August 25: Lamentations 1-3

August 25, Lamentations 1-3

Today we begin reading the often neglected book of Lamentations. There is debate as to the author, as the author is not named. Tradition holds that Jeremiah wrote it, and I tend to lean that way. With that in mind, Lamentations is a continuation of Jeremiah. This book is a funeral song, if you will, of what Judah & Israel have gone through. It is also a series of poems that are an acrostic in Hebrew - each verse begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet in alphabetic sequence

It is a reminder that God, in His Sovereignty, is not finished with His people and His plans! 

Lamentations 1 Jerusalem was sitting desolate. Jerusalem was alone. Jerusalem used to be the pinnacle and now it became a slave to other nations. The short of the long of this chapter is that the people have brought these consequences upon themselves. It goes along with the old saying that you reap what you sew. It is because of the peoples sins that God has turned from them. The people were starving as they searched for food. The Lord was now against them, and they admitted that God was in the right and they were in the wrong. God told them beforehand that he would bring the devastation upon them if they did not return and repent, of their spiritual adultery with other gods, but they didn't listen. God kept His word and judged them.

Lamentations 2 We read about God’s judgement and anger without pity. It was God’s anger that brought about the devastation of Jerusalem. The Lord swallowed them up and broke them down. What was one of the most beautiful cities and the home of God’s people became worse than Sodom in her sins and was devastated because of it. God basically became an enemy to Israel & Judah. Jeremiah wept bitterly over this. The other prophets and priests were false and sinful, misleading the people with words that the Lord never said. In reality, God did to them (all of them) what He said he would do to them if they were unrepentant, through the true Prophets of the Lord. 

Lamentations 3:1-36 God is Sovereign - God is in control of all things. It seems as though Jeremiah is complaining to God. I see it as Jeremiah pouring out His heart to God with the realities of what He is now experiencing. Jeremiah is acknowledging that Yahweh causes the bad things that happen to us. And since nothing happens to us, without the Lord's permission, then we need to learn to take the bad from His Hand, as well as the good from His Hand. And that no matter what Yahweh chooses to do to us, we need to trust in Him with all our hearts and lean not on our understanding of it, but upon His Grace and Mercy. Jeremiah’s continually remembers what he has gone through but yet he continues to put his hope in God. God’s steadfast love never ceases and his mercies are new every morning! Great is God’s Faithfulness!

Then we read a prayer for renewal, and I am posting it here because of it’s beauty:

"The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him; let him put his mouth in the dust— there may yet be hope; let him give his cheek to the one who strikes,and let him be filled with insults. For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth, to deny a man justice in the presence of the Most High, to subvert a man in his lawsuit, the Lord does not approve.” God is not finished yet! He has a plan for everything… In verse 33 it states that, "God don't willingly afflict or grieve the children of men" but that the Lord is driven to do it as Justice to their rebellion against Him. So let us learn about the anger of Yahweh and make sure that we aren't children of His wrath, but children of His Redemption through His Son, Jesus the Christ. The choice is ours. 

To sum it all up: 

• Yes, it is true that God is a God of love. But let us not forget that God is a God of wrath as well. As harsh as that may or may not sound to you, it is true. God demands us to be sinless. We cannot be, which is why we have an opportunity to be with Him through His Son Jesus Christ - who became the sacrifice for us and for our sins - so that we have the opportunity to be with God. 
• Be honest with God about how you feel - You don’t need to ‘pretend’ that everything is fine when it is not. Go to God and pour out to Him.