Lamentations 4
March 14, 2024 11:22 AM
Solitary Man
solitaryman.substack.com
20240311
Lam 4:1 How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed (altered)! the stones of the sanctuary (ko-desh – sacred place) are poured out in the top of every street.
Chapter 4 now reverts more or less to the flavor and format of chapters 1 and 2. The sins of Judah are more closely interconnected with the subsequent judgments. Some think the sanctuary is speaking of the destruction of the temple, and that is certainly a part of what is meant. Yet those stones would not be poured out on every street, so the main meaning is the people of Zion, as evidenced in verse 2.
God has made us living stones, building a temple for his eternal presence. He has cut and carved and fitted each and every one of us into its proper place. He has put us through his refining fire, and we were to come out as gold, shining as the sun. Yet our sin and rebellion has caused the gold to dim, even alter into something totally different. As a result, the temple of God has been torn down and scattered in every location that you would care to look. Is there a country of the west that has not had the Christian witness torn down through rebellion and apostasy?
Lam 4:2 The precious (costly) sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!
What God had intended for holy, consecrated, set apart use, has now become common and unclean. The Laodicean church has defiled itself. The spirit of holiness is nowhere to be found. The sons of Zion are said to be costly. Jesus had to shed his blood to redeem us, paying the ultimate price. He wanted to turn us into beautiful objects that would shine as the stars in the firmament forever. Now they have become just like any other ordinary thing, indistinguishable from anyone else found in the earth. Does that not describe most believers in our churches today? Is there any way to tell the difference of a western Christian from a western non believer?
Lam 4:3 Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.
Jeremiah is recalling the worst days of the siege that he has just emerged from. In times of real famine, the maternal instinct of women is even less than the fiercest animals of the sea. Yet even these dumb animals let their children feed. They are like the ostrich, who is not known for great maternal feeling (Job 39:14-16), abandoning her young. The fact that these parents are said to become as cruel as the ostrich means that their children’s welfare is no more their top priority. Indeed, their dire circumstance causes them to abandon the needs of the children, just like the ostrich abandoning her eggs once they are laid. Can we not see this attitude already manifested in the vax mania we have just endured? We can say that these parents were completely sucked in by the unrelenting fear porn that was poured upon them. Yet it seemed that in many cases the primary consideration was to be seen as acting in lockstep with all their social media friends. Nothing would of been worse for these narcissistic creatures than to be unfriended, or cancelled, or virtually shunned. Their whole existence is completely wrapped up in their virtual identity. Since social media was the place the pressure was the strongest to get vaxxed, these cesspools of selfishness did not pause for one moment and ask why the violent, militant urgency to jab the children, when no children suffered from this so called virus? Why for the first time in medical history, was everyone commanded to get this thing? Sure, there were real plagues in the past, and they practised selected quarantines (always on the sick, never on the asymptomatically healthy), and encouraged people to take shots, but never was there the coercion and outright intimidation. That should of been an automatic red flag for anyone with even half a brain. And this applied the most to so called Christian women. They were no different than anyone else. Whatever gold they once had in their spirit, or should of had, was nowhere to be found. They were no better than ostriches.
Lam 4:4 The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them.
Sin brings catastrophic loss. Although we know suffering is a part of this fallen world and unavoidable at times, yet what percentage of horror do we bring upon ourselves by our own reckless rebellions?
The picture being painted here is that the most helpless and innocent bear the brunt of the consequence for our iniquity. That is the way of things. Hollywood wants to use this fact of life as their main excuse to either curse God for allowing this, or for not believing in God altogether. That is certainly your choice. You can go that way. You can choose to allow the sight of your little innocent loved one’s calamity to rob your soul of any and all faith. You will then live with that decision for all eternity in a place definitely not of your choosing, where you will have all the time in the world to reflect on that decision.
This is where I would like to appeal to your sense of logic and reason. The suffering of the helpless is an undeniable reality. No one says you have to like it. Yet there it is. Will you let this unpleasant reality decide for you where you will spend eternity? Will your limited sense of right and wrong trump your need to humble yourself under the hand of almighty God and trust that he knows what is best for you? Jeremiah’s writings are full of the judgments of the Lord. We have learned that God does not do any of this for fun, or on a whim. There are perfectly sound reasons for all that he does. At the end of the process, there is always hope and salvation, for those willing and able to bend the knee.
What will you choose to do, in the awful days to come?
Lam 4:5 They that did feed delicately are desolate (devastated, destitute) in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills (heaps of garbage or filth).
Not just the poor, but the upper classes in society (those clothed in scarlet) have now lost it all. They ate the finest foods, wore the finest clothes. Now they are pawing through garbage dumps, in the hopes of finding something to eat.
I am reminded of more than one instance in my life where I was invited to some believers’ place, and what I found left me with a vaguely unsettled feeling. While I certainly begrudge no one any nice thing in life, yet my heart seemed to detect the difference of something that was nice, which fully met the needs of someone, versus something ostentatious and showy, that went far beyond any reasonable need of the owner. Monster houses that contained several empty rooms. Excessively expensive decorations, that did nothing to enhance the atmosphere, but instead polluted it with its gaudiness, showiness, and submission to modern worldly taste and fashion, that had no touch of the divine. Christians that worked night and day and perhaps carried much debt, living in palaces that served no useful purpose except to project power and wealth.
These are the things that cause Jesus an upset stomach. This is what causes the gag reflex in heaven (Rev 3:16).
Lam 4:6 For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed (tarried) on her.
The meaning here is straightforward. Jeremiah says Judah’s punishment is greater than Sodom’s. How? Because at least in Sodom’s case, though everyone died, at least the judgment was quick, and was over in almost an instant. In Judah’s case, the punishment is being stretched out over a long time. For 19 years from their first occupation and subjection, that included three separate deportations, to an 18 month siege, where many starved to death. To the total destruction of Jerusalem and the temple and the plundering of everything within, to the final death march for the survivors to Babylon, to impoverishment in the aftermath, and now an indefinite desolation imposed on the land, the suffering just goes on and on and on. The enemies’ hands are continually oppressing whoever is left. Even as in our day, we have seen our liberties being taken away one by one. Slowly at first, then rapidly in 2020. Now at breakneck speed our demon possessed leaders are determined that nothing good will be left standing before they are through with us. Think of America even in purely financial terms. As of this moment, they are adding 1 trillion dollars of debt every 100 days! Exactly how many more days do you think they have left, at that pace? And they still agreed to send 60 billion more to Ukraine! Once again, the Republicans caved in for some reason. Who knows why – who knows the pressures they have been placed under. All these details don’t really matter. All that matters is that God is treating Canada and America like Judah in 586 BC, and not like Sodom. The punishment of Sodom is too good for us. Our wickedness deserves something far more painful and horror filled.
Let that awful truth sink in your ears for a bit.
Lam 4:7 Her Nazarites (naw-zeer – separated, consecrated one) were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire:
The word naw-zeer could be translated princes, but I will stick with the King James rendering. The princes were never purer than snow, they may of outwardly shone like gems due to their breeding and wealth, but God is speaking about something more important than wealth.
In times of total judgment, no one escapes. Not even the most righteous. The Nazarites were known for their separation from the defilements of the world, yet we shall see that they are totally transformed when the wages of sin in a nation become due. Jeremiah was not spared some of the consequences of punishment. Of course, a lot of his suffering was attributed to the various persecutions that he had to endure, but he would of suffered from the lack of quantity and quality of food like everyone else. He was carried away by Johanan’s rebellion to Egypt, just like everyone else. So too will we be called upon to share in the miseries and sufferings of our fellow countrymen, over and above any and all persecutions that we must endure.
Lam 4:8 Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.
No one could recognize these separated ones anymore. The main source of their torment is the extreme hunger that is the lot of those under siege. Sieges are always a contest of endurance. Can those starving within outlast those waiting impatiently without?
Lam 4:9 They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger: for these pine away (waste away), stricken through (pierced, stabbed, starved) for want of the fruits (produce) of the field (ground).
It is better to die quick than to suffer the lingering death of famine. Who unto us, as the cabal systematically destroys our food supplies. Our food may of shot up in price over the last couple of years, but at least there is still food to be had. If the famine that the cabal wants for us indeed comes to pass, then we will face something that no one of our ancestors would of ever believed could occur. The closest we came to experiencing this was in the drought of the 1930’s. I heard stories from my parents during this time. They lived on a farm, so they always had food. Periodically, men would come around and ask if they could be hired as labourers, just so as long as they would be fed.
The times just ahead of us are going to be much worse than that.
Lam 4:10 The hands of the pitiful (compassionate) women have sodden (boiled, cooked) their own children (yeh-led – boy, child, lad, offspring): they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
This horrific event was simply God keeping one of his promises:
Deu 28:53 And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the LORD thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee:
Deu 28:54 So that the man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children which he shall leave:
Deu 28:55 So that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat: because he hath nothing left him in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates.
Deu 28:56 The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter,
Deu 28:57 And toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear: for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates.
Is no one running and shouting and jumping in the aisles, all excited about the promises of Yahweh? Do you still think that he is for you, he is for you, like that popular song spouted at the outset of the plandemic?
I think you would have a very hard time selling copies of that song in 586 BC!
Note that these women were once known for their compassion. Now they are boiling and eating their own children! I don’t think any of us can adequately grasp the absolute horror of this verse. Just how low and desperate man can get. I think it’s because Hollywood has desensitized us with all the zombie and apocalyptic movies and tv shows and video games. We’ve been fed images in our virtual space. When the real thing occurs, I don’t know how it will register. I think that for many of the young, raised on this filth, it may not seem so bad after all. Or, for all multitude of reality deniers out there, it may just stop your heart cold.
Lam 4:11 The LORD hath accomplished his fury (poisonous rage, wrath); he hath poured out his fierce anger (af – as smoke from the nostril), and hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured the foundations thereof.
And here is the sum of it all. The main point. Not just of the current thought, but the main thrust of all of Jeremiah’s writings. After describing the worst possible scenario that man can face when the horror of total judgment falls, Jeremiah brings us back to the unwanted, yet inevitable truth, that all this occurs to accomplish God’s purpose. When God’s wrath has been kindled to such a degree, the worst sorts of destruction are unleashed upon sinful man.
I am sure that there are those of you out there who at times may wonder if I have started to go off the deep end. That my immersion into the life and times and words of Jeremiah has left me somewhat unhinged. At the very least, unbalanced.
You know, I pray about this regularly. I pray that I do not get carried away on this topic, as there is always a risk of plunging too deep into one end of the swimming pool and disregarding the other. Yet I have a strong prompting in my spirit that I have yet to plumb the depths of literary composition in the hope that I may yet be able to reach some others, who are not yet convinced that what I am speaking about is real and true. I truly believe that I have not yet found adequate words to describe the revelation that I believe has been given to me about the church needing to reacquire and embrace the doctrines of the judgments of God, and our proper response to these truths.
Until and unless a sufficient number in the body humbles themself, lets go of their theological positions and pride, and remakes our God into the correct biblical image from our false man made ones, then we have nothing to base future hope on, except an expectation of further death, defeat, and dire destructions.
Lam 4:12 The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem.
I would like to quote from Ellicott’s commentary for English readers to help absorb the sense of this verse:
In looking to the fact that Jerusalem had been taken by Shishak (king of Egypt) (1Kings 14:26), Jehoash (king of Israel) (2Kings 14:13), the statement seems at first hyperbolical. It has to be remembered, however, that since the latter of these two the city had been strongly fortified by Uzziah, Hezekiah, and Manasseh, and the failure of Sennacherib’s attempt had probably led to the impression that it was impregnable.
I see a direct parallel with the imminent fall of America, that is now right at our doorstep. Even 5 years ago, who would of thought America is about to fall?
In a third layer of meaning, this talk reminds me of Revelation talk. The kings of the earth, and all the earth dwellers. For so long, who would of thought the Christian religion could be so subverted as to be literally erased from the surface of the earth? Look at the singular blasphemy emanating from the Vatican these days. Whatever your feelings about the catholic church, there has not been so vile a pope since the Borgias of long ago. He obtained the office through insidious means, forcing out a sitting pope, a thing not done for centuries. That previous pope was probably the most morally conservative pope in many decades. Look at how America has no great religious leaders whom the networks go to for their insights and opinions. Again, regardless of your feelings for Billy Graham, he was a Christian and an American icon, that the whole world respected. In the same way we had living examples of charity and piety such as Mother Theresa, that no one could ever criticize. When God started taking these people away several years ago, it was a sign. He was clearing the playing field, so to speak, of his iconic servants before he was about to wipe the slate clean.
Now the church’s voice is all but silenced in the public square. That is why they so hate one of the last remaining heroes of the faith, Artur Pawlowski of Canada. A man who was been singularly persecuted in Canada for his faith not just for the last 4 years, but for the last 20. He had been warning the body of Christ for at least that long that he saw communism taking over the land, but no one listened. Even after 49 days in solitary confinement, and every sort of corrupt lawfare thrown against him, so few have even heard of the guy.
The point I am trying to make is that the enemies of the cross have been waiting for this moment for almost 2000 years. The total suppression of Christianity. The obliteration of the cross, at least in the public sphere. Soon I predict that the cross will be prohibited in the virtual world, where all the citizens of Babylon reside. We are not so far away from that singular moment. Futurists speak of the singularity, where AI becomes smarter than man. The real point of singularity is when AI, which is powered by the fallen ones, becomes so fast and sophisticated that it can detect and delete all gospel truth before it can even be uploaded and seen on the internet. That shall be a manifestation of the mark, or the sign, of the beast.
Lam 4:13 For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities (perversities) of her priests (ko-hane), that have shed the blood of the just (tsad-deek) in the midst of her,
False prophets cannot be overestimated as to the amount of spiritual harm they cause. I just finished reading the story of Balaam in my daily bible study today. Here was a man who had a gift, one that was without repentance. In other words, what God gives, he doesn’t change his mind over. You can choose to ignore, or abuse it, or defile it, but the gift is what it is, a gift. I am sure a lot of psychics had a prophetic gift that they turned over to the devil and let him abuse it.
This was a man who used divination and mixed it with the true word of the Lord. I truly believe these personal prophecy givers on television may be in danger of doing the same thing. In any event, God often defined the prophets as anyone who presumed to speak as if they were the mouthpiece of the Lord. They were the doctrine givers, the ones who said that this was the mind of the Lord. They are the first on the list of those whom God holds particularly accountable.
The second group is the priests, the pastors of today. God speaks of their perversities. I don’t know how else one can define some of the things that have come out of the pulpits. When times are normal, they can safely disguise themselves by preaching the same syrupy pablum as always. When something unusual like the covid fiasco exploded on the scene, they were at an utter loss as to what to do. Thus, 98% of them simply did what they were told. No thinking, no questions, no asking God. Shut the doors, check. Face diapers at all times, check. Hand sanitizer until the skin fell off, check. One person per pew, check. Recording a Christmas video by renting an abandoned warehouse and having each performer perform his piece one at a time to avoid human contact, check. No singing, but whispering Christian hymns, check. Collect the covid money from the government for disobeying God, abandoning the flock, and keeping your doors locked, check. Being the first the take the poisonous death jab bio-weapon when it came out, check. Demanding all good Christians to show how much you love your neighbor by utterly destroying your immune system with these piercers, check. Having separate Christmas services for the vaxxed and the unvaxxed, check. Enforcing vax passports, check. Thanking God for the bio-weapon that is well on its way to sterilizing and exterminating all of humanity, check. Not repenting of your vile blasphemy, even three years after the fact, when 17 to 80 million have already died, check. Carrying on as if it’s business as usual, with nary an apology to God or your congregation, check.
Utterly and completely and irrevocably losing your eternal soul, check.
The prophets and pastors are all bloody murderers. Unrepentant, sin-sick, bloody murderers. They have the blood on their hands of all those who took the death jab that they encouraged to do so. Even those who said that it’s a personal choice, thinking that is a fair, balanced, neutral position to take are also all murderers. Would you say that to any other murderer? Would you say that to the woman asking if it’s ok to have an abortion? That it’s up to her? How about the one considering MAID? Ii it up to your parishioner to decide? Do you still glory in your neutrality? Do you even have a soul?
Lam 4:14 They have wandered (staggered) as blind men in the streets, they have polluted (gaw-al – desecrated, defiled) themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments.
These men are so awash in the innocent blood of others, that men invariably shrank away at the sight of them. Is this not true of our so called religious leaders of today? When the son of the most famous evangelist of our modern era thanked God for the vax, and three years later still has not owned up to this demonic blasphemy and repented of it (as far as I know), what does that say about that man’s soul? It does not matter what you have accomplished in your past. Remember Ezekiel. He clearly stated that if a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, all his righteous deeds shall not be remembered (Ez 33:13).
How can so many be so blind? Truly they have eyes, but see not. God says they have desecrated themselves in blood. Nothing desecrated enters heaven. I don’t care if you don’t like that, but that is just the way it is. Unless these repent, and repent soon, they too will perish.
Lam 4:15 They cried unto them, Depart ye; it is unclean; depart, depart, touch not: when they fled away and wandered, they said among the heathen, They shall no more sojourn there.
This verse is certainly open to interpretation. It all involves around who ‘they’ were.
Three possibilities:
1. The prophets and priests. Having recognized their own defilement after total judgment fell, they warn others to stay away from them, lest they too be swept up in their uncleanness.
2. The people of Jerusalem. Seeing the uncleanness of these religious leaders, they recoiled in horror and told them to go away. Perhaps they recognized it was the words of the false prophets and the soothing, but deceptive, ministrations of the priests, that had gotten them into this mess. Or perhaps they still revere these paradigms of perversity, and the people warn these perverse purveyors of pseudo holiness to depart the city that is now filled with the dead, and thus keep themselves ceremonially pure.
3. The Gentile conquerors, and the neighbouring nations, may also be in view. They may be observing the downfall of Jerusalem, as spectators at a sporting event, and mockingly urging them to flee. Jeering at them, informing them that they have to leave, since the city is now unclean, filled with the dead and with the heathen. As they fled and overheard their neighbors speak, all agreed that the Jews were done, as far as being able to live in their own city.
Whatever the author is trying to say, it is clear that the sense is one of bewilderment, exile, desolation, confusion, mockery, and despair. All the fruits of an unrighteous generation.
Lam 4:16 The anger (paw-neem – face) of the LORD hath divided (separated) them; he will no more regard them: they respected not the persons (paw-neem – faces) of the priests, they favoured not the elders (ancient).
Now it is clear it is the enemies of God’s people who are mocking and taunting them. Even the heathen know that it is Yahweh that has done this, while the church still wants to argue about it.
There is some debate about the term ‘they respected (naw-saw)’. Who is they? Is it God, or the false prophets and the false priests already spoken of who derided the faithful priests, or the heathen who mistreated the ko-hane of the Lord? My opinion is that since we are talking about Yahweh separating the false prophet and priest, not regarding them anymore, so I believe it should read that ‘they’ should be changed to ‘he’. Thus, God respected not the priest or the aged.
Judgment time is just a bad time for all.
Lam 4:17 As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation (goy) that could not save us.
Even as so many are desperately looking at Trump as America’s last political hope, and Musk as the west’s last free expression hope, so Judah was looking out for Egypt to come to their rescue. All in vain. They looked and looked until they could look no more. Their eyes failed them. Ultimately, they wasted their time and energy on something that never had a chance of helping them.
So it is the same with the west. Elon cannot save us. Neither can Donald.
Lam 4:18 They hunt our steps (or, they lie in wait, pacing our steps), that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.
Being a big Lord of the Rings fan, I was immediately reminded of the line: ‘The way is shut. It was made by those who are Dead, and the Dead keep it, until the time comes. The way is shut.’
Jeremiah vividly remembers those last days of the siege. As they became more and more hemmed in, and their options dwindled into nothingness, an evil sense of constriction and foreboding would
of gripped their souls. The heavy weight of their doom kept exerting a greater and greater pressure, until it felt that all air had been cut off, and one was about to expire.
A realization that their lives were over, as they knew it.
Are you starting to feel the same thing in your life?
Lam 4:19 Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven: they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.
Perhaps Jeremiah is recounting the flight of Zedekiah, as he tried to sneak out of the doomed city and escape from the clutches of the Babylonians. The broader and best sense of the verse is that as Judah’s situation became more and more hopeless, it seemed that the enemy kept growing in stature and power and ability, at least in their eyes.
Does it not feel like that today? Here in 2024, I have noticed that our wicked leaders do not care to hide their intentions behind some ridiculous notion of altruism, or babbling about some aspect of the common good. As evidenced by things such as the state of the union address last week, the gloves are off. Contrary to what some think, I see their unconcealed arrogance as a sign that they believe that they have already won. All opposition has been crushed. They don’t need to pretend anymore. The demons within these meat suits can now fully manifest. That is why the president seemed so coherent and alert for most of that speech. The demon controlling him feels he has no reason to conceal himself anymore.
Wherever we go, the cabal seem to be two steps ahead of us.
Do you still believe the Lord is with us, that he is with us? I think we need to change that song to the other half of Deuteronomy 28, the part from verse 15 onwards. It may go something like: ‘he is against you, he is against you. You have rebelled so far and so long, that he is against you’.
Lam 4:20 The breath (ruach) of our nostrils, the anointed (maw-shee-akh) of the LORD, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the heathen.
Most classic commentators agree that the primary reference of this anointed one is Zedekiah, whom the people of Judah thought they would still be under, even if they were forced to be exiled to Babylon. They saw him as the life force of the nation.
We see here a reference to our Messiah, Christ Jesus, who is truly our one and only life force. He was slain by the enemy. Yet even so, we live and move and have our being, even among the heathen, because we abide under his shadow. Praise God forevermore!
Lam 4:21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz; the cup also shall pass through unto thee: thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked.
Edom dwelt in Uz, the son of Dishan, descended from Seir (Gen 36:20-21,28). Psalm 137 is the most poignant passage that contains all the bitterness and grief that these defeated Judeans felt, as they witnessed the Edomites cheer on her destruction by the Babylonians.
In the worst of her judgments, Judah would comfort herself with the thought that Edom’s time was coming. They may rejoice today, but tomorrow a bill would come due, just like it had for Judah.
Even so today, we must take comfort that there is coming a day when the cabal and all of its minions shall be presented their bill by the living God of heaven. Until then, it is their day in the sun and we must bear it as best we can.
Lam 4:22 The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will no more carry thee away into captivity: he will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom; he will discover (reveal) thy sins.
As Jeremiah watched the last of Jerusalem be stripped away and destroyed, God inspired him to write this verse. At some point, our punishments will cease. Some would say that the promise of this verse was broken, as the Jews were once again carried away into captivity after the Roman conquest n 70 AD. Of course, that is foolishness. God gave Israel an opportunity to accept their Messiah, and they refused. As a result, one more captivity was decreed, this time for almost 1900 years. The sense in this verse is that this current round of punishment has now been accomplished. Not once, not twice, but three times they experienced a carrying away into captivity for their current sins (in 605, 597 and 586 BC). This is not saying that sins committed in the future would never have the penalty of captivity applied, as they most certainly did in AD 70. Context and knowing history helps us obtain a proper understanding and interpretation of this passage.
Edom is once again mentioned. Edom must really tick God off. I am sure that they weren’t the only neighbor that rejoiced over Judah’s downfall. Yet there was something about Edom that really got under God’s skin, it seemed. For whatever reason, most likely due to their extreme outward display of joy at Judah’s downfall, something caught the attention of God. Their judgment has already been given in the book of Jeremiah, and it was total annihilation. Today, Edom is no more, just like one day, the current cabal will be no more. In eternity, Israel and the church will shine as the stars of the sun. The cabal? Not so much.
Edom reminds me of the Palestinians. All this hue and cry over their current destruction. No cries for all the other civilians being killed in every other war. Yet I remember during 911 how the only people who openly and publicly celebrated the destruction of the twin towers were the Palestinian civilians.
Something to keep in mind next time you are tempted to begin to agree with the mainstream media on this topic.
Solitary Man
https://solitaryman.substack.com/
