Lamentations 4

The King of the Jews died a long time before He was hung on a cross at Calvary.

Yes, long before that Good Friday, God succumbed to the longstanding idolatry of His chosen people, and when Jerusalem (along with the Temple) was razed, He died in the minds of all the heathen He had been working so hard to reach. And even if His “death” at that time was just as temporary as the death Christ died on the cross, the total devastation of Israel nonetheless meant that God would have to start all over again in His bid to reveal Himself to humanity.

A few days ago on this blog, I wrote about how the Jews were probably shocked that God allowed His Temple to be destroyed. But now I’m thinking that perhaps it wasn’t only the Jews who were surprised by this, as I spotted this little verse in today’s chapter: “The kings of the earth did not believe, nor did any of the peoples of the world, that enemies and foes could enter the gates of Jerusalem.” (vs 12)

You know, everything God had done for Israel didn’t go unnoticed by the heathen nations. They were well aware of the strength of Israel’s God. Do you remember the words of Rahab? “I know that the Lord has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.” (Jos 2:9-11)

Rescuing the Israelites from the Egyptians and displacing heathen nations in Canaan were evangelical acts. To minds in the ancient world, a god was only as “real” as his success on the battlefield. If a nation was successful in battle, their god was taken seriously. If a nation was defeated in battle, their god was considered, at best, impotent or, at worst, non-existent. (This is why the miraculous rescue of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego—recorded in Daniel 3—caused King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon to experience an immediate conversion.)

Thus, for God to allow both His chosen nation and His Temple to be destroyed was for Him to effectively cease to exist in the minds of all those who had come to revere Him through His mighty acts. When Israel refused to return to God, He was stuck between the proverbial “rock and a hard place.” If He allowed Israel to flourish, despite their wickedness, for the sake of His reputation, He was putting the spiritual lives of His own people in jeopardy. But if He allowed Israel to experience the consequences of their rebellion against Him, He was, in essence, destroying His own reputation.

And so God “died,” because He valued the spiritual well-being of His children above His own reputation. And, as Bible commentator James Coffman wrote, when Israel was destroyed, “the ancient notion that the physical defeat of any nation meant also the defeat of their god resulted in a terrible resurgence of paganism. Israel’s destruction meant that God would have to begin all over again in his campaign to redeem Adam’s fallen race.”

Incidentally, Jesus was faced with the same choice while on the cross: “Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, ‘You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!’ In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. ‘He saved others,’ they said, ‘but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, “I am the Son of God.”‘” (Matt 27:39-43)

Jesus’ reputation as the Son of God was in question when He allowed Himself to be hung on a cross, but just as before, God was more concerned about the spiritual well-being of His children than He was about His reputation. He would rather die than lose any one of His children unnecessarily.