Day 238: Lamentations 3-5; Hope for Restoration

Posted on Aug 26, 2013 by Pastor Jon in Daily Bible Journal, Lamentations | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , 1083

As we come to the final writings of Jeremiah, I think it is important for us to see where Jeremiah places his hope.  As we talked about yesterday, it is important for us to place our hope in God when we are faced with times of struggle and trial, when our live seems to be left in ruins.  Whatever it is that we have endured, we must continue to bring it before the Lord and allow our grief and struggle to be laid at His feet.  Jeremiah follows this path of Lament, crying out over the devastation that he has witnessed.

However, he doesn’t just stop his prayer or questioning of God at complaining and crying our over all that has happened.  Like Job, David, and many others before him, Jeremiah continues on in his prayer to speak of the righteousness, the goodness, and the faithfulness of God.  He acknowledges that the people of God needed this and that the Lord was right and just in His actions.  It is for the people of God that these things have been done, even though they hurt now they will lead to great things.  Jeremiah points out that the people need to examine their hearts and their ways as they go through this time, to see what God is doing within them.

It doesn’t stop there either though.  Jeremiah says that the people need to lift up praise and thanksgiving to the Lord in this time.  Even in the midst of all these struggles, the Lord has been good to them and continues to be faithful to them as well.  We often have the tendency too see only the negative things in our lives, the struggles and trials that take place day in and day out.  When we do this, we fail to look at the rest of life.  If we are only focused on the 5% of things that are difficult and terrible, we are neglecting the other 95% of our lives where God continues to be faithful and bless us.

Jeremiah doesn’t stop there either though.  Again, like Job, David, and so many others, Jeremiah prays for restoration.  It isn’t bad for us to ask God to put things back together for us.  I think that this is a very important part of this prayer and a great way to end this section of the writings of Jeremiah.  Reread chapter 5 and see the words that Jeremiah uses.  He asks God to remember all these things, to see the plight that has come upon His people, and to bring about restoration to them.  I think it is interesting that Jeremiah also asks God to return the people to “the days of old.”  Something tells me God chuckled a little bit when He heard Jeremiah say that.  It wasn’t to how things used to be that God was going to bring His people to, it was to a new day, a glorious day, when all things would be made right and restored!  This is the day that God is working toward in us as well.  When we face times of testing and we wish that things were just put back to the way they were, remember that God is working in us and doing a new thing within us, shaping and sculpting us as a potter shapes a new clay pot.  It takes a lot of work, but eventually we will be made into the image of God in Christ Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit working within us each and every day.

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Day 237: Lamentations 1-2; Jeremiah's Lament

Posted on Aug 25, 2013 by Pastor Jon in Daily Bible Journal, Lamentations | Tags: , , , , , , , , , 3880

The book of Lamentations is the record of Jeremiah‘s visceral and guttural reaction to the witnessing of the City of Jerusalem and the Temple of God being burned.  Written as a series of poems, each chapter chronicles Jeremiah’s grief, questions, and ultimately the request for God to bring about restoration.  In many ways, this book reminds me of a great Psalm of Lament, the cry of one who feels forsaken by God in the midst of tragedy and sorrow.  Jeremiah’s writings follow the pattern of lament, something he would have been familiar with as a part of Hebrew worship practices.

Today’s reading is very dark in nature.  Jeremiah is looking over what is likely the burning or smoldering city that he once lived in and loved and is weeping for her.  He looks and sees the Temple of God, the very center of the universe for him, lying in ruins, broken and burned beyond recognition or repair.  For Jeremiah, this is complete and utter devastation on a scale that was previously unimaginable.

We have all experienced times in our life where we feel like Jeremiah, looking over the broken pieces of what used to be our live and weeping over them.  Sometimes I think, especially for men, we don’t feel as though we can cry, weep, or mourn for a loss because it shows weakness and even a lack of faith.  Jeremiah’s reaction here would seem to communicate otherwise.  There is no lack of faith in Jeremiah’s voice, no doubt at  God’s existence or His work through all of this.  What is important here, I think, is Jeremiah’s attentiveness to God and God’s work in this crisis.

Life is rough and times can be tough.  There is no doubt that we will face time when we feel like the world that we are living in has been smashed to ruins.  As we learned from David, it is ok to be upset and even to go to God with the problems.  In fact, in times like that the most important thing for us to do is indeed go to God with our questions and our trust.  For the people of Israel, this was a time for them to be broken down and purged of their sins, punished for what they had done but also learning from it as well.  Not all disaster in our lives may take on this form, but there is no doubt at all that in any stage of life, God wants us to place our trust and our hope in Him.  Whether we are bringing our praise or our questions, or perhaps both, we need to make sure, as Jeremiah did, that our hope and trust lie solely on God.

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