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How lonely sits the city that was once full of people!  Lamentations was composed as Jerusalem, the LORD’s Zion, lay in ruins.   The Temple smoldered and the people had been led away.  In the terrifying silence that followed, the author took up his pen. 

But this is not a description of what life in this new world looked like; it’s a description of what it felt like: “My eyes are spent with weeping; my stomach churns.”  There was nothing sanitary about this moment.  There were no bulldozers to clear away the rubble; no Red Cross or foreign assistance was on its way; the remnant would have to forage for their own food, build their own shelter, bury their own dead. 

In the Daily Reader we typically avoid outside commentary, but I want to point out something fascinating in the literary structure that we can only see in Hebrew: these first four chapters are acrostic poems.  The first letter of each line follows the sequence of the Hebrew alphabet, 22 letters in all.  If the same was done in English, the first line would start with “A,” the second with “B,” etc.

The reasons for this are unclear, but you’ll be able to feel some of the results.  Each line has purpose, and there is often no clear connection between verses.  It was a disciplined approach to writing that requires equally disciplined reading: layer upon layer of prophecy, wisdom, and lament.  Someone – possibly Jeremiah, sitting among the ruins of Jerusalem – was inspired to create a composition of artistic masterpiece of grief and worship.  Massive gulps of its draught might have little effect, but a sip could drown you. 

Our verse for this week is Psalm 51:10: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Lamentations 1 and 2.  Now let’s read it!

How lonely sits the city that was once full of people!  Lamentations was composed as Jerusalem, the LORD’s Zion, lay in ruins.   The Temple smoldered and the people had been led away.  In the terrifying silence that followed, the author took up his pen. 

But this is not a description of what life in this new world looked like; it’s a description of what it felt like: “My eyes are spent with weeping; my stomach churns.”  There was nothing sanitary about this moment.  There were no bulldozers to clear away the rubble; no Red Cross or foreign assistance was on its way; the remnant would have to forage for their own food, build their own shelter, bury their own dead. 

In the Daily Reader we typically avoid outside commentary, but I want to point out something fascinating in the literary structure that we can only see in Hebrew: these first four chapters are acrostic poems.  The first letter of each line follows the sequence of the Hebrew alphabet, 22 letters in all.  If the same was done in English, the first line would start with “A,” the second with “B,” etc.

The reasons for this are unclear, but you’ll be able to feel some of the results.  Each line has purpose, and there is often no clear connection between verses.  It was a disciplined approach to writing that requires equally disciplined reading: layer upon layer of prophecy, wisdom, and lament.  Someone – possibly Jeremiah, sitting among the ruins of Jerusalem – was inspired to create a composition of artistic masterpiece of grief and worship.  Massive gulps of its draught might have little effect, but a sip could drown you. 

Our verse for this week is Psalm 51:10: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Lamentations 1 and 2.  Now let’s read it!

“I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea before your very eyes for all the evil that they have done against Zion, declares the LORD.”  Jeremiah 51:24

In the last of Jeremiah’s recorded prophecies, the LORD reveals more fully His motivations for overthrowing Babylon.  There is much here about how the LORD, “who made the earth by His power,” wants Babylon to know that its idols and gods “are worthless, a work of delusion.”  Just as He defeated the Pharaoh and gods of Egypt on their home turf, so the LORD “will punish Bel in Babylon, and take out of his mouth what he has swallowed.” 

However, this purpose seems incidental to His primary justification: “Babylon must fall for the slain of Israel, just as for Babylon have fallen the slain of the earth.”  Therefore He has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because His purpose concerning Babylon is to destroy it, for that is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance for His temple.

Prophecies are not simply a pronouncement of what is to come but are also a statement of the LORD’s heart and character.  Consider what we learn about the LORD in these chapters.  He has fiercely punished His people, but remains faithful to His covenant with them.  Babylon was the LORD’s instrument of judgment; now Babylon itself is judged for its actions against Jerusalem. 

It appears, at first glance, that Babylon is being disciplined for doing exactly what the LORD had wanted.  There is nothing evident to reconcile these facts.  Perhaps that, in itself, is evidence of the LORD’s priorities.  His purpose is to be worshipped as the One who established the world by His wisdom, by whose voice there is a tumult in the waters in the heavens.  What I want to encourage in you is a spirit of dwelling in the facts as they are presented, another stroke in the portrait of the LORD that the Bible paints. 

The final chapter is a postscript recounting the final days of Jerusalem, recorded (judging by the final line of chapter 51) by someone other than Jeremiah.  We are reminded of Zedekiah’s failed escape, when, at age 32, he tragically watched as his line ended.  We hear of the poor being marched to Babylon, yet receiving their lives as a prize of war, and the poorest inheriting the land as vinedressers and plowmen.  The outline of the Temple’s destruction honors the attention to detail that had gone into its design. 

But all is not lost.  As at the end of Kings, in the thirty-seventh year of [his] exile, Jehoiachin, king of Judah, put off his prison garments.  And every day of his life he dined regularly at the king’s table…

Our verse for this week is Psalm 51:10: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Jeremiah 51 and 52.  Now let’s read it!

“I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea before your very eyes for all the evil that they have done against Zion, declares the LORD.”  Jeremiah 51:24

In the last of Jeremiah’s recorded prophecies, the LORD reveals more fully His motivations for overthrowing Babylon.  There is much here about how the LORD, “who made the earth by His power,” wants Babylon to know that its idols and gods “are worthless, a work of delusion.”  Just as He defeated the Pharaoh and gods of Egypt on their home turf, so the LORD “will punish Bel in Babylon, and take out of his mouth what he has swallowed.” 

However, this purpose seems incidental to His primary justification: “Babylon must fall for the slain of Israel, just as for Babylon have fallen the slain of the earth.”  Therefore He has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because His purpose concerning Babylon is to destroy it, for that is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance for His temple.

Prophecies are not simply a pronouncement of what is to come but are also a statement of the LORD’s heart and character.  Consider what we learn about the LORD in these chapters.  He has fiercely punished His people, but remains faithful to His covenant with them.  Babylon was the LORD’s instrument of judgment; now Babylon itself is judged for its actions against Jerusalem. 

It appears, at first glance, that Babylon is being disciplined for doing exactly what the LORD had wanted.  There is nothing evident to reconcile these facts.  Perhaps that, in itself, is evidence of the LORD’s priorities.  His purpose is to be worshipped as the One who established the world by His wisdom, by whose voice there is a tumult in the waters in the heavens.  What I want to encourage in you is a spirit of dwelling in the facts as they are presented, another stroke in the portrait of the LORD that the Bible paints. 

The final chapter is a postscript recounting the final days of Jerusalem, recorded (judging by the final line of chapter 51) by someone other than Jeremiah.  We are reminded of Zedekiah’s failed escape, when, at age 32, he tragically watched as his line ended.  We hear of the poor being marched to Babylon, yet receiving their lives as a prize of war, and the poorest inheriting the land as vinedressers and plowmen.  The outline of the Temple’s destruction honors the attention to detail that had gone into its design. 

But all is not lost.  As at the end of Kings, in the thirty-seventh year of [his] exile, Jehoiachin, king of Judah, put off his prison garments.  And every day of his life he dined regularly at the king’s table…

Our verse for this week is Psalm 51:10: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Jeremiah 51 and 52.  Now let’s read it!

While we’re on a prophetic tour of the nations around Israel, it might be helpful to do a little geography review so we’re familiar with what Jeremiah is talking about. 

Yesterday we read God’s prophecies regarding Egypt, the Philistines, and Moab.  Egypt sits at the Northeast corner of Africa, and was a place of refuge for Abraham, Jacob, and their descendants.  Up on the southern shore of the Dead Sea sits Edom, the home of Esau’s descendants.  Working northward around the sea is Moab, followed by Ammon, both children of Abraham’s nephew, Lot.  To the Northeast of Israel was the kingdom of Aram (or Syria), with its capital of Damascus.  And looping westward to the Great Sea you’ll find Tyre and Sidon, seafaring traders of the Mediterranean.  Much further to the east sits Elam, with its ancient culture around Susa. 

Each of these nations had mixed relations with Judah and Israel.  When David and Solomon reigned, all but Egypt, Tyre and Elam had paid tribute to Israel.  Most had exploited the strife of the divided kingdom and were at times allied with or at odds with Judah and Israel.  And they all would soon have Babylonian conquest in common. 

The LORD accuses Ammon of stealing land from Israel, and tells Moab “because you trusted in your works and your treasures, you also shall be taken.”  Edom is dispossessed, possibly – as the LORD had promised in Numbers 24 – for their refusal to help Israel during the Exodus.  It’s unclear why Elam and Hazor incurred the LORD’s wrath, and as with narratives, it’s wise not to speculate.

By far the greatest focus is on the coming judgment of Babylon. After a thousand years under Assyria’s yoke the Chaldeans had only recently united the Middle East under their banner, and already their days were numbered.  “For behold,” the LORD says, “I am stirring up and bringing against Babylon a gathering of great nations, from the north country.”  For though they had served the LORD’s purpose in judging His people, Israel’s “Redeemer is strong; He will surely plead their cause.”

Our verse for this week is Psalm 51:10: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Jeremiah 49 and 50.  Now let’s read it!

While we’re on a prophetic tour of the nations around Israel, it might be helpful to do a little geography review so we’re familiar with what Jeremiah is talking about. 

Yesterday we read God’s prophecies regarding Egypt, the Philistines, and Moab.  Egypt sits at the Northeast corner of Africa, and was a place of refuge for Abraham, Jacob, and their descendants.  Up on the southern shore of the Dead Sea sits Edom, the home of Esau’s descendants.  Working northward around the sea is Moab, followed by Ammon, both children of Abraham’s nephew, Lot.  To the Northeast of Israel was the kingdom of Aram (or Syria), with its capital of Damascus.  And looping westward to the Great Sea you’ll find Tyre and Sidon, seafaring traders of the Mediterranean.  Much further to the east sits Elam, with its ancient culture around Susa. 

Each of these nations had mixed relations with Judah and Israel.  When David and Solomon reigned, all but Egypt, Tyre and Elam had paid tribute to Israel.  Most had exploited the strife of the divided kingdom and were at times allied with or at odds with Judah and Israel.  And they all would soon have Babylonian conquest in common. 

The LORD accuses Ammon of stealing land from Israel, and tells Moab “because you trusted in your works and your treasures, you also shall be taken.”  Edom is dispossessed, possibly – as the LORD had promised in Numbers 24 – for their refusal to help Israel during the Exodus.  It’s unclear why Elam and Hazor incurred the LORD’s wrath, and as with narratives, it’s wise not to speculate.

By far the greatest focus is on the coming judgment of Babylon. After a thousand years under Assyria’s yoke the Chaldeans had only recently united the Middle East under their banner, and already their days were numbered.  “For behold,” the LORD says, “I am stirring up and bringing against Babylon a gathering of great nations, from the north country.”  For though they had served the LORD’s purpose in judging His people, Israel’s “Redeemer is strong; He will surely plead their cause.”

Our verse for this week is Psalm 51:10: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Jeremiah 49 and 50.  Now let’s read it!

If you’ve never before read through the prophets, take stock of what you’ve been feeling the past few weeks.  There is something stirring about how prophecy and narrative are woven together in this unique book. 

Whether the camera is focused on the prophet or is expanded over the whole story, Jeremiah’s story is intense on multiple levels.  A nation falls, a victim of its own infidelity to its true King.   The kings, the officials, the people and even the other prophets refuse to heed Jeremiah’s warnings.  That he is constantly proven true reveals nothing but their glaring stubbornness.  Again, take stock of what you’re feeling. 

Baruch’s lament, which we read yesterday in chapter 45, serves as both the closing scene in Jeremiah’s story and as a bridge to the oracles at the end of this book.  Just before it we saw the remnant of Judah disobeying God and fleeing to Egypt.  Now after it are a series of oracles promising Egypt’s demise. 

The first of these is set in that same fateful year of Jehoiakim’s reign, at the moment when power in the region shifted from Egypt to Babylon.  Given the prophetic activity at the time this must have been a dramatic political and social upheaval for Judah.  Egypt had been Israel’s fallback plan since the Exodus, the safest territory in the region.  In the first oracle Egypt is wounded; in the second, it is laid waste, “The LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel…bringing punishment upon Amon of Thebes, and Pharaoh and Egypt and her gods and her kings, upon Pharaoh and those who trust in him.”

The people of the coast – generically called Philistines – are the next nation on which the LORD promises judgment.  Like Egypt, Gaza, Tyre and Sidon were often attacked but rarely conquered.  The prophet echoes the words of Nebuzaradan: this is not an act of Babylonian strength, but of the LORD’s will. 

Likewise in chapter 48 Moab shall be destroyed and be no longer a people, because he magnified himself against the LORD.  Pay attention to specific images, like swords, and water, that are revisited throughout these oracles. 

Pay attention also to the historical upheaval that is occurring.  Moab was already a settled kingdom in the time of Moses.  Tyre and Sidon had traded with King David.  And Egypt had not been conquered from the north in recorded history.  Something significant is happening on the Biblical and world stage, and the prophet insists that all of it is being orchestrated by the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel. 

Our verse for this week is Psalm 51:10: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Jeremiah 46 through 48.  Now let’s read it!