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 the eyes and ears of our hearts to hear what You have to say 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 run down similar paths.

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’s coming to earth as a man.

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

And yet for all believers, regardless of 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 in the better country, the building not made with hands, glory!

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 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 restoration!

* Father God,

Please fix within us today and each day onward a strong and steady hope in what You have done for us, what You are doing for us, and the final completion of Your restoration plan, calling us home to 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 might ask – How can Jeremiah (the author of Lamentations) not break under the weight of the big seemingly-opposing truths we read here?

How can these both be true?

Jeremiah was a real person who dealt with the reality of the world around him and his own sin.

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

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

Which in turn reminds us that we deserved as much punishment as any enemy of our God.

And yet.

God sent Jesus.

To take our punishment on Himself, Your just and true wrath at our sin.

God sent Jesus.

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

Hallelujah, what a Saviour – Great is Your faithfulness!

* Great God,

Thank You that You have taken up our cause. Thank You that You see the evil in the world around us today, that You will call to account.

Thank You that You have saved us, that we no longer fear death of the punishment of hell.

Instead, You have granted us the greatest of mercies – Life eternal, life to the full!

Thank You Lord God for Your steadfast love and faithfulness without end.

Amen.

Reading

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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 much 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, 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 does the author make this cry, knowing of the reason why this judgement has come upon them?

This is God’s word we read. Should we think there is some dissonance, some weakness, some unknown vector showing God’s word to be at war with itself?

No! Of course not.

And so we must wrestle with these truths, asking our God to help us comprehend how we can endure trials brought about by our own folly (as individuals and as groupings) and yet cry out for mercy.

* Father of mercy,

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

Please forgive us Lord, and show us Your mercy each day.

We throw ourselves at Your feet, for what else have we to do!

Amen.