LAMENTATIONS LESSON 6
We will begin this lesson in Lamentations 5:1 "Remember, O LORD,
what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach."
This is a cry from the people in captivity to God. This prayer
continues through this chapter. God had shut His ears to their prayers
in the past, but a great deal of time has passed, perhaps God will
hear them now. It begins by asking God to take a look at their
situation.
Lamentations 5:2 "Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our
houses to aliens."
The strangers, of course, are their Babylonian captors. The
houses that had not been burned, now belonged to their captors.
Lamentations 5:3 "We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers
[are] as widows."
They were orphaned of their physical fathers during the war, and
the famine that followed. Their worst plight is that they were
abandoned by their Father, which is in heaven.
Lamentations 5:4 "We have drunken our water for money; our wood
is sold unto us."
In this land of captivity, they must pay for everything they get
like water and wood. When they lived in Judah, God had provided these
natural things for them in abundance.
Lamentations 5:5 "Our necks [are] under persecution: we labour,
[and] have no rest."
They were like slave laborers. Their captors persecuted them.
There was no 8 hour work day. They worked as long as there was light
to see by.
Lamentations 5:6 "We have given the hand [to] the Egyptians, [and
to] the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread."
These were natural foes of the Jews, but they would do most
anything to feed their starving bodies.
Lamentations 5:7 "Our fathers have sinned, [and are] not; and we
have borne their iniquities."
This prayer is from the generation, who were babies when the
captivity began. They are pleading with God that they were paying for
the sins of their fathers. In the Old Testament, it was thought that
the children should pay for the sins of their fathers. Exodus 20:5
"Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the
LORD thy God [am] a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers
upon the children unto the third and fourth [generation] of them that
hate me;"
Lamentations 5:8 "Servants have ruled over us: [there is] none
that doth deliver [us] out of their hand."
They had no deliverer, like Moses, to take them out of this
captivity. It is as if they are saying, send us a deliverer. The great
Deliverer of all mankind is Jesus.
Lamentations 5:9 "We gat our bread with [the peril of] our lives
because of the sword of the wilderness."
The Ismaelites attacked them many times, when they went to gather
their food, perhaps, this is speaking of their attacks.
Lamentations 5:10 "Our skin was black like an oven because of the
terrible famine."
The blackness, here, is speaking of their bodies being burned up
with fever from this terrible famine.
Lamentations 5:11 "They ravished the women in Zion, [and] the
maids in the cities of Judah."
Women fall prey many times to the unwanted advances of the
conquerors. As in any war, the women were raped. The age of the woman
did not seem to matter. The young and the mature fell to the same
fate.
Lamentations 5:12 "Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces
of elders were not honoured."
The princes were killed, and then hung up for everyone to see,
like a hunter might hang up a deer. The young leaders on display like
this would, probably, cause fear to rise up, and many would surrender
because of it. These heathen people had no regard for elders, not even
their own.
Lamentations 5:13 "They took the young men to grind, and the
children fell under the wood."
They used the young men, as you would a horse to pull the grist
mill around. It appears, that even the small children worked bringing
in the wood. These were all captives, and they had to do exactly as
they were told to do.
Lamentations 5:14 "The elders have ceased from the gate, the
young men from their music." Lamentations 5:15 "The joy of our heart
is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning."
There was no time left for the pleasant things, they had enjoyed
before the siege. The elders would sit by the gate and greet the
passers by. Now, they had to work. The young men loved the music, and
dancing, and making merriment. There was no merriment now. They were
too sad, and too tired from heavy work, to enjoy music and dancing.
Lamentations 5:16 "The crown is fallen [from] our head: woe unto
us, that we have sinned!"
These people had been the chosen of God. They had been crowned
with all the good things God bestowed on His family. They were God's
peculiar people. They ruined all of that, when they worshipped false
gods. God brought the siege against them in punishment, and their
crown has fallen and broken.
Lamentations 5:17 "For this our heart is faint; for these
[things] our eyes are dim."
This is a statement of total despair. Jeremiah is even touched
deeply by these things that have come upon his people.
Lamentations 5:18 "Because of the mountain of Zion, which is
desolate, the foxes walk upon it."
The people are gone, and wild animals roam on the mountain of
Zion.
Lamentations 5:19 "Thou, O LORD, remainest for ever; thy throne
from generation to generation."
This statement by Jeremiah is recognizing for himself, and for
these people, that there is no other God. Their God is God. The LORD
is His name. He is Eternal God. The Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and
the End.
Lamentations 5:20 "Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, [and]
forsake us so long time?"
The question is why, why, why? But they know the reason why. The
family of Jacob was in Egypt 400 years. This is a short time compared
to that.
Lamentations 5:21 "Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall
be turned; renew our days as of old."
Now, we see an urgent plea for God to look favorably upon them
again. Repentance is turning away from the old life, and turning
toward the new. There is something about repentance that God helps in.
We have the desire to turn, but God must help us turn. This is the
statement, here.
Lamentations 5:22 "But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art
very wroth against us."
God does not need to be reminded of the fact that He had rejected
them. That is what this is saying. It is as if the person speaking is
trying to remind God of His covenant relationship with Israel. His
anger was justified, but He will forgive and start them again. Behind
every dark cloud, the sun is shining.
Thank you for taking the time for me to share with you the things the
Lord has shown me about Jeremiah and Lamentations. We must always be
able to find a message in each book that will help our growth in the
LORD.
Your Friend in Christ,
Louise Haney
Lamentations 6 Questions
1. Verse 1 is a cry from the people in _____________.
2. The strangers are whom?
3. Why were they orphans?
4. What natural things were they having to pay for?
5. What were their working hours?
6. Why had they given their hand to the Assyrians and Egyptians?
7. Why were they not killed in the siege of Babylon?
8. For how many generations would the iniquities of the fathers
continue?
9. Who is the great Deliverer of all mankind?
10. Why were they black?
11. What happens to the women in verse 11?
12. Explain what they did with the princes of the land?
13. They took the young men to _________.
14. What work did the children do?
15. What had turned into mourning for the young men?
16. Why did they not enjoy the pleasant things anymore?
17. What happened to their crowns?
18. Verse 17 is a statement of total ___________.
19. Give some of the names that describe God's eternity?
20. What is the question of verse 20?
21. What is the answer?
22. Verse 21 is speaking of what?
23. What lesson did you learn from this Bible study?
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