April 14: HOPE IN THE MIDST OF CALAMITY (part 2)
How lonely sits the city That was full of people! How like a widow is she, Who was great among the nations! The princess among the provinces Has become a slave! Lamentations 1:1
In Hebrew prophetic terminology, the Holy Spirit has consistently led Bible writers to liken the intimate relationship between God and His people to that of a husband and wife. God’s people are the “woman” or bride, deeply cherished by her “husband” (see Jeremiah 6:2). In the Hebrew culture, a betrothal was not entered into lightly, as is the case with many engagements today. It was considered a permanent commitment and required a divorce in order to end the engagement (see Matthew 1:19). In the spiritual sense, entering into a relationship with God is considered a betrothal that carries forward on a lighted path toward the ultimate wedding feast (see Revelation 19:9).
How like a widow is she portrays God’s people as having moved so far away from Him that she is blind to every visual reminder of His love and deaf regarding the hearing of His word. She who was like a beautiful jewel, or princess, in the midst of the heathen provinces is no longer great among the nations, pointing the world toward the goodness of the LORD. Because of the Babylonian captivity, she has, quite literally, become a slave.
In the spiritual sense, slavery signifies answering the call to sin and thus serving a different master. Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? (Romans 6:16) Paul goes on to vividly remind us that the taskmaster of those in enslavement to sin is cruel. This taskmaster promises liberty, but he himself is doomed to destruction (Ezekiel 28:19). Peter wrote about the great swelling words of emptiness of those under the devil’s sway for the specific purpose of drawing God’s people away from Him (2 Peter 2:18).
Today’s opening verse, on a grand scale, prophesies the downward turn taken by the New Testament church when she began to tolerate compromise (see Revelation 2:12-17). The backsliding continued and took the visible church into the Dark Ages (vv.18-29). But there was still a faithful church who went into hiding (Revelation 12:6,14) because of persecution by the visible church! The faithful church is still alive today (v.17). The visible church of the Dark Ages is also still alive. Prophetically, she is an unfaithful woman who now has many daughters (17:5) and boastfully claims: I sit as queen, and am no widow, and will not see sorrow (18:7). Isaiah is like a “mini-Bible.” In the “New Testament” section, God prophesied through Isaiah of the condition of the New Testament church that compromised with the world.* But the offer of Christ’s hope stands firm for all who will access by faith [God’s] grace for the building of character (Romans 5:2-4).
*“Therefore hear this now, you who are given to pleasures, Who dwell securely, Who say in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow, Nor shall I know the loss of children’; But these two things shall come upon you in one day: The loss of children and widowhood. They shall come upon you in their fullness . . . No one shall save you.” Isaiah 47:8, 9a, 15b