Theological Commentary: Click Here
Discipleship Focus: Guidance, Protection
- Guidance: God grants us His guidance. Sometimes this guidance is God leading us away from temptation. Sometimes this guidance is helping us to follow in a direction for which He has chosen. Our default position should be to wait for God’s guidance and then follow when it comes.
- Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One. Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us. Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us. Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear. We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.
This is a
very bleak chapter. Then again, the book
is called Lamentations, after all. We
should expect a bleak chapter.
As I read
through this chapter, I couldn’t help focusing on what it must have felt like
to see your very own God taking steps to bring about your subdual. Imagine watching holy people slaughtered in
the very temple of God. Imagine watching
the people left in Jerusalem survive only by cannibalism. Imagine watching foreign people invade your
land and shake their head in awe at the destruction of what once was considered
one of the most beautiful cities.
Imagine realizing that this is all happening because God has decided to
righteously judge your nation.
Can you
imagine what it would be like to live without God’s protection? Can you imagine what it would be like to live
without God’s guidance?
Of
course, God did not abandon His people eternally. Even when we are reaping the consequences of
our sin, God does not abandon us eternally.
His guidance is always there for us when we are willing to receive
it. His eternal protection is always
available to us. Thanks be to God.
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