Lament, You Who Are in Darkness

ME Personal Lament (A hook):

This morning,

I would like to start with a personal lament.

To hopefully demonstrate the power and hope and light in the lament.

Now, I have to give a disclaimer.

My personal lament involves my wife, Stephanie,

But we are two different people.

So, I am sharing my emotions, my questions, and my lament in this story.

I am not speaking on behalf of Stephanie in any way.

With that in mind,

I don’t think it is any secret that we have been having fertility issues for several years.

I remember the first time we got pregnant.

And for anyone who has ever had a miscarriage,

The roller coaster of emotions is such a relatable experience.

Rapidly going from the excited highs and hopes and fears of having a baby,

To plummeting down,

With all those feelings and emotions being ripped away,

Crashing to the ground in ways that are difficult to process.

What was difficult for me is that this was just an emotional experience.

I had to be a helpless bystander to the physical and hormonal toll this had on Stephanie.

So, not only am I trying to figure out my own emotions,

But I am trying to figure out how to best support these other,

Unknown to me,

Forms of suffering Stephanie is experiencing.

While deep down feeling guilty that she has to experience this and I don’t.

Because the reality is,

I have wanted children.

I have wanted to keep trying.

Which we would all say is a good thing.

But when you want something good,

And it puts the person you love most through repeated suffering and turmoil,

You feel guilty.

You feel selfish.

And you feel helpless.

I can’t do anything to bear the physical and hormonal toll.

I can’t carry a child.

I don’t have a womb.

So, we keep trying,

And miscarriages keep happening,

And the roller coaster keeps going.

These emotions,

These feelings,

These desires,

These questions become more and more entangled.

You no longer get excited about getting pregnant,

You hold your breath,

Half-waiting for the miscarriage to happen.

And this happened during one of our pregnancies.

But something was even worse with Stephanie.

So, we have to go to the ER.

This was not long after COVID.

I wasn’t allowed to go in with her.

So, I have to say goodbye to her at the lobby as she goes in,

And I go back to wait in the car at the parking lot.

You want to talk about feeling helpless.

There was nothing I could do.

Then you get the word that they fear it is an ectopic pregnancy,

Which is life threatening,

And she is going to have to go into surgery,

And be kept overnight.

I was in a lonely,

Helpless,

Dark place.

I did not get much sleep that night.

That was a night of lament.

I spent most of the night on my knees.

“Please, Lord!”

I repeatedly cried out in prayer.

And it was not as if suffering was something new.

I had already lost my mom by this time.

I had the challenges of still being a relatively new pastor,

Still trying to navigate all the challenges of COVID.

So, I had faced struggles,

My life was by no means problem free.

But this spontaneous prayer was a new depth of desperation for me.

I was scared.

The waves of grief and terror were overwhelming.

I was haunted by questions I was asking myself:

Is Stephanie going to be okay?

If she is,

Are we ever going to have children?

Why am I even thinking about having children still while she is in the hospital?

Am I really this selfish?

How am I going to pastor others while living with this pain?

So many questions,

And so much fear.

That night was perhaps the most desperate point for me in this journey.

I poured my heart out to God.

The burning anger,

And the glaring sadness.

I didn’t know it then.

But going through Lamentations,

I am reminded of it now.

The phrases,

The words,

The emotions I was feeling that night,

Leap off the pages of Lamentations.

The Bible gives a voice to my pain.

I hear these words in a different way now.

The journey since that night has spread across several years.

The language I am learning from my suffering is lament.

So, you may already know the Bible well,

But are you fluent in lament?

I didn’t know to call what I was doing that night lament.

I was just trying to voice my fears,

My emotions,

My struggles to God,

Knowing that I needed to press into Him in that moment.

It was a response based out of sheer survival.

But it taught my heart to speak the language of lament,

A gut-level honesty that is both refreshing and helpful.

We talked last week,

About God’s promise to work out everything for His good purposes.

It is not simple to trust this in grief,

It is vicious!

It is a battle!

A battle of fears, disappointment, and great sadness.

This language of lament is not a language I wanted to learn.

But once I found myself in suffering,

I am eternally grateful to have learned it.

Now, don’t get me wrong,

I still ride my share of emotional roller coasters,

And face challenges.

There is so much more about lament I have to learn.

Since that night,

Stephanie didn’t end up having surgery,

Because it wasn’t an ectopic pregnancy,

She had a cyst burst causing an aggressive miscarriage.

So she was able to come home,

And has since physically recovered from that.

Since then,

We have continued to try to have children,

And have continued to miscarry every pregnancy.

Today, I still long to have children.

And I still have moments of grief and sorrow,

Of guilt and confusion.

It is hard to fully describe the feeling.

It is pain and fear and a bunch of other stuff mixed together in this twisted knot of emotion.

Thoughts and questions about the future still race through my mind.

Slide

But the painfully honest prayers of lament,

Turn agony into worship,

Helping to navigate the darkness of grief.

This is the truth I hope you are able to take with you from Lamentations 2.

Because many of us,

Even as Christians,

Are either unfamiliar,

Or uncomfortable with lament.

When we get candid with one another about the struggles of our souls,

We often get uncomfortable.

This discomfort leads to us either trying to find the bright side,

Change the subject,

Or hit the eject button altogether,

To get out of this unpleasant conversation.

I think it is safe to assume that we all mean well.

But we just struggle to bear with others who are struggling.

Because lament is unfamiliar terrain for almost all of us.

But lament is in the Bible!

It is a helpful gift from God for our grief!

It gives us permission to wrestle with our sorrow.

Through my journey,

I am starting to learn the redemptive nature of lament,

And I wonder why it had been missing for so long.

I am convinced the more we incorporate and talk about lament.

The more grieving and hurting people will feel they can come out of the shadows,

To discover how lament is an invitation to trust God amid our struggles.

Slide

So, Lament, You Who Are in Darkness.

And as you do,

May you see how the light of lament breaks through the darkness.

This does not seem to make sense.

While the circumstances of life surround us in darkness,

Lament is the language God gives us as a light to lead us out of darkness.

Lament gives you permission to vocalize your pain,

As it compels you toward God-centered worship and trust.

So, lament is how you live in the tension of the darkness of this world and the light of God’s sovereignty.

It is how we bring our sorrow to God.

Without it,

We wouldn’t know how to process pain in this life.

When we don’t lament.

We replace it with silence, bitterness, or resentment.

This then spills over into how we bear other’s burdens.

We’ll end up offering cliche solutions,

Unhelpful comments,

Or impatient reactions.

So, lament is how we, as God’s people, grieve.

It is how we help hurting people.

How we learn important truths about God,

And life in this broken world.

So, we need the grace of lament.

Because there is much mercy to be found,

Amid the darkness in this world.

WE Darkness (Why does this matter to us?):

Slide

There is this book called Spirituality of the Psalms written by Walter Brueggemann.

In it,

He says,

The Psalms move us from orientation to disorientation to reorientation.

He explains how life is oriented a certain way,

But when tragedy hits,

Life gets disoriented.

And it is in that tragedy,

When we long to get back to our original orientation.

But God reorients us to a new and better life.

This is the overarching message of the gospel.

It’s God’s pattern in His Word,

To reorient what is disoriented.

Slide

But this is what makes Lamentations 2 so challenging,

Because it never gets to the reorienting.

It builds up all this tension,

Then abruptly ends in darkness.

It is not until ch. 3,

Where we get to the hope of Lamentations.

After just looking at ch. 1,

I have heard from several people how depressing Lamentations is.

And you are right.

It is absolutely depressing.

Chapter 2 is even more dark and depressing.

It presents God’s anger more than any other chapter in Lamentations.

In just the first ten verses,

We see 40 different descriptions of God’s anger and judgment.

The chapter begins with God’s anger overshadowing Zion.

It is a shocking twist.

Their protector had become their destroyer.

The imagery from beginning to and is dark.

This shadow is cast over every single verse.

The people are in darkness because of their sin.

They are reaping what they have sowed.

But their sin is not the main focus of this chapter.

Instead, it is about God working out His anger against His people.

Slide

It is remarkable how many actions are attributed to God in this chapter.

He throws down Israel’s glory,

Swallowed them up,

Demolished them,

Brought them to the ground,

Defiled the kingdom,

Cut off their strength,

Withdrew His hand,

Blazed like a flaming fire,

Slide

Strung His bow,

Killed,

Destroyed,

Multiplied mourning and lament,

Wrecked His temple,

Abolished the festivals,

Despised the king and priest,

Rejected His altar,

And more!

Slide

Philip Graham Ryken summarizes this well;

“What was amazing about these losses was that they were all the Lord’s doing. To be sure, they were the result of Judah’s sin. But the reality still had to be faced: God had turned against His own people. He had not simply allowed His own city to be defeated—He had helped to destroy it…In a strange twist on the Old Testament motif of the divine warrior, God was not fighting for His people but against them.”

So, it is clear,

This is God’s doing.

Jeremiah is lamenting about God’s actions toward His people.

The darkness of this chapter is caused by the shadow of God’s anger.

YOU Lam. 2 (Response):

Slide

The loss of the city’s greatness is compared to a falling star,

Saying God has thrown down her glory from heaven to earth.

The footstool has a variety of meanings throughout the OT

Here,

It simply describes the city,

Saying that God has not acknowledged her in the day of His anger.

So, the people are complaining,

Saying, “God, You made a promise to our father, David.”

Slide

“You said in Isaiah 37:35,”

Isaiah 37:35 ESV

For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.”

So, the people are asking,

“God, what about your promise?”

While forgetting the two-sided aspect of a covenantal promise.

Forgetting what they promised in Exodus 24:3,

Slide

Where...

Exodus 24:3 ESV

Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.”

So, the people are like a husband who abuses his wife,

And is then shocked when she leaves him,

Accusing her of not keeping her promises.

Or a wife who cheats on her husband,

And is then shocked when he leaves her,

Because he promised to take her as his wife.

You see, the people already broke their covenant with God.

Slide

So, God is actually following through with the promised consequences,

As He swallowed up without mercy all the dwellings of Jacob.

Vs. 2 says,

Bible

God laid the land to waste,

Leaving it devastated.

He demolished her fortified cities,

Which was a symbol of His blessing for her covenantal faithfulness.

But now because she has been unfaithful,

God brings these symbols down to the ground.

Slide

Vs. 3 says He cut off the strength and power of Israel,

Withdrawing His right hand.

But also, vs. 4 says,

Bible

The picture is that God is a warrior,

Who has drawn His arrow,

And is ready to release it as His people,

As He would an enemy.

He has destroyed everything that was delightful to the eye.

The best things about Jerusalem are now gone.

Because God poured out His wrath on them like an all-consuming fire.

Slide

To make things worse,

Vs. 6 says He destroyed the booth and the meeting place.

This is talking about the temple.

God wrecked it,

Like it was some tiny rickety shack in a garden.

What once seemed immovable has now been ransacked.

God utterly destroyed it,

Abolishing the festivals and the Sabbath with it.

Which is ironic,

Because He appointed these things,

But now He is making the people forget them.

Why?

Because the people had already forgotten the Sabbath themselves

Slide

God said in Jer. 17:27,

Jeremiah 17:27 ESV

But if you do not listen to me, to keep the Sabbath day holy, and not to bear a burden and enter by the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and shall not be quenched.’ ”

So, God did this,

Just as He said He would.

Slide

Continuing in vs. 7,

He also rejects His altar,

And disowns His sanctuary.

So, His judgment not only destroyed the place of His dwelling,

It destroyed the means by which the people could even approach Him.

God judged every aspect of Jerusalem.

Therefore, after the triumphant shouts of enemies dull down,

All that is left are the mournful cries of God’s people.

God determined to do this.

Bible

Vs. 8 says,

The wall was a symbol of protection.

The people were safe in the city.

It was a fortress,

An impenetrable defense.

But now the walls are destroyed.

So, the city is like a quarterback without an offensive line,

A military general with no troops.

You see,

With no wall,

They did not stand a chance against their enemies.

And this was God’s plan.

He stretched out the measuring line.

He surveyed the city for destruction.

Slide

Amos 7:7-9 prophesied about this,

Amos 7:7–9 (ESV)

Behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said, “Behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass by them; the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste.”

Slide

Even still,

God did not limit Himself to physical destruction,

Or institutional destruction.

He also destroyed the people’s ability to receive revelation.

Vs. 9 says the law, the prophets, the visions from the Lord,

Are all gone.

God repeatedly warned of this through His prophets.

So, now that it has come to fruition,

It demonstrates how this is God’s judgment on His people.

Even if they decided they wanted to learn what God requires,

They would not be able to.

Slide

So, in vs. 10, we begin to see their reaction to God’s judgment.

And it is an appropriate reaction.

But before we look at their reaction,

Let me give a brief disclaimer.

I am sure you can relate to a time in life where perhaps you felt on top of the world.

That was the case with Jerusalem.

Before any of this judgment,

There was this great movement,

With the glorious institution of the temple in Jerusalem.

The people felt on top of the world.

In their case,

It led to God’s rebuke.

Because they were not keeping their covenant with God.

And that may be the case for you.

You may have gone from top of the world,

To a difficult season because of your sin.

However, we don’t know the mind of God.

So, we cannot assume that every time trouble comes it is a direct rebuke of God.

We know that bad things happen simply because we live in a world darkened by sin.

Beyond that, we can’t always know with complete certainty the specific reasons for bad things happening.

That being said,

Regardless the specific reasons for suffering,

We can still learn from how the people react here in Lamentations.

Looking at vs. 10,

They react in shock and awe.

Which is interesting,

Because the phrase “shock and awe,”

Is actually rooted in military strategy.

It is the idea that you gain dominance over your enemy so quickly,

That they are so awestruck by your power,

It causes them to surrender more quickly.

That is the state of Jerusalem.

They have been devastated by God,

So, the elders sit on the ground in silence,

They throw dust on their heads,

They put on uncomfortable grieving clothes,

And the young women similarly bow their heads.

All these gestures communicate to us,

A humble posture from extreme distress, grief, and mourning.

The people are unable to articulate the suffering they are experiencing.

Slide

But Jeremiah does express his emotional distress as he cries out in vs. 11.

In other parts of Lamentations,

He recalls the suffering,

Complains,

Or pleads in protest to God.

But here,

Here he just articulates his anguish.

Bible

Listen to what he says,

Lamentations 2:11 ESV

My eyes are spent with weeping; my stomach churns; my bile is poured out to the ground because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because infants and babies faint in the streets of the city.

It is incomprehensible that God seems to be forgetting His people,

And His promises.

All Jeremiah can do is cry.

But he is weeping so much,

His eyes are worn out,

And his stomach is in knots.

The destruction of his dear people hurts so deeply,

It is causing him to throw up,

But he has no food in his system,

So, all that comes up is stomach acid.

He is in incredible suffering because of the agony of his people.

It is a desperate expression of anguish.

And he is especially moved by the suffering of children.

Slide

In vs. 12,

He describes seeing mothers holding their lifeless children.

It is heartbreaking,

It is too much to bear.

Jeremiah feels helpless.

He concludes in vs. 13,

No one can heal her.

Bible

It is almost like he is a doctor,

Coming out to the lobby to say,

“I’m sorry, there is nothing else we could do.”

He asks what he could possibly say to people who have suffered so much?

There is nothing to compare their suffering to.

It is like nothing he has ever seen.

The words he knows fail him as he struggles to make sense of what has happened.

He can’t think of anything to comfort or console them.

It is a catastrophe.

So, he speaks the language of lament.

There is great wisdom in his example here.

There are no easy answers or ready-made responses to say to someone who is suffering greatly.

Jeremiah is right to question his ability to comfort sufferers with his words.

Slide

But what makes this tragedy worse,

Is that it could have been avoided.

That sting of regret makes the tragedy that much more painful.

God had sent prophets like Jeremiah to warn them of this.

But they did not listen.

And now that the prophets were no longer receiving visions from God.

False prophets were coming up with deceptive visions.

Which is one way to compound suffering.

But vs. 15 shows another way suffering is compounded.

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These other nations add insult to injury.

This city that used to be called the perfection of beauty,

And the joy of all the earth,

Is now destroyed and abandoned.

And scoffers pass by to mock the people in their agony,

Showing how the city has become nothing more than an object of ridicule.

Slide

God used these enemy nations as instruments of judgment.

But vs. 16 makes it clear,

These nations became proud.

Bible

They had been waiting for the day they would overthrow Jerusalem.

And now that it has come,

They are really feeling themselves,

Taking credit for the victory.

Believing it was their might that accomplished this,

Rather than God’s judgment.

This is kinda difficult for us.

If we’re honest,

This is a disturbing image,

God destroying a city by His hand.

How are we to understand this?

How are we to understand God’s actions?

Well, for one,

This is a unique situation.

This nation is the chosen people of God.

They are set apart,

To have a loving relationship with God,

Like a husband and wife.

God promised to bless others through them,

And fulfill all His covenant promises to them.

But they rejected their groom,

They rejected God.

Which was a big deal because they had a great responsibility to God.

This is why they were destroyed.

So, because this was a unique situation,

It means that just because a disaster strikes a city,

Does not mean God is judging that city.

This city,

The people,

Are unique.

They had a special relationship with God.

That is what vs. 17 is explaining.

Bible

God declared judgment long ago.

In His covenant with His people in Leviticus and Deuteronomy,

He warned of the curses for breaking the covenant.

So, the present fate of the city,

Happened according to God’s known purposes,

According to the warnings He gave long ago.

Slide

This destruction shows us how God is not an impersonal force.

He is not void of reason,

He is a relational God.

We can talk and interact with Him.

In vs. 18,

We continue to see how the people respond to God in their suffering.

Bible

They cry out to Him.

This is prayer.

And prayer is the right way to respond to God.

Prayer should be like a reflex or an impulse for us.

The privilege of prayer gives us hope.

In darkness, it is our lifeline to salvation.

But there is an irony to the people’s cries here.

Because they are confessing that the One Who has destroyed them,

Is also the only One Who can save them.

The One Who has become their enemy,

Is their only hope and salvation.

Therefore, from the destitute wasteland of darkness where they find themselves,

We see their beautiful lament to God.

It is a powerful plea,

Coming straight from the gut.

So, when you are in darkness,

Lament like this!

Don’t stop until you lament your way all the way through.

That is what the people are doing here,

They are crying out day and night,

With no relief,

No rest for their eyes.

Likewise, you who are in darkness,

Vs. 19 says,

Pour yourself out like water to God,

Lift your hands in trust to Him.

Slide

The specific reasons for the people’s lament here is graphic.

Bible

Jeremiah begs God,

To look, see, and understand all that is happening!

The conditions during the Exile in Jerusalem were desperate.

It is an extreme level of horror.

Slide

Then, this poem ends in vs. 22,

Where we might expect a note of optimism,

A glimmer of light,

A last word of hope.

But that is not the case.

Instead, Jeremiah says God is summoning summoning terrors all around him.

So, the poem ends where it began,

Under the darkness of the shadow of the anger of the Lord,

Where no one escapes,

And no one survives.

It ends with Jeremiah sitting in darkness,

Looking upon the demise of his fellow people.

WE Wise Conc. (Paint a picture of the future):

Slide

When you find yourself in darkness,

When life is tragic,

How do you respond?

How are we supposed to understand the sobering reality of evil and suffering?

The only way we can respond is to humble ourselves.

Lamentations 2 answers how God deals with the problem of evil for an entire nation.

But what about now?

What about today?

What about us?

Is God’s anger provoked by an entire people,

Does He discipline an entire community of believers,

Does He respond in similar ways?

And how does Advent somehow provide light in the lament?

I want to give three applications to answer these questions.

First, I already mentioned this earlier,

The nation of Israel was a unique situation.

They were the one and only people of God.

No other nation was like her.

Romans 11 explains how today,

We are Gentile Christians,

Grafted into God’s people to find mercy and receive the promises of God.

So, because this was a unique situation,

When disaster happens today,

We cannot just assume we know what God’s motivation might be.

Which leads to our second application,

God’s ways are not our ways.

This is one of the main points of Job.

We don’t have the capacity to understand all that happens in this world.

We want to,

We are often curious,

But even the greatest education,

Or greatest minds cannot understand why evil happens in this world.

It is beyond our capacity to grasp.

Because God’s ways are not our ways.

Third, God specifically warns churches in the NT that He does respond to disobedience.

In Acts 5, He strikes Ananias and Sapphira dead for lying about their gift.

1 Cor. 11 warns about illness or death for those who take the Lord’s Supper without discernment.

These are a couple specific examples.

But in Revelation 2 and 3,

Jesus addresses the different needs of seven different churches,

Including several warnings to those churches.

Slide

Ephesus lost her first love,

So, Jesus warned them to...

Revelation 2:5 ESV

Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

Slide

Pergamum was listening to false teaching,

So, Jesus warned them,

Revelation 2:16 ESV

Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth.

Slide

Thyatira tolerated false teaching,

So, Jesus warned them of the false teacher saying,

Revelation 2:21–22 ESV

I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works,

Slide

Sardis was sleeping on the mission,

So, Jesus warned them to...

Revelation 3:3 ESV

Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.

Slide

And Laodicea was admonished to find her first love again,

Jesus warned them, saying,

Revelation 3:15–17 ESV

“ ‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.

Slide

Then at the end of this Jesus says in Rev. 3:19,

Revelation 3:19 ESV

Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.

So, does God discipline an entire community of believers?

The ones He loves, yes.

But this is a glorious thing.

God is not some impersonal force.

He is a loving Father.

He loves people,

He loves His churches.

We are His children.

And like all children,

We have strengths and weaknesses,

Areas we need to be encouraged,

And areas we need to be challenged.

Slide

So, this may not be a satisfying answer to the question of why we suffer.

But sometimes,

We are suffering because God is disciplining us as His children.

And because God’s ways are not our ways,

We don’t know when, how, or even why this happens.

Therefore, we respond to all tragedy and suffering by humbling ourselves.

And Psalm 149:4 promises,

Psalm 149:4 ESV

For the Lord takes pleasure in his people; he adorns the humble with salvation.

So, in humility, we examine ourselves.

This doesn’t necessarily mean we look to force the pieces every tragedy to fit some sort of cosmic, existential puzzle.

But we also can’t be overly dismissive of God.

He loves His churches.

As the letters to seven churches show us,

He relates to each of us individually,

Encouraging where we need encouragement,

And disciplining where we need correction.

Slide

So, you who find yourself in darkness,

Lament.

Because from this humble posture,

Your painfully honest prayers of lament,

Turn agony into worship,

Helping to navigate the darkness of grief.

Psalm 89:15 says,

Psalm 89:15 (NLT)

Happy are those who hear the joyful call to worship, for they will walk in the light of your presence, Lord.

And this is how Advent provide light in the lament?

Because Advent brought the physical presence of the Lord,

Into the darkness of this world.

Pray.