{Word Study} Failed “Kalah”

WORD STUDY – Failed
Lamentations 4:17: “As for us our eyes yet failed for our vain help, in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us.”
Failed – Kalah: exhaustion, to be completely finished.
Judah had called upon the Egyptians for help. They were facing sure destruction at the hands of the Assyrians but were still clinging to that last bit of hope that at the final hour the Egyptians would come riding up to rescue them.   The Egyptians never came. The Egyptians owed them, had promised to help them.  But such is the nature of trusting in the arm of the flesh.
The sins of the people of Judah have finally reached its climax.  For almost four hundred years the nation of Judah went through periods of idolatry to the destruction of the idols and worship of God and then back to idol worship again.  It was not that they totally abandoned God at any one time.  The temple still existed, the people still celebrated the many feasts, and the priest still offered their sacrifices.   But it was mainly for appearance sake or to fulfill a sense of duty.   They were a religious people who had no heart for God.
When Jeremiah would give God’s warning of coming destruction, the people would mock him and say: “Oh, come on Jeremiah, people have talked about destruction for years, and look, we are still here, the temple still stands.   Look at the temple, we are the people of God, do you honestly think God will destroy this building constructed in His honor?”
In Lamentations 4:17 we see where the hearts of the people laid.  The Assyrians were ready to march on Judah and instead of turning to God for help; they looked to the nation of Egypt to deliver them.  Yet Egypt had their own problems, they would not come to deliver Judah.  The people placed their hope of salvation in the arm of the flesh.
The words “our eyes yet failed for our vain help in our watching” is a very sad picture.   A clearer rendering would be “our eyes have become exhausted watching for the help that never arrived.”   The word “failed” is “kalah” which has the idea of becoming exhausted after putting every part of your being into something.  Kalah is like waiting for that phone call that never comes, that letter, or that e-mail that would signal you deliverance from stressful situation.   The word is spelled Kap – empty vessel like your heart, being filled with the Lamed – stress, weariness, exhaustion and ending with the Hei – brokenness and self-deception.  The deception here is the hope of help from the arm of the flesh, but it is a “vain” help.  The word “vain” is “haval” which is the word used for a vapor. It is like a cloud, you can see it but when you walk into it, there is really nothing substantial there.   Yet, you continue “watching.” The word for “watching” is “sapah” which is not just a watch like being on guard duty, but it is a watch that is filled with hope and anticipation.
To the very last moment the people pinned their hopes on the arm of the flesh, but the phone never rang, their last hope of escape that they could see in the natural, never materialized.  We can’t be too hard on Judah, as we do the same thing.  We face a marching army coming against us and start to look for all avenues of escape. Sure we are the people of God, we support the church, we do our religious duty, and surely God will not allow us to be destroyed, surely at the last minute the arm of the flesh will rise up and save us.  We have resources, contacts, talents, or whatever to fall back on to deliver us.  Yet, all these are the arm of the flesh and they can kalah (fail, bring to exhaustion) us.
Years earlier a former king of Judah,  Jehoshaphat, faced certain destruction but rather than depend upon the arm of the flesh, he and the nation fell before God, joined their hearts with God and declared “His mercies endure forever” and God stopped the advance of the three kings in a miraculous way.   Yet now the people were not seeking to join their hearts with God. They sought God only with their minds.  They figured God would use the Egyptians to deliver them and so they pinned their hopes on what they could see and not on what was unseen.
Jehoshaphat spent the 24 hours before the battle preparing a choir to sing praises to God.   The people of Judah during this time spent their last hours watching and waiting for an army. This dependency upon the arm of the flesh caused them to Kalah (become exhausted).
Sure that phone may ring, that letter may come, but are we spending our time worrying and fretting becoming Kalah (exhausted) as we wait for that phone to ring, that letter to come or the Egyptians to arrive?  Or are we spending our time singing praises to God and joining our hearts to His?