GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LAMENTATIONS 2:22
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22 “You summoned as on a feast day,
but to terrors on every side.
There was none in the day of the LORD’s anger,
who escaped or survived;
those I cared for and reared,
my enemy has destroyed.”
Jeremiah quoted Psalm 31 many times by saying that there was “terror on every side” (Jeremiah 6:25; 20:10; 46:5; 49:5; 49:29). Job’s friend Bildad said the same thing (Job 18:1 ). It’s a frightening thought and obviously a painful and fearful memory for all of these writers. To be surrounded on all sides by enemies!
The third line, which begins the second sentence, doesn’t relate to the terrors of the line above, but “none” is who escaped. I wanted to show the way the words are presented in the Hebrew text, but many translations handle this better by rearranging the thoughts in English. A good translation doesn’t hesitate to make the thoughts of the original text speak in the reader’s language and manner of speaking.
In the final two lines, the parent (it is isn’t clear if a man or woman is speaking, but two of the words are masculine) mourns the death of children, children he cared for and reared (brought up), but who have been destroyed by enemies.
The first terrible cross, which here concludes the prayer, is clear and mournful. None have escaped the wrath of God through the oppressors. Therefore the foreshadowing to the second cross, the cross of Christ, is easy to see. Our Lord did not at all escape the Father’s wrath, even after he asked for the cup of his suffering to be taken away (Luke 22:42).
We take up our crosses (the third cross), and we, too, are surrounded on every side by terrors of every kind. Our enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. He attacks us today in many ways, just as he attacked Jesus through sinful men, through demons, and in person during Jesus’ ministry on earth:
1, When Christ was born, King Herod wanted to kill him out of fear of a rival (Matthew 2:16-18, also lamenting the death of children, except that they were killed by a human enemy and not at all by the wrath of God).
2, When Jesus was in the wilderness, the devil went to tempt him with hunger to break his fast (Matthew 3:3), with testing God’s care by trying to get him to throw himself from the temple wall (Matthew 3:6), and with tempting him with power, by trying to get him to bow down to him, the devil, instead of God (Matthew 3:9).
3, The demons also encountered him many times, except that they quailed and showed their fear every time (would we have run in terror from them?). They would say, “Have you come to torture us?” (Mark 5:7; 9:38; 16:9).
4, There was a conspiracy against Jesus involving enemies who couldn’t agree on anything else except their hatred of him (Matthew 16:1; Mark 3:6)
5, Whole cites rejected Jesus as the Messiah: Nazareth (Luke 4:29); Korazin and Bethsaida (Matthew 11:21) and Capernaum, too (Matthew 11:23). Finally, Jerusalem itself turned away, “You were not willing” (Matthew 23:37).
6, He was betrayed by one of his own disciples.
7, The rest of his disciples deserted him.
8, On the cross, his enemies taunted him with many insults.
9, The pain of the torment itself was a terrible agony. “My back is filled with searing pain; there is no health in my body” (Psalm 38:7).
10, He endured exhaustion for our sakes (Luke 23:26), for there is no other reason that the soldiers would force another man to carry his cross for him. Yet Jesus accepted his role, and walked on ahead.
11, The approach of death was painful was well, for death is the result of sin, and Jesus accepted its approach, sinless though he was. It was that very scene, or rather its prophecy in Isaiah, that led the Ethiopian Eunuch to ask Philip to explain the Scriptures to him: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth” (Acts 8:32).
12, Then there was hell itself, which Jesus endured on the cross. Satan had offered him many things in his temptations, but hell is the only thing Satan can really offer, even though it is not his possession at all, but his prison, his “gloomy dungeon, to be held for judgment” (2 Peter 2:4).
Whatever attacks the devil makes on you, advancing again and again from every side, you have God to defend you. “Take up shield and buckler, arise and come to my aid. Brandish spear and javelin against those who pursue me. Say to my soul, ‘I am you salvation’” (Psalm 35:2-3). He who took you sins with him to the cross will surely protect you from the darts and spit and insults of the one he has already defeated. Trust in him. You will never be put to shame.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Lamentations 2:22 He will surely protect you