Lamentations

Lamentations

 

Lamentations is one of the Old Testament books in our Bible.  The word “lamentations” means something like “alas”.  A “lament” is a cry of grief and sorrow. The whole book of Lamentations is about grief and sorrow, loss, weeping, prayers and suffering of the Jewish people during one of their darkest hours. The author, Jeremiah, is writing Lamentations as a cry and a prayer to God.

 

Laments, or cries of grief, were usually composed as poetry in the ancient world.  When Lamentations was written, the Jewish people had lost everything and were in a hopeless position.  Everything in their lives had been taken away or destroyed.

 

 Lamentations features six major themes.  1) Their suffering was the result of their sin. (Lamentations 1:5; 2:14; 3:42; 4:13;5:16) Their suffering was seen as coming from God rather than from the cruel Babylonians.   (Lamentations 1:13 and 15, 2:1,4: 3:1,37,38)      3.) Their suffering could direct them toward God.   4.) Suffering, tears, and prayers belong together. 5.) Prayer should always look for some ray of hope. (Lamentations 3:31,32, 3:21-24, 3:58-66)   And 6.) Their responsibility was to submit to their sufferings patiently and wait for God.   

 

Lamentations was written around 587 B.C. – the year the mighty King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came against Jerusalem. (2 Kings 24:20) While the Babylonian soldiers surrounded Jerusalem, the Jewish people trapped inside were starving.  When the soldiers finally breached the city walls, they destroyed most of the city, killing many of the people with their swords.  They burned the temple and stole all the valuables – and we believe even the Ark of the Covenant. After Jerusalem was sacked and burned, the Babylonian soldiers carried all but the poorest people away into exile to be their slaves in Babylon. (2 Kings 25:8-12) 

 

The Jewish people had always known that they were God’s chosen people. They felt that they would always experience good things because God would always bless them. God had made covenants or promises with them, but God promised to bless them IF they would follow Him. God also promised to punish them IF they turned their backs on Him and His laws and worshipped other gods.  The poems in Lamentations are especially heartrending when the Jewish people contrast the former blessings and strengths God had given them with the chaos and suffering their sin had brought upon them now.

 

 In 587 B.C. all their heathen neighbors (the whole ancient world) was worshiping and sacrificing to other gods.  It was always a temptation for the ancient Jewish people to want to do what the rest of the world was doing. The rest of the world created impressive idol gods for themselves.  They could bring animals and sometimes their own little children to be slaughtered and sacrificed to these idol gods. Often temple priests and prostitutes danced around the altar fires as the heathen worshipers would come to make their sacrifices before the demon gods, drink and have sex with the temple prostitutes.

 

 If a farmer was having a bad year and his crops were not producing, he could always visit the nearest temple or altar on the hill, have a little fun and make a sacrifice to one of the statue gods. Also, there were smaller handmade gods he could buy and take home as lucky charms.  Idol worship was a money- making business. Next year his crops would produce. The whole ancient world sacrificed to idols except for the nation of Israel!  God had forbidden them to worship idols or anything else except Himself.

 

 People in the heathen nations would tell the Jewish people how much they were missing out by not worshipping idol gods. They would brag about how much their gods were helping their crops to grow.  And how their fertility gods were helping them get pregnant when they had problems.  The Jewish people could see that their neighbors made their idol gods do whatever they wanted. They proudly offered their sacrifices and like magic their idol gods brought them luck for whatever they wanted to do, good or bad.  Or so they said. Worshipping idols gave the ancient heathen people more freedom and control over their lives! They could run their own lives and proudly do their own thing!  Isn’t that what life is all about?       

 

 But the nation of Israel was different.  The Jewish people could not see their God or make Him into whatever they wanted the way their heathen neighbors did with their gods.  God had given the Jewish people laws to live by and they were not free to do whatever they wanted to do.  Instead of them controlling their gods, the God of Israel called His people to give Him control of their lives.  To humble themselves before Him and let Him lead them.  To trust Him and He would provide for them and bless them.

 

Scripture tells us that the Jewish people in 587 B.C. had turned away from the God of their fathers, and many were worshipping idol gods. Many Jewish people did not want to let God lead them any longer. They wanted to do their own thing.  Be independent. For many years, God sent prophets calling them to return to Him, but they killed God’s prophets and refused to listen.  They brought in false prophets and Scripture says that their religious leaders were corrupt and led the Jewish people away from God.  God sent this punishment on Jerusalem partly because of the actions of their religious leaders.  Lamentations 4:13 says they were punished: “Because of the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, who shed in her midst, the blood of the just.”

 

Scripture also mentions the sins of “the daughter of my people” as one of the many reasons why God’s punishment had come upon Jerusalem in 587 B.C. Lamentations 4:6 reads: “The punishment of the sins of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom.”   What were these Jewish women doing that was worse than the sin of Sodom?  Lamentations 4:3 continues: “Even the jackals present their breasts to nurse their young, but the daughter of my people is cruel.  Like ostriches in the wilderness. The tongue of the infant clings to the roof of its mouth for thirst.  The young children ask for bread, but no one breaks it for them.”   

 

God brought the Jewish people back from their captivity in Babylon seventy years later and they rebuilt their beloved city, Jerusalem.  With God’s guidance they rebuilt the walls and the temple and new homes.  The destruction of Jerusalem in 587 B.C. and the lessons God taught His people were so significant that the Jewish people started reading the book of Lamentations once a year in a special service.  They do not want that painful experience ever to be forgotten. 

 

This book of Lamentations has a great deal to say to us today. We wonder if God punishes His people for their sins today like He did back then?  We believe that Christ’s death for us and His resurrection have redeemed us.  We do not bear retributive punishment for any sin we commit, since Christ has suffered in our place.  We are living under a different covenant than did the Jews of 587 B.C.  They lived under the Law and because of Christ’s death and resurrection, we now live under Grace. However, we do suffer the consequences of past sins. Of course, not all suffering is the result of God’s discipline.  Satan can also bring suffering on us.  (Job 2:7, Luke 13:16) But, the suffering he brings is destructive rather than restorative. 

 

The book of Lamentations shows how weak people are under the Law, and how unable they are to serve God in their own strength.  This drives them to Christ. (Romans 8:3) Even in these poems, glimpses of Christ shine through.  He is our hope.  (Lamentations 3:21, 24,29) He is the manifestation of God’s mercy and compassion. (Lamentations 3:22,23,32) Christ is our redemption and our salvation. (Lamentations 3:58,59)