Book of Lamentations
Written for Christ Crucifixion
The Book of Lamentations is one of the smallest books in the bible written by prophet Jeremiah, since it was written few years before the destruction of Jerusalem, and talks about various places associated with Jerusalem, this smallest book commonly viewed as a prophetical book written for the destruction of Jerusalem that happened in year 586 BC, and finally the Book of Lamentations also became a memorial song for the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of Solomon's temple.
But this common opinion on Book of Lamentations is not acceptable, because God clearly instructed Prophet Jeremiah not to lament for Jerusalem, so its very clear that Book of Lamentations is not written for the destruction of Jerusalem - 3.For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning the mothers who bore them and the fathers who fathered them in this land: 4.They shall die of deadly diseases. They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried. They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. They shall perish by the sword and by famine, and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth. 5.For thus says the Lord: Do not enter the house of mourning, or go to lament or grieve for them, for I have taken away my peace from this people, my steadfast love and mercy, declares the Lord. 6.Both great and small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried, and no one shall lament for them or cut himself or make himself bald for them - Jeremiah 16:5-6
And also in ancient days, the mourners will never mention the name of the things which they lament for, for example, If the mourner lament for the death of their loved ones, they will not mention their loved one's name as an act of respect or to show their deep love on that person, instead they will call out the person with the alias name like Diamond, Gold, Sun, Moon, etc., but here the Book of Lamentations directly calling out the city of Jerusalem and its associated places, that means prophet Jeremiah lamented for something else other than city of Jerusalem itself - Jerusalem remembers all her pleasant things - Lamentations 1:7 & Jerusalem has become an unclean thing among them - Lamentations 1:17
And according to Book of 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles, the Book of Lamentations is was written for the death of King Josiah, but as a custom, Prophet Jeremiah did not mention King Josiah's name, instead he referred King Josiah with the precious thing of his nation like Palace, Prophet, Sanctuary, Joy of all the earth, Habitations of Jacob - 28.Now the rest of the acts of Josiah and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? 29.In his days Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went up to the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. King Josiah went to meet him, and Pharaoh Neco killed him at Megiddo, as soon as he saw him. 30.And his servants carried him dead in a chariot from Megiddo and brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father's place - 2 Kings 23:28-30
20.After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Neco king of Egypt came up to make war at Carchemish on the Euphrates, and Josiah went out to meet him. 21.But Neco sent messengers to Josiah, saying, “What business do we have with each other, O King of Judah? I am not coming against you today, but against the house with which I am at war, and God has ordered me to hurry. Stop for your own sake from interfering with God who is with me, so that He will not destroy you.” 22.Yet Josiah would not turn away from him, but disguised himself in order to fight against him. He did not listen to the words of Neco from the mouth of God, but came to fight against him on the plain of Megiddo. 23.The archers shot King Josiah, and the king said to his servants, “Take me away, for I am badly wounded.” 24.So his servants took him out of the chariot and carried him in the second chariot which he had, and brought him to Jerusalem where he died and was buried in the tombs of his fathers. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. 25.Then Jeremiah sung a lament (funeral song) for Josiah, and all the male and female singers have spoken about Josiah in their laments to this day. They made the songs an ordinance in Israel; behold, they are written in the Lamentations - 2 Chronicles 35:20-25
Question #1: If Book of Lamentations written for King Josiah's death, why the Book does not have any introduction? when most of the books in the bible has good introduction, and small introduction would have solved all these confusions about the Book of Lamentations.
Question #2: If Book of Lamentations written for King Josiah's death, Is prophet Jeremiah got deviated from God's calling? because as a Prophet, Jeremiah suppose to write about the things that yet to happen - 4.Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 5.Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations - Jeremiah 1:4-5
Question #3: When the entire city of Jerusalem was burnt down by Babylonian, why God preserved the Book of Lamentations for these many years and included in the Bible? For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light - Luke 8:17
How Book of Lamentations became a Prophecy Book?
And around 100 years after the Book of Lamentations was written, the Prophet Zechariah reignited the Book of Lamentations and converted it as a Book of Prophesy, and when Prophet Zechariah wrote that there will be mourning in Jerusalem like the death of King Josiah who died in Hadad-rimmon, the Book of Lamentations became a Book of Prophesy, and directly pointing towards the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ - 10.And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn. 11.On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12.The land shall mourn, each family by itself: the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; 13.the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself, and their wives by themselves; 14.and all the families that are left, each by itself, and their wives by themselves - Zechariah 12:10-14
And finally, its all fulfilled when the Son of God crucified for our Salvation - 24.So Pilate decided that their demand should be granted. 25.He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, for whom they asked, but he delivered Jesus over to their will. 26.And as they led him away, they seized one Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid on him the cross, to carry it behind Jesus. 27.And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him - Luke 23:24-27
Answer #1: This clarifies that why Book of Lamentations does not have any introduction, because it was originally written for everlasting king Jesus Christ.
Answer #2: This clarifies that why Prophet Jeremiah never mentioned King Josiah's name, because it was originally written for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
Answer #3: This clarifies that why God preserved the Book of Lamentations, Because its a prophecy book about the everlasting king Jesus Christ, and should be part of the Holy Bible.
Prophesy Journey
If you look at the whole history of Book of Lamentations, it has a long history, and a strong evident that Christ is the savior of the World, 900 years before Christ Birth, Prophet from Judah prophesied about the good King Josiah and then he died, and 300 years later King Josiah ruled the Kingdom of Judah righteously, but killed in the battle of Megiddo, and Prophet Jeremiah wrote Book of Lamentations for the death of King Josiah, and 100 years later prophet Zechariah converted the Book of Lamentations as prophecy book for Christ Crucifixion, and 500 years later, the prophecy got fulfilled at Golgotha, Jerusalem.
Since all these are happening by centering the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ, God asked this question to the People who worry only about the worldly things - Say to all the people of the land and the priests, When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted?- Zechariah 7:5
Christ in the Book of Lamentations
Though the Book of Lamentations written for King Josiah, all these names will fit only to one Person that is our Savior Jesus Christ - Altar (Lam 2:7), Children (Lam 1:5, 1:16), City that was called the perfection of beauty (Lam 2:15), City that was full of people (Lam 1:1), Daughter of Jerusalem (Lam 2:13, 2:15), Daughter of Judah (Lam 2:5), Daughter of my people (Lam 2:11), Daughter of Zion (Lam 1:6, Lam 2:13), Elder (Lam 1:19), Elders of the daughter of Zion (Lam 2:10), Festival (Lam 2:6), Footstool (Lam 2:1), Gates (Lam 1:4, 2:9), Great among the nations (Lam 1:1), Habitations of Jacob (Lam 2:2), Horn of Israel (Lam 2:3), I am the man (Lam 3:1), Israel (Lam 2:5), Jacob (Lam 1:17, 2:3), Jerusalem (Lam 1:7, 1:17), Joy of all the earth (Lam 2:15), Judah (Lam 1:3), king (Lam 2:6, 2:9), kingdom (Lam 2:2), Law (Lam 2:9), Palace (Lam 2:5), Places of the assembly (Lam 2:6), Pleasant to the eye (Lam 2:4), Priest (Lam 1:4, Lam 2:20), Prince (Lam 1:6, 1:19, 2:9), Princess among the provinces (Lam 1:1), Prophets (Lam 2:9, 2:20), Rampart (Lam 2:8), Righteous (Lam 1:18), Roads to Zion (Lam 1:4)
Ruler (Lam 2:2), Sabbath (Lam 2:6), Sanctuary (Lam 2:7), Splendor of Israel (Lam 2:1), Stronghold (Lam 2:5), Strongholds of the daughter of Judah (Lam 2:2), Tabernacle (Lam 2:6), Tabernacle of the daughter of Zion (Lam 2:4), Treasures from the days of old (Lam 1:7), Virgin daughter of Judah (Lam 1:15), Virgins (Lam 1:4), Wall (Lam 2:8), Wall of the daughter of Zion (Lam 2:8, 2:18), Walls of Palaces (Lam 2:7), Ways (Lam 1:4), Whom I have borne and brought up (Lam 2:21), Young men (Lam 1:15, 1:18), Young women of Jerusalem (Lam 2:10), Zion (Lam 1:17)
And its common to use pluralized terms also as our God is Trinity God(Father, Word and Holy Spirit), for example, when Jesus Christ says "We", it may look like he is taking about himself with his disciples, but its about Father, Word and Holy Spirit - But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates, We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn - Matthew 11:16-17
Cruelty of the crucifixion reveled in the Book of Lamentations
Prayer at Gethsemane - She weeps bitterly in the night, with tears on her cheeks; among all her lovers she has none to comfort her; all her friends have dealt treacherously with her; they have become her enemies - Lamentations 1:2
Insulted and beaten - let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults - Lamentations 3:30
Handed over to Gentiles - Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the Gentiles: the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the Lord - Lamentations 2:9
He was crushed - The Lord rejected all my mighty men in my midst; he summoned an assembly against me to crush my young men; the Lord has trodden as in a winepress the virgin daughter of Judah - Lamentations 1:15
Extreme suffering and loss of blood - They wandered, blind, through the streets; they were so defiled with blood that no one was able to touch their garments - Lamentations 4:14
No one could recognize him - Now their face is blacker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets; their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become as dry as wood - Lamentations 4:8
Crucified - Zion stretches out her hands, but there is none to comfort her; the Lord has commanded against Jacob that his neighbors should be his foes; Jerusalem has become a filthy thing among them - Lamentations 1:17
Nailed on the cross - O virgin daughter of Zion, how can I comfort you? For your wound is as deep as the sea. Who can heal you? - Lamentations 2:13b
Cried to the Father - They heard my groaning, yet there is no one to comfort me. All my enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that you have done it - Lamentations 1:21a
Mocked at the cross - All who pass along the way clap their hands at you; they hiss and wag their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem: Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth? - Lamentations 2:15
Darkness covered the earth - How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion With a cloud in His anger! He cast down from heaven to the earth The beauty of Israel, And did not remember His footstool In the day of His anger - Lamentations 2:1
Temple curtain was torn into two - The enemy has stretched out his hands over all her precious things; for she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary, those whom you forbade to enter your congregation - Lamentations 1:10
Buried and sealed with stone - He has blocked my ways with hewn stone; He has made my paths crooked - Lamentations 3:6-9
Lament of Disciples - The breath of our nostrils, the Lord's anointed, was captured in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the nations - Lamentations 4:20
Forgiveness of sin and the salvation is so precious, that we can received by the suffering of God's only Son Jesus Christ, that was the reason Apostle Paul is saying - May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ - Galatians 6:14a