“The LORD has done what he planned; he has fulfilled his word, which he decreed long ago. He has overthrown you without pity, he has let the enemy gloat over you, he has exalted the horn of your foes.”
~ Lamentations 2:17
Hi James and Ellen,
Have you ever lamented about an unexpected interruption that completely messed up your day? Have you ever grieved about the social prejudices that degrade guys, gals and kids who are in a perceived lower class status? Have you ever become outraged about the self-seeking ways that some guys, gals and kids are living their lives? What do you think that a guy, gal or kid should do when the going gets tough? Would you uncontrollably blubber if there was nothing that you could do to satisfy your selfish cravings? What would you do if there was no more food to eat or no more water to drink? What would you do if there was standing right outside your front door a guy who was there to murder you or to force you to go with him to his place? If you were living in the city of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. – as Jeremiah was, what would you have done after Nebuchadnezzar and his fearsome Babylonian people group army cut you off from the rest of the world and you had eaten everything that was eatable and had drunk all the potable water? Jeremiah scribed his helpless feelings in a carefully scripted journal that is known as the Lamentations Book. Jeremiah graphically describes in Lamentations 2 the unspeakable horror that was happening in the city of Jerusalem as Nebuchadnezzar and his brutal Babylonian people group army waited outside the barricaded gates that led into the city of Jerusalem for the guys and gals who were inside the walls of the city of Jerusalem to finally cave into their merciless blockade of their city. Kids and babies were fainting on the streets of the city of Jerusalem because their mas could no longer find food for them to eat. Mas who were living in the city of Jerusalem were eating their own kids because they had become so desperately hungry. Old guys and gals and young kids who were living in the city of Jerusalem were lying down next to each other on the dusty streets in the city of Jerusalem to die because of malnutrition while young guys and gals were indiscriminately having their lives terminated by the sword. God’s prophet spokesmen and the temple priests were being murdered because of their condemnation of the self-absorbed lifestyles of the majority of the guys and gals who were finding ways to stay alive in the city of Jerusalem.
Where do you think that God was during the time that His specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the city of Jerusalem were being put through indescribable agony and horrifying anguish? Verse 17 says, “The LORD has done what he planned; he has fulfilled his word, which he decreed long ago. He has overthrown you without pity, he has let the enemy gloat over you, he has exalted the horn of your foes.” Jeremiah clearly states that everything that took place in the city of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. and that everything that led up to what took place in the city of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. was choreographed by God. Your grandpaa believes that even before God created planet Earth, God knew that His specially chosen guys and gals would mess up big time. Your grandpaa believes that God knew – because of His Divinely ordered plan that He in His sovereignty formulated before He positioned in heaven’s void planet Earth and every other celestial orb, that His specially chosen guys and gals would choose to turn their backs on Him by putting their personal agendas before His stated wishes. Because your grandpaa believes that God knew what His specially chosen guys and gals were going to do in the city of Jerusalem, your grandpaa believes that God had the reserved right to cover the city of Jerusalem with a dark cloud – which was His anger, that He had absolute reason to viciously hurl the splendor of His specially chosen guys and gals away from Him and that He had the righteous grounds to forget without pity the Israelite people group guys and gals who He had exclusively chose to be His specially chosen guys and gals. God’s burning wrath against His specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the city of Jerusalem – because of their rejection of Him, resulted in God having Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian people group army destroy the gates that were in the walls that surrounded the city of Jerusalem and then to have Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian people group army completely flatten the walls that surrounded the city of Jerusalem. Even though God’s especially chosen guys and gals would begin to frantically and hysterically cry out to God for His mercy and even though the enemies of God’s specially chosen guys and gals would begin to ridicule and deride them for the appalling dilemma that their God had them, God was not about to stop pouring out his wrath on His specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the city of Jerusalem. For not accepting Him as their One and only God, God put His specially chosen guys and gals in a harsh, unsympathetic timeout.
Your grandpaa’s ma died last week. Your grandpa’s ma had been in hospice for several days – which meant that there was a very good possibility that your grandpaa’s ma would very soon die. While your dad’s Uncle Gerald, Aunt Margaret and Aunt Di were visiting your grandpaa’s ma, the chaplain of the assisted care facility where your grandpaa’s ma had been sent to from the hospital came into her room and asked if he could read a couple of verses and to pray for her. Just moments after the chaplain left your grandpaa’s ma’s room after reading the verses about a room that had been prepared in heaven for her and after praying for her, your grandpaa’s ma quietly and peacefully stopped breathing. Your grandpaa believes that because his ma had faithfully lived her life to serve God, that God mercifully took your grandpaa’s ma home to be with Him without any struggle or ado which is totally opposite of the way that God punished His specially chosen guys and gals for snubbing Him to live lives that were self-serving.
Lamentations 2 (933)