Lam. 3:22-33, God Will Not Cast Off His Despised People

Today: 2 short OT word studies having to do with the latter days.  First, the word zanah, “cast off.” 

·       1Ch 28:9: David to Solomon: if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever.

·       2Ch 11:14: Jeroboam had rejected Levites from serving as priests to the LORD.

·       2Ch 29:19: King Ahaz had cast aside articles used in the temple.

·       Psa 43:2: Why do You cast me off?

·       Psa 44:9,23; 108:11: You have cast us off … Arise! Do not cast us off forever.

·       Psa 60:1,10: O God, You have cast us off … Oh, restore us again! 10 Is it not You, O God, who cast us off?

·       Psa 74:1: O God, why have You cast us off forever?

·       Psa 77:7: Will the Lord cast off forever?

·       Psa 88:14: LORD, why do You cast off my soul? … hide Your face from me?

·       Psa 89:38: But You have cast off … You have been furious with Your anointed.

·       Isa 19:6: The rivers will turn foul.

·       Lam 2:7: The Lord has spurned His altar,

·       Lam 3:17,31: You have moved my soul far from peace. 31 For the Lord will not cast off forever.

·       Hos 8:3,5: Israel has rejected the good. Your calf is rejected, O Samaria!

·       Zec 10:6: … They shall be as though I had not cast them aside; For I am the LORD their God, And I will hear them.

This provides background for Rom. 11:1,11 as Paul addresses Israel’s status after the ascension of Christ and the birth of the Church.  Also, the four passages in the Third Book of Psalms (Ps. 73-89) remind us that Book III deals with a time when Israel was or would be in captivity.  The “cast off” question would be important in that context!

And now, the Hebrew sheawt, used 3 times in Ezekiel’s prophecies concerning the nations.  Each verse begins, “Thus says the Lord GOD (Adonai YAHWEH) as He explains why He is judging those nations.  The root meaning has to do with “pushing aside,” but you will note that it is not the act but the heart!

·       Eze 25:6: “Because you (Ammon) clapped your hands, stamped your feet, and rejoiced in heart with all your disdain for the land of Israel,

·       Eze 25:15: “Because the Philistines dealt vengefully and took vengeance with a spiteful heart, to destroy because of the old hatred,”

·       Eze 36:5: “Surely I have spoken in My burning jealousy against the rest of the nations and against all Edom, who gave My land to themselves as a possession, with wholehearted joy and spiteful minds, in order to plunder its open country.”

Judgment begins at the house of God, Peter said not long before 70AD; what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? (1 Pt. 4:17)