Category: Lamentations

Reading

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SAA Notes

Treasure in earthen vessels! The old Testament source for Paul’s great thought (2 Cor 4:7) came from here and from Jeremiah 18,19. Clay pots are easily broken. This was reality for Jeremiah. How does the treasure help you face brokenness and continue to hope in and plead for God’s mercy?

SJA Notes

* God Above, please open our hearts to hear what You have to say to us today.

“Why do you forget us forever, why do you forsake us for so many days?”

What a heart-wrenching cry, filled with pain and longing.

Sometimes we can feel the same, our thoughts can run down similar pathways.

Why has God forsaken me, left me alone?

Why so long since I have felt His blessing?

Jeremiah then cries out,

“Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may be restored!”

Jeremiah longs for restoration with the LORD our God.

How privileged then we are to be on this side of Jesus’ coming to earth as a man.

Because He is the RESTORER, the one who makes it possible for us fallen humanity to have a right relationship with our Creator God.

For all believers, whether before or after Christ’s time here on earth as a man – For us all, we have the great future hope of the completion of God’s promises, the final absolute fulfilment.

Our hope (Abraham’s hope, yours and my hope) in the better country, the building not made with hands, in glory!

As we read in Revelation 21,

“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, not pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.'”

This is our eternal comfort, this is restoration!

* Father God,

Please fix within us a strong and steady hope in what You have done for us, what You are doing for us – in the final resolution of Your restoration plan. Glory.

Amen.

Reading

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SAA Notes

Have you ever felt like Jeremiah as he pours out his complaint with God in these first 20 verses? Then meditate on verses 22-27. Why is faithfulness so precious?

SJA Notes

* Dear Lord God, please write Your word on our hearts today.

“He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with wormwood.”

“The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

We can ask – How does Jeremiah (the author) not break under the weight of the opposing realities here?

How can these both be true?

Jeremiah was a real person who dealt with how the world around him works, saw his own sin.

His struggles will mirror ours, and we should take long-though note of his prayers here – Because they point us to Jesus.

Jeremiah ends this passage pointing to the great truth – That the Lord has taken up our cause. He is the JUST God, He will bring PUNISHMENT.

Which in turn reminds us that we deserved punishment, we were God’s enemies.

And yet.

“But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;”

God sent Himself in the Person of the Son, Jesus.

To take our punishment on Himself, His fully just and holy wrath at our sin.

God sent Jesus.

To work our redemption, our rescue, to be our restorative healing balm.

Hallelujah, what a Saviour!

* Holy God,

Great is Your faithfulness!

Thank You that You have taken up our cause.

Thank You that You have saved us.

Thank You for the greatest of mercies, life eternal!

Thank You for Your steadfast love and faithfulness without end.

Amen.

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

This is not a different God. We need to respect God and not treat Him with contempt as Israel did. Verses 6 and 7 contain threads that reach from Genesis to Revelation. The Tabernacle of Jesus’ body brings this entire lament to its deepest depths. Yet this dark valley is the way to joy, the joy of resurrection.

SJA Notes

* God Above, thank You for this day. Thank You for Your word. Please teach us this day from Your word.

“The Lord has become like an enemy; he has swallowed up Israel;”

“He has laid waste to his booth like a garden, laid in ruins his meeting place; the LORD has made Zion forget festival and Sabbath, and in his fierce indignation has spurned king and priest.”

“The LORD determined to lay in ruins the wall of the daughter of Zion; he stretched out the measuring line; he did not restrain his hand from destroying;”

We are to remember that the Lord sent prophet after prophet to His people, warning them over and over – Turn back to the Lord! Seek His face, obey His laws, walk under His will.

And yet.

His people continued in disobedience, the leadership leading and the people following, walking further down the broad road into evil upon evil.

And yet, another turn.

The author of Lamentations cries out to the Lord,

“Look, O LORD, and see! With whom have you dealt thus?”

How can the author make this cry, knowing of the reason why God’s judgement has come upon them?

This is God’s word that we read. Do we spy some dissonance, some weakness, some unknown vector that says God’s word is at war with itself?

No! Of course not.

How does the author make this cry?

What else have we to do? But to cry out to our Maker, our Saviour, our Lord God Almighty.

This is what the author of Lamentations does. This is what we should do.

Let us wrestle with these truths and ask God to help us comprehend His wisdom, His majesty, His sovereignty clearly shown in this passage.

* Father of mercy,

Even though You have saved us, called us, marked us – Still we choose folly.

Please forgive us Lord today, show us Your mercy.

We throw ourselves at Your feet, as the author of Lamentations does, for what else have we to do!

Amen.