Cannibalism Lam. 2:20 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO

The question raised in Lam 2:20 concerns cannibalism. “Shall the women eat their fruit, and the children of a span long”?  Can you imagine a circumstance in which a mother would eat her own children?  For one thing, that level of starvation is unheard of in the Untied States.  You cannot imagine such a thing.  But for another, the love of parents causes them to save their children’s lives at their own loss.  So, the question posed in Lam 2:20 is very difficult to answer in the affirmative because you cannot mentally and emotionally conceive of such a thing.

Cannibalism Is Common in War

Japanese soldiers ate American soldiers in World War II.  They believed that this gave them spirit power in order to make them better soldiers.  James Bradley wrote about this in Flyboys: A True Story of Courage.  You can read about this kind of thing in the Bible in Mic 3:3.  In the South Seas, John Patton dealt with cannibals in New Hebrides [Vanuatu].  Missionaries to Fiji were eaten even in the 1800’s.  Cannibalism has been practiced in some societies on all continents.  But in these cases, these were soldiers and people who were eating their enemies or their perceived enemies.

Cannibalism Is Recorded in the Bible

Lam 2:20 is asking about a mother eating her child.  And the answer to the question is. “Yes, she will eat her own children.”  In the siege of Samaria in 2 Ki 6:24-29 two women ate one of their children.  One woman convinced another woman to give up her child for cannibalism by promising that they would eat her child the next day.  She lied but they ate the first woman’s child.  These Jewish women ended up eating one of their own children because of starvation.

People Will Resort to Eating Each Other in the Tribulation

Things are going to be so bad during the Tribulation that people will resort to cannibalism again.  This is how bad it will be:

• Zech 11:9 – people will be eating each other.
• Jer 19:9 – parents will be eating their children and friends will be eating friends.
• Lev 26:29 – parents will be eating the flesh of their sons and daughters.
• Ezek 5:10 – fathers will be eating their sons and sons will be eating their fathers.
• Lam 4:8-10 – women will be eating their children sodden [boiled].
• Deut 28:52-57 – even the tender men and the delicate women will eat their children.

Conclusion:  There are three things we learn from this study.  First, your only hope is in Jesus Christ and in the return of Jesus to this earth at the rapture.  So, get saved because you are too spoiled to weather this terrible bout with starvation later.  Second, things are not progressively getting better; they are getting worse.  Third, the problem is too big for men to fix through political and economic means.  We must trust the Lord.