Video Transcript: Lament 1 - The Woman Jerusalem Mourns

The five lamentations or five laments a better way to look at them of, hopefully Jeremiah or  someone during Jeremiah's time. They're not, there's no author ascribed to them. But  traditionally they've always been ascribed to Jeremiah, focus on what happened to Jerusalem  at the time of the Babylonian destruction. The Babylonians had been landlords, you might  say, over Palestine, including Judah for some time for about 30 years, since about 605 or 606.  And it was at that time that they first came through and, and took some of the people away,  mainly at that time, in 606, Daniel and his three friends to retrain some of these young people in order, their hope was to send them back as future leaders of a new and revitalized Judah  that would reflect Babylonian ideals and, and values that wasn't going to happen. But that's  what they thought might happen, happened again in 597. And at that time, Ezekiel, one of  the sons of a priest in Jerusalem was taken away, he became the prophet who spoke the voice of God in the exile to the people who were already in exile and those who came later. And  then a bunch of people went at the destruction of Jerusalem to Babylon in 586 BC, Jeremiah  himself was given the option of going to Babylon and living in relative ease and luxury, or  spending the rest of his days in Jerusalem, he he chose to spend the rest of his days in  Jerusalem. That didn't happen. There were several different rebellions in Jerusalem among the very few people. And certainly the poor people who are left all fearing that the Babylonians  might come through again. And after a couple of King or a governor's had been killed, the rest basically packed up and left and took Jeremiah along with them down to Egypt. And there's a  community that was begun in Egypt at that time. But the laments themselves reflect on the  city of Jerusalem, now devastated and for the Jewish people, or from the for the people of  Judah, but also for the Israelites as a whole. This was a terrible devastation. It is so serious  that it's like losing one's mind and one's identity. If Israel was the people of God, God was  living with Israel, first in the wilderness, wanderings in the tabernacle, they portable throne or home of God, that went along with the people wherever they traveled. And when the people  got into the promised land, the land of Canaan settled in the tribes each got their boundaries  placed and, and David wanted to secure the kingdom, as one of its early kings and his son  was given the mandate to build a temple, the center of Israel's identity was the temple in  Jerusalem. Solomon's palaces and the palaces of successive kings were not the true center of  things. The true king of Israel was Yahweh, and Yahweh, his palace and throne were the  temple and the Ark of the Covenant in that temple. So for the temple to be destroyed, for the  Ark of the Covenant to be taken away or destroyed, or something or its gold melted down,  we're not sure what happened to it. This constituted not just a terrible loss, but really the  erasing of the people themselves in terms of their understanding of their privileged role with  God, their missional relationship with other nations, the covenant itself from Mount Sinai,  which echoed what God was seeking to do with them, all of this was now gone. And so we  have these five cries of pain, and each of the cries has a different voice. Each of them has a  slightly different character. There's so many similarities among them, but we'll look at each of them one at a time. Again, the first four of these are acrostic, meaning that the successive  elements of the poems themselves begin with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. And  that's why, with the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, there are 22 sections in these first four laments. Now the fifth lament also has 22 sections, but it is not an acrostic. It's just like the  others but not in acrostic form, meaning that the beginning letters of each couplet are not  successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The first of those laments, lament number one is  really a word picture of Jerusalem as A widow as a mother who's lost her husband and lost her son's or her children. Now, in essence, the husband of the widow, the husband of Jerusalem,  the husband of the people of God is Yahweh. And somehow the relationship the marriage  relationship between Israel and Yahweh has come undone. We know from other sources in the Old Testament, including the prophecies of Jeremiah, that the fingers to be pointed toward the woman herself that she has violated the marriage relationship. Hosea will later talk about this  in terms of the great care that God has had toward his people, and how the people  themselves have become like an unruly prostitute rushing after other relationships, other  husbands other gods. So this picture gives us a good indication of what the attitude or the  intent of lament one is all about. Listen to these words how deserted lies the city once so full  of people how like a widow is she who once was great among the nations, she who was Queen

among the provinces, has now become a slave. Bitterly she weeps at night tears are on her  cheeks. You see these words these words of a woman who's crying because her honored  position her honored place has been lost to her. Among all her lovers, there is no one to  comfort her. She's alone. All of her friends have betrayed her they have become her enemies.  After affliction and harsh labor Judah has gone into exile. There you see the picture of the  remnants of the people marching away to the tune of the Babylonian Piper. Going over to  Babylon as exiles. She dwells among the nation she finds no resting place you scattered. All  who pursue her have overtaken her in the midst of her distress, the roads design mourn, for  no one comes to her at her appointed festivals thinking about those great songs of ascent in  which the people of Israel would go up to Jerusalem now no one is coming because Jerusalem  itself is gone. All her gateways are desolate, her priests grown her young women grave and  she is in bitter anguish. This the laments carry on like that with this picture of Jerusalem as a  woman who's lost everything and now she sits in the ruins of her home, wondering what's  happened to her children, they're gone probably destroyed, and she herself no longer having  any face or place among the nation's look at these words, her filthiness clings to her skirt she  did not consider her future her fall was astounding. There was none to comfort her Lord, Lord  on look on my affliction, for the enemy has triumph. Yes, the enemy has triumph. But  according to the prophets, that was because the woman herself had not remained true to the  relationship that she was in. This is why I weep in my eyes overflow with tears. No one is near to comfort me no one to restore my spirit. My children are destitute because the enemy has  prevailed. You see all of these synonymous parallelism couplets, in which the woman has  become a destitute person. Everything is taken away from the woman, she is alone, there is  none to help her. No one cares for her. The lament ends this way people have heard my  groaning. But there is no one to comfort me. All my enemies have heard of my distress. They  rejoice at what you have done. Notice the indication that the one she is speaking to her lover,  her husband, her God is the very One who has allowed this to take place. And that's all part of the covenant relationship in which the blessings have been poured out for many years, but  because of unfaithfulness now, the curses of the Covenant are kicking in. They rejoice at what you have done, may you bring the day you have announced so that they may become like  me. And this is talking about the variety of judgments on all of the nations that have also  been part of the poetic or the prophetic corpus so that not only is Israel to be judged for her  sins, but at the other nations as well. Now this judged woman is looking for the judgments of  God to fall on the other nations as well. Let all their wickedness come before you deal with  them as you have dealt with me because of all my sins. My groans are many and my heart is  faint. Again, what's pictured in lament One is Jerusalem as a forlorn widow, whose children  have all died or have been taken away. And the woman acknowledges that while other  nations have done this, and Babylon is the one most recently who's come in and actually  destroyed the temple, the city walls behind it all is Yahweh. That's that covenant relationship  that establishment of Yahweh has a unique role with Israel, for the sake of the other nations.  And when Israel decided not to be or failed to be the witness of Yahweh to the nation, she  herself became like the other nations and simply was lost in the turmoil of international  politics. The reason for Yahweh's judgment is the woman's own sinfulness. And so the woman  acknowledges that YAHWAH is justified in these actions that have resulted in torture and pain  and loneliness and helplessness even if she doesn't like them. These things are the result of  all the curses of the Sinai covenant, now coming to pass in her own existence. This is the first  among the five voices of lum laments, and together they form a larger package, which  reaches into issues related to our relationship with God of all times that we need to pursue  more fully, but for now, these thoughtful cries of lament number one, and we'll take a look  next at each of the other, laments in the book of Lamentations.