In fierce anger he has cut off every horn of Israel. He has withdrawn his right hand at the approach of the enemy. He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire that consumes everything around it. – Lamentations 2:3

Today's Scripture Reading (August 5, 2023): Lamentations 2

In the 1930s, the French put a lot of money and effort into building a series of fortifications on the country's Eastern border. These fortifications were called the Maginot Line, named after Andre Maginot (1877-1932), the French Minister of War in the early 1930s. The Maginot Line was considered a deterrent to a German invasion of France, as had happened in the First World War. It was believed that the Maginot Line was impenetrable. But there were problems with the construction. First, Belgium felt that the Maginot Line made them a sacrifice to a German invasion. Instead of going through France, the German army would simply take Belgium and neighboring Luxembourg, despite the neutrality of that nation, and then move south into France. The second construction problem with the Maginot Line was that the experts believed that, in places, the terrain provided enough of a deterrent without the increased fortification. And so, the Maginot Line was never completed to the degree that the architects of the fortification had hoped.

And then, World War II happened. And Germany did two things. First, they entered Belgium and violated the neutrality of Luxembourg, just as some experts had feared. But the second thing Germany did was find a way to go through what was thought to be an impenetrable feature of the terrain; specifically, they moved through the Ardennes Forest, a dense forest terrain filled with hills and valleys that connected Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. And yet, that is precisely where Germany decided to attack, bypassing the Maginot line altogether. Since World War II, the Maginot Line has come to symbolize expensive efforts that provided a false sense of security.

Looking at the destroyed city, Jeremiah writes that God, in his anger, has cut off every horn of Israel. Horn, in this context, indicates power or a source of security. And it was all gone. Even the Temple, which was considered an impenetrable defense of the nation, a spiritual Maginot Line, had been leveled and couldn't even be identified. It was all gone. God had withdrawn his right hand, so nothing was left to stop the Babylonian Army from taking the city. God had allowed it all to be destroyed. He had burned like a fire and consumed everything. And even though Jeremiah knew that God had plans to prosper the nation, it must have been almost impossible to believe that Israel could return from a defeat that had been this complete and devastating.  

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Lamentations 3