Cleansing Through Suffering

Introduction

We are approaching the close of this series on Lamentations: Grieving With God as we only have one more week left. Decades ago I would have called this book the whining book written by the whiny prophet.

After living life a little I have come to respect and fear this portion of God’s Holy Word. For some of you none of this applies. However, the longer you live, all of this will apply. We will all experience grief at many levels.

The lost of a loved one, the devastating destruction of a marriage or another identity consuming relationship, or the derailment of a career, the debilitating effects of a disease that does not kill immediately, but simply lingers and presses yes upon the sick but many times over upon the care taker, the loved who is chained to the one who is ill.

All suffering is related to sin. Sin entered the world and suffering followed. Many of us can trace our suffering directly to the bad, selfish, sinful choices we have made. And others, their suffering is just part of living in a fallen world in which every breathing human being has contributed and continues to contribute to its fallenness, so there are no innocent people.

So we are now in chapter 4 which parallels the judgement discussed in chapter two. Jeremiah is still using the acrostic style (ordering the verses by starting with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet).

After describing the responses of an individual in the midst of judgement and suffering in chapter three which we took 2 weeks to cover, “when God is Silent” and “Dealing With Conflicting Ideas”,

Jeremiah in chapter 4 now returns to survey the scene of calamity in Jerusalem and this is how this chapter is divided: He contrasts the conditions in Jerusalem before and after the siege (vv.1-11), explains the causes of the siege( vv. 12-20), and gives a call for vindication from Zion (vv. 21-22). We are going to take take a look at what all of this meant to the original audience and extract from it the principles which are applicable are we are going through our own grieving process (pray)

The Devastation of Sin and the Grieving Process (vv. 1-11)

I want you to observe how this chapter moves. It reveals the depth of their loss but also points towards a purifying process and occurs through suffering.

This is important as parents often want to spare their children from all suffering. But doing so also prevents them from being purified.

Just as a refiner’s fire purifies precious metals, God uses our times of grief and pain to cleanse us, renew our hearts, and restore us to Himself.

Let’s explore how God initiates this cleansing work in us through our suffering and how, in the midst of pain, we can find our worth in His eyes.

Lamentations 4:1–11 LSB

1 How dark the gold has become, How the pure gold has changed! The sacred stones are poured out At the head of every street. 2 The precious sons of Zion, Weighed against fine gold, How they are regarded as earthen jars, The work of a potter’s hands! 3 Even jackals offer the breast; They nurse their young; But the daughter of my people has become cruel Like ostriches in the wilderness. 4 The tongue of the nursing baby cleaves To the roof of its mouth because of thirst; The infants ask for bread, But no one breaks it for them. 5 Those who ate delicacies Are desolate in the streets; Those reared in crimson Embrace ash pits. 6 So the iniquity of the daughter of my people Is greater than the sin of Sodom, Which was overthrown as in a moment, And no hands whirled toward her. 7 Her Nazirites were purer than snow; They were whiter than milk; They were more ruddy in body than corals, Their polishing was like lapis lazuli. 8 Their form is blacker than soot; They are not recognized in the streets; Their skin is shriveled on their bones; It is withered, it has become like wood. 9 Better are those pierced through with the sword Than those pierced through with hunger; For their life flows away, being stricken For lack of the produce of the field. 10 The hands of compassionate women Boiled their own children; They became food for them Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people. 11 Yahweh has spent His wrath; He has poured out His burning anger; And He has kindled a fire in Zion Which has devoured its foundations.