HOMILETICS
EXEGETICAL NOTES.—
(כ) Lamentations 4:11 is a conclusion from the immediately preceding verses, as Lamentations 4:6 is from those preceding it. Jehovah has accomplished, i.e., has put forth a full measure of, His fury; has poured out the fierceness of His anger, and one method of its action is He has kindled a fire in Zion, and has devoured her foundations. The scenes of horror which have been depicted show the meeting-place of Zion’s guilt and its Divine punisher. God’s fierce wrath is the blast which consumes flagrant iniquities. The entire demolition of the former principles dominating the Israelites is thus symbolised, and so signifies that room is made for the new spirit which shall possess the restored captivity when they lay again the foundations of the House of the Lord.
A change of features is to be presented now by sketching, not so much the disasters on classes of the people, as the causes by which they were produced, and the baffled hopes ensuing.
(ל) Lamentations 4:12. The kings of the earth—men who might be considered experts—believed not, neither all the inhabitants of the world—men who were moved by appearances and common hearsay—that an adversary … should enter into the gates of Jerusalem. This belief cannot be merely “a deep subjective conviction.” Whether or not the city was previously taken is a matter of no importance. What is stated is a general opinion. The unverified belief would be grounded on the knowledge of the strong situation and careful fortifications of Jerusalem, which, with the means of siege then at command, might be considered almost impossible of capture. It was invested a year and a half before capture by the greatest warrior of the age. Besides this, there may well have been, since the remarkable repulse of Sennacherib, a wide-spread supposition, as when the tribes emerged from the desert, that the God of Israel was very mighty in the defence of His worshippers, and would not let His sacred city be subjugated.
THE DESTRUCTION OF ZION
I. Was thorough and complete. “The Lord kindled a fire in Zion, and it devoured the foundations thereof” (Lamentations 4:11). The holy city, the pride of the Jews and the envy of their enemies, was utterly overthrown. Not only were its walls, towers, palaces, and Temple demolished, but its very foundations were dug up and scattered: one stone was not left upon another. It was degraded and spurned by the resolute destroyers as a heap of useless rubbish. It was impossible for the rage of man to make a more complete ruin. In the intention of the irate Chaldeans it was destroyed for ever. And yet the Divine Guardian of the holy city allowed all this!
II. Was undeniable evidence of the reality of the Divine anger. “The Lord hath accomplished His fury: He hath poured out His fierce anger” (Lamentations 4:11). There was more of the righteous anger of Jehovah against the obstinate sin of His people in the destruction of Jerusalem, than there were skill and ferocity in the Chaldean army. The enemy would have been powerless to pierce the city bulwarks if the people had remained true to Jehovah, and sheltered themselves in humble trust beneath His all-powerful defence. But the wrath of God was provoked beyond the limit of further endurance, and the Chaldeans were used as the instruments of His vengeance. Surely the eyes of the suffering people were at last opened to see in the utter destruction of their beloved city that Jehovah was indeed angry with them.
III. Was a result deemed incredible by the nations. “The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem” (Lamentations 4:12). Jerusalem was so strongly fortified, not only by massive walls and bulwarks, but by the strength and heroism of its inhabitants, that it was deemed impregnable to all warlike forces of that day. Moreover, it was regarded as the dwelling-place of the Great King, who had hitherto baffled all attempts to capture it. The recent defeat of Sennacherib, one of the greatest warriors of the age, was fresh in the memory of the people. The belief gained general currency that the city could not be taken. It was invested for a year and a half by the Chaldean forces, furnished with the most powerful engines of assault, before it was actually captured. Its fall was the amazement of the world. What was believed impossible had come to pass. Others saw, what the Jews were slow to acknowledge, that their God had deserted them and given them up to the destroyer.
LESSONS.—
1. The holiest place may be polluted by sin,
2. Persistent sin provokes Divine vengeance.
3. Divine wrath is not poured out till every opportunity is given for repentance.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Lamentations 4:11. The Divine anger.
1. Will accomplish all it threatens.
2. Is terrible in its active manifestation.
3. May well be dreaded by the impenitent.
Lamentations 4:12. A world’s wonder.
1. That a divinely guarded city should fall.
2. That it should fall by the hands of the godless.
3. That some great sin must have been committed to make such a catastrophe possible.
ILLUSTRATIONS.—Terrible destruction. One of the officers at Fredericksburg says:—“Howard, who was with me, says I exclaimed, ‘Oh, great God, see how our men, our poor fellows, are falling!’ I remember that the whole plain was covered with men prostrate and falling. I had never before seen fighting like that—nothing approaching it in terrible uproar and destruction. As they charged, the artillery fire would break up their formation, and they would get mixed; then they would close up, go forward, receive the withering infantry fire, and those who were able would run to their houses and do all they could; then the next brigade coming up in succession would do their duty, and melt. It was like the snow coming down and melting on warm ground.”
Concentration of power destroys. In the eighteenth century an immense burning-glass was constructed in France, in which all the heat falling on a great lens was then concentrated on a smaller one, till at the focus such was the heat that iron, gold, and other metals ran like melted butter. Another one, made in England by Parker, fused the most refractory substances, and diamonds were by it reduced to vapour.
The Divine sovereignty. “God is free because no causes external to Himself have power over Him; and as good men are most free when most a law to themselves, so it is no infringement on God’s freedom to say that He must have acted as He acted; but rather He is absolutely free because absolutely a law Himself to Himself.”—Froude.
The curse of sin. It is the Trojan horse; it hath sword and famine and pestilence in the belly of it. Sin is a coal that not only blacks, but burns. Sin creates all our troubles; it puts gravel in our bread, wormwood in our cup. Sin rots the name, consumes the estates, buries relations. Sin shoots the flying roll of God’s curses into a family and kingdom (Zechariah 5:4). It is reported of Phocas, having built a wall of mighty strength about his city, there was a voice heard, “Sin is in the city, and that will throw down the wall.”