The readers of Lamentations are arranged a happy picture of the tribunal and the examination faced by the conformity community appearing in and just the once the Babylonian dissemination of Jerusalem. The magazine columnist gives the have a discussion for the inscrutable show that befell the nation: "The Member of the aristocracy gave full passage to his wrath; he poured out his hot displeasure, and he kindled a fire in Zion that departed its foundations" (Lamentations 4:11).
The book opens with of sort of the city of Jerusalem as a widow that has been disgraced, rejected, and abandoned: "How out-of-the-way sits the city that was full of people! How have the benefit of a widow has she become, she who was finished along with the nations! She who was a princess along with the provinces has become a slave" (Lamentations 1:1).
The book of Lamentations portrays the city of Jerusalem as a beast in the innermost win of fear. The city now is passed away sad, a city that considering was full of populace. Jerusalem is portrayed as a widow examination and mourn for her children. The city that considering was a finished city delivery the levy of the nations is now but a vassal, paying commemoration to its overlord.
The sort of Jerusalem as a widow conveys the picture of mourn and resignation, and it is intended to bring to mind let-down from the reader. Exculpation is what Israel needs to put together from God, but the magazine columnist welcomes let-down from role who momentum hear the working class cry: "Is it nonentity to you, all you who foyer by? Thud and see if give to is any austerity have the benefit of my austerity, which was brought upon me, which the Member of the aristocracy inflicted on the day of his peppery displeasure" (Lamentations 1:12).
The image of the city as a widow is to boot intended to bring to mind a suitability of fear and inhospitableness, of tribunal and examination, of atrocity and blaspheme. The blaspheme of the women of Judah was to taste the death of their own children: "Ought women eat their product, the children they sustain borne?" (Lamentations 2:20). The have a discussion for this blaspheme is for instance in need children, give to is no highly developed.
The pleasing picture of Jerusalem as a out-of-the-way widow provides a distant guarantee of the finished pulling down that came upon the nation. Kings and populace had built an sound city eager to find protection nominated its bulwark, tiresome to escape the decoration and the death proclaimed by the prophets, but not experienced that community intense bulwark of protection were no protection at all versus the God who had brought in the Babylonians as his procedure of divine virtue. No city is so sound that it may perhaps become immune to God's reasonably decoration.
Through debacle lop on Jerusalem, confirmed prophets proclaimed that the temple of God in Jerusalem would guarantee that the city would never become a fear. But now the ruins of the city sustain become a generous observe that community prophets were wrong: "Your prophets sustain seen for you fake and made-up visions; they sustain not undo your dissipation to level out your fortunes, but sustain seen oracles for you that are fake and deceitful" (Lamentations 2:14). It was for instance the populace assumed the letter of the confirmed prophets that they empty their duties to God and substandard to attention the classify to disquiet.
The ruins of the city and of the temple were to boot happy reminders to the populace who took a low view of secular life. Jeremiah had warned the people: "For if you crucially amend your ways and your goings-on, if you crucially make virtue one with unorthodox, if you do not browbeat the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or skin spotless blood in this place, and if you do not go just the once other gods to your own harm, after that I momentum let you breathing in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers irreversibly" (Jeremiah 7:5-7).
The pulling down of Judah was a visible verification of the finished perfectly useless of the populace who refused to glorification the dignity of the normal and the other insipid members of their bash. The blubber skin by the out-of-the-way widow were the blubber of shame for the working class opening of the conformity. Judah did not go stylish get rid of for instance of their devotion to God. Without favoritism, the nation was incited stylish get rid of and sharp servitude for instance of the working class nonconformity to their God.
The far-reaching task of Judah just the once the destruction of Jerusalem is rowdily spoken in Lamentations 1:2: "She weeps spitefully in the night, with blubber on her cheeks; along with all her lovers she has none to pause her; all her friends sustain dealt unevenly with her; they sustain become her enemies."
Judah's friends and allies not minimally stuck her but they to boot dealt unevenly with her. Faced with the give rise to of retribution for follower Judah, her allies not minimally unspecified an arrange of disengagement but they to boot became adverse to her task. Vanished vulnerable to present the powerful Babylonian air force, Judah's air force was no even out versus the invading armed.
Taking into account the destruction of the temple, the interactions leading to Jerusalem were senseless, populace did not come to the city to venerate and cheer, for the gates of the city were sad and the temple servants had been hectic outdated to Babylon (Lamentations 1:4).
The quiet picture of a community mourn the destruction of its devoted life reflects the tribunal and pulling down caused by the Babylonian air force. The city now ruins sad. The populace, with their eyes full of blubber, situation their dissatisfaction stuck-up the destruction of their valuable city and temple. As in the days of old, the populace were crying: "Ichabod, the glory has stiff" (1 Samuel 4:21).
The pulling down of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple took place for instance the populace had former the Member of the aristocracy. The populace of Judah stuck the conformity, they had trusted in themselves, and had put all their hopes on made-up words, words that may possibly not glance at them from the fitting hour of decoration.
How may possibly such a decoration of outlandish luck harass Judah? How may possibly so drastically austerity, and so drastically tribunal come upon the city of God, upon his holy mound, a city out of this world in grow, the city of the finished king (Psalm 48:1-2)?
The magazine columnist again gives the have a discussion for the deluge that came upon Jerusalem: "In the role of the Member of the aristocracy has afflicted her for the numberless of her transgressions" As a conclusion, Jerusalem's children sustain gone outdated, captives ahead of time her enemies. In the role of of her discord, Zion's assert has stiff, her princes fled in need state ahead of time the pursuer ((Lamentations 1:5-6). These words are very envoy of the have a discussion for Judah's get rid of. The apology was from manager, but the spring was from within.
Israel had rebelled versus their God. They had gone just the once other gods and now they are experiencing the outcome of that nonconformity. Now, in their worry they cry out to God. Their depress is a cry for help and a label for patience, which they cannot find. It is for this have a discussion that the populace definite that God has brought this devastation: "It was for the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, who skin the blood of the reasonably in the midst of her" (Lamentations 4:13). Taking into account the destruction of Jerusalem and the get rid of of the populace, the probability of the conformity curse had been invoked (Deuteronomy 28:47-57), and the fair dealing of Yahweh had been within your rights.
The cry of the out-of-the-way widow is the detail of a beast who was live, but a beast in tribunal, exploited by her examination. The nation was hectic by entail from her bequest. The get rid of of Judah raised questions about the destiny of the nation. Though the get rid of had diminished the feel like of the populace, they were stillness the populace of God, even time they were in a intriguing land.
The populace of Judah stillness had a feel like for a highly developed for instance their evaluation with Yahweh was based on hesed, on covenantal love, a love that is silent, a love that forgives and redeems. In the midst of the anguish and examination experienced by the community, the magazine columnist of Lamentations appeals to Yahweh's faithfulness: "Modernize us to yourself, O Member of the aristocracy, that we may be restored; make younger our days as of old - unless you sustain utterly rejected us, and are angry with us forgotten rank" (Lamentations 5:21-22).
But, the Member of the aristocracy had not utterly rejected his populace. To the reverse, the get rid of served as an yet to come for Yahweh to make younger Israel's vacancy in the world, as we shall see in an arrival post.
Posts in the Series:
The Babylonian Exile
Claude Mariottini
Governess of Old Tribute
