The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!
The fallen crown is grief over lost honor and standing and glory and prosperity and the calamity that loss brings, with the open confession that this ruin has come because of sin. Though first spoken by God's people of themselves, it voices the conviction of every thinking mind, whether professed believer or not, and it has lost none of its force with time. It lays national distress and dishonor to sin done by people and nation together, above all cruel injustice and fraud toward weaker races under its care, and to sin in its rulers in bribery and party-serving and unholy living, which no land survives without thorough reform. It also tells the wider human story, that by breaking God's law men have forfeited heaven and lost the crown of glory and beauty given at creation, and now stand deteriorated in body and morals and deserving of punishment. That loss will be undone when Christ comes, when the resurrected are freed from all corruption and taint of sin and restored to purity and joy with perfect senses and bodies and minds like His own.
Meaning and Background
The book is the Lamentations of Jeremiah, made of poetic Hebrew acrostics, belonging to the time when Jeremiah was God's prophet in Jerusalem while Ezekiel, whose name means God strengthens and who was also of the priesthood, was God's prophet among the captives carried away with King Jehoiachin in 597 B.C. to Babylonia near the river Chebar. The fallen crown is grief over the loss of former honor, position, glory and prosperity and the disaster and calamity it brings, while the woe acknowledges that this condition has come because the people have sinned. Though spoken in a measure personally and limited to the people of God, it speaks the conviction of every intelligent mind, to be acknowledged by professor and non-professor alike, and after many hundreds of years it has lost none of its force.
Judgment on the Nation
Applied to national distress, the fallen crown is the loss of the country's crown of prosperity, where apparent wealth and business activity conceal an unstable economy, declining production, and widespread insecurity. The woe confesses this fallen condition and identifies sin as the nation's guilt. The fallen crown is the nation's lost pride, standing, glory, and prosperity under the judgment of civil war, brought about not by foreign attack but by internal weakness and wrongdoing, including fraud and failure to uphold the country.
That loss of national honor and distress comes because of sin committed both by individuals and by the nation together. First and foremost it is atrocious injustice and cruel fraud toward weaker races under national protection, namely dispossessing and as far as possible exterminating the aboriginal nations of the soil, and stealing Africans from their homes and making them slaves. They were held as chattels with no legislation to protect husband from wife and parents from children and no legislation for prospective gradual abolition, while in the North slavery was abolished only when unprofitable and still the African name was made a term of indignity. He was despised for weakness, excluded from stations of responsibility, and those around wished to be rid of him, an iniquity now reaping its bitter fruit.
The crown of glory is fallen from the nation's head because the nation has sinned in the persons of its representatives and rulers, seen in how rulers are nominated and elected, in bribery, in serving party instead of country, and in failing to decide every question by its merits. It is seen also in lack of sobriety, temperance, chastity, honesty, and reverence, and in failing to ask whether a measure is wise and right. There is no hope for the country until the people arise and refuse to have profligates and fools rule over them, and without thorough reform the nation is ruined. The fallen crown will be restored only when rulers represent the highest intelligence and loftiest morality and purest religion, when men at the helm fear God and keep His commandments, since men who break laws are not fit to make laws.
Fall and Restoration
The fallen crown is the woe felt in tracing the sad record that sin has made from the fall of man to the present time and in realizing its degenerating influence upon human life. Adam himself felt that woe when looking down through future years and seeing the misery and sorrow and ruin his disobedience brought upon the race. He felt it most keenly when he saw his devoted and righteous son dead by the hand of a brother.
The verse is the anguished cry called forth by the present reign of wickedness and violence, abounding iniquity, selfishness, pride and folly, crime, apostasy and ruin. Intemperance is flooding the land and destroying morals, while youth are growing up as the embodiment and culmination of evil. The whole earth is corrupted under sin and defiled under its inhabitants, with wasted fields and mourning land, beasts crying, rivers dried up, fire devouring pastures, showers withheld, and curse after curse resting on the earth. Hearts are hardened against truth.
Sin has brought loss of the crown and calls for woe because of guilt, for the sinner has forfeited claim to heaven and deserves punishment. Sin breaks God's law and leaves the sinner unable to earn or merit heaven. The crown of glory and beauty has fallen from human heads because of sin, leaving humanity deteriorated both bodily and morally. The contrast between humanity before the fall and its present deteriorated condition, and between Eve in Eden before the fall and humanity now, shows how great that bodily and moral loss is.
The loss will be undone at Christ's coming to earth, when the resurrected will be freed from corruption and imperfection and restored to purity and joy. They will be made like Him with true hearts, clear keen intellects, and perfect consciences. They will receive restored and reconsecrated bodies in resurrection robes, with no trace left of corruption or imperfection or the ravages and taint of primal sin, every sense perfect and pure.
The fallen crown is grief over lost honor and standing and glory and prosperity and the calamity that loss brings, with the open confession that this ruin has come because of sin. Though first spoken by God's people of themselves, it voices the conviction of every thinking mind, whether professed believer or not, and it has lost none of its force with time. It lays national distress and dishonor to sin done by people and nation together, above all cruel injustice and fraud toward weaker races under its care, and to sin in its rulers in bribery and party-serving and unholy living, which no land survives without thorough reform. It also tells the wider human story, that by breaking God's law men have forfeited heaven and lost the crown of glory and beauty given at creation, and now stand deteriorated in body and morals and deserving of punishment. That loss will be undone when Christ comes, when the resurrected are freed from all corruption and taint of sin and restored to purity and joy with perfect senses and bodies and minds like His own.
Meaning and Background
The book is the Lamentations of Jeremiah, made of poetic Hebrew acrostics, belonging to the time when Jeremiah was God's prophet in Jerusalem while Ezekiel, whose name means God strengthens and who was also of the priesthood, was God's prophet among the captives carried away with King Jehoiachin in 597 B.C. to Babylonia near the river Chebar. The fallen crown is grief over the loss of former honor, position, glory and prosperity and the disaster and calamity it brings, while the woe acknowledges that this condition has come because the people have sinned. Though spoken in a measure personally and limited to the people of God, it speaks the conviction of every intelligent mind, to be acknowledged by professor and non-professor alike, and after many hundreds of years it has lost none of its force.
Judgment on the Nation
Applied to national distress, the fallen crown is the loss of the country's crown of prosperity, where apparent wealth and business activity conceal an unstable economy, declining production, and widespread insecurity. The woe confesses this fallen condition and identifies sin as the nation's guilt. The fallen crown is the nation's lost pride, standing, glory, and prosperity under the judgment of civil war, brought about not by foreign attack but by internal weakness and wrongdoing, including fraud and failure to uphold the country.
That loss of national honor and distress comes because of sin committed both by individuals and by the nation together. First and foremost it is atrocious injustice and cruel fraud toward weaker races under national protection, namely dispossessing and as far as possible exterminating the aboriginal nations of the soil, and stealing Africans from their homes and making them slaves. They were held as chattels with no legislation to protect husband from wife and parents from children and no legislation for prospective gradual abolition, while in the North slavery was abolished only when unprofitable and still the African name was made a term of indignity. He was despised for weakness, excluded from stations of responsibility, and those around wished to be rid of him, an iniquity now reaping its bitter fruit.
The crown of glory is fallen from the nation's head because the nation has sinned in the persons of its representatives and rulers, seen in how rulers are nominated and elected, in bribery, in serving party instead of country, and in failing to decide every question by its merits. It is seen also in lack of sobriety, temperance, chastity, honesty, and reverence, and in failing to ask whether a measure is wise and right. There is no hope for the country until the people arise and refuse to have profligates and fools rule over them, and without thorough reform the nation is ruined. The fallen crown will be restored only when rulers represent the highest intelligence and loftiest morality and purest religion, when men at the helm fear God and keep His commandments, since men who break laws are not fit to make laws.
Fall and Restoration
The fallen crown is the woe felt in tracing the sad record that sin has made from the fall of man to the present time and in realizing its degenerating influence upon human life. Adam himself felt that woe when looking down through future years and seeing the misery and sorrow and ruin his disobedience brought upon the race. He felt it most keenly when he saw his devoted and righteous son dead by the hand of a brother.
The verse is the anguished cry called forth by the present reign of wickedness and violence, abounding iniquity, selfishness, pride and folly, crime, apostasy and ruin. Intemperance is flooding the land and destroying morals, while youth are growing up as the embodiment and culmination of evil. The whole earth is corrupted under sin and defiled under its inhabitants, with wasted fields and mourning land, beasts crying, rivers dried up, fire devouring pastures, showers withheld, and curse after curse resting on the earth. Hearts are hardened against truth.
Sin has brought loss of the crown and calls for woe because of guilt, for the sinner has forfeited claim to heaven and deserves punishment. Sin breaks God's law and leaves the sinner unable to earn or merit heaven. The crown of glory and beauty has fallen from human heads because of sin, leaving humanity deteriorated both bodily and morally. The contrast between humanity before the fall and its present deteriorated condition, and between Eve in Eden before the fall and humanity now, shows how great that bodily and moral loss is.
The loss will be undone at Christ's coming to earth, when the resurrected will be freed from corruption and imperfection and restored to purity and joy. They will be made like Him with true hearts, clear keen intellects, and perfect consciences. They will receive restored and reconsecrated bodies in resurrection robes, with no trace left of corruption or imperfection or the ravages and taint of primal sin, every sense perfect and pure.