The Final Lament
Here we have the close of the book. Being a book of lamentations, we should not
expect that the book is going to end all that happily. And it does not. The present reality for the author is that
the Hebrew people are being dragged away into Babylonian captivity. As the author says, the women are being
abused. The men of Jerusalem are being
strung up and hanged. It is a dark day.
I honestly cannot imagine what Jeremiah is going through at this
point. Jeremiah knew that this day was coming. God had told him as much. Jeremiah knew that the people would not
repent. He knew that this was happening
because of their refusal to submit to God.
Jeremiah had to consciously understand all of this.
Yet at the same time, this was Jerusalem. Jeremiah had been raised to see Jerusalem as
God’s chosen city. This was the place
where God’s temple was located. This was
the city of the throne of David. There
were promises that God had made.
For the record, God kept those promises, just in a way that nobody
could have ever guessed: through Jesus Christ.
Regardless of whether or not Jeremiah truly understood all that
was happening, this had to be hard to watch.
Regardless of the fact that God promised that He would be with Jeremiah,
this had to be hard to watch. Regardless
of the fact that God had told Jeremiah that there would be a remnant, this had
to be hard to watch.
Remnant
However, this chapter is not without hope. In fact, there are two places of hope. The first is actually in the opening
verse. “Remember, O Lord … look and see
our disgrace.” Here we have another
example of the communal faith that Jeremiah has with the people. Even though Jeremiah has been faithfully
following God as much as any person can faithfully follow, Jeremiah lumps
himself into camp with the sinners.
Jerusalem fell because of “our disgrace.”
I think as I read through Lamentations that this is a dynamic for
which I am truly hungry. So often in
religious circles it is “us” when things are going well but it is “you” when
things begin to go poorly. “We do a
great job.” “We are God’s people.” “We are growing.” However, how quickly do things change when
“you led us wrong” or “you didn’t follow” or “you didn’t pull your weight.”
I find it refreshing that Jeremiah has tossed his fate in with the
fate of the people of Jerusalem. If
anyone had the right to say, “God, they truly deserve what You gave them” it is
Jeremiah. Yet this is not what Jeremiah
says. What Jeremiah says is, “God, see
our disgrace.” Jeremiah may not have
approved of how the people of Jerusalem lived, thought, and acted. But He loved them enough to embrace their
failings and love them in spite of their failings. For Jeremiah there is no “me” and
“them.” For Jeremiah there is only “us.” I find him truly inspiring having read his
story more thoroughly in Jeremiah and now here in Lamentations.
The Lord
The second place in which I find hope in this passage is the
closing verses. “You, Oh Lord, reign
forever. Your throne endures to all
generations.” I am inspired by the fact
that through everything that Jeremiah had to have seen he still finds hope in
God. In spite of all the hardship
brought on by living in Jerusalem while it was under siege, Jeremiah still finds
hope in God. In spite of the torture,
abuse, imprisonment, Jeremiah still finds hope in God. Jeremiah sees cannibalism happening and he
still finds hope in God. Humanity is at
its worst, yet it is not enough to knock Jeremiah from the fact that God is in
charge and our hope rests in Him.
So Jeremiah is not consumed by the darkness. The darkness tries to swallow him up, but he
is not consumed by it. Instead, Jeremiah
looks for the day of restoration. But
notice the restoration for which Jeremiah yearns. Jeremiah does not desire the restoration of
their fortunes. No, Jeremiah desires the
restoration of the relationship between God and His people.
That’s a really sweet note of reflection to end such a dark
book. Restore Yourself to us, Oh Lord. Amen.
May it be so.
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