Crush Under His Feet Lamentations 3:34

As we have shared previously, most of the book of Lamentations is an acrostic which begin with each succeeding letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The third chapter employs three verses for each letter, and verses thirty-four through thirty-six correspond to the Hebrew letter “lamed”. These three verses continue to describe the Lord's actions among men, and in verse thirty-four we read:

To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,

The verse begins, “To crush under his feet...” The idea conveyed by the word “crush” is to be made “contrite, broken, or shattered”. One who would “crush” another under his feet would take advantage of their difficult circumstances. It is like kicking someone when they are already down.

The verse continues, “...all the prisoners of the earth,” Jeremiah then identifies of whom this one is crushing, “all the prisoners” which are the “captive or bondmen” who are “of the earth”. Those who were made captives by the nation of Babylon because of their rebellion against the Lord would not experience the Lord's crushing, and as we read ahead to verse thirty-six we discover that “the Lord approves not” of this. Though the Lord allowed the people of Jerusalem and Judah to be captured and made as prisoners He does not delight in crushing them in their demise.

There are times in our lives where it may seem that all the world is against us, and if we are not careful, we might even assess that God Himself is our foe. God does not delight in crushing us, especially when we are down. He longs to have a relationship with everyone even as He did with Jerusalem, but often people refuse His longing. Perhaps we are feeling trapped, captive, and as a bondman in this world and should be reminded of Jesus' words in the gospel of Luke in chapter four and verses eighteen and nineteen:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

May the Lord ever deliver us from all that imprisons us as we continue to serve Him.

Next time we see what the Lord does with the right of a man, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.

 

Until tomorrow...there is more...

 

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