Lamentations 4.17 NET
“Our eyes continually failed us as we looked in vain for help. From our watchtowers we watched for a nation that could not rescue us.”
Have “our eyes continually failed us?” We climbed to the top of “our watchtowers [and] we watched.” From our high perch we thought we could see farther and discover more. Somewhere out there was a solution to our troubles. But what we found “could not rescue us.” Did “our eyes” fail us? No. Our eyes were fine. We were just looking in all the wrong places.
To see farther, I must go higher. Like the short man Zaccheus who wished to see Jesus (Luke 19.3), I might climb a tree for a better view. The Jews built taller watchtowers to expand their vision of the horizon. From Seattle’s Space Needle observation deck, Queen Anne Hill and Lake Union unfold before me. If I were an astronaut, my perspective would expand to the entire world. But my vision would be pointless if, like country star Waylon Jennings admitted, “I was looking for love [or help] in all the wrong places”.
