The book of Lamentations helps God’s people make sense out of national disasters. For example Lamentations is where the Jews turned for help and comfort when their temple was destroyed by the Romans in AD 70. It is also where the American-Jewish composer Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) turned for the text of the last movement of his first symphony, “Jeremiah,” which was composed and performed during the Holocaust of the 1940’s. In a world of overwhelming human suffering, Lamentations gives voice to the deepest agonies of grief, with the hope that some comfort may come from crying out to God for mercy. The book of Lamentations was written in the days following the sacking of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 587 BC. The walls were destroyed, its temple burned and leading citizens being taken to Babylon. Lamentations picks up the anguish of God’s prophet as he walks among a shattered people.
- READ LAMENTATIONS 3
Since it is the longest of all the chapters, and the climax of the book, we will spend two days in this chapter. - REMINDER OF STRUCTURE
Of the five chapters, chapter 1, 2 & 4 each have twenty two verses. Each verse starts with succeeding letters of the Hebrew alphabet. There are only twenty two letters in the Hebrew alphabet – hence 22 verses. The technical name for this is an acrostic. In chapter 3 we reach the summit of the book. It is 66 verses long. The first Hebrew letter (Aleph) starts each of the first three verses, then the second Hebrew letter (Beth) starts vrs 4-6 and so on. Chapter 5 is the only chapter that is not an acrostic but it still has 22 verses. Lamentations therefore describes the sufferings of God’s people from A to Z (or Aleph to Taw). - MESSAGE OF CHAPTER 3
The first part of chapter 3 (vrs 1-20) is dark and hopeless. Ths second part (vrs 21-66) reflects an emerging level of trust. In vrs 18 Jeremiah sounds like he’s given up – so I say, “My splendour is gone and all that I had hoped from the LORD.” In vrs 1 he says he “has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.” In vrs 2 he feels as if the Lord has driven him away and made me walk in darkness rather than light. In vrs 3 he says it seems as if the Lord had turned his hand against him day and night. Feel the pain behind these verses. Vrs 6 he has made me dwell in darkness like those long dead. Vrs 7 he has walled me in so I cannot escape; he has weighed me down with chains. Can you feel the despair in vrs 8, 9 behind the belief that his prayers were blocked. Even when I call out or cry for help, he shuts out my prayer. He has barred my way with blocks of stone; he has made my paths crooked. In vrs 10, 11 he feels as if the Lord had dragged him from the path like a lion or bear and mauled him, leaving him without help. In vrs 12, 13 he feels as though he was the personal target of the Lord’s arrows. In vrs 15, 16 he says he has filled me with bitter herbs and sated me with gall. He has broken my teeth with gravel; he has trampled me in the dust. Clearly, Jeremiah has reached rock bottom. His gutsy honesty and emotional rawness are refreshing. As honest as Jeremiah is with his pain, he does not stay there. Towards the end of chapter 3 there is a remarkable shift. In vrs 55-58 he says; I called on your name, O LORD, from the depths of the pit. You heard my plea: “Do not close your ears to my cry for relief.” You came near when I called you, and you said “Do not fear” O LORD, you took up my case: you redeemed my life. The city is still destroyed, the people are still shattered – but something has changed. The tone of vrs 58 is very different to vrs 18. What changed? More importantly how can our perspective change?
The key is found in vrs 21 yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope.” This is the hinge on which chapter 3 swivels. We learn that genuine hope does not come from a change of circumstances. Rather it comes from what we know to be true despite the situation confronting us. In vrs 22-33 we discern four truths which provided Jeremiah with an anchor for his soul. We will examine the first today and the following three tomorrow.
The first truth which brought relief to Jeremiah in his pain was – GOD’S MERCY NEVER ENDS. In vrs 22-24 we read because of the LORD’S great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. In vrs 22 Jeremiah uses an important Hebrew word for love – hesed. This is God’s covenant love for His people. Hesed is the essence of who God is and how he relates to his people. According to vrs 23 God’s love and compassion are new every morning. By saying “new” Jeremiah does not mean that these mercies never existed in the past but that God supplies fresh mercy and grace on a daily basis. God’s mercy leads us to Himself. In vrs 24 Jeremiah declares I say to myself. “The LORD is my portion: therefore I will wait for him.” When God strips us of everything and all we have is him – we have enough. The benefit of lamenting is that it awakens us to the felt experience of hesed. The Christian counselor Larry Crabb was once approached by an old man of 84. “Dr Crabb, I am 84 years old. Five years ago my wife died after 51 years of a good marriage. I cannot begin to express the pain that I feel every morning as I drink my coffee at the kitchen table – alone. I have begged God to relieve the terrible loneliness. He has not answered my prayer. The ache in my heart has not gone away. But God has given me something far better than relief of my pain. He has given me a glimpse of Christ. And it’s worth it all. In Jeremiah 3:24 we are taught that we will never truly understand that God is all we need until he is all we have.