GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LAMENTATIONS 2:3-4
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3 In burning anger he has cut away every horn of Israel.
He has withdrawn his right hand at the approach of the enemy.
He has burned against Jacob like a flaming fire
that consumes everything around it.
In Scripture, a “horn” always means the seat of power or the threat of power. When the context is talking about the literal horns of an animal such as a bull, it the threat or potential killing danger of those horns that we must pay attention to (Deuteronomy 33:17), or else they are mentioned for some other purpose in the context, such as a ram’s horns caught in the thicket in the account of Abraham and Isaac (Genesis 22:13). But the strength and power of the horn led Luther to say, “Everywhere in Scripture ‘horns’ means thrones” (LW 20:21). Here the Lord is shown striking and cutting Judah’s throne of power– which is the King: either Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, or Zedekiah– or all three of them.
Along with this, he has also withdrawn his “right hand,” that is, his help and defense, as the enemies of the people advance. Cutting away the throne and doing nothing to stop the approach of the enemy are both actions against the nation and the political future of the country, but of course the political future is nothing at all when weighed in the balance with their present troubling circumstances.
Before we continue, let’s also read verse 4:
4 He has strung his bow like an enemy;
his right hand is ready as a foe.
He has slain all who were precious in his eyes.
He has poured out his wrath like fire
on the tent of the Daughter of Zion.
The Hebrew term for stringing a bow is to step on it: it is the act of holding the bow still while bending it sufficiently to string it for battle. A common recurve bow is strung this way still today, although one does not actually “step” on the bow, but in a manner of speaking, one steps through it, using the earth (and your foot) as a fulcrum and the outside of one’s other leg as a stationary lever to bend the bow. Notice in the second part of the first sentence, that the right hand, withdrawn from defending Judah in verse 3, is now “ready” like an enemy, ready to set an arrow.
The final sentences of verses 3 and 4 are about fire. The Lord is burning in anger, and his is pouring out his wrath on Zion, like an enemy with a basket of coals, dumping them onto a tent so that it burns quickly into flaming rags that fly away, carried by the wind. When Nebuchadnezzar and his army came to Jerusalem, “they set fire to God’s temple and broke down the wall of Jerusalem; they burned all the palaces and destroyed everything of value there” (2 Chronicles 36:19).
Look again at the middle line of verse 4: “He has slain all who were precious in his eyes.” That was true of the first cross, since while the exiles were taken away, some of the people were also put to death. “The king of the Babylonians killed their young men with the sword in the sanctuary, and spared neither young man nor young woman” (2 Chronicles 36:17). He “slaughtered the sons of (king) Zedekiah before his eyes and also killed all the nobles of Judah” (Jeremiah 39:6). How much more true this is when we think of the second cross, the cross of Jesus’ suffering and death! “He has slain the one who was precious in his eyes.” The Gospel says: “When Jesus cried out in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit” (Matthew 27:50). And Isaiah said, “He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken. And he was assigned a grave with the wicked” (Isaiah 53:8-9).
My transgression. My grave. My wickedness. This is why he let himself die. This is why he came: to rescue me and you and the whole world from our sins. His suffering is what brings us into eternal glory. So when Paul says, “Our sufferings at the present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18), he encourages us to bear up under the burden of what we are here calling the third cross, the cross of this lifetime for the Christian. If the sufferings of this cross (that is, the crosses we bear) are not worth comparing with the coming glory, then we are assured (to our comfort and relief!) that our present crosses do not merit anything toward our salvation. They are simply the labor of working for our Lord, as the vineyard workers said, “the burden of the work and the heat of the day” (Matthew 20:12). But what we receive from our Master is not based on what we have done, since the workers who stood around all day and only showed up to help out in the final hour receive precisely the same wage. Otherwise, wouldn’t we expect to have something more, or more glory in Paradise, or something of that sort? But no: the gift is identical, servant by servant by servant: Eternal life for you, and eternal life for me. And since we can never produce a single good work that is truly perfect and meritorious, then we are relieved (as I said before: “to our comfort and relief!”) that the gift is not based on what we have done, for what we do is always stained and corrupted by sin. Yet we do indeed labor for him, in his vineyard, to show our thanks and because he tells us that he works through our deeds, inept and corrupt as they are, and so he honors us who do not deserve any honor.
Praise his holy name!
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 2:3-4 Arrows and fire