lord has been warning about this destruction for decades and decades. Jeremiah loves Jerusalem and suffers with her suffering. Jeremiah took care of some people (his children), but they are gone.

Lamentations 1: Jerusalem is destroyed due to her sins; however, something is wrong.

 In Lamentations 1 we see Jerusalem as a woman who cries due to the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians:

1 Oh, oh, oh . . . 
How empty the city, once teeming with people.
    A widow, this city, once in the front rank of nations,
    once queen of the ball, she’s now a drudge in the kitchen.

2 She cries herself to sleep each night, tears soaking her pillow.
    No one’s left among her lovers to sit and hold her hand.
    Her friends have all dumped her.


The suffering is a punishment for her sins, but even though, there are things to ask the Lord:

10 The enemy reached out to take all her favorite things. She watched
    as pagans barged into her Sanctuary, those very people for whom
    you posted orders: keep out: this assembly off-limits.

How could pagans enter into Holy places? Shouldn't they be killed? How did the Lord let it happen?

11 All the people groaned, so desperate for food, so desperate to stay alive
    that they bartered their favorite things for a bit of breakfast:
    “O God, look at me! Worthless, cheap, abject!

21 “Oh, listen to my groans. No one listens, no one cares.
    When my enemies heard of the trouble you gave me, they cheered.
    Bring on Judgment Day! Let them get what I got!

22 “Take a good look at their evil ways and give it to them!
    Give them what you gave me for my sins.
    Groaning in pain, body and soul, I’ve had all I can take.”

Despite the punishment, Lamentations 1 finishes with a prayer: bring the enemies of Jerusalem on Judgement Day. Let them be punished.

Jeremiah 52 - a hope after the chaos

 In Jeremiah 52 we come back to the destruction of Jerusalem.
Jeremiah has been preaching during the reigns of:
. Josiah (640–609)
. Jehoahaz (609)
. Jehoiakim (609–598)
. Jehoiachin (Jeconiah) (598)
. Zedekiah (597–587)

We see that Josiah was good king and Jehoiachin received the favour of the Evil-merodach king of Babylon, however, in general, the kings were bad.

We read:

2 As far as God was concerned, Zedekiah was just one more evil king, a carbon copy of Jehoiakim.

Jehoiakim was the bad king that burned Jeremiah writings. Jehoiakim would kill Jeremiah if possible, but Zedekiah could have been killed Jeremiah but didn't. To my concern Zedekiah seemed a little better than Jehoiakim.


12-16 In the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon on the seventh day of the fifth month, Nebuzaradan, the king of Babylon’s chief deputy, arrived in Jerusalem. He burned the Temple of God to the ground, went on to the royal palace, and then finished off the city. He burned the whole place down. He put the Babylonian troops he had with him to work knocking down the city walls. Finally, he rounded up everyone left in the city, including those who had earlier deserted to the king of Babylon, and took them off into exile. He left a few poor dirt farmers behind to tend the vineyards and what was left of the fields.

The temple was destroyed. The temple represented a place where earth and heavens meet. Although the Lord wanted to show his presence through a phisical building and rituals, He wants more the heart of his people, so He punished his people and showed his back on them. Would the anger of the Lord destroy his people? Is there any way to the people of the Lord survive this destruction?


31-34 When Jehoiachin king of Judah had been in exile for thirty-seven years, Evil-Merodach became king in Babylon and let Jehoiachin out of prison. This release took place on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month. The king treated him most courteously and gave him preferential treatment beyond anything experienced by the political prisoners held in Babylon. Jehoiachin took off his prison garb and from then on ate his meals in company with the king. The king provided everything he needed to live comfortably for the rest of his life.

Jeremiah finishes with a message of hope: a David descedant is honored by Evil-Merodach (successor of Nebuchadnezzar II). In the text of Jeremiah, we read that the people of the Lord will return to his land. One great effect of the Babylonian exile was the removal of idol worship. The Lord is a teacher who uses the necessary methods to make his students learn.

Jeremiah 51: against Babylon, part 2

 In Jeremiah 51 we read:

59 Jeremiah the prophet gave a job to Seraiah son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, when Seraiah went with Zedekiah king of Judah to Babylon. It was in the fourth year of Zedekiah’s reign. Seraiah was in charge of travel arrangements.

60-62 Jeremiah had written down in a little booklet all the bad things that would come down on Babylon. He told Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, read this out in public. Read, ‘You, O God, said that you would destroy this place so that nothing could live here, neither human nor animal—a wasteland to top all wastelands, an eternal nothing.’

63-64 “When you’ve finished reading the page, tie a stone to it, throw it into the River Euphrates, and watch it sink. Then say, ‘That’s how Babylon will sink to the bottom and stay there after the disaster I’m going to bring upon her.’”

In the fourth year of Zedekiah's reign, Babylon was the most powerful nation. Jeremiah was prophecying that the Jews should surrender to Babylon and live there, blessing the city; but here, Jeremiah says:


1-5 There’s more. God says more:
“Watch this:
    I’m whipping up
A death-dealing hurricane against Babylon—‘Hurricane Persia’—
    against all who live in that perverse land.
I’m sending a cleanup crew into Babylon.
    They’ll clean the place out from top to bottom.
When they get through there’ll be nothing left of her
    worth taking or talking about.
They won’t miss a thing.
    A total and final Doomsday!
Fighters will fight with everything they’ve got.
    It’s no-holds-barred.
They will spare nothing and no one.
    It’s final and wholesale destruction—the end!
Babylon littered with the wounded,
    streets piled with corpses.
It turns out that Israel and Judah
    are not widowed after all.
As their God, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, I am still alive and well,
    committed to them even though
They filled their land with sin
    against Israel’s most Holy God.

Many decades before the Jews returning from the exile, while Zedekiah was going to Babylon, Jeremiah wrote:

6-8 “Get out of Babylon as fast as you can.
    Run for your lives! Save your necks!
Don’t linger and lose your lives to my vengeance on her
    as I pay her back for her sins.
Babylon was a fancy gold chalice
    held in my hand,
Filled with the wine of my anger
    to make the whole world drunk.
The nations drank the wine
    and they’ve all gone crazy.
Babylon herself will stagger and crash,
    senseless in a drunken stupor—tragic!
Get anointing balm for her wound.
    Maybe she can be cured.”

Jeremiah knew that the Lord would not abandon Jerusalem:

10 “God has set everything right for us.
    Come! Let’s tell the good news
Back home in Zion.
    Let’s tell what our God did to set things right.

Jeremiah compares the Lord, the Creator, to the men-made gods of Babylon:

15-19 By his power he made earth.
    His wisdom gave shape to the world.
    He crafted the cosmos.
He thunders and rain pours down.
    He sends the clouds soaring.
He embellishes the storm with lightnings,
    launches the wind from his warehouse.
Stick-god worshipers look mighty foolish!
    god-makers embarrassed by their handmade gods!
Their gods are frauds, dead sticks—
    deadwood gods, tasteless jokes.
They’re nothing but stale smoke.
    When the smoke clears, they’re gone.
But the Portion-of-Jacob is the real thing;
    he put the whole universe together,
With special attention to Israel.
    His name? God-of-the-Angel-Armies!

The Lord is not friend fo Babylon:

25-26 “I’m your enemy, Babylon, Mount Destroyer,
    you ravager of the whole earth.
I’ll reach out, I’ll take you in my hand,
    and I’ll crush you till there’s no mountain left.
I’ll turn you into a gravel pit—
    no more cornerstones cut from you,
No more foundation stones quarried from you!
    Nothing left of you but gravel.” God’s Decree.