Lamentations 4 offers explicit details about the devastation of the nobles and priests in Judah during the time of their overthrow. They were once dressed in purple. They are “stones of gold,” but not have become black and shriveled. The writer tells us the people of Sodom were better off, because they were destroyed in a moment. Those who were killed by the sword were better off, because they didn’t suffer. But these who waste away with hunger and disease, bear their suffering, and nothing and no one is there to help them. The LORD is the one who did this, because of the people’s rejection of Him, because of their sin. One hint of hope comes at the close of the chapter when Edom is condemned. We’re told there will be no redemption for Edom, but the house of Zion will return. No additional information is offered, but at least some hope for the future remains.
Lamentations 5 is a cry to the LORD to restore the people. The writer recounts the heavy burdens the people endure. Women are raped, boys stagger under heavy loads, princes are hung by their hands, and the elders are shown no respect. The writer asks if the LORD will forget them forever. He calls on the LORD to restore them, but the book ends without a response from the LORD. We know from history the LORD answered this cry. Israel was restored on more than one occasion, and now the nation of Israel is a sovereign nation once again. When we experience the heavy burdens of life, let’s remember to call out to the LORD, to call on His mercy and ask Him for deliverance and restoration.
As we return to Matthew 15, we find the religious leaders coming to Jesus with a complaint about His disciples: they eat with out the ceremonial washing of their hands. Jesus responds by asking them why they break the command of God to uphold their traditions. Here Jesus makes a distinction between the actual commands of God, and the traditions human beings fabricate to “interpret” the commands, or make them easier to follow. Jesus points out how they fail to honor their fathers and mothers, by taking money that would have been used to support them and giving it as offerings. Jesus then makes a powerful statement. It is not what goes into a person that brings defilement, but what comes out. The disciples didn’t understand what Jesus meant. His point is clear: what we eat doesn’t defile us. What we say does. Jesus said the words that come out of our mouth reflect the content of our hearts. That is what we must handle with care, not the food we eat.
Following this interaction, Jesus withdrew with His disciples for a time of rest, but while they were walking a Canaanite woman came and asked Jesus to heal her demon-possessed daughter. At first Jesus didn’t respond, but later when the woman gave Him a strong answer to His point about not “throwing the children’s bread to the dogs,” He healed her daughter.
The final episode in Matthew 15 is the feeding of the 4,000. Jesus had been healing and casting demons out of people all day, and He knew they were hungry. He had already been providing for their spiritual and physical health by healing and casting out demons. Now, He met their basic physical need for food, by taking seven loaves of bread and a few small fish and turning it into enough food to feed thousands of them. As we consider Jesus’ role in our lives, we must always remember while He is first and foremost our Lord and our God, He also wants to provide for our needs whether they be physical or spiritual. As you go about the day, worship Jesus as Savior and Lord, and call on Him as the faithful provider He is!