Introduction to Lamentations

“I told ya so.”  I think those might have been the words that would have come out of my mouth had I been in Jeremiah’s place.  He had prophesied for decades about the coming judgment on the nation of Judah and the destruction of Jerusalem.  His warnings went largely unheard and those who did hear imprisoned him or put him down at the bottom of a well to let his body rot.  He was called a false prophet and commanded by those in authority to stop lying.  When Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army invaded the nation and burned down the city; Jeremiah was proven to be a true prophet of God and was vindicated.  I am afraid that I would have had a tendency to gloat.  Jeremiah did just the opposite.  He fell on his face before the Lord and wept.  Lamentations is a small sampling of Jeremiah’s prayers before the Lord.  Jeremiah preached his message of judgment with a broken heart because he loved his people even though they hated him. This is God’s call on the life of every believer. We are called to warn a lost and dying world of God’s impending judgment.  Because this message is not popular we will be laughed at, belittled, ignored, pitied, threatened, sued, told to “shut up” and persecuted in countless other ways.  Our response to this harsh treatment should be a profound love for these people that leads us to morn and weep before the Lord as we beg Him to show mercy to our antagonists just as He showed mercy to us when He called us to Himself.  These five chapters are poems.  Chapters 1, 2 and 4 all have 22 verses with each verse starting with a consecutive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.  Chapter 3 has 66 verses with 22 sets of three verses that begin with each of the letters from the Hebrew alphabet.  Chapter 5 also has 22 verses but does not follow the alphabetical pattern.  God calls us to love Him by loving the people who surround us, especially the people who hate us.  When God judges those who persecute us our “I told you so’s” need to be changed into “I love you so’s.”

JEREMIAH’S CRIES AS JUDAH IS EXILED: God’s discipline always has a purpose.  One of those purposes is to motivate sorrow for sin that will eventually result in repentance.  Even though Jeremiah had predicted the fall of Judah and destruction of Jerusalem; his heart was broken by the reality of what had happened.  Multiple generations had seen God’s faithfulness to the nation as He liberated them from Egypt, led them through the wilderness and established this new nation in The Promised Land.  Unfortunately, the nation responded to God’s faithfulness with rebellion, idolatry and pride.  God warned multiple generations through multiple prophets of the impending judgment but they would not listen.  Finally, God used Babylon to destroy the city, conquer the nation and once again, the people were taken into bondage as they were exiled to Babylon.  The once great nation had been destroyed, the city of Jerusalem was in a heap and the glorious temple of Solomon was in ashes.  These realities lead Jeremiah and the nation in tears.  They cry out to the Lord in agony as they see the devastation and ponder the fact that Israel is once again under the bondage of slavery.  When we sin, we should expect God’s discipline.  The proper response to God’s discipline is to fall on our faces before the Lord and express our deep sorrow for our sin. 

GOD’S WRATH ON JUDAH IS EXPLAINED: God is holy and just.  He cannot tolerate the sinfulness of man and has determined to bring sinners into judgment.  Were God to simply excuse sin it would call His character into question.  God‘s wrath upon sin is a demonstration of His holiness and a confirmation of His sovereign reign over the universe.  A holy God cannot simply allow sin to coexist in His presence.  Jeremiah describes the utter and complete suffering of the people.  Dead bodies are all over the land and the small remnant that was not taken captive or killed is living in misery.  God has truly afflicted the sinful nation and they are suffering under the consequences of their rebellion.  Things have gotten so bad that mothers are eating their own children just to survive.  Though God has waited patiently for the people to repent; He could not wait forever.  God’s justice was falling under question, but no more.  There can be no doubt about God’s hatred of sin.  Jeremiah urges the people to cry out to God and he urges God to be merciful to the people once again.  The purpose of God’s wrath is to bring about repentance so that God can demonstrate His gracious forgiveness.

JEREMIAH’S DEEP SORROW IS EXPRESSED: The present condition of the city and the people led Jeremiah to express a profound sorrow and lament.  He was in pain because of the suffering he saw all around him.  Jeremiah opens his heart before the Lord and exposes the pain and suffering that he is feeling because of God’s wrath.  We should never be afraid to express our feelings before the Lord.  It is ludicrous to think that we can hide our feelings from Him behind a mask of hypocrisy.  He would much rather hear authentic hurt than fabricated praise.  As Jeremiah cries out to God he begins to reflect on the person of God which eventually brings him into a place of hope.  Anytime we contemplate the person of God in a true manner we will eventually be led into hope because of God’s true character and His everlasting love.  It is significant that the exact middle verse in the book of Lamentations is an affirmation of God’s faithfulness.  No matter how terrible things may seem, God is always faithful.  This truth is our source of hope and should lead us to life of prayer.  Only a faithful God will hear and respond to the prayers of His people.  Jeremiah has good advice to his countrymen and to us.  In times of discipline we much pour our hearts out before the Lord, trust in God’s faithfulness and place our hope solely upon Him.  This is the true fruit of repentance that will prompt God’s gracious and merciful forgiveness. 

GOD’S MOTIVE FOR JUDGMENT IS EXPOSED: Once again we see a terrible picture of the conditions in Jerusalem.  The people are filthy as they rummage through the charred remains of their city for some scrap of food.  Women become desperate enough to boil their own children as food.  There are three groups of people after the fall of Jerusalem: those who are dead, those who are slaves and those who are starving.  The consensus of the people is that the first two categories would have been preferable to starvation.  It is hard to believe that this is the same nation that had been so blessed by God.  The question that rages in the minds of all who see these conditions is “why?”  What could have ever caused God’s judgment on His people to be so severe?  The simple answer to that question is sin.  More specifically, God judged this nation because they refused to worship Him and insisted upon worshiping gods of their own design.  When God sent prophets to warn the nation of God’s judgment they were tortured and killed.  The nation shed the blood of the righteous prophets of God and now they were facing God’s wrath.  Unfortunately, they did not learn their lesson because when the Son of God came to them they nailed Him to a cross.  We must all beware of the tendency of our own hearts to worship idols of our own design.  We make idols of comfort, power, relationships and pleasure.  God calls us to worship Him and Him alone.  The consequences for failing to do so are very grave.

JUDAH’S HOPE OF RESTORATION IS EXPECTED: In the midst of the darkest of days there is always hope in the Lord.  The people are without water, without security, without shelter and without every basic physical need but they are not without hope.  In the midst of their misery they do the only thing that they can do, what they should have been doing for generations: cry out to the Lord.  God is a just Judge that severely punishes the sins of His people.  However, God is also a forgiving Father that delights in the presence of His children.  As the people languish in their suffering they are instructed to look to the Lord, call on Him, repent before Him and place their hope in Him.  Our sin will always lead us into a place of devastation and desperation.  It is a blessing to know that we serve a gracious and forgiving God.  If we will trust Him, turn from our sin and hope in Him alone; we can survive any hardship including starving to death and being tortured by our enemies.  If we refuse to call on Him and stubbornly worship ourselves; God’s anger and wrath will abide over us.