GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LAMENTATIONS 4:11-12
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11 The LORD has spent all his wrath;
he has poured out his fierce anger.
He kindled a fire in Zion
that consumed her foundations.
12 The kings of the earth did not believe,
nor did any of the people of the world,
that enemies and foes could enter the gates of Jerusalem.
Now the prophet turns his mind to the fall of Judah and Jerusalem, the thirty months between January 588 BC and July 586, when the Babylonians laid siege to the last fortified cities of Judah: Lachish, Azekah, and Jerusalem. One by one they fell, and Jerusalem’s famine was so severe that there was no food left at all (2 Kings 25:3). A breach in the city wall was finally made on July 18th, 586, but it was not the Babylonians who broke through. It was the king of Judah himself and some of his staff who broke out through a section of wall near the king’s garden, and his royal highness deserted his people and fled down toward Jericho (2 Kings 25:4-5). He was caught there. They killed his sons and blinded him afterward, and then took him in chains to Babylon. A month later, they Babylonians burned Solomon’s temple, Solomon’s palace, and the other houses and buildings of the city. The walls were smashed and broken down, and the city and wealth were plundered and looted. The high priest and the next ranking priest were captured, and most of the people were taken captive. “But the commander left behind some of the poorest people of the land to work the vineyards and fields” (2 Kings 25:12).
No one thought that an enemy would break into the City of David, but the Babylonians did it through the sinful cowardice of Judah’s last king. God’s wrath was poured out upon Judah like the brimstone that was poured out on Sodom and Gomorrah, and the city that was his footstool on earth was burned, the stones were cracked and broken, and the people were taken away.
The very same language could be used of the torture, suffering, and crucifixion of Jesus Christ our Lord. The Father poured out and spent all his wrath on his Son, dumping his anger as he will onto those who are in hell in the lake of fire. All the sins of mankind were punished in the flesh of Christ, a fire kindled and consuming his life to its very foundation. Who would ever have guessed that God the Father could turn on his Son, that like an enemy he would enter the gates of the Lamb of God to destroy, to break down, to burn, and to end his life? This was done to crush the guilty for the guilt of sin, except that in his eternal compassion, God’s Son the guiltless stepped forward to accept the wrath of the Father.
In Ezekiel 16, we are compared with a newborn baby still lying and squirming in the filth of blood before it is cleaned up. This is how we are on account of our sins. “Then,” the Lord says, “I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, ‘Live!’” (Ezekiel 16:6). God’s grace gives life where there was only death. Jesus in his grace touched the platform of the dead boy on the hill at Nain. Touching it should have made a man unclean, according to the Law of Moses (Numbers 5:2; Haggai 2:13). But Christ did not become unclean. Instead, he turned death into life by giving the boy the resurrection from the dead (Luke 7:15), just as he had for a girl in Capernaum (Mark 5:42) and as he would for his friend Lazarus in Bethany (John 11).
When we pick up our crosses to follow Jesus, we are suffering in part because of our faith. In fact, if we had no faith at all, what we suffer in life would be no cross at all, but another kind of punishment and chastisement altogether. But we also suffer the crosses of temptation, and of God’s discipline. For temptation is an opportunity to show our faith, against the struggle of the flesh and its desires. God does not tempt us for evil, but God tests us to show how deeply he has planted faith in our hearts and the pleasant work of the Holy Spirit who helps us. But we are also burdened by all of the things in life that come on account of sin, and these things are crosses as well. As one of our Lutheran fathers said: “All of the afflictions of the pious come under the name of ‘cross,’ because through them we are conformed to Christ crucified, and by his cross Christ sanctified and consecrated all our sufferings so that they are beneficial for us.”
The Father’s wrath was spent on his Son, so that we might live, be removed from the danger of hell, and be brought safely to live with God forever in heaven. Trust in the work accomplished by Jesus; trust in his resurrection as well. For his resurrection is proof of our resurrection, and his life is proof of our eternal life.
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 4:11-12 The Lord has spent his wrath