Reflections on Lamentations 4

Lamentations 04 (Contemporary English Version)
1. The purest gold is ruined and has lost its shine; jewels from the temple lie scattered in the streets.
   
2. These are Zion's people, worth more than purest gold; yet they are counted worthless like dishes of clay.
   
3. Even jackals nurse their young, but my people are like ostriches that abandon their own.
   
4. Babies are so thirsty that their tongues are stuck to the roof of the mouth. Children go begging for food, but no one gives them any.
   
5. All who ate expensive foods lie starving in the streets; those who grew up in luxury now sit on trash heaps.
   
6. My nation was punished worse than the people of Sodom, whose city was destroyed in a flash without the help of human hands.
   
7. The leaders of Jerusalem were purer than snow and whiter than milk; their bodies were healthy and glowed like jewels.
   
8. Now they are blacker than tar, and no one recognizes them; their skin clings to their bones and is drier than firewood.
   
9. Being killed with a sword is better than slowly starving to death.
   
10. Life in the city is so bad that loving mothers have boiled and eaten their own children.
    
11. The LORD was so fiercely angry that he burned the city of Zion to the ground.
    
12. Not a king on this earth or the people of any nation believed enemies could break through her gates.
    
13. Jerusalem was punished because her prophets and her priests had sinned and caused the death of innocent victims.
    
14. Yes, her prophets and priests were covered with blood; no one would come near them, as they wandered from street to street.
    
15. Instead, everyone shouted, "Go away! Don't touch us! You're filthy and unfit to belong to God's people!" So they had to leave and become refugees. But foreign nations told them, "You can't stay here!"
    
16. The LORD is the one who sent them scattering, and he has forgotten them. No respect or kindness will be shown to the priests or leaders.
    
17. Our eyes became weary, hopelessly looking for help from a nation that could not save us.
    
18. Enemies hunted us down on every public street. Our time was up; our doom was near.
    
19. They swooped down faster than eagles from the sky. They hunted for us in the hills and set traps to catch us out in the desert.
    
20. The LORD's chosen leader was our hope for survival! We thought he would keep us safe somewhere among the nations, but even he was caught in one of their traps.
    
21. You people of Edom can celebrate now! But your time will come to suffer and stagger around naked.
    
22. The people of Zion have paid for their sins, and the Lord will soon let them return home. But, people of Edom, you will be punished, and your sins exposed.
    
    

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    A rather graphic description is given in this chapter of the suffering of Judah's people due to their sin. These verses pinpoint the cause of the suffering as the sins of her prophets, priests, and the people in general, and their trust in Egypt to protect them from Babylon rather than trusting God. The result was that under the siege of Babylon's army for two years, the city of Jerusalem ran out of food and water and the people lay in the streets starving. But because the people had lost their compassion for one another, they cared for no one but themselves under the duress of starvation. Therefore, mothers were more concerned for their own welfare than that of their babies. "Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young," says 4:3, "but my dear people have become cruel like ostriches in the wilderness." 4:4 continues, "The nursing infant's tongue clings to the roof of his mouth from thirst. Little children beg for bread, but no one gives them any." Rather than nurse their infants as would a jackal, mothers instead fed off their children. "The hands of compassionate women have cooked their own children; they became their food during the destruction of my dear people." (4:10)
    
    If this dire situation is the result of sin, what is sin? We get the idea that sin is the committing of one or more acts from a list of forbidden acts. There are different ideas of what acts are on the list, but stealing and murder and a few other crimes against mankind are usually on the list. Many of us can legitimately claim not to have committed any of these acts and thus consider ourselves to be free of sin. But the Bible is clear in stating that no one is free of sin. Everyone is a sinner. It defines sin as trangression of the law of God. The ten commandments outline this law for us and was summarized by Jesus as consisting of two principles: (1) "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength." (2) "Love your neighbor as yourself." (Mark 12:30-31) In essence, then, any trangression against God or another person could be defined as sin.
    
    From this understanding of sin it is clear that none of us are without sin nor are we immune from God's judgment any more than was Judah. But none of us need suffer under that judgment as did Judah since by simply agreeing with God about our sin and repenting of that sin, that is, to turn away from that sin, He will forgive us and have compassion on us and will show mercy rather than judgment. This forgiveness of sin is made fully possible through Christ who took upon Himself the judgment for sin through His death upon the cross. This was necessary since "The wages of sin is death." However, "the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23)  Therefore, as John 3:18 explains, "Anyone who believes in Him (Jesus) is not judged, but anyone who does not believe is already judged, because he has not believed in the name of the One and Only Son of God." But there is more. Having believed in Jesus as our salvation from the judgment for sin, God places His Spirit within us to help us avoid sin.
    
    It is not necessary to suffer from the outcome of sin as did Judah, which is lamented in this book of Lamentations. Instead, God has provided a means of escape from sin and its consequences, and that escape is Jesus Christ.