the Fourth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 3 of 5
Lamentations 4:7-22
The corruption in Israel even reached the Nazarites, in other words those who (like Christians today) should stand out as different by the purity of their behaviour and their complete separation to God. They represent the very depth of degradation. "They are not known in the streets" (v. 8). There is no longer anything which distinguishes them from all the other wretched inhabitants of Jerusalem! Let us ask ourselves to what extent our behaviour in the world makes us recognized as truly being set apart for the Lord.
And what about those who were responsible for looking after the people, namely the prophets and the priests. They had shed the blood of the just! (v. 13). Jeremiah’s experience confirmed that (Jeremiah 26:8).
"Our end is near . . . our end is come", say the afflicted of the people (v. 18) after having waited uselessly for "vain help" and having realised that nobody could save them (v. 17). Now, this is the moment when God declares: "The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished" (v. 22; cf. Isaiah 40:1-2). It will be Edom’s turn now to undergo punishment. It is always so. When it has become clear that nothing can come to our aid and that we are at the end of our own strength, the moment has arrived for God sovereignly to intervene and save us.
