“Behold our reproach.”

Again, as in the earlier chapters, Jeremiah dwells at length upon the details of the siege and the captivity. There is by now no doubt to the Jews that God is behind this whole affair; neither is there any doubt as to His reason (v 16). Indeed, the whole chapter is a sustained prayer to God — in every verse acknowledging His authority and power — and calling upon Him to intervene on behalf of His people. This is the elegy which traditionally closes every Hebrew lamentation (see the introduction).

Verses 1-15: “See Our Reproach” — Disgrace

After considering the terrible condition of the city and realising the cause of this great tribulation, the remnant is depicted as coming before God in PRAYER. “Behold our reproach, O Lord.” What condition had they been left in! The land which “they” had tilled, the homes “they” had built, the cattle “they” had acquired were no longer theirs. The water and the wood which were once free had to be bought. The number of their valiant men had diminished. Everything “they” had, had been given to them by God — and now He had taken it away. Their women were violated, the men of power were abased, the yoke of bondage was once more borne upon Israel. The people were helpless, unable to stop the fulfilment of the captor’s desires. The city that once had seen David dance in the streets because God was there, now takes up a song of mourning because He has departed. Because they had turned from God in their wantonness. God had turned from them.

As we witness these judgments, we still want to keep in mind God’s preservation of a faithful remnant, who endured these tribulations and grew by them, through the acknowledgment that they were totally and completely helpless without God.

“Remember” (v 1) — compare 1:20; 2:20; 3:19. Yahweh will remember the sufferings of the Jews. He will also remember the sufferings of the saints — as He did those of Christ:

“Remember, LORD, the reproach of Thy servants;

how I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people;

wherewith Thine enemies have reproached, O LORD;

wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of Thine anointed” (Psa 89:50,51).

As James says, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16). The prayer of Hezekiah, when Jerusalem was threatened by the Northern Host, is a prime example (Isa 37:14-20). We are commanded to pray, in the same way, for the peace of Jerusalem (Psa 122:6), to “remember the Lord afar off, and let Jerusalem come into our minds” (Jer 51:50).

“Behold our reproach” — our shame, disgrace. The word “reproach” is from a root meaning “autumn” or “ripeness” — signifying the fulness of iniquity, reaping what has been sown (v 7). Jeremiah, true to his feeling for the “hope of Israel”, places himself among those who have grievously sinned.

“Our fathers have sinned, and are not” (v 7). The nation has at last recognized the reason for God’s heavy hand upon them, the same hand which fell upon their fathers. Compare the words of Zechariah, spoken 70 years later:

“Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever? But My words and My statues, which I commanded My servants the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers? and they returned and said, Like as the LORD of Hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath He dealt with us” (Zec 1:5,6).

“We have borne their iniquities.” The Jews, similarly, had in Christ’s time, filled up the measure of their fathers (Mat 23:32). Although it is a Scriptural principle that every man bears the responsibility for his own deeds, it is still true that national sins are often unpunished for a time, and judgment is stored up until a later date, when it all falls at once (Gen 15:13-16; 1Ki 21:26). Such was the case with the kingdom of Judah: the iniquities of the past — as well as their own — finally were laid upon the one generation of Jeremiah’s time.

“We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness” (v 9). Contrast this with the fortunes of the Jews who spent 40 years in the wilderness, where they gathered bread every day as they found it as the dew upon the ground. They had “no lack”. Also, the famine of bread in Jeremiah’s time was only the type of the far worse famine — the famine of God’s word (Amos 8:11,12). There were still prophets to speak to Israel, but most refused to hear — and thus suffered the hardships of a “famine” upon themselves while the bread of life lay on the table before them!

Verses 16-18: “The Crown is Fallen”–

In the first verses of this chapter, the disgrace of the Jews was the principal subject. In this section is stressed the fall of the nation, and its degradation during the long period of Gentile dominion:

“And they shall fall by the edge of the sword,

and shall be led away captive into all nations:

and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles,

until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled” (Luke 21:24).

In two senses the “crown” had fallen (v 16)–

1. The crown is a symbol of royalty — which was fallen (Ezek 21:26; Psa 89:39; Hos 3:4) because Israel had rejected God to rule over them (as in 1Sa 8:7).

2. The crown symbolises obedience to the Truth (Rev 2:10;3:11), dedication and priesthood (Exo 28:36-38) — which were grievously lacking.

Verses 19-22: The Everlasting Throne: A Hope Of Renewal

The previous section dealt with the overthrow of the Jewish throne. That is contrasted in this section with the sureness of God’s throne and God’s crown. This final chapter is a prayer in itself, a fitting conclusion to Lamentations. These last verses are a prayer within the prayer — a final summation of thought, a climactic entreaty to God — for all times and for all peoples who have experienced affliction at His hand:

“Turn thou us unto Thee… renew our days as of old.”

Oh, How is Zion’s glory gone!

And vengeance, like a flood,

Hath quenched her power, and not a stone

Marks where her temple stood.

How are thy streets, Jerusalem,

By careless strangers trod!

And crush’d thy once bright diadem,

Before the wrath of God!

O Lord, look down with pitying eye

Upon Thy ancient race;

And bring Thy promised mercy nigh

And show Thy saving grace.

Oh, bring Thy scatter’d sheep again,

And feed them as of old;

Let Christ o’er all his people reign,

One Shepherd and one fold.

In an introductory section we briefly dealt with Jeremiah as a type of Christ. Insofar as the Lamentations portray Jeremiah as a suffering servant, “called” to his mission even from his mother’s womb (Jer 1:5, 9), a “lamb brought to the slaughter” (11:5, 9), who yet prays for his nation and weeps at their sorrows (9:1)… insofar as this, at least, Lamentations is also a prophecy of the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Also (and especially in the long poem — Lam 3) the book does what the Psalms do: it presents a “biography” of Christ centered on his thoughts rather than his deeds.

In the panorama of Jeremiah’s poetic vision, certain verses stand out as “cameos”, or “vignettes”, of Christ. There is not so much a progressive development (indeed, Lamentations scarcely yields itself to this in any case) as there are delicate glimpses, here and there, of “the man who hath seen affliction” (Lam 3:1). Any one such, by itself, may not seem significant; but set them beside one another as so many strokes on a canvas, and finally a poignant picture emerges.

1:12: “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?”

Heedlessly the world passes by, on roads bound for nowhere. They pause only to jeer or to shrug. Almost never are any arrested and convicted by the spectacle of one whose sorrow exceeds the sorrow of all others. Has God indeed afflicted him? Is he suffering the wrath of God?

“And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, And he was numbered with the transgressors (citing Isa 53:12). And they that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads, and saying, Ah, thou that destroyest the Temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself, and come down from the cross” (Mark 15:28-30).

Is it nothing to us, to see such a man? Does the thought of his sufferings arrest us in our headlong flights through this “vanity fair”? Do we examine ourselves? Do we repent? Do we rededicate ourselves? Or do we instead take the bread and the wine with a practical air, a ritual completed, a minor appointment kept and then forgotten until next week? Is it nothing to us?

1:16: “For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water.”

(Compare 2:11, 18; 3:48). Here was a man who was never far from tears, a man who went often to the “house of mourning”, and laid to heart what he learned there (Eccl 7:2). He wept at the tomb of a friend (John 11:35). And he wept over a city grown hard and calloused, a city soon to echo with the cries, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” (Mat 23:37). Can we “weep” with this man? Can we find the wisdom he found in sorrow? Can we, like him, submit our characters to the perfecting process of suffering (Heb 5:7-9)? Can we, as he asked, take up our “crosses” and follow him? Let us spurn forever the false gaiety, and the foolish laughter that masks an empty heart. And let us learn more of this man of sorrow. If we do, then out of our sorrow there will come at last a blessed and lasting joy:

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, “That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy” (John 16:20).

1:17, 18: “His adversaries” are “round about him”… and yet “the LORD is righteous”.

Jesus was not being punished for his own sins, but in his sufferings God was demonstrating that the “flesh of sin” deserves only death. In the death of His sinless Son, God was declaring Himself righteous (Rom 3:25). And He was showing us what we, as sinners, deserve!

Consider the awesome character of this man. His adversaries gather round him, to laugh and mock. He is enclosed by darkness, almost as though forsaken by his Father. And yet this righteous man responds only with a profound and absolute faith. In the wide swirling ocean of dark temptation, the Saviour stands as a rock and a beacon. “Not my will but Thine be done.” “Thou art holy.” “The Lord is righteous.”

1:21: “All mine enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that Thou hast done it: Thou wilt bring the day that Thou hast called, and they shall be like unto me.”

It was starkly and tragically true. Forty years later, the hills surrounding Jerusalem were covered with Roman crosses, and on each one hung a Jew who had rejected his crucified Messiah!

2:22: “Thou didst invite as to the day of an appointed feast my terrors on every side” (RSV).

The “appointed feast” was no doubt the Passover. The time of the Passover came, and the guests arrived at the feast. But, in an enormous irony, the “guests” were “terrors on every side” — bulls and lions and fierce dogs (Psa 22:12,13,16), snarling and tearing and devouring the Passover “lamb”! And Jesus was the “feast”, the “lamb”! “This bread is my body; this cup is my blood.” “For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.”

3:1: “I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.”

“Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted” (Isa 53:4).

3:5: “He hath… compassed me with gall and travail” Psa 69:21; Mat 27:34.

3:6: “He hath set me in dark places.”

And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour (Lk. 23:44).

3:7: “He hath hedged me about”… with thorns?

Jesus was the “ram” caught in the thicket, the sacrifice provided by Yahweh (Gen 22:13, 14), hedged about by a crown of thorns.

3:8: “Also when I cry and shout, He shutteth out my prayer.” “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” (Psa 22:1; Mat 27:46; Mark 15:34).

3:9: “He hath enclosed my ways with hewn stone.”

“And he bought fine linen, and took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock; and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre” (Mark 15:46).

3:12, 13: “He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow. He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.” “They pierced my hands and my feet” (Psa 22:16).

3:14: “I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.”

3:27: “It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.”

The yoke that Jesus bore from his youth was a lifetime of perfect obedience to the will of God. “Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do Thy will, O my God: yea, Thy law is within my heart” (Psa 40:7, 8; Heb 10:7-9). This is why Jesus could say that his yoke was easy, and his burden was light (Mat 11:28, 29)! This is why he could offer it to us to share with him! Because it was a pure delight to do the Father’s will! Is it so with us?

3:28: “He sitteth alone and keepeth silence.”

The perfect man, Jesus Christ, walking not in the way of sinners (Psa 1), who was separate from sinners, holy, harmless, and undefiled (Heb 7:26, 27).

3:29: “He putteth his mouth in the dust.”

Jesus was led away to Golgotha, bearing on his beaten and bloody shoulders the stake on which he as “serpent” would be lifted up (Num 21:9; John 3:14; 12:32). He bore also, in his sorrow, the burden of our sins. He was exhausted, more exhausted than words could tell, and he stumbled and fell. The rough, heavy wooden beam was too much for him. He lay there in the dust. And the words of the curse were emblazoned across the scene:

“Thou art cursed… upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat…” (Gen 3:14).

3:30: “He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled with reproach.”

Compare Isa 50:6; Mat 5:39.

3:31-33: Here, “buried” in an obscure corner of the Old Testament, is God’s reason for the atonement! He does not willingly afflict His children. Although He must cause grief — even to His beloved Son — there is a surpassing and eternal purpose. God causes grief so that He, the Righteous One, might then righteously have compassion on sinners! Who could ask for anything more? Praise be to God!

3:40-42: A righteous man is afflicted, chastened, smitten, and then crucified. Is it nothing to us? What is the result? What should be the result?

“Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD… We have transgressed, and have rebelled.”

A righteous man is crucified, and sinners repent! A righteous man dies, and sinners are born again! “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20).

3:52-57: Here is death, and burial (v 53). But, as with Abel, the “blood” of the righteous calls out of the earth (vv 55, 56) — not this time for vengeance, but for redemption. Let us make that cry ours:

“Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon Thee:

Thou saidst, Fear not.”

Acts 13:6-12

The missionary efforts of Paul and Barnabas on the island of Cyprus brought the gospel to the attention of the Roman proconsul, Sergius Paulus. The proconsul was a “prudent” man (v 7) who sought truth, but he was unfavorably influenced by Elymas, an apostate Jewish sorcerer (vv 6,8).

As he listened to Barnabas and Saul, meanwhile observing the interest shown by his benefactor, Elymas (or Bar-Jesus) began to fear the loss of his position and influence. So, interrupting the two preachers, he began to engage them in debate. This assault was so rude and blasphemous (and coming from a “wise” Jew, who should have known better!) that Paul severely rebuked him;

“O full of all subtilty, and all mischief, thou child of the devil (diabolism), thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? And now, behold, thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season” (vv 10,11).

Immediately the Apostle’s words took effect, and the blinded Elymas began to stumble about, groping with outstretched hands for someone to lead him. Sergius Paulus was impressed by the spectacle, and believed the gospel preached to him.

“Bar-Jesus” signifies “son of salvation”. Casting off the wonderful heritage implicit in such a name, the false Jew had become a devotee of the “moles and bats” of human “wisdom”. His acquired name — Elymas, or “wise one — reflected his new philosophy. It is easy to see this man as a typical representative of the Jewish race in their apostasy (of which Saul of Tarsus had been a prime example!). Elymas was a “child of the devil”, a description recalling Christ’s words about the Jews:

“Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do” (John 8:44) —

all, of course, directly traceable to the serpent’s “seed” of Gen 3:15! Compare also the serpent’s “subtilty” (Gen 3:1) with that of Elymas (Acts 13:10).

Like the Jews described by Christ, Elymas had lost sight of the characteristics of a true son of Abraham. Like the Jews, he had become an “enemy of all righteousness” (Acts 13:10) and an enemy of the gospel (Rom 11:28).

Elymas’ main concern was the preservation of his source of wealth (the munificence of Sergius Paulus), his power over the proconsul (who was himself an important man — so much the better!), and his pride at his own presumed “wisdom”. In short, Elymas was motivated by the “lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1Jo 2:16)!

The sentence of blindness passed upon Bar-Jesus suggests, in this typical parable, the spiritual “blindness” decreed upon Israel because of their rejection of God (Deu 28:28; Isa 6:10). However, just as the sorcerer’s blindness was temporary (“for a season” — Acts 13:11), so Israel’s blindness will be temporary:

“Blindness in part is happened to all Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in” (Rom 11:25).

The final act in this miniature “play” is the conversion of Sergius Paulus — which surely signifies the initiation of the Gentiles into the hope largely abandoned by Israel. The opposition of the apostate Jew provided the very opportunity for the Gentile to believe!

This one incident, then, is seen to set the pattern of Paul’s work as a missionary to the Roman world: the unbelief of the Jews and the faith of the Gentiles. Thus is summarized, for that matter, the broad outline of two thousand years of ecclesial history. It appears that, in recognition of God’s expanding purpose with the Gentiles and the instrumental part he was to play in it, Saul of Tarsus then and there adopted the new name “Paul” from his Gentile convert.

Acts 9:5; 26:14

Luke recounts three times the miraculous conversion of Saul; two of these passages give the words of the glorified Jesus to Saul:

“Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? it is hard for thee to kick (‘laktizo’) against the pricks (‘kentron’).”

“Laktizo” (which only occurs in these two passages) signifies literally to “lift up the heel”. The “kentron” was a goad used on cattle, but the word also signifies a “sting”, as of a serpent! Other than the two verses in Acts, “kentron” appears twice in Paul’s joyful exclamation:

“O death, where is thy sting?… The sting of death is sin” (1Co 15:55,56).

The only other instance is Rev 9:10, a description of the Apocalyptic “locusts” with their tails like scorpions, and “stings in their tails”.

The most obvious meaning of Christ’s words to Paul was that it was as useless for him to resist the power of the gospel as for an ox at the plough to kick against the master’s goad.

But there is a deeper meaning: The Pharisee Saul, steeped in the law, proud of his own “righteousness”, had undertaken to crush underfoot the “serpent” of sin. His endeavor to destroy the infant ecclesia of Christ was the next logical step for a man who put all his trust in the law. To such a man, the religion of Jesus of Nazareth was an evil “serpent” to be trodden under foot.

However, Saul discovered on the road to Damascus that Jesus was no “serpent” who could be crushed by him. Jesus had once been the “serpent” lifted up on a stake (Num 21:9; John 3:14,15), but no more was that so. He was now alive for evermore, his victory over sin and the grave complete. In his intense pursuit of the Nazarene’s followers, Saul had placed himself squarely in opposition to this marvelous fact; he was attempting to “tread underfoot the Son of God” (Heb 10:29).

And in trying throughout his early life to conquer the sin-power by his own strength — lifting up his own heel against its “sting” — Saul was foredoomed to failure. He was failing to recognize that the despised prophet of Nazareth had already accomplished what the Pharisee could never do — bruise the serpent’s head! The only thing left for the proud young Jew was to humble himself, and accept in faith the forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ:

“Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” (Acts 9:6).

Romans 3:9-19

In proving that both Jews and Gentiles are “under sin” (v 9), Paul brings to bear the witness of Scripture. He gathers together a number of passages from the Psalms and Isaiah. None are righteous; all are departed from the way. Vv 10-12 are from Psa 14:1-3 / Psa 53:1-3; v 13 from Psa 5:9; 140:3; v 14 from Psa 10:7; vv 15-17 from Isa 59:7,8; and v 18 from Psa 36:1. The verses are clearly selected from those that apply to Jews, under the covenant, so that their import cannot be sloughed off on the really “wicked” Gentiles only!

Throat (v 13), tongue (v 13), lips (v 13), and mouth (v 14) trace the stages of speech. Finally the feet (v 15) and the eyes (v 18) get into the act also. But serpent-like speech (Gen 3:1) is clearly the foundation and source of all wickedness. From the speech of that subtle denizen of Eden has sprung, indirectly, all sin. His throat was an “open sepulchre” (Rom 3:13). His tongue, the “little member” full of boasting, brought on the defilement of the whole bodies of both Adam and Eve (Jam 3:5,6). The great fire of corruption was kindled by his words, and human nature was changed for the worse. Now it can rightly be said of all mankind that “the poison of asps is under their lips” (Rom 3:13)!

Romans 16:17-20

Paul concludes his letter to the Roman ecclesia by warning the brethren against the danger of false teachers. Almost every phrase in this section is an obvious allusion to the Genesis record of the serpent and the woman’s seed:

The serpent subtly cast doubt on God’s Word and taught contrary to it. The false teachers of Paul’s day (probably Judaizing Christians) were the serpent’s “seed” (cp Mat 3:7; 12:34; 23:33). After the example of their “father” they professed a superior knowledge and thus were able to lead away the simple (2Co 11:13-15).

The influence of this particular “Satan” was drastically reduced by the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 AD. But the final bruising of “Satan” in all his aspects must of course be the work of the glorified Christ at his second coming.

1 Corinthians 15:24-28,55,56

In vv 24-28 Paul describes the purpose of God’s Kingdom under Christ: the subjugation of all enemies:

“For he must reign, till he hath put all things under his feet.” This will be in fulfillment of the commandment God gave to Adam in Gen 1:28:

“Subdue it (the earth)… and have dominion over every thing.”

The first Adam, because of sin, was unable to fulfill this directive. The “last Adam”, because of his perfect sinlessness, will be able to subdue all creation to its intended purpose — the glory of God (Num 14:21; Isa 11:9).

“The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”

This is the goal to which all of Christ’s work is pointed. The last enemy to be conclusively destroyed under the heel of the conquering King will be death, the serpent’s “offspring” (see Jam 1:13-15).

Death, at the end of a slow process of decay, has been an inextricable part of man’s nature since Eden. Now, through Christ, it will finally be destroyed — not merely offset or neutralized, but vanquished, routed, literally “swallowed up”!:

“Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written. Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.”

The strength of sin, as a destroyer of men, lay in the law — the law which, while holy and just and good, nevertheless condemned all men (even the most conscientious) to death as sinners. But in Christ, their righteousness was by faith in him (Rom 3:21,22) — not their own righteousness, which was by the law, but the righteousness which was of God by faith (Phi 3:9). Thanks be to God Who gives us the victory through His Son (1Co 15:57)!

2 Corinthians 4:2-4

In an allusion similar to Rom 16:17-20, Paul refers to those “believers” who trusted in the law of Moses. They had not “renounced the hidden things of dishonesty”. They were still “walking in craftiness” and “handling the word of God deceitfully ” — thus living up (or down!) to the example of their spiritual “ancestor” — the old serpent!

Continuing his analogy, Paul evidently has in mind again the tragic history of Eden lost. In seeking to be like the Elohim, Eve departed from her “first estate”. She was reaching for “greater light”. She found instead darkness — deceived by the serpent, or the “god of this world”. Her mind was blinded by “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1Jo 2:15,16), and consequently she “believed not” God. Thus was the creation plunged down to ruin.

But God’s ultimate purpose with the earth would not be thwarted by a pair of sinners. The God who commanded light to shine out of darkness at the first creation (2Co 4:6; Gen 1:3), set about immediately with a plan to reclaim His fallen creation. This plan called for another “light” to shine into the world, that is, a new “Adam” made in the express image of his Father (Heb 1:3). In all the things wherein the first “Adam” and his wife failed, the last “Adam” would succeed. He would renounce the hidden works of darkness; he would handle God’s word aright; he would reject the evil and choose the good. He would show forth the full knowledge of the glory of God, which had since Eden been clouded and dim. And through his work, he would redeem his “bride”, from the serpent’s folly.

2 Corinthians 11:2,3

Paul continues the same analogy:

“I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”

“Simplicity”, as used by Paul, should not be equated with “simple-mindedness”. Rather, in keeping with the metaphor of Eve and the serpent, “simplicity” is a single-mindedness which will not be beguiled by subtle serpent-arguments. Such “simplicity” presupposes uncomplicated vision and motives. We must remember the extreme “deceitfulness of sin” (Heb 13:3) and the inherent weakness of the flesh. We must keep these things in mind, recognizing also that strength comes from God, His word, and prayer — and that we must cling close to these. If we do this, then in a simple single-minded devotion, we will be waiting and ready when our Saviour the Bridegroom cometh.

1 Samuel 17

The story of David’s victory over the Philistine giant Goliath is an enacted parable of the promise of Gen 3:15. It typifies the work of Christ in two different, though related, aspects: (1) Christ’s moral victory over the power of sin in himself, and (2) Christ’s coming military victory over sin in its governmental forms. It was necessary that Christ first conquer the “world” in himself, by subduing the lusts of the flesh, so that he might be qualified to conquer the nations and rule over them. Both these victories — one now past, the other yet future — are beautifully outlined in the stirring drama of 1 Samuel 17. In this epic encounter between faith and force, spirit and flesh, the godly and the earthly, we see all the redemptive purpose of God, unfolding from Eden onward.

“The Philistines gathered together their armies to battle” (1Sa 17:1). The name “Philistine” has found a place in the English language as a common noun, describing those who are ignorant and uncultured, those who are “of the earth, earthy” (1Co 15:47), without the least aspiration toward higher things.

The Philistines pitched their tents in “Ephes-dammim”, which signifies “the border of blood”. This site was a little south of Jerusalem and halfway over toward the Mediterranean Sea, at the border between the Israelite hills and the Philistine plain. It was “between the seas in the glorious holy mountain” (Dan 11:45) — the locale where the great invader of Israel in the last days will meet ignominious destruction!

The “border of blood” marked the crest, or high point, of human power — the point where it was broken and turned back. It typifies both Golgotha in the past, and Armageddon in the future. “Ephes-dammim” is closely related in meaning to Acel-dama (“the field of blood”), where the traitor Judas met his fate (Acts 1:19).

“And the Philistines stood on a mountain on the one side, and Israel… on the other side: and there was a valley between them” (1Sa 17:3). Mountains in Scripture often represent military powers (Zec 6:1), while valleys are places of sorrow, humiliation, and trial — and sometimes of destruction, such as the valley of Jehoshaphat (Joel 3:12), where the serpent-power of the Gentiles will be broken. Like David, Jesus had to go into “the valley of the shadow of death” (Psa 23:4) to conquer the “giant” of sin.

“Goliath” (v.4) means “exile”; “Gath” means “winepress”. The Philistine giant was, like Cain (Gen 4:14,16), an exile from God because of sin. He was trodden down by David, even as all human power and pride will be trodden down by Christ in the great winepress of the wrath of God (Rev 14:19). Goliath’s height was six cubits (the number of man: cp “666” in Rev 13:18) and a short span. Perhaps this “span” represents the brief transition period between six thousand years of human rule and the kingdom (it was the “span” portion of the Image that the little stone struck).

Goliath was covered with brass — symbol of flesh. He was the human equivalent of the brass serpent of Num 21 — the power of sin destroyed by Christ on the cross. He was arrayed in armor and weapons of the flesh, in contrast to the spiritual arsenal of Eph 6:13-17, which was David’s trust (1Sa 17:45) as well as Christ’s.

This mighty champion of the flesh came out into the valley between the two armies, every day for forty days, to defy the God of Israel. It was a sad, shameful spectacle; not a man of Israel, not even Saul (himself a giant — 1Sa 10:23!), had the faith and courage to confront this blasphemer (17:11).

Now comes a sudden break in the narrative (v 12), introducing the second antagonist in this epic struggle; David, a young man, a shepherd of Bethlehem (v 15), had been sent by his father to take provisions to his three older brothers serving in Saul’s army (vv 17-19).

David, when he came to his brethren, was met with mockery and derision (v 28). Likewise Jesus, when he came to save his brethren from the “giant” of sin, met the same ridicule. How much natural man needs salvation; yet how little he realizes it!

The boy David could not understand the inaction of Saul’s men:

“Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” (v 26).

The words of this shepherd boy come to the ears of the distraught king, who is so desperate that he sends for him. And the poor shepherd boy says to the mighty king;

“Let no man’s heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine” (v 32).

Saul reasons according to the flesh, which is fatally obsessed with size and natural advantage:

“Thou art not able…” (v 33).

But why not, if God is with him? How often do we forget the strength of faith, and make the same mistake — tentative, timid, and even fearful? How often we forget that, if God be for us, no man or no thing can stand in our way!

David wisely refuses Saul’s offer of armor. The children of the Spirit are no match for the children of the flesh if they attempt to meet them on their own ground and do battle with their own weapons. The “seed of the woman” will always be outclassed by the “serpent brood” in numbers, experience, prestige, and learning. Their defense and offence must be in the “shield” of faith and the “sword” of the Spirit (Eph 6:16,17)!

For his weapon, David took his sling and then chose five smooth stones out of the brook. (Why five? Was it because Goliath had four brothers, also giants?) The sling, made of animal skin, would require a death for its preparation. Like the garments that God prepared to cover Adam and Eve’s nakedness after their sin, the sling also typified a sacrificial death.

The sling (a sacrificial death) gave all the power to the stone which David hurled against the giant. The stone which brought down Goliath typifies Christ: He is the stone rejected by the builders, but later made the cornerstone of God’s building (Psa 118:22). He is also the stone cut out of the mountain of human flesh without hands (ie, born of a woman without human father: Gen 3:15), which smote and destroyed Nebuchadnezzar’s image (Dan 2:34), and then filled the whole earth.

The smiting of the “dream” image in Daniel 2 is parallel to David’s smiting of Goliath, with one significant difference: One stone smites Goliath in the head (cp Gen 3:15), which symbolizes the vital life center. The other strikes the image on the feet, symbolizing the time when destruction is accomplished. But the end result is the same — the Image destroyed, and Israel saved.

The Nebuchadnezzar image represents the accumulated history of the four great empires that collectively make up the “serpent-power” of the Kingdom of Men, which oppressed God’s kingdom of Israel. David’s selection of five stones relates his victory to the fifth great Kingdom, the Kingdom of God that will finally conquer all and fill the earth with His glory.

“The stone sank into Goliath’s forehead” (1Sa 17:49) — the typical fulfillment of the Edenic promise that the woman’s seed should bruise the serpent’s head. The antitype stretches from the cross to the military destruction of the last vestiges of human misrule and oppression, when Christ returns.

So “David ran… and drew out Goliath’s sword… and cut off his head” (v 51). And he brought the head to Jerusalem (v 54). David’s act symbolized the destruction of the head of sin, accomplished by Jesus in his own body, and finalized at Golgotha (the place of the skull!) just outside the walls of Jerusalem. (Hebrew tradition suggests that Golgotha was so named because it was the burial place of Goliath’s head.)

David’s act also prefigures the cutting off of all mortal ruling power, and the transferring of all the world’s headship to Jerusalem, “the city of the great king” (Mat 5:35).

David’s wonderful feat revitalized the army of Israel, which then went on to rout the Philistines. Those who were powerless and afraid to face Goliath received new strength and courage in the victory of David. Like David, Jesus was the only one capable of winning the special victory over the “serpent” Yet his victory over the “devil”, like David’s over Goliath, delivered his brethren who “through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb 2:15).

“O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?… But thanks be to God, Who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1Co 15:55,57).

Several years ago a black man named Alex Haley, a middle-aged author of no special note, wrote a book entitled “Roots”. It was a fictionalized history purporting to describe the odyssey of Haley’s family from slavery to freedom, covering some 300 years. The book was serialized on American television, becoming an overnight sensation — the most watched program in history. This epic story further encouraged the popular study of “family trees”.

There is great interest today in genealogical research. Enthusiasts delve through dusty tomes in forgotten corners of old libraries and court-houses, in the hope of finding some scrap of an official record to trace their “roots” backward one more step.

Believers in Christ have “cut off the flesh” in baptism, thereby repudiating ties of natural descent. The true sons and daughters of God are reckoned as having been “born in Zion” (Psa 87). Their “mother” is spiritual Jerusalem (Gal 4:26), their brother is Christ, and their family consists of those who do the will of their Father in Heaven (Mat 12:48-50).

There are in reality only two “families” of mankind, and they are delineated in the early chapters of Genesis. Like the feuding Hatfields and McCoys of West Virginia, these two families have had continual enmity toward one another from one generation to the next.

Our “roots”, naturally speaking, are of no special consequence. But our spiritual “roots” are of great consequence. Our eternal fates are bound up in the “family” to which we give allegiance — either the seed of the serpent or the seed of the woman (Gen 3:15). The “roots” of these two families can be traced back to their very beginnings, in the Garden of Eden, and then forward even into the future kingdom. The only “digging” necessary to unearth these “roots” is the careful study of Scripture.

This series outline, with accompanying notes, the most prominent passages tracing these two families through the Bible — especially as they appear in their antagonisms toward each other. Our starting point is Gen 3:15 — where, after the cataclysmic sin in Eden, God addresses the serpent:

“I will put enmity between you (the serpent) and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (RSV).

(Here the RSV helps our understanding by making the pronoun references to the woman’s seed to be masculine.)

With this verse as our starting point, we now begin our journey — a journey which might be subtitled “Genesis 3:15 in All the Bible”.

The writer hopes that this summary might help to redress an imbalance in Christadelphian circles. The imbalance is this: that, while the promises to Abraham and David have received great stress (and rightly so!), the great foundation promise of all the Bible (Gen 3:15) has been comparatively neglected. Perhaps one reason for this neglect is the common assumption that Gen 3:15 is not quoted in the rest of the Bible. But the studies which follow demonstrate that the Edenic promise is a golden thread woven through-out the tapestry of Scripture. Though not directly quoted elsewhere, as are many other Messianic prophecies, it is alluded to many times, and it is at the root of the whole plan of redemption.

Genesis 3:20

“And Adam called his wife’s name Eve (Heb ‘Chavah’); because she was the mother of all living.” Adam’s wife already had a name — “Isha” (2:23) — a name which fitly described her origin, for it signified “out of man (ish)”. But in view of the great redemptive promise just received, Adam evidently felt she needed a new name — one in keeping with her destiny. What more appropriate than “Life”! Through the woman, by a specially prepared birth, would come a son — the “seed of the woman”. He would (in some way probably only dimly perceived by Adam at this time) destroy the power of death brought by the serpent. Whereas the serpent was the “father” of death, this man-child would become the “father” of life (he is called, prophetically, the “father of eternity” in Isa 9:6), and his mother therefore would be the “mother of all life”!

Genesis 4:1

In no way did Eve lag behind her husband in this expectation of the fulfillment of God’s promise of a Redeemer. In fact, so eager was she for the promised deliverance that she seized upon her firstborn, Cain, as the “seed of the woman”. “I have gotten a man from the LORD” may just possibly be translated; “I have gotten a Yahweh-man!” By this Eve may have meant that this child was the special “seed” promised by Yahweh, the representative of Yahweh, and thus the “Yahweh-man” (we might say “God manifest in the flesh”) commissioned to defeat the serpent and abolish death.

But, alas! Eve’s firstborn proved himself to be instead a son of the serpent, by his enmity against the typical “seed of the woman”, Abel — an enmity which culminated in the death of his righteous brother. Thus Cain, like his “father” the old serpent, showed himself “a murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44; 1Jo 3:12).

The “Seed” passages

It is not often recognized that all the “Seed” passages of Genesis arise out of Gen 3:15. Each fresh reference is an amplification of the previous promises: The “seed of the woman” will be also the “seed” of Abraham (Gen 12), who shall inherit the land of promise (Gen 13), while the natural seed is disinherited (Gen 16). A type of the woman’s seed was Isaac, the “seed of promise” who was miraculously conceived (Gen 21), typically sacrificed (Gen 22), and then given a special bride selected out of the Gentiles on account of her faith (Gen 24).

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Those who regularly use the RSV, which is In some respects a fine translation, should take careful note of Gen 13:15:

“For all the land which you (Abraham) see I will give to you and to your descendants (AV ‘seed’) for ever.”

On this point the RSV is not even internally consistent, since its translation of Gal 3:16 rightly states that this promise was to Abraham and his “offspring” — singular: “referring to one… which is Christ.”

Both “seed” and “offspring” appropriately translate the Hebrew original “zera”, which is itself ambiguous as to number. But the RSV’s interpretive translation, “descendants”, is in direct violation of Paul’s later exposition, and therefore clearly wrong. Only translators totally ignorant of the significance of the Abrahamic promises could make such a blunder.

The same erroneous translation occurs in the RSV of Gen 22:17,18:

“And your descendants (AV: ‘seed’) shall possess the gate of their (AV: ‘his’) enemies. And by your descendants (AV: ‘seed’) shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves.”

This, despite the fact that the New Testament repeatedly interprets this promise as fulfilled in Christ, who destroys his great enemy death by gaining possession over its “gate”, the grave (1Co 15:26,55,56; Rev 1:18; 20:6)!

Leviticus 11:42

Among the animals forbidden for food were “whatsoever goeth upon the belly… and creeping things that creep upon the earth”. We are told elsewhere in Scripture that there is nothing unclean of itself (1Ti 4:4; Rom 14:14,20; Mark 7:15). Therefore it is reasonable to conclude that all the creatures rendered “unclean” by the Mosaic law were made so to teach moral lessons. What lesson is taught by Lev 11:42?

This verse is an obvious allusion to the curse upon the serpent in the Garden of Eden:

“Because thou hast done this (ie, enticed Eve into sin), thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life” (Gen 3:14).

The serpent indirectly brought sin into the world, though without question the moral offence of Adam and Eve was greater than his — they being “under law”. The sin of our first parents was crystallized in a change of nature, from “very good” to mortal, which they experienced as a direct punishment from God. This change in nature also meant that their minds would thereafter be prone, or inclined, toward sin.

This mind of the flesh, or “serpent-mind”, has been inherited by all their descendants. It is a frame of mind characterized by thinking according to the natural desires, rather than the spiritual guidelines of God’s word. This is an “abomination”; any man who lets the flesh take over his mind is “going upon his belly”; He is letting the grosser, more materialistic impulses — his “belly” — crowd out and choke the Spirit-mind that a concentration upon Scripture could cultivate. Such a state of mind, if persisted in, will at last bring the curse of Eden upon its holders — death without remedy!

In similar language Paul speaks of such “natural men” — and he describes the moral (or immoral!) equivalent of this Mosaic “abomination”:

“The first man is of the earth, earthy” (1Co 15:47) — he never elevates himself above the dust of his origins, but is always looking downward and groveling in those things that are merely sensual. He “feeds” upon the “dust” (Gen 3:14)!

“For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things” (Phi 3:18,19).

The fact that Paul uses the word “walk” of these men, and his exceeding sorrow at their conduct, imply that these men were nominally “brethren” of Christ. What had made them “enemies of the cross of Christ”? The cross was the means whereby Christ conclusively put to death the lusts of the flesh, and it is the invitation and the challenge to us to do the same: to crucify “the world” (Gal 6:14) within ourselves.

Any who aspire to put on the name of Christ, yet make no meaningful attempt to live as he did, are really his “enemies” and not his friends. They profess friendship, but their actions make them liars. Their God is not Yahweh — it is their “belly”; their mind is not on heavenly, spiritual things — but upon “earthly” things! They see all the enticements of the world. Like Eve did with the fruit of the tree, they desire, they take, and they “enjoy”; like the serpent, their “end is destruction”.

It is not surprising that many of the abominations and “uncleannesses” of the Law reflect the events in the Garden of Eden. Not only is the serpent an abomination (Lev 11:42), but nakedness is to be scrupulously avoided (Exo 20:26). In fact, to uncover another’s nakedness becomes, in the Hebrew, a euphemism for sexual union (Lev 18:6-19; 20:11) — probably because the sexual union of Adam and Eve followed close upon their realization of their “naked” state. Since the image of the “serpent-mind” is inherited by each generation from the preceding one, therefore childbirth brings a stigma of uncleanness (Lev 12:1-8). Even the reproductive functions of both men and women in their most innocent aspects are nevertheless “unclean” under the Law (Lev 15:16-28)!

Since death came into the world because of Adam’s sin, merely to touch a dead body brings an unclean condition. And the legal decree of Deu 21:23, finding its fulfillment in Gal 3:13 (“Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree”), no doubt has its origin and justification in the fact that sin first entered the world in the eating of fruit from a tree!

The tragedy of Eden, then, was kept before the eyes of the Jews in many ways. It must not be forgotten, since it was the reminder of how they had come to be in their fallen condition. But for those who looked beyond the surface, these were also prophetic types of the redemptive work of Christ. In becoming the “last Adam”, in order to undo the consequences of the first Adam’s sin, he came under all the effects of the Edenic curse: he was born “of a woman, under the law” (Gal 4:4), necessitating a cleansing sacrifice even by his birth (Luke 2:21-24). He possessed a “serpent-nature” in common with all men, and ultimately he crucified that nature by lifting it up on a “tree” (Num 21:6-9; John 3; 14), in the process being stripped naked. And thereby he died, again bringing legal uncleanness to himself and those who handled the body.

Numbers 21:6-9

When the children of Israel set out from Mount Hor, they grumbled in the wilderness against God and against Moses. So God sent fiery serpents among them which bit them, bringing death to many. After the people acknowledged their sin and begged Moses to intercede for them, the Lord commanded Moses to make a “bronze” serpent and lift it up on a pole. The erection of this brass snake was the token that God had conquered their plague, and the act of looking upon it was a gesture of faith in God’s work.

The children of Israel were notorious for giving in to their own lusts and complaining against God. In this enacted parable God emphasized their deep enslavement to sin, an enslavement without remedy unless He intervened. His intervention took the form of a lifeless, powerless brass serpent on a stake. Here was a “serpent” of brass — signifying man’s flesh, but a serpent that had been made incapable of stinging, now uplifted as an ensign witnessing to all men. The message was that the serpent-power of sin in human nature would be once and for all conquered by God, and those who had faith in Him would — despite their own personal shortcomings — be saved from death.

Jesus expressly connects this parabolic event in Num 21 with his own death:

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:14,15).

In making comparison between those former Israelites and those to whom he was then speaking, Jesus was plainly intending to stress two resemblances.

1. The first — between the “snake-bitten” then and the “sin-bitten” now — is easy to grasp because we remember the role played by the serpent in the garden. Because sin entered into the world through the first couple’s acceptance of his suggestion, the serpent became the fitting symbol of sin. He was in fact the true Bible “devil” (Rev 20:2). By extension, then, the Bible “devil” now dwells in each of us because we bear the condemned nature of Adam, a nature prone to the blandishments of the “serpent”.

So, Jesus says, this generation is dying because it is bitten by “sin”. He scarcely needed to add that every generation since Adam has met or will meet the same fate. We are born of the flesh, “born in sin”, and dying just as surely as the Israelites fell in the wideness — unless a divine miracle brings us back to life.

2. Thus is the way prepared for the second intended comparison; between the serpent on the pole and Christ “lifted up”. The serpent was the symbol of sin and therefore the serpent on the pole was the symbol of sin conquered. By “lifting up”, Jesus unquestionably meant crucifixion (John 12:32,33). His crucifixion was to be the conquest of sin.

This of course implies that in some sense “sin” was attached to Jesus. But we err if we call him a “sinner”:

“He did no sin” (1Pe 2:22).

“He was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb 4:15).

“Which of you convinceth (ie, convicteth) me of sin?” (John 8:46).

How then did Jesus the sinless man partake of “sin”? How could he, with any degree of reasonableness, be symbolized by a serpent? Paul gives the answer:

“For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh” (Rom 8:3).

Jesus was associated with sin because he possessed “sinful flesh”. The death of Jesus accomplished in full what the erection of the brass snake had done in part. It condemned sin, or the serpent, in human flesh; it destroyed it; and it provided a focus for the faith of those who needed forgiveness and deliverance from their sins.

No individual Israelite in that day was able completely to destroy (by his own will and strength) the “serpent” or diabolism in his bosom. And neither can we! But one special member of the human race, with a nature just like theirs (and ours), totally subdued the evil desires of the flesh in himself, and finally took that serpent-nature that inevitably tended to sin and hung it upon a tree. What a wonderful illustration of our redemption is that serpent of brass!

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It should be stressed here, so that no false conclusion be drawn, that the serpent in the Garden was undoubtedly a literal serpent. It is indisputable that other passages (for example, Rev 20:2) use “serpent” symbolically. But, as with other figures of speech, the only basis for such figurative language is a foundation of literal truth. In short, there could be no “serpent” symbology unless there had been a real serpent in the first place!

Various Greek texts entitle this elegy “A Prayer”. Other manuscripts add “of Jeremiah”.

Verse 1:

“Remember”: Compare 1:20; 2:20; 3:19. The Lord will remember the sufferings of the Jews. He will also remember the sufferings of the saints — as He did those of Christ (cp Psa 89:50, 51).

As James says, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16). The prayer of Hezekiah is a prime example (Isa 37:14-20). We are commanded to pray, in the same way, for the peace of Jerusalem (Psa 122:6).

“Behold our reproach”: Our shame, disgrace (RSV, NIV), and infamy. From a root word meaning “autumn” or “ripeness” — perhaps signifying here the fulness of iniquity, as the wicked finally reap what has been sown (v 7, notes; Gal 6:7). Jeremiah, true to his feeling for the “hope of Israel”, places himself among those who have sinned grievously. In a true spirit of brotherliness, he accepts partial responsibility for the sins of his countrymen.

Verse 2:

“Our inheritance is turned to strangers”: The inheritance is the promised land (Gen 13:15; Lev 26:5, 6), a land of milk and honey (Exo 3:8; Lev 20:24), given only temporarily and conditionally to the nation of Israel — if they followed God (Jer 3:19).

But the same inheritance is promised eternally to us: still, “our inheritance” may be also “turned to strangers” if we are rejected at the judgment seat (Mat 25:41).

Verse 3:

“We are orphans and fatherless”: God had been the Father to the Jews (Psa 68:5; 103:13; Jer 31:9, 10), but no longer.

Verse 4:

The Jews, as a result of the captivity, are now so degraded that they must buy from usurping strangers what was once their own property.

“We have drunken our water for money”: Judah is forced to buy her water, because she had rejected the true and living “water” (Isa 8:6; 55:1; John 4:10; 7:37); that is, she had rejected God, the fountain of living waters (Jer 2:13, 18; 17:3).

“For money”: Contrast Isa 55:1: “Without money”. This is the invitation of the gospel (Rev 21:6; 22:1, 17), which the Jews had spurned.

Verse 5:

“Our necks are under persecution”: The Jews, a stiff-necked people (2Ch 30:8; Isa 48:4), were down trodden (Psa 66:12; Isa 51:23). Compare 1:14; 3:34; 4:19.

Verse 6:

“We have given the hand”:

1. In submission, as in Jer 50:15.
2. Or in begging: “We have extended the hand.” What a come-down from the days when “Thou shah lend to others, but thou shalt not borrow” (Deut 15:6)!

3. Or in agreement: “We have made a pact with…” (Hillers). Compare Ezek 17:18 and thoughts in Jer 2:18, 36 and Hosea 7:11; 12:1. Perhaps all three ideas may find a place in a comprehensive view of this verse, and of Israel’s many-sided relationship with her neighbors.

“To the Egyptians”: After Josiah’s death (circa 608 BC), Egypt deposed his son Jehoahaz, and crowned Jehoiakin (2Ch 36:3, 4).

“To the Assyrians”: Or to Babylon, which occupied their former lands (cp Jer 2:18). Also, a type of the “Assyrian” from the north in the last days, who will have consolidated all the old empires: Russia!

Verse 7:

“Our fathers have sinned, and are not”: The nation has at last recognized the reason for God’s heavy hand upon them, the same hand which fell upon their fathers. Compare the words of Zechariah, spoken 70 years later:

“Your fathers, where are they?… and they returned and said, Like as the LORD of Hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us” (Zec 1:5, 6).

“We have borne their iniquities”: The Jews, similarly, had in Christ’s time filled up the measure of their fathers’ iniquity (Mat 23:32). Although it is a Scriptural principle that every man bears personal responsibility for his own deeds (Ezek 18:20), it is still true that national sins are often unpunished for a time, and judgment is stored up until a later date, when it all falls at one time (2Ki 24:21; Exo 20:5; Jer 32:18; Gen 15:13-16). Such was the case with the kingdom of Judah.

Verse 8:

“Servants (‘slaves’) have ruled over us”: This always happened when Israel forgot their one true Ruler — Yahweh. They did not heed Joshua’s command to drive out the Canaanites (Josh 16:10), who remained in the land throughout the period of the judges, and mightily oppressed them.

One of the four things which the earth cannot “bear” is “a servant (slave) when he reigneth” (Pro 30:21, 22) — a sad fact evidenced again in Israel’s history when those ruthless Roman “slaves”, the Edomite (Idumean) Herods, reigned!

This verse may also be a reference to the governors who evidently were soon to begin ruling in the land (Neh 5:15).

Verse 9:

“We gat our bread with the peril of our lives

because of the sword of the wilderness”: Contrast this with the fortunes of the Jews who spent 40 years in the wilderness, where they gathered bread each day; they found it as the dew upon the ground! They had “no lack”.

The famine of bread in Jeremiah’s time was only the type of the far worse famine — the famine of God’s word (Amos 8:11, 12). There were still prophets to speak to Israel, but most refused to hear — and thus brought the hardships of a “famine” upon themselves.

Verse 10:

“Our skin was black”: Affliction, persecution, wandering (Song 1:5, 6; Psa 119:83; Lam 4:8), famine (Rev 6:5, 6).

“Like an oven”: Egypt was symbolized by an iron furnace (Deut 4:20). A similar thought is intended here: the fiery persecution of the Jews. Likewise, the Psalmist, in 119:83, pictures himself as a bottle, or a wineskin, blackened by the smoke.

Verse 11:

“They ravished the women in Zion,

and the maids in the cities of Judah”: This was predicted in Deut 28:30, 32 and Jer 6:12. Israel’s latter-day enemies will also do this (cp Zec 14:2); but God sees and remembers (v 1), and such deeds will be punished (as in Isa 13:16; Psa 137:7-9).

Verse 12:

“Princes”: The nation of Israel (which signifies “a prince with El“).

“Princes are hanged up by their hand”: Probably impaling after death. Thus, falling under a curse (Deut 21:23; Gal 3:13).

“The faces of elders were not honoured”: See 4:16.

Verse 13:

“They took the young men to grind”: A low menial task, usually assigned to female slaves (Exo 11:5; Isa 47:2) or other women (Mat 24:41). The Philistines could think of no greater degradation with which to torment their blinded former nemesis-Samson (Judges 16:21).

Verse 14:

“The elders have ceased from the gate”: Counsel (as Ruth 4:1), as well as social and commercial activity (as Job 29:7; Pro 31:23), had ceased.

Verse 15:

“The city of confusion is broken down” (Isa 24:7-11). cp Jer 7:34 and Psa 30:11.

“Our dance is turned into mourning”: Now was the “time to weep” (Eccl 3:4), as Nehemiah was to mourn when he later saw the city lying waste (Neh 2:2, 3).

But “joy cometh in the morning” (Psa 30:5), and “they that sow in tears shall reap in joy” (Psa 126:5, 6).

Verse 16:

”The crown”: In two senses the “crown” had fallen:

The crown is a symbol of royalty, which had been overthrown (Jer 13:18; Ezek 21:26; Psa 89:39; Hos 3:4).

The crown also symbolizes obedience to the Truth (Rev 2:10; 3:11), and dedication and priesthood (Exo 28:36-38).

Verse 17:

See 1:22 and 2:11.

Verse 18:

“Because of the mountain of Zion”: The center of all true Jewish hopes (Isa 2:2-4; 24:23; Psa 133:3).

“The foxes walk upon it”: Compare Psa 63:10. “Jackals” (RSV, NIV), unclean scavengers, representing the unclean nations who “walk upon” the hope of Israel.

Verse 19:

“Thou, O LORD, remainest for ever;

Thy throne from generation to generation”: This is the one means by which the Jews’ sorrowful condition may be changed: God’s kingdom was once on earth (1Ch 28:5; 2Ch 13:8), and it will be re-established (2Sa 7:12-16; Acts 1:6; 14:16) as His throne (Jer 3:17).

Verse 20:

“For ever”: Literally, “for the age” (see, for example, Dr. Thomas’ exposition in Eureka, vol. 1, pp. 127-130). The age is evidently this age: the time of the Gentiles, the prophetic period now drawing to a close.

Verse 21:

A quotation from Jer 31:18.

“Turn Thou us unto Thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned”: True humility at last! A recognition that, as the punishments came from God, so forgiveness must come from Him as well, and repentance and renewal of purpose, by His grace and strength, will follow. It is vain to lament the past if our grief does not help us to make the future better, by seeking help from the one unfailing Source.

“Renew our days as of old”:

“And He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in former years” (Mal 3:3, 4).

Verse 22:

In the Hebrew manuscripts, verse 21 is usually repeated after verse 22 — so as to close the book on a more hopeful note (the same type of repetition is found in printed editions of some Hebrew Bibles at the end of Isaiah, Ecclesiastes, and But a fuller understanding of verse 22 makes such an editorial addition superfluous.

“But Thou hast utterly rejected us;

Thou art very wroth against us”: This verse has been poorly translated. It implies an utter, complete rejection of the Jews for all eternity — which is perhaps what orthodox translators would like — but which is certainly not in harmony with the rest of Scripture (see, for one example, 3:31-33, notes).

Some translators simply render this verse as a question. Note the RSV, the margin of the AV, and Keil. Rotherham translates it:

“For though Thou hast not utterly rejected us,

Thou art wroth with us exceedingly.”

And Goodspeed renders it in this way:

“If Thou wert to reject us completely,

Thou wouldst be going too far in Thine anger against us.”

God would not be going too far for just deserts, but too far according to His previous utterances. Such a proposal would be out of harmony with all the promises of God. Moses said that God would raise unto Israel a leader like unto him, whom they would hear.

They rejected this leader when he came the first time, but their hearts will be turned from stone to flesh when he returns in power and glory; when their pride and self-confidence has been abased before the latter-day enemy, and when God fights for them as in the day of battle. Then shall they open the gates of their hearts unto him:

“Lift up your heads, O ye gates;

even lift them up, ye everlasting doors;

and the King of glory shall come in…

The LORD of Hosts,

He is the King of Glory” (Psa 24:9-10).

Then, shall they say:

“BLESSED IS HE THAT COMETH IN THE NAME OF THE LORD.”

****

O! Mourn ye for Zion, her beauty is faded,

Her joy is departed, her glory is fled:

The light and the hope or her prospects is shaded:

She wanders in darkness, her comforts are dead.

Oh! pray ye for Zion: though sad and forsaken,

Though scorned and derided, despised and forlorn;

The truth of Yahweh, our God, is unshaken,

Her night shall but usher a glorious morn.

Oh! Labor for Zion, though now, in her blindness,

She knows not her Saviour, Messiah, and Lord;

Yet, guided by mercy, the life-tones of kindness

Shall win her full ear to the voice of His word.

Oh watch ye for Zion; the day-spring is breaking,

Her night has been gloomy, but shortly will end:

Her long-promised Shepherd, His lost sheep is seeking,

The heart of the rebellious nation will bend.

Oh! hope ye for Zion; salvation is near,

And brighter than morn’s rosy glow shall be seen;

The great Sun of Righteousness soon shall appear;

The beam of His glory shall gladden the scene.

Rejoice ye for Zion! Yahweh has spoken;

Jerusalem ‘s outcasts shall yet be restored;

The bonds of the fetter-bound slave shall be broken,

And Judah set free at the word of the Lord.

Among numerous Bible commentaries and translations consulted, several provided some help, especially with alternative renderings, ie:

• Keil and Delitzsch on Lamentations, by C. F. Keil

• Anchor Bible (Lamentations), by Delbert Hillers

• “Speaker’s Commentary” (Lamentations), by R. Payne Smith

• Studies in the Book of Lamentations, by Norman K. Gottwald

• The Companion Bible, by E. W. Bullinger

• Revised Standard Version (RSV)

• New International Version (NIV)

• Rotherham’s Emphasized Bible (Roth.)

In addition, we have consulted Christadelphian writings — both books and magazines — wherever they referred to the Lamentations (which was, unfortunately, not very often). We mention specifically those studies which contribute something to the book as a whole:

• E. F. Higham, “The Lamentations of Jeremiah”, a series running in The Berean Christadelphian from September, 1953 (v ol. 41, no. 9, p. 270) through May, 1954 (v ol. 42, no. 5, p. 154).

• John Lockyer, “The Book of Lamentations”, 4 articles in The Christadelphian, Vol. 115 (July through October, 1978).

• Derek Brook, “The Lamentations of Jeremiah”, The Testimony, Vol. 32, no. 378 (June, 1962), p.202; no. 379 (July, 1962), p. 221.

The words of the hymns pertaining to the “Desolation of Israel” are taken from The Christadelphian Hymn Book of 1874.