GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LAMENTATIONS 3:46-48
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46 “All our enemies open their mouths against us;
47 panic and pit have come upon us,
devastation and broken bones;
48 rivers of tears flow from my eyes
because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
The prayer of the exiles continues: Their enemies “open their mouths” with all kinds of words. Accusations, blame, ridicule, cursing, and worse. It was all hateful; it was all painful. The people of Judah felt “panic and the pit.” “The pit” was a euphemism for hell, a way of talking about the place of no return. Not just death, but hell. The “no return” meant forever, a permanent punishment. What horrors that are in the pit were summarized in the prophets with terms like “worm” and “fire” (Isaiah 66:24), “darkness” (Jeremiah 23:12); “a dry and thirsty land” (Ezekiel 19:12); “a place covered in vomit, where there is not a spot without filth” (Isaiah 28:8). And perhaps we might add the “solitary place” that was the destiny of the scapegoat (Leviticus 16:22). But the pit also recalls the judgement on Korah and the other rebellious Hebrews who opposed Moses. The scene was horrific: “As soon as Moses finished speaking all these words, the ground beneath them split open. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed up everyone who was with Korah, along with their households and all their possessions. So they and everything that belonged to them went down alive into the grave. The earth closed up over them, and they disappeared from the midst of the assembly. Hearing their screams, all the Israelites who were around them fled, because they said, ‘The earth will swallow us up too!’” (Numbers 16:31-34).
I have translated shever as “broken bones.” It’s a noun that can be translated as “a breaking, crushing, smashing.” The precise meaning here isn’t clear to me, but it’s a hurt that’s worse than most wounds. A bone that’s been fractured but not broken all the way through can still be used or even walked on with pain, but a break that is a crushed or smashed thing– that’s a leg, an arm, or a body part that’s just about done for. As a people, the prophet is saying “We’re ruined. We’re crushed. We’re broken bones.” And he wept.
Up there on the second cross, nailed there innocently, Christ suffered such things in many ways. His enemies taunted him and ridiculed him. They opened their mouths and spat: “Come down from the cross and save yourself!” (Mark 15:30). “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One” (Luke 23:35). They had accused him of breaking the Third Commandment, of not keeping the Sabbath day, when he had healed people without touching them (Mark 3:2). Now they themselves broke the Third Commandment by failing to worship the Son of God. How many millions, billions, of Christians have worshiped the Son of God ever since by looking at a cross? When the Judgment comes, what will those same chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees think about that day, that terrible dark day, when they looked at the cross of Christ but only with hatred, jealousy, and murder in their hearts? They will look around for one last hill to fall on them, but the hills will already be fallen. They will stand before their Judge with no excuse, no hope, and no rescue. Not even death will hide them from the Son of Man when he comes again. “They will have to give an account to the one who is ready to judge the living and the dead” (1 Peter 4:5).
None of us has any hesitation when we consider the second cross and know without a doubt: He wept there, too. His grief was also his glory. He had called the crucifixion his “hour of glory” (John 12: 23). He talked about himself as a kernel of wheat about to fall into the ground in death, a single seed. But in death, he would produce many seeds, just as a kernel of wheat does. His seeds are you and me. And we follow after him in a special sort of suffering. Here the second cross is in full view as we take up our crosses, the crosses that do not atone for sin, crosses that do no save, but serve. Our crosses involve every kind of panic, pit, devastation, broken bones, and especially tears– rivers of tears. They are the burdens we endure that point us back to his dear cross. The saving cross; the cross that truly does save. His death is the weapon the Holy Spirit uses to murder and drown the Old Adam in us through our baptism (Romans 6:4), so that we do not look to pleasure and earthly delight and forget all about our Creator God. Instead, we look to him for relief, for all of his blessings, and most especially for his forgiveness.
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 3:46-48 Panic, pit, devastation and broken bones