Lamentations Part One Dive

A REFLECTION IN REPENTANCE

Many people don’t like reading Lamentations. They find it confusing and normally come away thinking that God is a vengeful, horrible God, happy to destroy His own people. But you have to remember when this book was written in the timeline of history – this is a prophet with a broken heart. He is devastated that after all the warnings, all the scriptures that said this would happen, after the hundreds of years of cycles of sin in Judges, the sin and rebellion of God’s representatives here on earth, God rescuing them over and over again and the Israelites falling back into sin, idolatry and corruption, that what He promised has finally happened. Judah had been taken into exile and the city of Jerusalem is destroyed.

Now, just like most of the Old Testament texts, we often avoid discussing the verses about God’s wrath or God destroying cities and I recognise Lamentations might be an uncomfortable read for you if you feel that way. However, it’s about maturity in our relationship with God. Father God is a God of justice and every time I read the Old Testament, I feel spiritual maturity come into my being. I feel strength in my faith in a powerful God that has boundaries and rules, that has been long-suffering with His people and finally, being true to His word, what He said would happen if they didn’t repent has now happened. For me, Father God is faithful, He sets the rules and enforces them and to that end. I feel safe in His justice.

ACTIONS → CONSEQUENCES

See, Father God is not schizophrenic. He doesn’t change personality, He doesn’t change His mind on a whim. He doesn’t tell you to run a race and then tell you that you failed because He moved the finish line. He is not happy one day and demanding the next. Almighty God is the same yesterday, today and forever and as you read this lament, this book of grief and remorse, remember that God had already sent the prophets to tell the people what was about to happen if they didn’t change their ways. What we read here is the mourning of these prophets after God has been true to His promise. This is the time of reflection and repentance. I remember Ps Phil Pringle from C3 Church Oxford Falls saying, “Don’t rush in when people are repenting of sins and move them on to forgiveness too quickly. Sometimes it’s good to feel the essence of remorse and repentance. It will stop you from doing it again”.  That is exactly what you are reading, the time of reflection in repentance.

Jeremiah is sitting, thinking about everything that has happened and looking at the destruction of the beautiful Daughter of Zion – the city of Jerusalem. We have all felt this moment, where you realise you have done something very wrong. You didn’t take the warning signs, you didn’t heed the calls to stop, you kept going and now you are in a mess, crying out to God, lamenting what you have lost. God is the parent in this story: enforcing the boundaries. The child may feel it was unjust, unwarranted, but sometimes in our immaturity we can forget that it was our rebellion to the rules that got us here, not the parent enforcing the rules. When I was a court officer, I remember time and time again people coming in to court angry at the police or the magistrate, very few actually looked at the situation and realised that had gotten themselves there, and the police and magistrate are simply doing their jobs to enforce the law. The ones who came in with true repentance and took responsibility for their own actions rarely came back!

HOPE REMAINS

There are moments of hope even in a time of reflection. Lamentations teaches that it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD (Chapter 3:26),

L 3:28 Let him sit alone in silence, for the LORD has laid it on him.

Repentance is a door, not a room to reside in. Repentance is a time to reflect on your mistakes, adjust your behaviour and then keep walking, because God restores and always brings hope. If you reside in repentance for too long, it will become condemnation and you will never get out. But if you don’t walk through the door of repentance, you won’t learn from your mistakes. You need both repentance and forgiveness.

Trashing tip: For more on this, check out Acts 3:19, 1 John 1:9, Joel 2:13. 2 Chronicles 7:14.

Most of Lamentations we don’t preach on, but there are some verses in Lamentations that I have heard used in sermons over and over again:

L 3:21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope.

L 3:23 They are new every morning, great is your faithfulness.

L 3:25 The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;

Did you notice the great word ‘yet’? Time and time again, this word becomes the line-in-the-sand moment. Remember, Jeremiah is mourning the great city he tried to save. Read the Book of Jeremiah and see how much Jeremiah goes through for his message, but they still didn’t believe him. Check out:

L 3:52-66. Then in the midst of destruction, even in the midst of the mess, in his time of reflection, he remembers that God is the God who restores, he remembers that God is faithful. My God never leaves us without hope!

L 3:31 For no one is cast off by the LORD forever. Though he brings grief, he will show compassion so great is his unfailing love.

L 5:19 You, LORD, reign forever; your throne endures from generation to generation.

CONTINUE TO PONDER, BUT BEGIN TO CHANGE

Notice that this book doesn’t finish (as all good Pentecostals would hope) with him being completely forgiven, knowing that God is amazing and getting on with his life in victory. No! The book finishes with him still reflecting. He ponders, he continues lamenting and mourning. See, this sin isn’t just a quick fix, this one destroyed a city and it is going to take some time to recover. This sin has put God’s people in exile, it’s going to take some seventy years to restore.

Perhaps you have done something that isn’t a quick fix. Perhaps you have wandered down a path that has led to destruction in your family and in your life and it is not going to be easy coming back. Perhaps you are in this time of reflection in repentance where you are assessing the damage of your sin and realising the cost of what you have been doing. Today, ask God to begin to restore that situation. It might take some effort and some time but God is faithful! Be comfortable today with this time of reflection in repentance. As you read Lamentations, feel the heart of a broken prophet that told them this would happen!

recommended

An Introduction to the Old Testament

Lamentations part one

Hebrews part three