Lamentations 1

¹² “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which was brought upon me, which the Lord inflicted on the day of his fierce anger. ¹³ “From on high he sent fire; into my bones he made it descend; he spread a net for my feet; he turned me back; he has left me stunned, faint all the day long. ¹⁴ “My transgressions were bound into a yoke; by his hand they were fastened together; they were set upon my neck; he caused my strength to fail; the Lord gave me into the hands of those whom I cannot withstand. ¹⁵ “The Lord rejected all my mighty men in my midst; he summoned an assembly against me to crush my young men; the Lord has trodden as in a winepress the virgin daughter of Judah. ¹⁶ “For these things I weep; my eyes flow with tears; for a comforter is far from me, one to revive my spirit; my children are desolate, for the enemy has prevailed.” ¹⁷ Zion stretches out her hands, but there is none to comfort her; the Lord has commanded against Jacob that his neighbors should be his foes; Jerusalem has become a filthy thing among them. ¹⁸ “The Lord is in the right, for I have rebelled against his word; but hear, all you peoples, and see my suffering; my young women and my young men have gone into captivity. ¹⁹ “I called to my lovers, but they deceived me; my priests and elders perished in the city, while they sought food to revive their strength. ²⁰ “Look, O Lord, for I am in distress; my stomach churns; my heart is wrung within me, because I have been very rebellious. In the street the sword bereaves; in the house it is like death. ²¹ “They heard my groaning, yet there is no one to comfort me. All my enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that you have done it. You have brought the day you announced; now let them be as I am. ²² “Let all their evildoing come before you, and deal with them as you have dealt with me because of all my transgressions; for my groans are many, and my heart is faint.”

The words of the classic 1787 hymn, “How Firm a Foundation,” describe the purpose of God’s discipline:

When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,

My grace, all-sufficient, shall be thy supply;

The flame shall not hurt thee, I only design

Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.

If you listen closely to that, you will see that the author points to three aspects of discipline that God sends upon the believer:

1. Our “dross”: those things in our life that should not be there.
2. God: He who designs and implements the flame of discipline.
3. “The flame”: God’s instrument of discipline.

These three elements are likewise present in Lamentations.

Lamentations is a fascinating book in that it considers the causes of Judah’s woe and desolation and destruction from different angles. We might say there is an order to these causes. We have argued earlier that not all human suffering is punishment for sin. To say that it is is to heap guilt upon people who may be hurting because of calamities arising from Satanic attack or simply the treachery of living in a fallen and dangerous world. No, not all suffering is punishment for sin. But to say that is not to say that no suffering is punishment for sin. In fact, sometimes suffering is punishment.

This is the case with Judah in Lamentations. The second half chapter 1, verses 11–22, will make this perfectly clear. But it will also give us deeper glimpses into the multi-faceted “causes” of their suffering. This is helpful insofar as the three causes mentioned here are always present when suffering results from sinfulness. To miss one of these, is to have a skewed understanding of what is happening when God punishes sinfulness.

Cause #1: Human sinfulness.

We begin with Judah’s clear acknowledgment of its own sinfulness. Judah sees her sin as the ultimate cause for her woe. Consider:

¹⁴ “My transgressions were bound into a yoke; by his hand they were fastened together; they were set upon my neck; he caused my strength to fail; the Lord gave me into the hands of those whom I cannot withstand.

¹⁸ “The Lord is in the right, for I have rebelled against his word; but hear, all you peoples, and see my suffering; my young women and my young men have gone into captivity. ¹⁹ “I called to my lovers, but they deceived me; my priests and elders perished in the city, while they sought food to revive their strength. ²⁰ “Look, O Lord, for I am in distress; my stomach churns; my heart is wrung within me, because I have been very rebellious. In the street the sword bereaves; in the house it is like death.

²² “Let all their evildoing come before you, and deal with them as you have dealt with me because of all my transgressions; for my groans are many, and my heart is faint.”

This is the language of acknowledgment:

• “My transgressions”
• “I have rebelled”
• “I called to my lovers…”
• “I have been very rebellious”
• “all my transgressions”

When we are punished because of our sin, it is vitally important that we recognize and acknowledge that fact. We need to own our own rebellious behavior and call it what it is.

We can see this at play in Luke 23, in the words of the penitent criminal, both in his rebuke of the impenitent criminal and in his words to Jesus.

³⁹ One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” ⁴⁰ But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? ⁴¹ And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” ⁴² And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” ⁴³ And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

What a contrast! The one criminal compounded his crimes by mocking Jesus. The other took ownership of his crimes (“And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.”) and so cried out for (and received!) mercy.

The human heart’s capacity to sidestep its own guilt is staggering. I have seen it as a pastor and I have seen it in myself! Sometimes it takes us a while—assuming we ever get there—before we stop and say, “Actually, the problem is me. I am to blame.”

Let us be clear of this: God is not vicious, cruel, or capricious. If He disciplines us for sin, it is because we have sinned! We are to blame!

Yes, sometimes in life, we do not understand why we are suffering. And, sometimes, these times of suffering can create crises of faith. “Why did this happen, Lord? I do not understand!” But none of these things can be said in cases where we do see our own sinfulness. We must acknowledge our sin!

Consider Psalm 32 and the liberating power of confessing sin!

¹ Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. ² Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. ³ For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. ⁴ For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah ⁵ I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah

Silence concerning our sin leads to inner erosion. Acknowledging it, confessing it to the Lord, and making no excuses for it leads to forgiveness!

Cause #2: God.

Alongside Judah’s acknowledgment of her own sinfulness, we see her recognition that it is God who is disciplining her, punishing her. We find this primarily in two sections of our text.

¹² “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which was brought upon me, which the Lord inflicted on the day of his fierce anger. ¹³ “From on high he sent fire; into my bones he made it descend; he spread a net for my feet; he turned me back; he has left me stunned, faint all the day long. ¹⁴ “My transgressions were bound into a yoke; by his hand they were fastened together; they were set upon my neck; he caused my strength to fail; the Lord gave me into the hands of those whom I cannot withstand.

²¹ “They heard my groaning, yet there is no one to comfort me. All my enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that you have done it. You have brought the day you announced; now let them be as I am. ²² “Let all their evildoing come before you, and deal with them as you have dealt with me because of all my transgressions; for my groans are many, and my heart is faint.”

Again, the language is clear:

• “the Lord inflicted”
• “his fierce anger”
• “he sent fire”
• “he spread a net”
• “he has left me stunned”
• “he caused my strength to fail”
• “the Lord gave me into the hands of those whom I cannot withstand”
• “You have brought the day you announced…”

Verse 14 is particularly interesting:

¹⁴ “My transgressions were bound into a yoke; by his hand they were fastened together; they were set upon my neck; he caused my strength to fail; the Lord gave me into the hands of those whom I cannot withstand.

What an image! Sin calls forth a yoke that is set with crushing effect upon our necks! What a contrast this is to the yoke that Jesus spoke of in Matthew 11.

²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Jesus would place His yoke of life and peace and restoration and forgiveness upon. But we keep turning from this in rebellion and receive, instead, the yoke of chastisement. Note, in Lamentations 1:14, that it is God who places the yoke of punishment upon us: “by his hand they were fastened together; they were set upon my neck…”

Judah realized that it was God who went the fires up discipline and punishment upon them.

We must be careful here. Again: To say this is not to say that every time we suffer it is because God sent it. It is rather to say that when God’s people suffer because of their rebellion, God’s loving discipline is what is behind it.

C.S. Lewis brilliantly demonstrates the need for and the nature of God’s discipline in his story, The Horse and His Boy.Aravis, a young girl, had drugged her servant in order to escape, resulting in the servant being punished. Later in the story Aslan, the Christ figure, chased Aravis and tore her skin with his claws, and later revealed it to her:

“Draw near, Aravis my daughter. See! My paws are velveted. You will not be torn this time.”

            “This time, sir?” said Aravis.

            “It was I who wounded you,” said Aslan. “I am the only lion you met in all your journeyings. Do you know why I tore you?”

            “No, sir.”

            “The scratches on your back, tear for tear, throb for throb, blood for blood, were equal to the stripes laid on the back of your stepmother’s slave because of the drugged sleep you cast upon her. You needed to know what it felt like.”

            “Yes, sir. Please—”

            “Ask on, my dear,” said Aslan.

            “Will any more harm come to her by what I did?”

            “Child,” said the Lion, “I am telling you your story, not hers. No one is told any story but their own.”[1]

Sometimes it is God who wounds, but, if He does so, He does so always in leave. What is more, He does so ultimately with a greater restoration and healing in mind.

God disciplines, but God is not cruel.

Cause #3: God’s instruments.

But there is another cause at play here. It is the cause of what we can call God’s “instruments”: those nations God allowed to rise up against Judah and inflict devastation. Judah also acknowledged this cause of her suffering.

¹⁴ “My transgressions were bound into a yoke; by his hand they were fastened together; they were set upon my neck; he caused my strength to fail; the Lord gave me into the hands of those whom I cannot withstand. ¹⁵ “The Lord rejected all my mighty men in my midst; he summoned an assembly against me to crush my young men; the Lord has trodden as in a winepress the virgin daughter of Judah.

¹⁷ Zion stretches out her hands, but there is none to comfort her; the Lord has commanded against Jacob that his neighbors should be his foes; Jerusalem has become a filthy thing among them.

God disciplines, but sometimes God disciplines by allowing us to suffer beneath hostile hands. Consider:

• “the Lord gave me into the hands of those whom I cannot withstand”
• “he summoned an assembly against me to crush my young men.”
• “the Lord has commanded against Jacob that his neighbors should be his foes”

We must think rightly about this. God can be said to have “caused” devastation by allowing hostile forces to devastate…but that does not mean that God is therefore morally at fault for the devastation inflicted by wicked men. In fact, time and time again in scripture, we find God allowing godless nations to wreak havoc as part of His discipline, only to later turn around and inflict havoc Himself against those who attacked His people.

Interestingly, Judah, in Lamentations 1, recognizes God as the ultimate cause behind their devastation (just as she recognizes her own rebellion as eliciting God’s response!) while yet calling for the nations that struck her to be disciplined by God.

²² “Let all their evildoing come before you, and deal with them as you have dealt with me because of all my transgressions; for my groans are many, and my heart is faint.”

In other words, Judah does not blame God for allowing the nations to strike her even as she realizes that, in an ultimate sense, God has allowed this. Yet, she still calls upon God to strike the nations that strike her. And, indeed, He will!

It might be helpful to look at these secondary causes—God’s instruments (in this case, Babylon and the surrounding hostile nations)—as God removing His hand of restraint from them. He is not actively causing Babylon to bring destruction, but He is removing His restraining hand, which is a kind of cause. When He does this—removes His restraining hand—Babylon acts out of its own wickedness. God allows Babylon to sin, in other words, but God does not sin through Babylon.

If we struggle with how this can be, let us acknowledge that Judah herself does not seem to struggle here with it. She see it and she understand how it could be. In other words, Judah does not hate the discipline of God. Neither should we.

J.I. Packer writes:

Appreciate the discipline of God…[I]f, now, he (in Whitefield’s phrase) puts thorns in your bed, it is only to awaken you from the sleep of spiritual death—and to make you rise up to seek his mercy. Or if you are a true believer, and he still puts thorns in your bed, it is only to keep you from falling into…complacency and to ensure that you “continue in his goodness” by letting your sense of need bring you back constantly in self-abasement and faith to seek his face. This kindly discipline, in which God’s severity touches us for a moment in the context of his goodness, is meant to keep you from having to bear the full brunt of that severity apart from that context. It is a discipline of love, and it must be received accordingly.[2]

See, in Lamentations 1, an acknowledgment of God’s justice, of God’s discipline, of God’s loving hand, even when that hand strikes or allows others to do so. God loves His children. The cruelest thing in the world is to refrain from that discipline that pulls another back from the brink of utter ruin. The most loving thing in the world is the careful application of appropriate discipline that brings a beloved child back into relationship and away from danger.

Sometimes, this hurts. Always, when done rightly, this is love. And God always acts rightly.

We end with powerful words from Hebrews 12:

⁵ And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. ⁶ For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” ⁷ It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? ⁸ If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. ⁹ Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? ¹⁰ For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.¹¹ For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

And to this we say, “Amen!”

[1] C.S. Lewis, The Horse and His Boy (Harper Trophy, 1954), p.216.

[2] J.I. Packer. Knowing God. Downers Grove: IVP. 1973. p. 166.