GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LAMENTATIONS 3:64-66
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64 You will pay them back, O LORD,
for what their hands have done.
65 You will put a covering on their heart,
a curse on them!
66 You will pursue them in anger
and destroy them from under the heavens of the LORD.
The prayer and the chapter come to a close with a call for punishment upon the Lord’s enemies. This is slightly softened by the use of the imperfect (future, in this case) verb instead of the commanding imperative. Therefore it is more prophetic than imprecatory. The enemies of God’s people will be paid back, will have their hearts covered, will be cursed, and will be pursued and destroyed. One of the fulfillments of this is seen in Esther 7:10 and 9:14, when Haman and his ten sons, the last Amalekites mentioned in the Bible, are put to death after plotting against the Jews (Haman is described as an “Agagite” in Esther; Agag was the name of one of the kings of the Amalekites in the days of King Saul, 1 Samuel 15:32-33).
To explore the second cross in this verse it is necessary to understand it in terms of Judgment Day and the punishment of hell. For “what their hands have done” surely foresees the crucifixion itself, the unbelief of the chief priests, the scribes and the Pharisees, and the Romans and other unbelievers who were involved in the crucifixion. But there is also Judas the traitor, who brought a cruse down on his own head and died in unbelief. In the final judgment, God will pursue those who have rejected him and destroy them in a permanent way, an unending way, so that they will never be annihilated or cease to be alive, but will be punished in torment and agony forever.
As our Professor Gerhard said, “Death is terrible, judgment more terrible, but the hell that will follow the death and judgment of the ungodly is the most terrible.” Hell can be seen from two perspectives. First, those who are rejected in the last judgment (on account of final unbelief) are deprived of everything good, and second, they are exposed to every torment in eternity through an abundance of the most dreadful evils afflicting body and soul. This state of damnation will last continually into eternity. It will happen in the particular place that the Bible calls hell or Hades, which is both the place or location of torment (Luke 16:26,28; 1 Peter 3:19) and the condition of torment (Luke 16:25).
Christians are spared this horror, but why then do we still suffer trouble, pain, heartbreak, and loss in this lifetime? God allows troubles and pain to come to us, not to punish us, but to call us to repentance. It is his constant desire in us to kill our love and reliance on the things of this world, and to trust in him for every gift, every need, every good and even every want. “Earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:25-26). He draws us back to himself, back through his holy word, to trust in him. He invites us to confess our sins just as he did in such a loving and fatherly way with Adam. Each question that the Lord asked Adam was a call to repentance: “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9). Adam was hiding, but he was only hiding on account of sin. “Who told you that you were naked?” (Genesis 3:11). Adam and Eve had never felt shame or embarrassment before they sinned, and now they were afraid to be seen, naked as they were. Sin did that. “Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” (Genesis 3:11). He was asking what he already knew– what is there that the Lord God doesn’t know? “The Lord knows the very thoughts of man” (Psalm 94:11). He was inviting Adam to admit his sin.
Today he still does these things. Read into your Catechism, a little at a time, and you will hear his questions in your life. “Have no other gods,” the First Commandment says. Does your conscience feel the sting of that Command? Have I set anything above God? Does the cross I carry challenge my love for God? Does it call into question the way I use my frail and foolish human reason? Or my lofty and cherished opinions? Run back under the burden of that cross, run back to the cross of Jesus, and know that he has forgiven those sins along with all the others. Then pick up that useful, helpful burden of a cross and carry it behind Jesus. His cross brought you forgiveness. May your cross bring you joy.
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 3:64-66 the place of torment