Lament
The first 18 verses of Lamentation are … well … a lament. I feel kind of silly writing that. You are no doubt saying, “Have you checked
the title of this book of the Bible?”
LOL. But it needs to be said,
even if it is obvious.
I can’t help but read these verses and feel sad for the sake of
Jeremiah. Do you remember how the book
of Jeremiah opened? The Lord came to
Jeremiah when Jeremiah was young and He changed His life forever. God came and formulated a personal
relationship with Him. This wasn’t a
run-of-the-mill spiritual relationship that people have with God and God’s
Word. {That isn’t meant as a slam, sorry if it comes off as one.} What I mean to say there is that Jeremiah
heard from the Lord. The Lord was deeply
present in Jeremiah’s life. The Lord was
so present in his life that it irrevocably changed Jeremiah.
That might sound like a good thing. From an eternal perspective, it is. But from a perspective of life on this side
of death, it is a hard thing. It is still
good; but it is also hard.
You see, being personally touched by God means that you see the
world through eyes that are not your own.
It means being wracked with guilt every time you fall into the ways of
the world. It means wrestling with even
the smallest of decisions because you see sin in just about everything – not
just the “big stuff.” It means not
settling for quaint conversation but always talking to people about the deep
and personal stuff that they’d honestly rather keep buried. It means giving the hard messages when you
know most people don’t want to hear it.
As I read these opening 18 verses this is the Jeremiah that I hear
writing down these words. It is this
Jeremiah who has consistently made the godly choice and has paid the worldly
consequences for it. He has been
scorned, mocked, abused, mistreated, insulted, backstabbed, rejected,
imprisoned, wanted for dead, and almost starved to death. He has endured all of these things because he
really knows that he has no other choice.
To free himself of these things he would have to abide by the ways of
the world. That is really no option,
either. Better to take rejection and
humiliation from the world than to live by the world’s standards.
Suffering, Endurance, Character, Hope
That title should sound familiar.
It is from a very famous passage in the New Testament. Look up Romans 5:1-5. It reads thematically very much like
Lamentations 3:19-40.
What gives Jeremiah hope?
His steadfast love never ceases.
Stop there for a minute. Consider
everything that Jeremiah has been through.
Take a good look at that list I put forth a few paragraphs back. After everything he has been through, he
says, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.” Incredible.
Now that’s a man of faith.
“The Lord is good to those who wait for Him.” Again, it is incredible that Jeremiah speaks
of goodness after all that he has seen.
After all that Jeremiah has been through, he still has the patience to
wait for the Lord. In fact, I’d be
willing to bet that all that Jeremiah has been through has actually helped
Jeremiah learn to wait for the Lord.
“Let us test and examine our ways and return to the Lord … We have
transgressed and rebelled.” There is a
communal aspect to Jeremiah’s spirituality that I find missing in modern
culture. We spend so much time thinking
about ourselves, our individual lives, our individual wants, our individual
worries that we do truly lose sight of the community. What do we do as a collective that makes it
harder to be a spiritual follower of God?
What could we do as a collective that would make it easier to be in
relationship with the only true source of love in the universe?
Focus on the Lord’s Work
So where does Jeremiah end?
The Lord. The Lord will
repay. The Lord will save. The Lord will take up his cause. It’s a good place to be.
So often when we get wrapped up in ourselves we never let things
go. We don’t let go of the desire for
vengeance. We don’t let go of our desire
for justice. We don’t let go of our
desire to make sure what goes around comes around. We strap on our self-made badge of “Righteous
Judge” and take on the world.
But that is not what God has asked of us. He asks that we trust Him to do those
things. He asks us to care more about
our relationship with Him than anything else.
He asks us to walk in His ways and trust Him to make things right in the
end. He asks us to focus on Him, and let
Him deal with the world.
That’s peace. Know that,
and you’ll know peace.
This has been a powerful chapter of the Bible for me. I pray the same is true for you.
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