GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LAMENTATIONS 5:8-10
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8 Slaves rule over us
and there is no one to rescue us from their hands.
9 We get our bread at the risk of our lives
because of the sword in the desert.
10 Our skin is hot as an oven
and we are feverish from hunger.
The cross of the exile was bitter for each and every one of the seventy years they were in Babylon. When our prophet says that “slaves rule over us,” this was not just a snobbish way of looking at the Gentile Babylonians. Nehemiah said, “Their slaves also lorded it over the people. But out of reverence for God I did not act like that” (Nehemiah 5:15). Zechariah the prophet also proclaimed God’s judgment: “I will hand everyone over to his neighbor and his king. They will oppress the land, and I will not rescue them from their hands” (Zechariah 11:6). Even after they returned from the exile, they were still testing the Lord’s patience and inviting his anger all over again.
There was also the daily problem of living. There were no restaurants in Babylon; no soup kitchens, no grocery stores. The Jews lived in places where the Babylonians had enough trouble feeding their own people, and the enslaved Jews had to scrape out their own living. For a few in the cities, a fairly good life could be found if they were savvy enough to use one another’s resources, first here and then there, and to manipulate money for the good of the people and often concealing their nationality, as we see Mordecai doing in the days of King Xerxes (Esther 2:10).
But many of the people had to try to grow their grain or scavenge fruit and vegetables or catch their fish on the fringes of the desert. They learned to trade there, but Bedouin raiders plundered people there regardless of their nationality, just as Haggai describes: “You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it” (Haggai 1:6). And even when they were left alone, the desert is a hard place to survive. Even when they were not feverish from hunger, they were hot, and their skin burned in the relentless sun (Job 30:30) even though the temperature falls to near freezing at night (Job 24:7), when they could at least collect grasshoppers to eat (Nahum 3:17).
If we turn our minds away from the first cross and Babylon to the second cross of Christ’s suffering, these words serve more as a description of hell in general than of Christ’s recorded sufferings on the cross. But this is good and useful, because all of Scripture is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16). After all, why does the Bible describe any of hell’s torments? Are they not to frighten us by showing us the truth? Isn’t it for the same reason that stop signs are red, because those who fail to obey a stop sign may soon see blood? As Professor Gerhard says: “If the pious and daily meditation on something calls people away from the love of sinning and turns their minds to serious fear of God, then it is useful and fruitful for it to be taught in the church. The pious and daily meditation on hell provides both” (On Hell §2).
“There is no one to rescue us.” Hell is infinite. In can’t be comprehended by a finite intellect and it can’t be measured by human words. A sinner who ponders hell without knowledge of Christ will only conclude: God is a hateful, spiteful, vengeful Being to have made such a place! The sinner who ponders hell is certain to forget that God did not shape and finish off the tombs of hell in his forges and kilns with human beings in mind; it was made for Satan and the legions of powerful and eternal angels who fell into sin along with him. But Satan shrieked and dragged men away, too. And what does that punishment look like? “After countless infinite thousands of years they (the punished) will always be forced to think that this is merely the beginning of their punishments. O eternity, eternity!”
The sword in the desert would be welcome to those in the dark, echoing chambers of fire in hell. Skin hot as an oven, feverish from hunger, with slaves ruling over them– the prophet has described only a moment of the punishment of forever. It is a snapshot on the shelf for the believer’s good use. It is the way we lift up our daily crosses and say, if this burden helps me to close my ears to the Devil’s whispers, which are the shrieks of eternity, and to shut my eyes to whatever seems to be a shiny pleasure of the present world but which turns heart or mind away from Christ, then bring on this daily cross and praise God for it! What a loving God I have who loves me enough to lay such a burden upon my back, to rip away the health of my body so that my body’s lies are exposed as empty circus-talk. Even my sinful flesh knows only cheap tricks, but our loving God plays for keeps. He will not let us slip out or be snatched from his hands (John 10:29).
The forgiveness of our sins is the gift he offers, in word and sacrament. Remember this, and run back to it again and again. When is the next time your church offers the Lord’s Supper? What would stop you from going? From standing up and walking forward to be given the body of Christ himself that was given for you, and to be given the blood of Christ, shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins (Matthew 26:26-28)? Consider this, and ask yourself: Am I sorry for my sins? Do I trust in Jesus for my forgiveness? Is this, as he says, his true body and blood? And do I want to live a more godly life? Then take the bread which is also his body, and eat it. It is for you. And take the cup, which is also his blood, and drink it. It is for you. This is the blessing of the crucified Christ, given for you, to rescue you from the prison house of hell, and to bring you home to heaven.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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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 5:8-10 hot as an oven