Lamentations-Part 2
Dr. Allen Barber
June 9, 2010
Sorrow and Hope In Lamentations
2 She weeps bitterly in the night,
Her tears are on her cheeks;
Among all her lovers
She has none to comfort her.
All her friends have dealt treacherously with her;
They have become her enemies.
3 Judah has gone into exile because of affliction
and hard servitude;
She dwells among the nations,
She finds no resting place;
her persecutors have all overtaken her
in the midst of her distress
4 The roads to Zion mourn
for none come to the festival: (NKJV is set feasts).
All her gates are desolate;
Her priests groan;
Her virgins have been afflicted,
And she herself suffers bitterly.
5 Her foes have become the head;
Her enemies prosper;
For the LORD has afflicted her
for the multitude of her transgressions.
Her children have gone away
captives before the foe.
Lamentations 1:2-5 ESV
If you not read the first article, go back and read it before reading this one for better understanding for the theme of this series.
The prophet Jeremiah preached judgment and the need of repentance to the Southern Kingdom of Judah for forty years, but instead of heeding his message, they tried to kill him and placed him in a dungeon with mud up to his waist giving him only bread and water; however, the Lord had told Jeremiah his life would be spared. Right here is a lesson for modern day Christians. God has not promised us a rose garden or a life without conflict and persecution, that is, for those who choose to live boldly in Christ before the world. Timid fearful Christians may not suffer any persecution, but will lose rewards at the Bema Judgment for compromising the faith. Genuine born-again Christians are suffering and dying all over the world in Communists and Muslim nations while here in America we continue to have peace because religion is protected by the Constitution; however, a day will come when the Constitution will be set aside for the New World Order government; then Christians in America will suffer as our brothers and sisters are doing in other nations. We had better enjoy what we have now for a change is coming and not for the better.
As mentioned in the first article, Jeremiah is weeping for the nation and for the city of Jerusalem as he views the destruction by the Babylonians. The holy city of Jerusalem has been leveled to the ground and the Temple destroyed (the Babylonians did not completely destroy the temple as did the Romans in 70 A.D., but the damage was significant); all but the poorest of the people have been taken captive to Babylon and many killed. The commentary for Lamentations in the ESV of the Bible says, The mourning is for the loss of a nation. The kingdom rule under Solomon was a time of great prosperity and peace for King David had conquered all of Judah's enemies by the time of Solomon's reign; however, by the end of his reign, the once great king whom Bible says God loved, had become an apostate with many wives and great wealth. His foreign wives led him into idolatry resulting in apostasy. Temple priests had become corrupt having sexual relations with temple prostitutes. Idols were placed in the temple and on all the high places, groves were set-up to worship the false gods. The Sabbath was not honored and the feast days set aside and substituted for pagan worship. Judah had become an apostate nation filled with sin and wickedness.
The Bibles says God became angry at Solomon because of his sinful ways and idolatry and pronounced judgment upon his kingdom:
9 So the LORD became angry with Solomon , because his heart had turned from the LORD God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, 10 and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not keep what the LORD had commanded. 11 Therefore the LORD said to Solomon, "Because you have done this, and have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant. 12 Nevertheless I will not do it in your days, for the sake of your father David; I will tear it out of the hand of your son. 13 However I will not tear away the whole kingdom; I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of My servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen."
1 Kings 11:9-13 NKJV
Solomon began his reign in about 967 B.C. and ruled Israel for 40 years (Saul, David and Solomon all reigned for 40 years). After he died, his son, Rehoboam, ascended the throne, but he was not like Solomon in his early days, but was wicked and corrupt so the Word of God was fulfilled when the kingdom divided into the Northern Kingdom of Ephraim (Israel) with Samaria as its capital and the Southern Kingdom of Judah with Jerusalem as its capital. Someone wrote that Solomon had a thousand wives, but one son who was a fool. The Northern kingdom lasted for about 210 years until God sent the Assyrians to destroy it. Judah learned nothing from the judgment upon Samaria and in 606 B.C. as Jeremiah predicted, the Babylonians attacked Judah and began the first deportation of the people to Babylon, that is, those they did not kill.
Jeremiah's prophetic ministry lasted from the reign of Josiah (the only godly king in the line of the kings after the death of Solomon) in about 627 B.C. to the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. or 40 years. Can you imagine how he felt for preaching judgment that long with no results? I have been preaching and teaching judgment upon the United States since the first year I was called to the ministry of the Word in April 1971 or almost 40 years. The first message I preached as a young man in my twenties to a sizeable Baptist Church was entitled, "A Nation Stuck In the MUD." At the time, homosexuals were beginning to come out of the closet and had the attention of the national leaders. It was also the time when the high courts and the liberal Congressmen began to move the nation away from its Christian roots toward Social Marxism. During those days any preaching about judgment upon America was not received well by the churches because the nation was riding high on prosperity and our superpower status.
Like Jeremiah, I tried to not preach judgment, but each time the Holy Spirit would convict me to stay with my calling. I lasted in the pastorate for about 10 years (I preached and taught many things other than judgment) because I consistently taught the Second Coming of the Lord and repentance to the Churches and the nation. Several pastors and family members castigated me for my stance on judgment and still do to this day. Jeremiah became so discouraged that he called God a liar and a deceiver resulting in God demanding that he repent and be re-commissioned - Yes, the anointing as a prophet had to be placed back upon Jeremiah because of sinning with his mouth (words):
19 Therefore thus says the LORD:
"If you return,
Then I will bring you back;
You shall stand before Me;
If you take out the precious from the vile,
You shall be as My mouth.
Let them return to you,
But you must not return to them.
20 And I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall;
And they will fight against you,
But they shall not prevail against you;
For I am with you to save you
And deliver you," says the LORD.
21 "I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked,
And I will redeem you from the grip of the terrible."
Jeremiah 15:19-21 NKJV
The Hebrew meaning of "return" in Verse 19 is interesting in that it implies repentance not in the original sense, but at the point in which the sin in question took place. In Jeremiah's case, it was when he accused God of being a deceiver. Why was that serious? Because he was accusing God of being like Satan, the arch deceiver of mankind; therefore, it was no little sin Jeremiah committed, which is proven by the fact God had to re-commission him. There is also a lesson here, which is we need to be careful what we say to God for he holds us accountable for what we say and how we say it. In our loose-lips say anything society, we have lost the meaning of words and how they are weighed in the court of heaven. Many Christians are under the discipline of God for their loose-lips. You know the saying, "Loose lips sinks ships." Jesus taught in the Gospels we shall be judged by our words and that which shall judge us is the Word of God.
The phrase, "If you take out the precious from the vile, you shall be as my mouth," implies the precious is the "right words or message" and the vile is that which is "profane or corrupt." God told Jeremiah he must change his words or correct his mouth and speak what was right in the sight of God. Today, many preachers say many things, but not necessarily the Word of God. If you do not believe me, just tune in to Christian TV and you will hear a lot of "hot air" boasting and clever lyrics from man's mouth, but little "thus saith the Lord." Preachers are filled with their own words, but not much rhema.
Well, I need to get back to the text in Lamentations.
In Verse 2 Jeremiah is speaking metamjorphically of Jerusalem when he refers to the city in the female gender (she). The city weeps as a human over its destruction with none of her lovers (the nations that once sought out Solomon's wisdom and conducted commerce) to comfort her - she is all alone in her affliction. These same lovers or friends have become her enemies in joining forces with Babylon. This may happen to the United States as we have lost our prestige and influence among the nations of the world. Obama is on a campaign to restore our image by apologizing for America's sins, but it has not done much good. In the early days, America was known for its Christian faith and biblical morality so much so that a famous French philosopher said after visiting America and seeing its many churches; "America is great because she is good" (Alexis de Tocqueville in 1831; however, it is now dubious that he actually said that).
The religious and spiritual climate in America has greatly declined in last 50 years and instead of leading the world in evangelism, we now are the major producer of porn around the globe - something to be proud of? No, we should bow our heads in shame and disgrace for filling the minds and eyes of young people not to mention adults with such filth. A recent survey I read said that a large percentage of people in the work place spent several hours a day looking at porn on the internet. Porn is an "American idol" for which God shall judge us make no mistake about it.
Verse 3 mentions displacement or exile among the nations of the Middle East; however, the judgment was not the Iron Yoke, whereby the Jews were completely removed from the land, but the Wooden Yoke in which some were permitted to remain in the land. The Iron Yoke fell upon the Jews in 135 A.D. and the beginning of the second Diaspora when they were removed from the land by edit of the Romans (actually Rome was God's army in carrying out the judgment - see Matthew 22:1-14 - The Parable of the Great Feast; see also Deuteronomy 28:48 for the Iron Yoke and Jeremiah 28:10-14 for the Wooden Yoke). The Iron Yoke is a complete removal of the people from the land while the Wooden Yoke is only a partial removal. In my opinion of studying the prophetic Scriptures for 40 years, unless the United States repents as a nation and soon, God will place her under the Wooden Yoke and eventually the Iron Yoke. How would this happen since there are over 300 million people living in the nation? When the New World Order finally takes over and controls the nation, the citizenry will come under the oppression and rule of the NWO. The oppression will be a form of the Wooden Yoke - remaining in the land but no longer a free people. While it is beyond the thinking of most Christians, there could come a day in which God places the Iron Yoke upon America by allowing its destruction. If the North American Union is successful, the three nations - the United States, Canada and Mexico will lose their sovereignty as well as national borders. When the new money replaces the dollar and world government replaces the Constitution, then in reality the United States would cease to exist - a form of the Iron Yoke.
In Verse 4, Jeremiah paints a picture of the past when many nations came to Jerusalem to partake of its wealth and to admire the Temple (The Roman General Titus was so taken by the beauty and splendor of the second temple that he commanded his soldiers not to destroy it; however, Jesus predicted in 33 A.D. that it would be torn completely to the ground and it was - See Matthew 24:1-3). Now the priests mourn because none enter through the gates to celebrate the temple feasts. In addition, the virgin daughters of Jerusalem (virginity was held in high esteem in biblical days, but not today; virginity is laughed at) are dragged away by the captors. Because of the desolation and destruction, the city weeps bitterly. We saw a little of what great destruction can do to a city when the twin towers fell on September 11, 2001 and the destruction of the cities along the Gulf Coast after Katrina and Rita. Were these two calamities both a warning and a harbinger of things to come in America if we do not get our house in order? Yes, I am convinced it was, but the politicians in Washington and most clerics think otherwise, even laugh and mock at any reference to judgment. The mentality of the United States is that we are too good and too great to fall under the judgment of God. How can we say we are good when there is great moral filth throughout the land? Our pride and great wealth has blinded us to our sins just like it did in the days of Jeremiah when he was preaching judgment to Judah. I have news for America, God is about to turn our house upset down because we fail to repent at His mild warnings of judgment. It will take a more severe judgment than 9-11 to wake-up this prideful and stubborn nation to see that is has sinned greatly in the eyes of God. That day is coming and I believe soon - perhaps by late 2010 or by the spring of 2011. This fits the period from 2010-2017 that God showed me in the 120-Year End-Time Generation. (Note: while it did not take place, nevertheless, the end-time generation is 120 years; the question is, what is the official starting point). America's problems are increasing not getting better. Sadly, the prognosticators see progress only in terms of economic growth and not in spirituality. As long as America is prosperous financially, they predict good things; however, there are many secularists who do not have on rose colored glasses and are predicting bad times ahead because of Obama's policies.
Finally in Verse 5, Jeremiah says Judah's enemies have become the head implying she is now the tail - a reference to the curse in Deuteronomy 28:13,44. Her enemies prosper while she is lying in ruins. This is due to the Lord's judgment because of her many transgressions. Is the United States on the way to becoming a tail nation after being the head of all nations since WWII? If you look closely, you can see the tail beginning to appear in America. Our enemies, China and even Russia flourish while we are on the decline. It is true that many nations of Europe are in trouble financially, but this was planned for the West by the Illuminati in order to gain control of the world's money supply and eventually the nation states in order to fulfill Revelation 17. The global financial morass is the result of the international banking cartel and its Central Banks creating money from debt and in the process causing the nations of the world to be in debt to it with no way out except capitulation to a New World Order.
Lamentations is about Sorrow and Hope - sorrow caused by sin and failing to repent; hope in repentance and returning back to the God of the Bible. As I have written many times, the United States has no future unless we repent.
God bless.