The Bible Series Lamentations
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Jeremiah had warned the people… Moses had declared almost 900 years earlier in Deuteronomy 28 all the things we see in this book. The curses from God, His righteous indignation, the peoples low and pathetic situation in misery and anguish. The time had come for God’s discipline… Ecclesiastes 3:2-4 speaks of times…
A time to give birth and a time to die; A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted. A time to kill and a time to heal; A time to tear down and a time to build up. A time to weep and a time to laugh; A time to mourn and a time to dance.
The times we see in Lamentations is difficult. Psalm 30:4-5 states:
Sing praise to the Lord, you His godly ones, And give thanks to His holy name. For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for a lifetime; Weeping may last for the night, But a shout of joy comes in the morning.
This book of Lamentations is NOT about singing or gratitude… Rather we see weeping, and God’s anger demonstrated… YET IRONICALLY it is a book that offers a real tangible HOPE and extends God’s Mercy…
The lives you and I live are not absent from:
Pain & Suffering
Hardships & Frustrations
Death & Loss
Trials & Tribulations
As we deal with these things we experience GRIEF & SORROW
Speaking in general we deal with these things and experience GRIEF & SORROW… Because of SIN!
Harder yet is when we know we are walking through these things, these times, as a CONSEQUENCE for our own SIN!
In these times, these things we find our hearts cry out in LAMENT...
LAMENT= to express deep sorrow, mourning, or regret strongly for something done… often demonstratively expressed.
Some here today come with this depth of sorrow this morning
Some have carried the burdens of lament on heavy on your heart
Some understand the weight it places on your shoulders and almost collapsed under its crushing effects
Others have grieved over their own sin and felt the sting of the consequences
What then are we to do?
How are we to respond and react to such LAMENT?
How do we take the chaos and turmoil of grief and sorrow and process it before a Holy & Righteous God???
we can’t run
we can’t escape
we can’t avoid discipline
we MUST THEN… Run to Him, Cry out to Him, Draw close to Him and His Mercy!!!
Lamentations Is God’s Word
Lamentations Is God’s Word
There is a place for sinful man and room given to come before a Holy & Righteous God to:
To Protest in expression our grief and sorrows
To Process with words and tears our pain and laments
Before this Holy God we are given:
A Place we can give what we feel a voice
We can Point to our CONFUSION and CHAOS and find COMFORT!!!
God has given us His Word the Holy scriptures, and in it we find a whole book given to LAMENT. A book we can see the depth of the consequences and outcome of SIN… and as we do discover a clear HOPE at the very center of this deep sorrow and grief!
There are five Hebrew poems found in this book written most likely by the Prophet Jeremiah himself… words forever captured in the Holy Scriptures!
Overview of Lamentations
Overview of Lamentations
Chaos & Turmoil to Order & Hope
These five poems or “funeral dirges” reflect the chaos and turmoil in the lives of the people and even the prophet himself. Yet he comes to God and intentionally comes before the Lord…
The poems are acrostic from the Hebrew alphabet
Each stanza begins with the new letter
22 letters = 22 verses
Chapter 3 has 3 stanzas for each letter giving this section a greater emphasis 66 verses
Chapters 1-3 open and begin in a prayer or supplication before the Lord… showing even in the grief and sorrow the words of Lament that there is a going to the Lord intentionally.
we will see a change from this in chapter 4 and we realize that chapter 5 itself is a prayer!
There is great thought given here to lament!
God uses even the discipline in this book to take what is chaotic and spinning in turmoil to draw one close to Himself, teaching a lesson as one draws close to the God of order and mercy!
Chapter 1
Lady Jerusalem the city is crying out!
The destruction is great and in her distress and sorrow she laments of her situation… Lamentations 1:13-14; 20 gives a brief description
“From on high He sent fire into my bones, And it prevailed over them. He has spread a net for my feet; He has turned me back; He has made me desolate, Faint all day long. “The yoke of my transgressions is bound; By His hand they are knit together. They have come upon my neck; He has made my strength fail. The Lord has given me into the hands Of those against whom I am not able to stand.
“See, O Lord, for I am in distress; My spirit is greatly troubled; My heart is overturned within me, For I have been very rebellious. In the street the sword slays; In the house it is like death.
The recognition is there that they are in this place due to their rebellion and sin… and God is disciplining them!
In their Lament they strive to have God see them, to look upon their suffering and sorrow
There is a desire for others… a watching world or maybe even generations to come to “SEE” what has occured
Chapter 2
In this dirge or lament we see that there is an understanding of WHY this has come and WHO has brought this! Lamentations 2:17 draws the peoples hearts to Deuteronomy 28 and to the words of Isaiah and Jeremiah as God gives His warnings...
The Lord has done what He purposed; He has accomplished His word Which He commanded from days of old. He has thrown down without sparing, And He has caused the enemy to rejoice over you; He has exalted the might of your adversaries.
We see God’s WRATH!!!…
Not wrath that is reactive and volatile… out of control
Rather it is a JUSTICE we see given by a Holy God who deals with SIN!
And even in His wrath we see a God who extends His Mercy…
Chapter 3
Chapter 3 comes at the center of this book and remains the greater emphasis of this book of Laments…
We are drawn to look at God’s very character in this chapter
We see a God who is FAITHFUL to His Word!
We see a God who is CONSISTENT in His discipline and His Justice!!!
As a Loving Heavenly Father He deals with those who are His, He disciplines their sin, and He follows through on what He stated would happen when they sinned!!! (GREAT PARENTING EXAMPLE HERE!!!)
Wilkinson says it beautifully:
“Jeremiah turns tragedy into a triumph of faith. God has never failed him in the past. God has promised to remain faithful in the future. In the light of the God he knows and loves, Jeremiah finds hope and comfort.”
If God was true to His word in discipline
If He is consistent in what He says, how He responds, and why He does what He does…
THEN THERE IS HOPE!!! Because He had promised them their return, there good, their Messiah! He would not forget, He would not be faithless, He would be true to His word once again… And we have such a powerful passage such as Lamentations 3:20-24
Surely my soul remembers And is bowed down within me. This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope. The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I have hope in Him.”
Because of the great MERCY of our Great God we see Lamentations 3:55-57
I called on Your name, O Lord, Out of the lowest pit. You have heard my voice, “Do not hide Your ear from my prayer for relief, From my cry for help.” You drew near when I called on You; You said, “Do not fear!”
Chapter 4
In Chapter 4 there is a lament over their sin… we see in chapter 1 they recognize it it THEIR SIN that has brought this upon them Lamentations 1:14…
“He wove my sins into ropes to hitch me to a yoke of captivity. The Lord sapped my strength and turned me over to my enemies; I am helpless in their hands.
There is given a descriptive view of the city under siege… and it is a chapter of contrast
Jerusalem in her splendor vs destruction
Feasting from abundance to consuming their own dead children
Being viewed highly among the nations to being despised and ravaged
But in recognition of their sin and it’s devastation… they REPENT= there is regret, a turning from sin, a change in one’s mind!!!
Chapter 5
This chapter is unique… it breaks away from the acrostic yet it has the letters but not in order… 22 verses.
This chapter is a prayer!!!
We see the repentance in chapter 4 and it seems this chapter serves as the closing prayer…
In the prayer there is a seeking of being restored to God, restored to the land, restored as GOD HAS PROMISED!!!
We see a penitent people coming before a HOLY GOD… calling out, crying out
The lack of order here demonstrates a TRUE HEARTFELT going before God.
We also see the prophet lamenting on behalf of others…
There is no joy or you got what was coming… but true prayer and petition on their behalf!
The close of the book is intriguing… Lamentations 5:19-22 declare the truths of God and end with a question???
These questions do not question God but their understanding of God… Leviticus 26:44 states:
‘Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I so abhor them as to destroy them, breaking My covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God.
They can HOLD onto His Word… His Truth… His Promise… and as they do they will find HOPE!
Hope
Hope
In this book is found in God’s Character, in our day today it is still found there!
His word was true… Jesus came
His character was consistent and He dealt with sin...
Calvary - Our Sin - Remember
God has judged and will judge sin… He did it once for all at CALVARY!!
It was OUR SIN that placed Jesus Christ on the Cross
You and I must not forget this… and Jesus established a way for you and I to REMEMBER!
Come to the Lord’s Table...
Eat
Partake
Dine
Fellowship with Me!
…BUT DON’t Forget!
…BUT DON’t Forget!
Bread - His Body
Cup - His Blood
Our coming Hope… His Promised return!
May we find ourselves FAITHFUL to come to Him in our grief, our sin, our remembrance! May we never forget!