GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LAMENTATIONS 2:7-8
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7 The Lord has rejected his altar and renounced his sanctuary.
He has handed over the walls of her castles to the enemy.
They have raised a shout in the house of the LORD
just as on the day of an appointed feast.
This verse depicts the destruction of the temple itself. The altar was rejected; no longer of use to the Lord because his people did not use it in his honor. The sanctuary was renounced (or ruined– the rare word only occurs here and in Psalm 89:40) because its holiness was desecrated by the unholy acts of the priests and people. The walls were “handed over to the enemy,” a common theme in Lamentations (2:8; 2:18). The “castles” (see also verse 5) are the various strongholds or reinforced buildings that would normally withstand an attack, but the Babylonians wrecked them with fire, battering rams, and siege machinery (Jeremiah 6:6; 10:17; 19:9; Ezekiel 4:2, etc.). The Lord declared: “The king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who are outside the wall besieging you… I will bring them inside this city” (Jeremiah 21:4).
The “shout” in the house of the Lord is compared with the noise of the festivals. The grim noise of the attackers has replaced the joyful sounds of worshipers. They had been warned in the days of Moses: “If you do not listen to me but continue to be hostile toward me, then in my anger I will be hostile toward you… I will turn your cities into ruins and lay waste your sanctuaries, and I will take no delight in the pleasing aroma of your offerings” (Leviticus 26:27-28,31).
8 The LORD determined to tear down the wall
around the daughter of Zion.
He stretched out a measuring line
and did not withhold his hand from swallowing her up.
He made rampart and wall lament. Together they withered away.
The walls collapsed. The ramparts and stones of the walls sang their own lamentations, and then withered away. An unusual phrase here is that the Lord stretched out a measuring line against the city. “The Lord said through his servants the prophets: ‘I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line used against the house of Ahab. I will wipe out Jerusalem as one wipes a dish wiping it and turning it upside down” (2 Kings 21:10,13).
A measuring line would be used to be sure that a building was made to precise measurements. Here, the opposite is done: The destruction of the temple is not a random act of senseless violence. The Lord was bringing down precisely what he willed to bring down. So much for the first cross.
The same is true, precisely true, of the second cross, the cross of Christ’s suffering on our behalf. Which sins were laid on his account? All of them, or to state this another way, each and every one of them. There is no sin ever committed that was not laid upon our Lord Jesus. The measuring line of the Father made sure that what he punished his Son for was everything that mankind, and only mankind, committed as a sin. Therefore we should notice at least three things about this measuring line of punishment.
First: It was complete and completely thorough regarding man’s sin. There are no sins committed by anyone, from Eve and Adam down to you and me and all people until the end of time, that are not atoned for by the punishment laid upon Jesus. Sins of commission, sins of omission, original sin, inherited sin, and all others– all covered by the blood of Jesus Christ.
Second: It was not for any of the sins or rebellion of the wicked angels. There is no atonement or forgiveness possible for Satan and the other angels who sinned along with him. “God has kept them in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day” (Jude 1:6). There is no redemption for them; no promise of the gospel applies to them. The grace of God is not theirs. They will never return to their original place with God, because they did not keep their position of authority. They were not prompted or coaxed into their rebellion from outside, as man was, but “did not remain standing in the truth” (John 8:44). The everlasting fire of hell was first created for their punishment (Matthew 25:41).
Third: It was carried out in the body of Christ, both God and man. It would be impossible for God to suffer punishment. Therefore the Son of God voluntarily took human flesh as his own. He “became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14). But since he is fully God just as he is fully man (Colossians 2:9), he did all things as both God and man. His divinity gave his pain infinite value; his humanity meant that his pain was real and human pain. “He suffered death so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone” (Hebrews 2:9).
But what about the third cross, the cross of the Christian’s own individual suffering? Our crosses do not atone for any sins. But a fine explanation of our lifetime of suffering is taught by Paul: “The hardships we suffered… happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead” (2 Corinthians 1:8-9). So we suffer (1) give God glory, (2) to encourage one another to live for Christ and bear up under our crosses, (3) to carry out tasks that serve God and further the work of the Holy Christian Church, (4) to serve one another with love, even when it hurts (Psalm 15:4), and (5) to be strengthened and toughened up for trials that will be even more difficult in days to come.
“He who does these things will never be shaken” (Psalm 15:5).
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 2:7-8 a measuring line