A Lesson From History

The book of Lamentations has been called “the funeral of a city.” The great city of Jerusalem has been pulverized by powerful Babylon. Jeremiah the prophet captures the plight of the city in these words, “How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow is she, who was great among the nations! The princess among the provinces has become a slave! She weeps bitterly inthe night, her tears are on her cheeks; among all her lovers she has none to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her; they have become her enemies. Judah has gone into captivity, under affliction and hard servitude; she dwells among the nations, she finds no rest; all her persecutors overtake her in dire straits” (Lam. 1:1-3).

The reason for Judah’s dire situation is summed up by Jeremiah, “Her adversaries have become the master, her enemies prosper, for the LORD has afflicted her because of the multitude of her transgressions. Her children have gone into captivity before the enemy….Jerusalem has sinned grievously, therefore she has become vile” (Lam. 1:5, 8a). Sin was the great wrecking ball that brought Judah to her knees. Burton Coffman writes, “The prophecy of Isaiah has come true (Isa. 39:5-7; 47:8, 9). The mighty Jerusalem, once the great capital of Solomon’s extensive empire, to which many nations paid tribute, has now fallen to cruel and arrogant conquerors. Once respected and honored, now hated and despised; once flourishing and prosperous, now forsaken and deserted, her Temple looted and burned, her walls broken down, her population butchered or deported, except for the poorest of the land, her condition was pitiful indeed. And her plightwas made even worse by the pagan environment” (Commentary on The Book of Lamentations,www.classicstudylight.com). Please pay careful attention to these sobering words, “May this terrible disgrace and humiliation of the proudest nation of all antiquity be a lesson for those nations which today are called ‘super-powers.’ Let them (including the U.S.A.) remember why it happened to Judea; and as Matthew Henry wrote, ‘Let no family, no state, no nation, no Babylon, nor any other, proudly boast of their security, saying, ‘I sit as a queen and shall never sit as a widow’ (Isa. 47:8; Rev. 17:7). ‘The Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will’ (Dan. 4:25)”