GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LAMENTATIONS 1:19-20
Click to listen to this devotion.
19 “I called to my lovers, but they deceived me;
my priests and elders perished in the city,
while they sought food to save their lives.
The lovers are the nations that used to be friendly with Judah; the reader must remember that the first interpretation of each verse in this book falls under what I term the first cross, the cross or burden of the Jews under the Babylonian exile and those few poor wretches who were left behind in Jerusalem to fend so meagerly for themselves, scratching out a living like the princes and elders of this verse, seeking food to save their lives.
In what way did those nations deceive Judah or Jerusalem? By being allies, they should have come when called, but they did not. It was just as it had been when the Assyrians came in the days of Isaiah, and Egypt could not be depended upon to help, “that splintered reed that will pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it” (Isaiah 36:6). For the strong rulers of Egypt were long past, and after a long time of rule by Libyans, Nubians had taken control (this was about the time of Isaiah and Micah), and although the Egyptians once again tried to rule from Sais in the Nile Delta during the final years of Judah’s kings, Egypt, too, faced opposition and threats of invasion from the Persians. Judah had no help from her neighbors.
20 “See, LORD, I am in distress;
my guts churn; my heart is wrung out within me,
for I have been very rebellious.
In the street the sword makes families childless;
in the house it is death.
Our prophet continues to speak at the same time as an exile, or one who grieves with the exiles, and also as the city of Jerusalem and as Judah the land. He speaks with dramatic and graphic words. “My guts churn” uses a rare Hebrew word and form also meaning the foaming fermentation of wine. The city, personified here as all of Judah, realizes that she has been sinful and rebellious. Her sins have brought about this terrible destruction. The first cross acknowledges the bearer’s guilt.
The second cross, the cross of Jesus Christ, is not about the guilt of the one who bore it, but the guilt of everyone who he bore it for. Through the eyes of the prophet, the city watches Jesus struggle under the weight of his cross as he walks and stumbles through the streets, the path of his Passion, carrying the burden of the sin of the whole fallen world. Our sins. My sins. The believer, born again in faith and aware of the terrible price of sin, looks back at that moment in Jerusalem, and confesses with the prophet: “I am in distress. My guts churn; my heart is wrung out within me, for I am the one who has been rebellious– very rebellious.”
The first cross remembers that death was everywhere in those terrible days. Inside, outside, it didn’t matter. The sword that caused the grief of childlessness was everywhere. The second cross demonstrates that Christ took that sword and let it pierce himself, whatever form it took, and made his mother grieve with that grief. “Woman, here is your son” (John 19:26). He was speaking from above her, suspended between heaven and earth on the wood of his execution, his sweat, tears, and blood softening the dust just a little so that the earth of his own creation would receive his body in death after his atoning sacrifice was complete. The angel had warned her: “A sword will pierce your soul” (Luke 2:35). That was about her own personal grief. But the prophet had foreseen about her son, “He was pierced for our transgressions, Mary, yours and mine and those of the whole world; he was crushed for our iniquities, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).
The third cross, the cross of our present burdens, is made bearable only by the second cross. For without Christ, our burdens would be unbearable; our troubles would be eternal. Our pain would have no end. But he removed our pain and troubles by removing our guilt and shame. The tests we undertake and the suffering we are put through by the spite and rage of the devil is bearable because our Jesus loved us. He rose from his grave with the promise that we will rise, too. All of this, our forgiveness and the promise of the resurrection and of everlasting joy, peace, and life, is due to his compassion, his gut-churning love that stepped in and took our punishment on himself. Praise him! Thank him! What an honor to have a life in his created world to spend in thanks for his love. We give him glory with our lives today knowing that we will give him glory with our lives in eternity, rescued, liberated, set free, all because of the price that he paid in our place.
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/2025
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Lamentations 1:19-20 The third cross made bearable only by the second