GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LAMENTATIONS 4:9 (and 10)
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The subject matter of verse 10 may be disturbing to some readers or listeners. For this reason, the comments about that verse will not be included in the audio version, but will only be an addition to this devotion for reference or pastoral purposes.
9 Those killed by the sword are better off
than those who die of famine;
cut down by hunger,
they waste away, deprived of the produce of the field.
This is another verse about those who remain after the ravages of war. Jeremiah often describes “sword, famine and plague” as a triple curse and warning. Famine follows the sword, and plague follows close behind famine. After that, there is only death. This is the cross, the terrible cross, of the people left behind after the nation was forced into exile in Babylon.
Christ our Lord suffered from such hunger and thirst, not only physically on the cross, but as part of his experience of hell while on the cross. Remember that his agony also paid for the sins of those who commit atrocities in war, the horrors of murder, torture, those who force girls into prostitution, those who exploit the poor for their own gain. The black heart of the wicked man and the twisted, conniving woman (Proverbs 6:24; 10:20)– their sins also sent Jesus to the cross. Those who commit fraud (Proverbs 20:17); those who plan revenge (Proverbs 20:22); those who make fortunes with lies and deceit (Proverbs 21:6); those who peddle drugs to create addicts who will be customers (Exodus 20:17)– their sins were on his account when he suffered and died, as well.
Jesus took up all of these things, these terrible, wicked, murderous sins, and all of the sins of all mankind, from Adam to you and me, and he willingly suffered and died to pay for all of it. Our sins, our rebellions, our cursing and bad moods and bad attitudes, and the violence and the horrors committed by the most horrible who have ever lived. All of it pressed the thorns into his skull. All of it drove the nails into his hands and into his feet. All of it was in the whipping that the Romans gave him, the spitting of the Sanhedrin, the beating of the soldiers, and in the beating that the high priest’s household gave him, too.
Without faith in Christ, all of that guilt would still be on our account. Those who reject him keep it all. They will pay for it all a second time. It was paid for on the cross, but they have thrown away their receipt, and they will have to pay for it all again in hell, and the payment will last forever.
Our crosses don’t pay for anything. They show our thanks and they help our devotion. The cross that the Christian bears is the suffering and the sorrow of the Christian. Jesus said, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, his own wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and follow me cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26-27). There will be pain in our crosses. Without faith, without the spiritual life that faith brings, how could anyone ever endure it? But as James says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance” (James 1:2-3).
Cut down by hunger, wasting away through disease, even dying of famine, the Christian can look up to the cross of Jesus and know, “He died for me.” That sentence spoken in faith is the very act of lifting high the cross. An unbeliever would think that you are a fool, a loser; that you’ve been taken for a ride, because an unbeliever understands nothing of faith, nothing of Christ, and nothing of the need for the forgiveness of sins. But you do. And you have all of those things.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
10 The hands of compassionate women
have had to cook their own children,
they were forced to eat that way
when my people were destroyed.
The subject matter of verse 10 is so horrifying that we will not dwell on it here, except to say that it had happened before in the days of the prophet Elisha. The city of Samaria was under siege, and the people were driven to the same acts (2 Kings 6:29). The versatility of the Hebrew verb in the Piel stem, which I have described in our devotions from time to time, allows us to understand that the people were driven to this, forced into it, on account of their terrible hunger. Since the subject has come up here, it requires a pastoral answer.
The idea of cannibalism is so horrific that it is almost never discussed, but those who have been forced to resort to such an act must be told the truth. The laws of Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 say a great deal about which meats are clean and unclean, and there is no question that human flesh would be considered unclean. However, we are free from those laws under Christ, and the subject now falls under the laws of governments (that is, the Fourth Commandment), which generally permit such an act when it is a matter of survival, as with the Donner party in the American West in the blizzard of 1846 and the terrible Chinese famines in the 1870s when millions of people died. The real problem is the guilt of the people who survive on such fare. They must be comforted with forgiveness, and should be consoled with Paul’s words about food sacrificed to idols in 1 Corinthians 8:8. As long as the Fifth Commandment has not bee broken, and when the terrible choice is to starve or to live, this is a cross that must be carried and not a sin to be reckoned with. Holy Father, bless those who have been pinned down by Satan with unnecessary guilt. Give them comfort from godly ministers and friends, and if possible, grant them the bliss of forgetfulness so that they are not troubled by such terrible things when they finally close their eyes in the sleep of death.
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Lamentations 4:9 (and 10) Famine