READ LAMENTATIONS 4
Lamentations 4 does not make for pleasant reading. The dark clouds of desperation that filled Jerusalem in the days following it destruction impacted social values. In vrs 3 we read how people became cruel neglecting even the compassion that animals gave their offspring. Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but my people have become heartless like ostriches in the desert. In vrs 4 we see that nursing infants starved and children begged for food. Because of thirst the infant’s tongue sticks to the roof of its mouth; the children beg for bread, but no one gives it to them. In vrs 10 we encounter the unthinkable. With their own hands compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food when my people were destroyed. Basic relationships were dysfunctional and compassion was gone. Jeremiah mourned how broken society had come.
Think of your life as a beaker full of transparent liquid with sediment at the bottom. If the beaker remains stable and still, the solution looks clear – even pure. However bump the beaker and the sediment is activated. The appearance of purity is gone. Seasons of suffering bumps the beaker of our lives. It stirs up the sediment we forgot about or tried to hide. Pain can reveal these to us. Hardship reveals idols. In the Bible an idol is simply an object of trust that takes the emotional and practical place of God. In the OT, idolatry involved praying to the god of thunder, or the goddess of fertility because of the belief that rain and bumper crops were in the offing. Idolatry did not end with the advent of the modern era. In his book, Counterfeit Gods, Tim Keller gives us a good definition: What is an idol? It is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give. A counterfeit God is anything so central and essential to your life that, should you lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living. Tim Keller makes the distinction between sorrow and despair. Sorrow comes when we lose one good thing among others. Despair is inconsolable, because it comes from losing an ultimate thing. When you lose the ultimate source of your meaning there are no other sources to turn to. It breaks your spirit.
During this three week season of lockdown, the beaker of our lives will be thoroughly shaken. Deep seated idols will come to the surface. Perhaps it will be good to identify them and repent of how they consume our lives. Lamentations 4 might help us identify a few layers of sediment – idols in our hearts. In his book Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy Mark Vroegop highlights a number of idols that are revealed in seasons of great suffering. I have selected just two for us to ponder.
- FINANCIAL SECURITY – chapter 4 begins by lamenting the loss of Jerusalem’s glory and wealth. In vrs 1 we read how the gold has lost its luster, the fine gold become dull! The sacred gems are scattered at the head of every street. Jerusalem was the economic and spiritual centre of Israel. The temple dominated the horison with its grand architecture and gleaming jewels. According to 1 Kings 6:20-22, gold was everywhere. Now the city had lost its lustre. The temple was destroyed. All their cherished symbols lay in a dust covered heap of ruins. With the economy plummeting in the wake of the Corona Virus pandemic our investment portfolios are all plummeting. If we find ourselves analysing on a daily basis just how much more money we have lost it is a wake-up call to this idol of financial security lurking in our hearts.
- PEOPLE – These next weeks may reveal this as a second potential idol lurking in our hearts. We come face to face with our belief in just how much people can fix our problems – whether they be business leaders, political leaders or religious leaders. In Lamentations 4 we see how such hopes were dashed. In vrs 5 we see the wealthy rummaging through ash heaps. Those who once ate delicacies are destitute in the streets. Those nurtured in purple now lie on ash heaps. Princes, known for beauty and fame were now barely recognisable. In vrs 7, 8 we read; Their princes were brighter than snow and whiter than milk, their bodies more ruddy than rubies, their appearance like sapphires. But now they are blacker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets. Their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become as dry as a stick. Even the king had been captured. Jeremiah 39:1-10 records the tragic events surrounding King Zedekiah’s arrest as he fled the city. His children were slaughtered and his eyes gouged out before being dragged off to Babylon. Lamentations 4:20 helps us feel this disheartening moment. The LORD’s anointed, our very life breath, was caught in their traps. We thought that under his shadow we would live among the nations. Lament reminds us of the danger of putting too much trust in our leaders. Our true Deliverer, is not a Member of Parliament, or business leaders or even the pharmaceutical companies trying to find a vaccine for the Corona Virus. Treating people like saviours is a form of idolatry because our trust should rest in God alone. Psalm 46:10, 11 reminds us to “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.”