GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LAMENTATIONS 1:17-18
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17 Zion stretches out her hands, but there is no one to comfort her.
The LORD has commanded those who surround Jacob
to become his foes.
Jerusalem has become an unclean thing among them.
The prophet looks back at the stricken city and sees Zion like a woman reaching out to be helped. But there are no arms reaching back. There is not a single eye turned back that can help. There is no one to comfort her. Why? It is not because they are somewhere else, helping others. It isn’t because they are indifferent. It isn’t for any human reason at all. Everyone all around has been commanded by God to become the foe of his former city.
The city, the temple mount, the people within– all have become “an unclean thing.” A niddah is “an impurity, something ceremonially and morally unclean.” It is as if a man has married his own (living) brother’s wife (Leviticus 20:21)– the sin condemned by John the Baptist (Mark 6:18). It is what happens to an entire land or nation when its people have become corrupt (Ezra 9:11). Even in the New Testament, we are warned to be wary of joining together with those who do not worship in faith and truth. “Show mercy,” Jude says, “mixed with fear– hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh” (Jude 1:23).
In this verse, the first cross is the memory of the exiles about the city they left behind. Shouldn’t we therefore also consider the depth of the Second Cross, the cross of Jesus our Lord, who hung upon his cross knowing that his own people had rejected him? The holy Father was going to chastise and punish them for this, commanding those surrounding Judea to become foes. The Romans would soon, very soon, turn on Judea and bring it down in flames and blood. Walls, towers, homes, gates, synagogues and temple, all would burn, crack, and crumble into dust on account of the full measure of the wicked rebellious sins of the Jews, the Sanhedrin, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the high priest, and the rest. Jesus had already judged them: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, and you do not let those who want to enter to go in” (Matthew 23:13). The blood of his suffering dripped from his eyes and fell upon his feet before falling again into the dusty rocks below as he hung there; he was bleeding and dying for their sins, but they had rejected his offering; his sacrifice. They would carry their sins before the Righteous Judge and try to enter into heaven with their own merits and worthiness, but they were already “sons of hell” (Matthew 23:15), condemned, unclean. “You are like whitewashed tombs, that seem pleasant on the outside but inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean” (Matthew 23:27). More blood fell, this time from his holy hands, running by now in spurts on account of his pounding heart, pumping from his veins onto the wooden crossbeam, and on the stones of this altar called Golgotha. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to her! How often I have longed to gather your children together the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing” (Matthew 23:37).
There would be no one to comfort them. The lesson of the first cross for Judah did not carry over to trusting in the second cross of Christ, except for a small handful. “Look,” he said again (Matthew 23:38), “your house is left to you desolate.”
18 The LORD is righteous.
I am the one who rebelled against the word of his mouth.
Please listen, all you peoples, and see my pain.
My virgins and my best young men have gone into captivity.
It is as if the city cries out to prophesy against her own people. “I rebelled! My people are gone– the fine young men and the beautiful young girls! Listen and feel my pain!”
The Lord’s own righteousness is held up as a mirror to those city walls. He is holy; she is a ruin. He is righteous; she is destroyed. He is perfect; she is nothing at all. This is the mirror of the holy law. Only the blood of Jesus can wash away this ruin, this unrighteousness, this pain and guilt. It is not only the captivity into Babylon and along its canals, the Kebar (Ezekiel 1:1), the Ahava (Ezra 8:15), the Ulai (Daniel 8:2) and the rest. It is the pain of sin, the guilt that stains, the rebellion against the holy word of God.
The Christian bears the third cross, the cross of trouble and hate from Satan and his friends, because we know that our sins have been forgiven. Satan howls because he can never be redeemed. God’s judgment on the angels who saw his face during the creation and yet sinned came swiftly and without mercy. “God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment” (2 Peter 2:4). They abandoned their own home (Jude 1:6). They cannot escape him. This is why the demons shouted out when they saw Jesus. “Ah! What do you want with us, Jesus the Nazarene? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God!” (Luke 4:34). They were terrified of him, and they still are.
Bear up under that cross, Christian! Yes, the Lord is righteous. Yes, each one of us is the one who rebelled against the word of God’s holy lips. Each one of us caused his pain, suffered on the cross for our sakes. Each one of us should be considered one of the holy Christian church’s fine young men or beautiful young girls sent away into the captivity of hell forever with the rebellious angels that are now turned into hideous demons for all eternity, to be punished alongside them, with no one to comfort us.
But we have the blood of the second cross covering us, atoning for our sins. Christ’s passion and pain belong to us through faith. We have been forgiven, and we have a place with our heavenly Father forever, prepared in advance by our Savior himself (John 14:2-3). Trust in him, and rejoice in your beautiful liberation. You have the promise of eternal life. Bear up under the crosses of the day, knowing that there will be no more crosses in that glorious Tomorrow, on account of his One Cross. Trust in that; trust in him, and live.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Listen or watch Bible classes online. https://splnewulm.org/invisible-church/
Archives at St Paul’s Lutheran Church https://splnewulm.org/daily-devotions/ and Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: www.wlchapel.org/connect-grow/ministries/adults/daily-devotions/gwfy-archive/2024
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Lamentations 1:17-18 rebelled against the word