Lamentations 2:3

"Handfuls of Purpose"

For All Gleaners

"He hath cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about." Lam 2:3

The horn of Israel must be regarded as the symbol of strength, and the passage represents God as scattering all his warriors and rulers and fortresses and princes and mighty men, turning their strength to contempt, and making them as the weakest of the sons of men. What can compare with Omnipotence? Would any man set forth his arm as symbolising the almightiness of God? When the Lord arises in his fierce anger all our strength trembles in the most pitiable weakness. The Lord's right hand is now employed in a work for which it can be said to have no pleasure. The "right hand" is of course the symbol of power, and that right hand had been stretched out of old to protect Israel, to defend Jerusalem, and to guard Zion from her foes; and now that same right hand, so infinite in strength, is turned to the punishment and destruction of those who were once the chosen and favoured of Heaven. We have no prescriptive rights to God's protection. There is nothing hereditary in our enjoyments. Again and again we are reminded of our direct personal relation to God; not because our fathers were good, but because we ourselves are obedient, is judgment withheld, is mercy permitted to shine in all its tender light upon the life we lead. Let no man mock himself by saying that because his father was good God will be kind to him with an everlasting kindness. Every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Our fathers' goodness is but an element which increases our responsibility, not an element which guarantees the partiality of Heaven. We must of necessity suffer because of the wrong-doing of others, and we may also, and must indeed, reap advantages on account of the honourable life led by others; but all these disadvantages and advantages relate to social circumstances and to outward conditions, they do not relate to eternal consequences or to our moral standing before God. Every man has it in his power to show that he would be better if he could, and in proportion as we show this disposition towards progress will God look upon us with favour and assure us of the protection of his right hand.