Tuesday, June 7, 2011

REASON TO LAMENT

Lamentations consists of five poems ( 5 chapters) written in a very stylized manner. In Hebrew, each of the 22 verses begins with a letter of the alphabet. This is called an acrostic. The third chapter (poem) contains 66 verses moving through the alphabet 3 times.
Authored by Jeremiah the book provides a strong lament over the destruction of Jerusalem and Judah. Jeremiah spent four decades prophesying that destruction was coming. In his old age, Jeremiah witnessed the fulfillment of his prophesies. God finally brought the predicted judgment on the people and their religious leaders because of their refusal to repent and turn from their disobedience.
This book has often been used by Jews as a resource for mourning, both on special days and in personal prayers. Christians are most likely to hear reference to Lamentations during Holy Week, as we mourn the greatest tragedy of all - the rejection and the death of our Lord.
Within this short book there is one blazing beam of light, faith and hope shining through the darkness of sorrow. It is found in the middle of chapter 3 and is Jeremiah's recognition that even as God disciplines His children, there is always assurance of His great love and his mercies (compassions) that are new and fresh every morning. Even as he watches his beloved city, the city of God being abandoned and destroyed, Jeremiah affirms; "The Lord is my portion; The Lord is good; It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord".
Jeremiah wrote this near the end of his long, very difficult ministry of more than 40 years. He wrote it as he witnessed God using Babylon to crush his people. He wrote it knowing that he himself no longer had a home and was at the mercy of the volatile, changing leadership of the Jewish remnant.
If Jeremiah could so strongly affirm his faith in the worst of circumstances, so can we. No matter how wounded or abandoned we may feel, by God's grace, we can affirm our faith and rejoice to sing words from Lamentations (even if through tears of lament) found in the well known hymn "Great is Thy Faithfulness." (Thomas Chisholm, 1923)

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