Everything Falls on Leadership

Lamentations 4

Main Idea: When leadership fails, the people are aimless.

1. Setting: The Siege of Jerusalem Was Horrific (4:1-12).
2. Setting: The Enemy Was Powerful (4:17-20).
3. Leaders Can Fail Us Miserably (4:11-16).
4. There Is Hope When Leaders Fail (4:21-22).

Throughout the history of the nation of Israel, three offices provided leadership. The office of prophet tethered people to the vision of God for a pure, distinct nation. The office of priest provided a mediating function. The priest served to facilitate access to the presence of God. The people had access to God’s presence because the priest would act as a go-between, leading God’s people into God’s presence by following God’s temple rites. The office of king facilitated military and civil leadership.

When these offices were in full force, it was a beautiful thing. When a king acted, for example, like King David, the people were safe from their enemies. There was political stability when David deferred to God’s leadership. When a priest functioned like he was supposed to, the people had access to God and the temple was busy with ritual sacrifices. Remember, the sacrifice was not just a gift; it was a symbol. The spilled blood of the animal was a sermon, a tangible lesson on how God feels about sin. When priests functioned as true priests, the people understood this. They understood God. So much of the mind of God is represented symbolically in the temple. This is why the psalmist would sing, “May your priests be clothed with righteousness, and may your faithful people shout for joy” (Ps 132:9). When the prophets functioned like the prophet Samuel, the people had good leadership. Samuel was faithful to warn Saul of his ungodly presumption, to recognize the new King David, and to be a mouthpiece for God.

Historically, the offices served one another. When one office was out of kilter, another was on point. For example, Samuel spoke for God without hesitation when Saul was at his worst. At times the offices helped one another. For example, when Josiah became king, Hilkiah the priest rediscovered the law, and Josiah responded with brokenness and took down the high places where idols were worshiped. This triangle of leadership was not perfect, but it worked. Kings were held accountable by prophets, and the nation was blessed when the priests were leading the people well. Three offices kept the nation structurally sound; with them the nation was less wobbly.

And now we come to this dark hour—perhaps the darkest hour. The nation is facing a difficulty from which it will not, in many ways, ever recover. Lamentations 4 documents the downward slide of leadership in all three offices. Everything rises and falls on leadership. The nation is falling, so now everything is falling, including the leaders. This is a dark time with a small glimmer of hope.

• The princes who were strong are now emaciated (vv. 7-8).
• The prophets and priests shed innocent blood (v. 13).
• The priests and the elders are being chastised by God (v. 16).
• The king is captured (v. 20).

The threefold foundation of leadership is in ruins. The focus of this chapter is found in verses 13-15: when leadership fails, the people are aimless. Judah must face this reality and mourn. This really is something to cry about.

So here is a question: What is the future of a person, or a people, who are in ruins?

Setting: The Siege of Jerusalem Was Horrific (4:1-12)

The nation is at its lowest. Jeremiah sets the stage up poetically in verse 1: “How the gold has become tarnished, the fine gold become dull!”

Here is the irony: gold does not tarnish. Gold is called nonreactive because its properties do not allow oxygen, as an agent that reacts with metals, to cause corrosion. Yet the fine gold of the nation is tarnished. The point is simple: the untarnished is now tarnished; what seemed untouchable is now touchable.

The temple, the symbol of the nobility of the priesthood and the presence of God, is in ruins. The precious leaders of the nation, worth more than gold, are like common pots. Everything and everyone is vulnerable. There are leaders in my life that I look up to; they are precious to me. If they blew it morally or failed miserably, I would be crushed. They are relationships that are valuable to me. They are more valuable than precious metal. Yet all that I have I hold loosely. After all, Job teaches us that man’s life is short and full of trouble, a fact that is complicated severely when we sin. So, just how bad is the situation in Israel?

There is always a price to disobedience. This one is tough and it is vivid. If this chapter were a news article on the website of a news outlet, it would come with a “graphic content” warning. It’s disgusting. Lamentations 4 is not suitable for all audiences.

The situation is so bad that nursing babies are dying of starvation. Mothers in Jerusalem have become more cruel than wild animals, which at least don’t neglect their young (vv. 3-4). Those who used to dine on the delicacies, epicureans with trained palates, are starving; those who were raised in royalty are dumpster diving (v. 5).

Jeremiah says in his hyperbole that it is worse than Sodom (v. 6), and maybe that’s so. After all, Sodom was destroyed in a moment, while Judah’s demise is excruciatingly slow (v. 9). Those slain don’t suffer. They don’t suffer like the women who turn cannibalistic (v. 10). It’s not just that children died in their mothers’ arms but that they died at their mothers’ hands (Ryken, Jeremiah and Lamentations, 761).

Why did this happen? Jeremiah is quick to point out the truth (vv. 11-12). There are two players in this drama, and the action of neither can be overlooked. First, God exhausted his wrath. The only surprise is that he did not do it sooner. The people were warned in every conceivable way, by every means available, that the wrath of God was coming. Jeremiah preached it, communicated it to the leaders, and even used visual aids. The problem was not with the sender of the message or the message itself but with the receiver. Second, the other players here, the kings of the earth, were shocked as well. They could not believe it could happen. It’s shocking. The nation was pure gold, and gold does not tarnish.

The liability of success is that feeling of invincibility. Scripture is full of examples: Moses, David, Saul, and even Peter. The most extreme example is Adam, who moved from endless life to inevitable death in one bite.

Paul sums up the application of this text when he tells us, “These things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our instruction, on whom the ends of the ages have come. So, whoever thinks he stands must be careful not to fall” (1 Cor 10:11-12).

The application from this text is simple: there is a high price of disobedience that we cannot see right now. It is so monumental. But the vista of future consequences is blocked by the pleasantness of today. Present pleasure blocks the view of future consequences. We feel immune to the cancer of sin; we are anesthetized with so many distractions. Here is Judah’s lesson: no one is above God’s law. Any one of us can fall—any person, any civilization, any movement. The most honest approach to life, if not the most daunting, is the lesson of Solomon in Ecclesiastes: simply to realize how fleeting and momentary we are. Every leader is merely setting the stage for the next one. Every parent is preparing children to leave home. Every movement we want so desperately to create, to be part of, is reaching a coveted tempest where, once reached, it will crest, fold into the sea, and create a way for the next one.

Since life is so short, we have to question choices that hurt us. Do we really want to disobey when we are not invincible? Since I am not above being a byword, a statistic, an also-ran, or worst of all simply forgotten, I have to ask myself, “Are there voices in my life that I am not listening to?” Like ignoring a vehicle warning light, am I slowly wearing down spiritually without even realizing it? As tragic as it would be, current success does not ensure invincibility from disobedience. In fact, success can hide our disobedience from ourselves. Like walking into traffic while looking at your phone, without realizing it, we can wander into dangerous places, alone, vulnerable, and blinded by current victories.

This sober warning is not the stuff of greeting cards, but this is a book of complaints, after all. Pain is an unwanted giver, but pain bequeaths honesty among its greatest gifts. And the truth is that disobedience is an equalizer. The rich and poor, high and low, immortal and unknown have all been her prey. So we read and weep. And we are warned.

Setting: The Enemy Was Powerful (4:17-20)

Jeremiah’s song not only documents what God did but also the human means by which he did it. Verses 17-20 document just how powerful the enemy was. Judah watched in vain for help (v. 17). The time was up (v. 18).

The enemy was simply too powerful. They were too swift and pursued relentlessly (v. 19). Even the king was taken (v. 20).

So this is it. This is the desperate situation. The disobedience of the leaders motivated God to lay siege to the city, a city that could not do anything because the enemy was too powerful. So, what do you do? Now we come to an important point: they could do nothing. There was no exercise of military muscle. There were no political finesses that could save them. They were doomed. There was nothing left. They needed a savior.

Yet this is exactly what they did not have. In fact, the focus of this chapter is the failure of the leaders to help them at this point.

Leaders Can Fail Us Miserably

Lamentations 4:11-16

Leaders tell other people what to do. Of course, there is more to being a leader, and perhaps this is reductionist to the point of being naïve. Perhaps, but it’s still true. Someone takes the shots because they called the shots. They set the direction the group is going. Ultimately, we do not captain by committee.

The best form of leadership, in a perfect world, is to have a perfect leader. If we do not have to question a leader’s motives, capacity for leadership, or character, then we are all set. Since perfection is unattainable, we are left with a continuum of leadership. The more a leader defers to the good of an organization and less to self-interests, the better the organization. When leaders are supremely self-interested, the organization fails. The following section of Lamentations lets us know that the leadership has not kept them from disobedience; they have facilitated it. This is the focus of the chapter: the nation fell because of its leadership. The outcome is tragic.

God has poured out his wrath. He, again, is the agent who is acting. Things are so bad that the nations around Judah are awestruck at the fall of Jerusalem, a public fatality of the worst order. Other kings—actually the whole world—just gawked. So big. Impenetrable. Now it lies in ruins (vv. 11-12). So, why did this happen? Jeremiah explains,

Yet it happened because of the sins of her prophets

and the iniquities of her priests,

who shed the blood of the righteous within her. (v. 13)

What was the great iniquity of the priests? It was not what they said but what they did not say. They failed to teach people the word of the Lord, a major theme for Jeremiah. In Jeremiah 5:30-31 he describes it like this:

An appalling, horrible thing

has taken place in the land.

The prophets prophesy falsely,

and the priests rule by their own authority.

My people love it like this.

But what will you do at the end of it?

Now we know what they will do. At the end of it all, they are stumbling in the streets. They have shed blood so they are unclean. Even among the pagan nations no one will touch them (vv. 14-15). The Lord has scattered them, and—this is the scariest part—the Lord no longer watches over them (v. 16).

When your leaders let you down, your world is in ruins, and the enemy is more powerful than you, you need a savior. So the chapter closes with a measure of hope.

There Is Hope When Leaders Fail

Lamentations 4:21-22

There is hope that God would punish the wicked. Just as Jeremiah prophesied in Jeremiah 49:7, Edom, who rejoiced at the destruction of the nation, would meet her end (Lam 4:21). It often seems extreme that God would be explicit that other nations, enemy nations, would suffer. Yet the nature of a covenant-keeping God is that he would bless those who blessed his people and curse those who cursed his people (Gen 12:3). Even when the relationship between God and his people has been complicated by so much sin and betrayal, he keeps his promise. The promise given in the initial events of the covenant are kept as the events of the Old Testament are ending. He is seeking wrath on those who hurt his people.

There is also hope for deliverance. A beautiful couplet of hope closes out the chapter (v. 22a). God does for them what they cannot do for themselves. What a remarkable end to this story! Can we wrap our minds around it? Here is the flow of the story Jeremiah is lamenting:

• God gives explicit instructions.
• His people disobey.
• He warns them repeatedly through Jeremiah.
• His people disobey.
• God gives some last chances.
• His people disobey.
• God punishes his people.
• God redeems his people from his own judgment.

In the end we learn that only God can save us from God.

Conclusion

So, in the end, what do we do if leaders fail us? There are so many natural responses that are wrong:

• Justify their sin because we are friends.
• Ignore their sin because we are affiliated with them in some way.
• Not deal with a public sin publicly.
• Use their sin as an excuse for our own sin.
• Fail to learn the lesson that all of us are vulnerable.
• Fail to see ourselves as a candidate for the same sin.
• Fail to use the moment of failure to warn us about our own sin.
• Fail to hold leaders accountable for their actions.
• Fail to restore the fallen leader with grace.

After the dust settles, we could simply wallow in despair and self-pity. But this is where the gospel enters.

There is so much about the gospel in this passage that it’s hard to know where to start. This is a metaphor for life. People who disobey God are set on a certain path of destruction. Like the rogue nation, they cannot change trajectories, so God offers a way of escape from his pending judgment. God saves us from God. This is the good news of the gospel. God’s wrath hangs over everyone in the world. All sins will be punished. Yet as the hand of judgment is falling, Christ stands up. He takes the blow for us. Charity Gayle encapsulates it beautifully in the song “Divine Exchange” when she writes,

On the cross hung my pain

And the guilt and the shame

Jesus bore my suffering

To the grave to make me free

Oh the blood that was shed

It now flows to cover sin

It washes, clean, and purifies

In its healing crimson tide

Jesus, He took my place in divine exchange Hallelujah!

Grace is mine.

Now I live by faith for the One who saves

He gave all to give me life.

There is a more subtle gospel note in Jeremiah’s song. He complained, “The Lord’s anointed, the breath of our life, was captured in their traps” (v. 20). This is a reference to their human king. Yet the Lord’s anointed is more than a moniker for a human king; it was the title for the King of all kings.

Another song prophesies that in the end the whole world will set itself against the Lord’s Anointed. When this happens, God will laugh (Ps 2). God is not threatened by anything. Nothing intimidates him the least bit or gives him pause.

The Anointed One is the Messiah, Jesus the Christ. He was never captured but gave his life so that those whose lives were in ruin, those whose enemy is stronger than they are, those who have leaders who let them down will never be captured again. We will be captured by grace and saved from judgment by the one anointed, the one chosen, to redeem us. The deliverance from my future problems is already provided.

This is the greater lesson—a lesson about present failure and future grace. The failure of present leaders makes us want a better Leader. This Leader we have in Christ. He is the Leader who never falters, never leaves us. Present failure feels like hitting a brick wall. God takes the bricks from our wall and creates a path.

Present failure is a window into a future. The reason God is such a good leader is due to his character and his nature. His character is as one who always does good. He lacks the capacity to give us anything but good leadership because he is so good to us. And his nature is all knowing. God leads us perfectly because he knows the future perfectly, and he wills good things for us. Wow! This is just amazing! Every failure of every leader creates a thirst for a leader who is all-knowing and all good. Praise God! He is so good!

Reflect and Discuss

1. Describe the offices of prophet, priest, and king.
2. How did Jeremiah feel now that all of those offices were in ruins?
3. How was it that this situation was worse than the destruction of Sodom (v. 6)?
4. How were the other nations shocked at the destruction of Jerusalem?
5. How does Jeremiah creatively use the metaphor of tarnished gold?
6. How does Paul explain how we should understand these Old Testament stories (1 Cor 12:11)?
7. How does the fact that we cannot currently see the price of disobedience warn us?
8. How did Christ fulfill all three offices of prophet, priest, and king?
9. Can you recall Scriptures that refer to Christ as filling all three offices?
10. How does this passage point us to the Anointed One of Psalm 2:2?