Tag: Lamentations

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God disciplines those he loves.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

“Others heard my groans, but no one turned to comfort me. When my enemies heard about my troubles, they were happy to see what you had done. Oh, bring the day you promised, when they will suffer as I have suffered. “Look at all their evil deeds, Lord. Punish them, as you have punished me for all my sins. My groans are many, and I am sick at heart.” ‭‭Lamentations‬ ‭1‬:‭21‬-‭22‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Lamentations, written by Jeremiah, was reflecting his profound grief over the destruction of Jerusalem and the consequences of the people’s sins. In this first chapter, you see the depth of grief and subsequent loneliness in suffering the results of years of disobedience to God. These weren’t “one-off” sins. These were ongoing pursuits of other gods, other loves, other thrills that pull the human soul away from God, away from light to choose to walk in darkness.

When we read about the sins of self-seeking and affairs of the heart with other lovers, we also see the powerful justice and mercy of God in a whole new perspective. We see what we’ve done, where we have failed, and we stare into misery’s mirror wondering who we have become! That’s the lamenting Jeremiah writes about. It’s not just a history lesson for and of the Jewish people, it’s very much relevant for us today.

I have always held this theory that everything we’ve done to reach for the undisciplined desires, the shortcuts and sins, ALWAYS catches up to us. Whether it’s when our head hits the pillow seeking peace or that eventual end-of-life reckoning – the truth of what we’ve done and who we are mercilessly confronts our soul. We do not choose to be born, nor who we are born to, but everyone chooses how to live their own life, be it well or poorly.

We often seek to celebrate our freedoms, but rarely lament our choices. Solomon, the wisest human being to live, captures this concept in Ecclesiastes 7:2, “It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart.” How can funerals be better than birthday parties? It’s not a buzz-kill, joy sucking thought. It’s a reality check of reflection! It’s pausing from time to time to evaluate one thing – who am I committed to most… me or my God?

Jeremiah suffered in advance as God began to show him, at a young age, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations (Jeremiah 1:5), the state of his own people and the human affairs of the world. Even as a spokesperson for God, Jeremiah recognized his own wanderings, his own selfishness and sin.

It is interesting that Jeremiah points out that others, “my enemies,” he calls them, celebrated God’s discipline of his own people. They were seemingly, completely unaware, of their own national and personal sins against the holiness of God. Isn’t that how it goes with our perspective? We easily see the sins of others, obviously blinded to our own. We curse others, mock God and flirt with desires, rationalizing, even justifying our choices while wishing swift judgment on everyone else. This is why Lamentations is a necessary and worthy book to slowly read through. Would we rather God discipline us in love or destroy us in our arrogance?

Prayer

​Dad,
It is kinda wild how we can be so enamored with ourselves, getting carried away with our own intelligence, creativity and an unhealthy hubris of ourselves when the reality is – it ALL comes from you! Yes, in You, I am, we are, a beautiful reflection of your attributes. But outside of you, it seems so silly to think of how great we are on our own. Thank you for your discipline and correction in my life, knowing that it is within your mercy and long-suffering patience that you endure my failures because of Jesus and the price He paid for me! Yeah God for your grace.

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Doomed cycles of repetition.

Reading Time: 2 minutes 
“She defiled herself with immorality and gave no thought to her future. Now she lies in the gutter with no one to lift her out. “Lord, see my misery,” she cries. “The enemy has triumphed.” Lamentations‬ ‭1:9‬ ‭NLT‬‬

​We need mercy to escape the doomed cycles of repetition.

Poetic reality sets in on the people of Israel, personified in the city of Jerusalem. The city is the people, the people the city. There is a healthy recognition in deep grief. Their sin, our sin, will ALWAYS catch up to us. As humans, we have this unique ability to think we can do the deed and just keep running from the consequences! Jeremiah writes this incredible analogy; “He wove my sins into ropes to hitch me to a yoke of captivity.” And, I must never forget, captivity was true love and justice in action. Babylon was a decisive, punishment of discipline, not destruction.

From the dizzy heights of Solomon’s success, his global reach of riches and power, to the depths of being dragged off to another country and watching all of what Israel had become in the city of Jerusalem raided and burned to the ground. The warnings ignored. The threats thought impossible. Now the people must face reality. But did Babylon do it’s job? Did it work? Did it fix their sin problem? Did they repent and turn from their sin and deep cycles of immortality? Temporarily, yes. Permanently, no.

Even with the most massive lesson in all of history, the rise and fall of God’s own people and the picture of the city of God – the rehabilitation and transformation was only temporary. The permanent solution, our permanent resolve would not be found in these cycles of sin, repentance, mourning and change. It would only be found in the work of Christ, God’s own son.

Without God’s own solution to our selfish cycles of sin to confession and back again, we would be forever trapped in generational repetition. Jeremiah records these horrible moments to ultimately point to hopelessness with out Christ.

The city of Jerusalem, the people of God would never be the same and will never be the same until the final days of revelation that Jesus is the messiah. These writings are meant to be a reminder of our morbid morality and the power and mercy of God to redeem us even while we are caught in mid-cycle of sin!

Prayer

Dad,
Looking into the perfect mirror of your word and seeing a clear reflection of who and what I am, even in my best effort, is so depressing. These words are not ancient, they are transcendent and eternal! These glimpses of humanity only remind and reinforce what I already know – I am a selfish sinner saved only by grace and has nothing to do with my poor attempts to perfection. I rest, not on my promises to never sin again, but only on your Word, your promise to clean me, restore me from all unrighteousness. In that and that alone do I find solace, peace and most of all HOPE.