WWUTT 2614 The Mourning of Jerusalem (Lamentations 1:1-11)

Jerusalem had done wickedly. She had whored herself out with all the false gods around her.

So the true God turned her over to the hands of her enemies, and now she laments.

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When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature

New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.

Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Old Testament, we come to the book of Lamentations.

We'll do a little bit of exposition today, looking at the first half of Chapter 1. I did an introduction to this book last week, so if you missed any of that, you can go back and listen to that overview.

As I said there, and as the name here would suggest, this book is a lament.

It is a deep and sorrowful piece of Hebrew poetry that is mourning over the destruction of Jerusalem.

And each one of the stanzas that we read here in Chapter 1 begin with a letter of the

Hebrew alphabet. Most English translations probably won't feature that, but you do find that captured in the

Legacy Standard Bible. So that's the translation I'll be reading from as we go through the book of Lamentations.

Here we are in Chapter 1, verses 1 through 11. Hear the word of the Lord. Aleph. How lonely sits the city that was great with people.

She has become like a widow who was once great among the nations. She who was a princess among the provinces has become a forced laborer.

Beth. She weeps bitterly in the night and her tears are on her cheeks.

She has none to comfort her among all her lovers. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her.

They have become her enemies. Gemal. Judah has gone into exile because of affliction and because of great slavery.

She sits among the nations, but she has found no rest. All her pursuers have overtaken her in the midst of distress.

Dalet. The roads of Zion are in mourning because no one comes to the appointed times.

All her gates are desolate. Her priests are sighing. Her virgins are grieving, and she herself is bitter.

He. Her adversaries have become her masters. Her enemies are complacent.

For Yahweh has caused her grief because of the greatness of her transgressions. Her infants have gone away as captives before the adversary.

Vav. So all her majesty has gone out from the daughter of Zion.

Her princes have become like deer that have found no pasture. So they have fled without strength before the pursuer.

Zion. In the days of her affliction and homelessness, Jerusalem remembers all her precious things that were from the days of old.

When her people fell into the hand of the adversary and no one helped her, the adversaries saw her.

They laughed at her ruin. Het. Jerusalem sinned greatly, therefore she has become an impure thing.

All who honored her despise her because they have seen her nakedness.

Even she herself sighs and turns away. Tet. Her uncleanness was in her skirts.

She did not remember her future, therefore she has gone down astonishingly.

She has no comforter. Si. O Yahweh, my affliction, for the enemy has magnified himself.

Yod. The adversary has stretched out his hand over all her desirable things, for she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary, the ones whom you commanded that they should not enter into your assembly.

Kaph. All her people are sighing, seeking bread. They have given their desirable things for food to restore their souls.

Si. O Yahweh, and look, for I am despised.

And so we have here in verses 1 -11 this constant weeping as Jerusalem mourns over its condition.

And then in verses 12 -22 there will be this call to Yahweh for deliverance.

That will be the section that we get into next week. But coming back up here to verse 1, how lonely sits the city.

That was great with people, but she has become like a widow. Now in most commentaries that you will read over the book of Lamentations, particularly this section, those commentaries will say that the picture here is of Jerusalem as a weeping widow.

I don't think that really gets to the heart of Jerusalem's sorrow here, though, or even the description that we're given in these first 11 verses.

Why is Jerusalem like a widow? It's not that Jerusalem has merely lost her husband, but rather that her husband has divorced her because she was a harlot.

She had whored herself out with all of the nations around her, had worshiped false gods, and engaged in the sexual immorality of those nations as well.

So God cut her off from himself. Remember that we read in Jeremiah, Jeremiah 3 -8,

I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a certificate of divorce.

Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she went and was a harlot also.

So the condition here of Jerusalem as being like a widow is not a woman whose husband died in battle, and so now she's without husband and no one to care for her.

This is a woman who has been cut off from her husband because she went after other men.

And then those men that she whored herself after are not there to comfort her.

That's in the very next verse. So let's keep going here in verse one, how lonely sits the city that was great with people.

She has become like a widow who was once great among the nations.

And indeed, Jerusalem was very, very great. Remember during the days of Solomon, which was hundreds of years before what we're reading here, but in Solomon's days,

Jerusalem was so wealthy and Solomon's wisdom was so vastly known that there were kings and rulers and governors and queens who were coming from far off lands to Jerusalem to see all of its wealth and behold

Solomon's wisdom. There was a time when Jerusalem was the envy of nations.

Even the Assyrians could not come against Jerusalem. When they tried to do that, the angel of the

Lord came and struck down over 180 ,000 of them in the middle of the night. No one could take

Jerusalem. It was impenetrable because God dwelled there and he was not going to allow any other nation to have the city where he had placed his name.

He has given Jerusalem over to the hands of her enemies because she dealt treacherously, because she did wickedly and was not faithful to God, but continually over and over again whored herself out with others.

And so as it said here, even in this section, as we read on, God gave her over. It wasn't just because the

Babylonians, they finally came up against an enemy that was too strong for them and they couldn't defeat them.

No, God allowed the Babylonians to come in because God's presence was no longer in Jerusalem.

He had removed himself from her because of her treachery.

She who was a princess among the provinces has become a forced laborer.

She used to be in a place of royalty, of rule, but instead now she has become a slave.

And as we know, those who were the occupants of Jerusalem and Judea sent into exile and dwelling in Babylon.

We continue on to verse two. She weeps bitterly in the night and her tears are on her cheeks.

The depiction of this, of this continuous weeping. She has none to comfort her among all her lovers.

So all the people that Jerusalem and its inhabitants had whored themselves out with, they're not, they're not there anymore, are they?

When the Babylonians came against her, nobody helped. She has no one to comfort her. All of the people that Jerusalem had wickedly kept company with are not in her company anymore because there's nothing that they can gain from her anymore.

All her friends have dealt treacherously with her and they have become her enemies. Going on to verse three,

Judah has gone into exile because of affliction and because of great slavery.

She sits among the nations, but she has found no rest. All her pursuers have overtaken her in the midst of distress.

Judah has gone into exile. So now we are expanding beyond the walls of Jerusalem. Even everybody in the region of Judea has been taken by the

Babylonians and has gone out. And all of this has come upon her because of the, because of their rebellious nature, rebelling against God and going after false gods and the pagans around them.

In verse four, the roads of Zion are in mourning because no one comes to the appointed times.

What does that mean? Well, all of the roads that came up to Jerusalem would be filled with Jews constantly who would come up to the temple to worship.

And especially at the appointed feasts, those times when God said people were to come here and sacrifice and worship, there's no one coming down those roads anymore.

They're abandoned. They're desolate. The roads are even in mourning because no one comes at the appointed times.

And at those times of feasting, those roads would be filled with Jews who would be singing.

They would be singing all the way up to Jerusalem to worship God. They would be singing

Psalms, particularly the songs of the Egyptian Hallel, remembering that they were delivered from slavery in Egypt.

The songs of ascents as they would go up to Jerusalem. They're ascending in elevation to that place where God's temple was and God dwelled.

And the people would sing as they went, but there's no more of that anymore. All of her gates are desolate, it says.

They would come into the gates, oh, enter his gates with thanksgiving in your heart and into his courts with praise.

You know that from the Psalms? Well, the gates are empty now because the people are not coming. Her priests are sighing.

Her virgins, those women that would lead with the tambourines and the dancing, they are grieving and she herself is bitter.

She is weeping over what has happened to her, the bitterness not really demonstrating yet a heart of repentance.

But that will come later. So verse five, her adversaries have become her masters.

Her enemies are complacent. They're complacent because they got from her what they wanted from her.

So they are not continually coming after her. This is really saying that the advance against Jerusalem is over.

So it's not that they're in the midst of war and they're continuing to reap from her the resources that she has.

They've taken everything. They've gone. They've left her basically as a naked beaten prostitute. But it says here also in verse five, this is not because, as I said, the

Babylonians were more powerful. They finally came up against a nation that they couldn't defeat.

No, Yahweh has caused her grief because of the greatness of her transgressions.

She did this to herself because she was unfaithful to the Lord. Her infants have gone away as captives before the adversary.

Now, there were surely many horrific things that would have happened to the children at the time that the

Babylonians came and took them. And even in the midst of the siege, the

Jerusalem, well, yeah, the residents of Jerusalem themselves probably did horrific things to their own kids.

But the reference here to her infants have gone away. Basically everybody who was an occupant of Jerusalem has gone out from her.

There is no one left. They have all been taken away. There is no one to replenish.

There are no future generations to look forward to. And if God did not have mercy, this would be the utter end and obliteration of this once great city.

Verse six, so all her majesty has gone out from the daughter of Zion.

Her princes have become like deer that have found no pasture. So they have fled without strength before the pursuer.

Remember that when Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians came against Jerusalem, the king had fled out of the city and all of his royal officials along with them.

Well, Nebuchadnezzar pursued them, caught up with them, killed them all, including all the king's sons, and treated the king brutally and killed him also.

So they fled without strength before the pursuer and they were taken over and destroyed. In verse seven, in the days of her affliction and homelessness,

Jerusalem remembers all her precious things that were from the days of old when her people fell into the hand of the adversary and no one helped her.

So in this day of affliction, day of homelessness, no shelter. The people are just scattered.

There's no residence for them. And in this time, Jerusalem remembers all her precious things.

As I said, there's not really yet demonstrated a heart of repentance.

There's lament here, but there's not repentance. There's just a weeping over what once was.

Well, we once had this. Do you remember the times? Just reflecting, longing for better days.

She remembers what they used to have. It was so good. We had it so good because God was with us and now

God has gone away from us. You know, even in their mourning, it's not that they are unaware of why this has taken place.

They may not yet be reflecting a repentant heart, at least in the sorrow of this poem as we're reading it here, not yet demonstrating repentance, but certainly a mourning over the fact that God has done this, that God had left us.

We deserved it. He turned us over to our enemies and now here we are. But there's no deep sense of we did wrong.

Let's turn back from it. God have mercy on me. We've not come yet to that, but there will be a call for Yahweh to deliver.

This is still in that place of just mourning over what has happened, remembering what used to be, but the sorrow is not centered around,

I had betrayed God. I betrayed God and he did this in his righteous wrath and good judgment.

He brought this upon me. Their adversaries helped her, so nobody saw her.

When the people fell into the hand of the adversary, no one helped her. The adversary saw her.

They laughed at her ruin. Let's come back to that because there'll be more about that a little bit later on. But the, the adversary enjoying her fall.

Verse eight, Jerusalem sinned greatly, therefore she has become an impure thing.

All who honored her despise her because they have seen her nakedness.

Even she herself sighs and turns away. Whatever reverent admiration that anybody would have had for Jerusalem, once she whores herself out with them, that admiration is gone.

And they got everything from her that they wanted to get from her. I've seen you down at your absolute very worst.

I've seen you without your clothes on. I know your vulnerability and how nothing you are.

I got everything from you that there was to get, and then they cast her away. So all who had formerly honored her now despise her because they have seen her nakedness.

And she herself sighs, can't bear to look at those who have seen her naked.

And she turns away. We see this actually a lot in our culture with women who have whored themselves out through pornography or OnlyFans or something like that on the internet or have sent naked images of themselves to somebody else.

Now they are deeply and utterly ashamed, but they may try to cover up that shame by blaming someone else.

So -and -so did this to me. But once the culture gets wind of it, once everybody else can see this woman is actually not pure because she has just whored herself out with all of these different people, there's no admiration of her.

It's really kind of a public spite, despising. Even in our sin -sick, pornographic culture that we live in today, there's still a certain sense of like, once a woman has kind of taken her clothes off for everybody, there's no admiration for her anymore.

Oh, yeah, the leftists and the liberals will continue to exalt her as some sort of pillar or monument of feminism, but nobody really has any deep admiration for her moral or virtue any longer because she's born at all and there's nothing left to see.

And even she herself, there will be something about the way that she carries herself from that point on that will look ashamed.

I can think of some examples, like thinking of certain actresses that have done this, fallen into some kind of a sex scandal, and then they bear it all and all this other kind of thing.

I've seen it happen many times. So I could use those examples, it would eat up a lot of time, but I think you know what

I'm talking about without me having to call anybody out. I think you know what I mean. In the sin -sick culture that we live in, there are many examples to find that are like this.

And then verse 9 says her uncleanness was in her skirts. So where did all of this wickedness that she is guilty of come from?

It was her sexual immorality. That's what this is being tied back to. She did not remember her future.

She did not remember the promise that God had made with Jerusalem. She forgot that God dwelled within her and God was making her a great city, that covenant that was made with David, on your throne

I will establish my kingdom forever. They did not remember the future promise that God had given to them, and so went after those things that mean for destruction rather than for eternal flourishing.

And my friends, when we fall into sin and we give in to the passions of our flesh and we go after the things of this world, we even get easily tricked by the schemes of Satan.

We come into that same error. We forget our future. We forget our future is in Christ Jesus.

And instead we think, this moment right here where I get this satisfaction and I have this need of my flesh, or really it's just the wanton lust of the flesh met, that's all you're thinking about in that moment.

You no longer consider the future, the glorious promises that we have awaiting for us in Christ. Turn not to the things of this world that are wasting away and coming to destruction.

For as Jesus had warned the disciples, remember Lot's wife, who as Sodom and Gomorrah was burning in fire because of their sexual immorality, she looked back and longed for those cities rather than the rescue that God was granting to Lot and to his family.

Remember our future. Remember the glorious things that we have been promised in Christ.

Long for those things and not the stuff of this world. Therefore, verse nine goes on to say, she has gone down astonishingly.

She has no comforter. See, oh Yahweh, my affliction for the enemy has magnified himself.

So now we have the first cry to Yahweh, but that cry is because of the enemy.

Take care of this enemy of mine who's reminding me of my shame and the evil that I have done.

There is no true sorrow yet before Yahweh. So in verse 10, the adversary has stretched out his hand over all her desirable things.

The enemy has come and has raped her of everything that she had, for she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary, the ones whom you commanded that they should not enter into your assembly.

How is it that the people have been able to enter the sanctuary? These unclean, wicked people, they've gone into the sanctuary.

How are they able to do that without God striking them down? Because God's presence is not there.

The temple itself was not what was protecting them. It was who dwelled there. God was with them.

But now, verse 11, all her people are sighing, seeking bread.

They have given their desirable things, all the things that they had that were the envy of the world, they've given up their desirable things for food to restore their souls.

See, oh Yahweh, and look, for I am despised. And here we start to see, right at the conclusion of verse 11, some genuine sorrow before God over the sins that they have committed, calling to God for help.

And that's what comes next in verse 12. We'll come to that next week. My friends, if you have fallen into deep and grievous sin, then

I hope that you would be convicted over that sin, and you would call out to God, that He would be merciful to you, that He would take this sin away from you, that He would cleanse you of all unrighteousness, so that you would not be longing in your flesh for this sin any longer.

May your longing be for Christ and His most desirable things, because what

Christ has to offer us will never perish, and no one on this earth can take it from us. We have an eternal kingdom that is laid up for us in glory, so let us, in all our ways, for all our days, keep our minds fixed on those things.

Matthew 6, 33, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all that you need will be added to you as well.

Heavenly Father, forgive us our sins and convict our hearts when we go astray. Keep us looking to the cross of Christ, where Your mercy was demonstrated to us by Jesus, dying for our sins, rising again from the dead, and all who believe in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life.

Lift us up from the dirt, clean us, and cleanse away any desire that we would have for the dirt, and instead walk in the righteousness that we have been clothed in by faith in Jesus Christ.