No Hope There

Lamentations 4:17 KJV

As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us.

This period of history saw the two empires on either end of the Fertile Crescent, Assyria to the north (at this time conquered and controlled by Babylon) and Egypt to the south, contending with one another for domination of the whole. Israel found itself right in the middle and generally believing that Egypt was an ally or at least a lesser threat than Assyria. As the Babylonian armies approached Israel, not willing to surrender as Jeremiah had preached they should do, had looked to Egypt for help. Fact is Egypt was powerless to do so.

I have witnessed time and again, people who, realizing they are in trouble, look for help, but refuse the help God offers. They know the choices they have made have been the wrong ones. They want to correct the consequences that have resulted from those choices, but they are unwilling to look to God for the help. They look instead to other things:

·       The legal system

·       The counsel of mental therapists

·       The aide of government sponsored programs

All of these offer the promise of help. They seem to be well financed, authoritative and powerful, but they are, in reality, impotent in comparison to the power of the corrupted flesh in allegiance to the devil. God is the only hope and the only help. But, as Judah had learned, God is uncompromising in His help. He calls us to follow after righteousness and to love Him with all of our heart and strength and mind.

To seek God's help for the consequences of rebellion to His Word while at the same time continuing to rebel against God's Word just will not do. We may watch all we wish for help from sources other than God, but they cannot save and they cannot help. If we would be saved, we must come to the Lord.