GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LAMENTATIONS 4:20
Click to listen to this devotion.
20 The very breath of our life,
the LORD’s Anointed One,
was taken to the grave,
We said about him:
“Under his shadow we shall live
among the nations.”
The last anointed King of Judah was Zedekiah, who was twenty-one when he was set on the throne of Solomon. During his eleven years, he mocked the true God, refused to listen to the warnings of Jeremiah the prophet, and he even defiled the temple of the Lord. When he tried to escape, his sons were brought and killed in front of him while he was forced to watch, and then they put out his eyes and took him to Babylon, where he died. The Lord’s Anointed one was taken down to the grave. The people had hoped for more. They had hoped that since the Babylonians had been the ones to put him on the throne, he would at least help Judah to survive in peace, “under his shadow.” But that didn’t happen. Their king stirred up the wrath of every other nation for no reason anyone could think of. The nations that surrounded Judah rejoiced when Babylon took the king away in bronze shackles and made him walk, blind and stumbling, to Babylon (2 Kings 25:7).
Zedekiah was the last, the very last, king of Judah or Israel. Even the Herods in the time of Jesus were not Jews, but men of Edom. Now, consider the emotions of the crowds when the miracle-worker from Galilee, with a pedigree that went all the way to King David himself, came riding into the city on that spring day. So many of them had different ideas about who the Messiah would be, what he would do, what life would be like when he arrived– but for all of their confusion, here he was! Mark, who was not an eyewitness to everything Jesus did but who perhaps saw this in person, wrote: “They brought the colt to Jesus, threw their garments on it, and Jesus sat on it. Many people spread their garments on the road. Others spread branches that they had cut from the fields. Those who went in front and those who followed were crying out, Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!” (Mark 11:7-10).
He is the Lord’s Anointed One, the Christ. As he came into Jerusalem on the donkey, he was praised and glorified by his disciples as well as by many of the people. But when his followers said, “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David,” they were repeating what he himself had told them. He was bring to his followers “your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world” (Matthew 25:34). Christ our King is the God-man, and according to both his natures (true God and true man), he rules everything in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18).
We who live in faith in him are the ones who truly and in every way “live among the nations under his shadow.” At about the same time that Lamentations was being written, Daniel prophesied that the Lord’s Anointed, Christ Jesus, would be cut off, that is to say, crucified (Daniel 9:26). He said: “He will put an end to sacrifice and offering” (Daniel 9:27). He did this with his own body, with his own blood. But we are free of sacrifice for sins forever because his sacrifice was once, for all sins, for all people, and forever.
We carry crosses today as we follow after him, but our crosses are under his shadow. Some of our crosses are hard, very hard to carry, because some of them will lead to the grave just as Christ was placed in the grave. But because he rose, we will rise, and we are free from the debt of sin. So we heft our crosses and follow after our dear Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords.
One last item in our text. The last phrase begins, in Hebrew, “We said.” This is out public confession of Christ. We speak, as we are commanded under the Second Commandment, to honor his name, proclaim what he has done, and to tell our children, our families, and the world, his victory on the cross over the power of sin, of death, and of the devil. He has set us free, and we proclaim his name forever.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Listen or watch Bible classes online. https://splnewulm.org/invisible-church/
Archives at St Paul’s Lutheran Church https://splnewulm.org/daily-devotions/ and Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: www.wlchapel.org/connect-grow/ministries/adults/daily-devotions/gwfy-archive/2025
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Lamentations 4:20 The Lord’s Anointed One