“AN EXPRESSION OF A PROPHET’S GRIEF AND DECLARATION OF HOPE” LAMENTATIONS 1:12; 3:22-24

Lamentations is composed of five poems expressing a prophet’s great grief over Jerusalem’s devastation. The thoughts are at times solemn and full of sadness; however, at other times, they radiate with unusual hope! It has been universally accepted that Jeremiah penned this funeral dirge sometime after the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. For many centuries, Jerusalem stood as a once proud city; symbolically, it stood as the religious heart and soul of the city. But, now the plight of a beautiful city has changed. Jerusalem lies in ruins. The beautiful temple has been ransacked and its precious gold and holy vessels are as the spoils of war. The massive walls of the city lie in a heap of rubble. Homes were burned to the ground. The streets are silent, for the people have been carried off as slaves to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C. The fields that once produced abundant crops are now overgrown with weeds. Like a widow left desolate with no comforters, the city sat silent (Lamentation 1:1-2).

No one however, should have been surprised that such fate had befallen Jerusalem. The faithful prophet, Jeremiah, was constant in warning the people that destruction awaits the nation if the nation does not repent. Jeremiah warned the people of Judah, but they did not heed his message. The people’s failure to heed the word of the Lord left God no choice but to bring wrath upon Judah. In chapter 1:12, personified as an abandoned widow, the city now cried out for comfort. She asked, “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?” Jerusalem seems to be saying to those viewing her desolation, “Does this not affect you at all?” Although Jerusalem was indeed experiencing sorrow, she had no one to blame but herself!

Having portrayed the magnitude of Jerusalem’s grief and pain in chapter 1, the prophet Jeremiah rises to a summit of hope in chapter 3:22-24. Jeremiah came to the settled conviction that, yes, the city was destroyed and laid in ruins, and the temple was rubble; yet the people were not consumed. It was because of the Lord’s mercies that prevented Judah from being completely and entirely annihilated. So, judgment is set in the context of mercy.

Brethren, it was because of the Lord’s “hesed” love that He didn’t get rid of us! We should always live in the context that “we exist only because God does not give us what we really deserve. Every day, we experience His goodness as His anger is taken away from us. His compassion is new every day, like the morning dew on the grass. So, whatever your plight may be, keep your context right – God’s merciful compassions are great! Great is the Lord’s faithfulness to us!

May God Bless!