DCLM Daily Manna 2025: DCLM Daily Manna 6 February 2025: God Will Judge Sin
Text: Lamentations 1:1-11 (KJV)
1 How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!
2 She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies.
3 Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude: she dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest: all her persecutors overtook her between the straits.
4 The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.
5 Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the LORD hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy.
6 And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer.
7 Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and none did help her: the adversaries saw her, and did mock at her sabbaths.
8 Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she is removed: all that honoured her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward.
9 Her filthiness is in her skirts; she remembereth not her last end; therefore she came down wonderfully: she had no comforter. O LORD, behold my affliction: for the enemy hath magnified himself.
10 The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things: for she hath seen that the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation.
11 All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have given their pleasant things* for meat to relieve the soul: see, O LORD, and consider; for I am become vile.
KEY VERSE: Lamentations 1:5
“Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the LORD hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy.”
The story was told of a police commander, who, in an attempt to curb the corrupt excesses of his officers, set up a special squad, and opened a special cell for those caught in the act. He was shocked that rather than discouraging offenders, his cell was filling up rapidly. So, he sought to know why this was so. He was speechless to learn that the offending officers did not regard what they did as wrong, but thought themselves unlucky to be arrested.
Numerous prophets had over the years, warned the people of Judah that their rebellious activities against God would attract His judgment sooner or later. When it came, it was very severe. Their army was defeated in battle by enemy forces. Their land was invaded and captured. Their treasures were looted. The Temple which was their pride and object of worship of the almighty God, was destroyed. Their citizens were taken captive and exiled to Babylon. Now in a foreign land, the people of Judah could only find solace in the memory of their good old days. The few people left in the land were starving and were exchanging their valuables for pieces of bread. Jeremiah who had been sent by God with the intent of dissuading them from their wayward ways was shattered. He wept and mourned endlessly for Jerusalem and his beloved fatherland. But he never lost sight of the fact that they were suffering for their sinful conduct which had attracted retribution from God.
We cannot condone our moral failures and sinful practices by blaming them on the actions of other people or simply on the circumstances of our station in life. Every transgression, including rebellion and rejection of God’s word, is the outcome of a deliberate choice made by someone. It is an offense that the Lord cannot ignore. In His holy and perfect reckoning, the ultimate consequence for sin is punishment in time, and more crucially, in eternity. The only solution is to quickly repent today and accept Christ as Saviour before it is too late.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
Those who reject God’s warnings will receive His wrath.
THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR:
Matthew 20-21
Daily Manna 6 February 2025
