IN the fourth chapter, the acrostic style is again used, the initial letters of the verses, as written in the original Hebrew, comprising the alphabet in its due order.
We come now to the prophet’s meditation upon the scene of judgment through which he has gone. How great the change from Jerusalem as it was! The gold that early adorned the city is become dim; the stones of the sanctuary are poured out, and the sons of Zion are esteemed as earthen pitchers.
Verse 6: The punishment of Judah is greater than that of Sodom upon which no hands were violently laid. It is because God deals with every one according to what he knows—the responsibility he carries, Thus the servant who knew his master’s will and did it not, is to be beaten with many stripes, while he who knew not, and did that which called for punishment, shall he beaten with few (Luke 12:47, 4847And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. 48But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. (Luke 12:47‑48)).
Verses 7, 8: “Nazarite” means “separated”, and the marks of the true Nazarite in unblemished perfection were to be seen only in Christ as He passed through the world, but Numbers 6 and the history of Samson, who was untrue to his Nazariteship (Judges 13 to 16), show what Nazarites should have been in Old Testament days.
Verse 12: The world which does not know God, does not understand what He does; they know nothing of His holiness, and vainly suppose that He will never interfere with the course of events on earth. “They would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should enter into the gates of Jerusalem.” The Word, of God, however, gives the key (verse 13), for He does not leave His children in ignorance of His ways.
It was indeed a day of unsparing governmental dealing upon Judah, but her punishment will be over when that of Edom begins (compare verses 21 and 22). Edom, as we have before noted, is the relentless enemy of Israel—never repentant.
Chapter 5 has 22 verses, equal to the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet, but the acrostic form seen in the preceding chapters was not used in this one. It is a pitiful appeal to God, addressed as Jehovah (“the LORD” in the ordinary translation) without a word of complaint. “Our fathers have sinned, and they are not; and we bear their iniquities” (N. T.) is a true confession, in verse 7; yet more is confessed in verse 16: “Woe unto us, for we have sinned!”
But there is hope in Jehovah, the unchanging One. “Wherefore dost Thou forget us forever? Turn Thou us unto Thee...and we shall be turned” (verses 19-21). In Him alone is the power to bring the wayward nation back. Verse 22 is rightly rendered, “Or is it that Thou hast utterly rejected us? Wouldest Thou be exceeding wroth against us?”
The Spirit of God it is that produces these exercises in the saints. In Jeremiah’s prophecy, and yet more in the Lamentations, through which we have been privileged to journey together, we see, as another wrote many years ago, “the Spirit of God enters into all these details, not only of the ways of God, but of that also which passes through a heart in which the judgement of God is felt by grace; until all is set right in the presence of God Himself. Inspiration gives us, not only the perfect thoughts of God, and Christ the perfection of man before God, but also all the exercises produced in our poor hearts when the perfect Spirit acts in them, so far as these thoughts, all mingled as they are, refer in the main to God, or are produced by Him. So truly cares He for us! He hearkens to our sighs, although much of imperfection and of that which belongs to our own heart is mixed with them.”
“Can we not discern what a gap for the Bible if we had not Lamentations?”, another has said, “and we bless God for giving us this book which, though written to record past sorrows, and having in view the unparalleled sufferings that await the remnant of the future day, has in it pointed our own hearts anew to the God of all grace, the Father of mercies, Who comforteth us in all our tribulation...” (2 Corinthians 1:3, 43Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; 4Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. (2 Corinthians 1:3‑4)).
ML-06/30/1935