Lamentations 5
Notes
Transcript
theodicy. An answer to the problem of evil that attempts to “justify the ways of God to man” by explaining God’s reasons for allowing evil.
“if God is good and in control, why this?”
The book of Lamentations aint that kind of theodicy.
It’s exactly what it says it is, a lamentation.
This kind of lamentation doesn’t try to defend God in the face of suffering, it brings the “why” to God in faith…trusting God is good, holy, and sovereign achieving HIS purpose in all matters regardless of what it looks or feels like to us.
I mentioned 605 BC when we were in Jeremiah 36. Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian army crushing Egypt and the little bit of Assyria left assisting them in the Battle of Carchemish and the Babylonian “machine” becomes the most dominant power on earth at the time.
Jeremiah’s whole ministry was a prophetic warning to Judah and the political leaders in Jerusalem summed up in:
Jeremiah 25:3–9 “3 From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, even unto this day, that is the three and twentieth year, the word of the LORD hath come unto me, and I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but ye have not hearkened. 4 And the LORD hath sent unto you all his servants the prophets, rising early and sending them; but ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear. 5 They said, Turn ye again now every one from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD hath given unto you and to your fathers for ever and ever: 6 And go not after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, and provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands; and I will do you no hurt. 7 Yet ye have not hearkened unto me, saith the LORD; that ye might provoke me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt. 8 Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Because ye have not heard my words, 9 Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the LORD, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations.”
notice the first part of Jeremiah 25:9 “9 Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the LORD, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant…
Like Isaiah 45:1 “1 Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden…
This isn’t men in control and God watching; this is God’s sovereign decree coming about through the actions of men who stood before Him and were held accountable for their actions (Jeremiah 25:12 and 50–51 turn and judge Babylon for the very conquest God sent)
They didn’t repent and Yahweh keeps His promises. Jerusalem is destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 587 BC.
The Book of Lamentations keeps alive the memory of that fall and teaches all believers how to deal with suffering.
The Middle
The Middle
Chapter 2 — the hardest truth. This is God's own judgment. Righteous wrath against real sin — His hand, not just Babylon's (2:1-8). The "why" at its rawest: Lady Zion looking at her dead children asking who God has ever treated like this (2:20).
Chapter 3 — the hinge. Right in the middle of the worst of it, not after it's over: Lamentations 3:22–24 “22 It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. 24 The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.”
Hope grounded in who God is, not in the situation getting better. Nothing around them had improved. His mercies are new anyway.
You know where that verse went. Thomas Chisholm sat down in 1923 and wrote "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" on Lamentations 3 — "morning by morning new mercies I see."
Born in 1866, near Franklin, Kentucky; log cabin, no formal education.
Saved at age 26 (1893) under evangelist Henry Clay Morrison.
Ordained a Methodist minister in 1903 and given a pastorate at Scottsville, Kentucky.
Poor health forced him out after maybe a year.
Left ministry for years of ordinary work as a life insurance agent; modest income throughout life.
Through it all he pressed on writing more than 1,200 poems, and his testimony?
"My income has not been large at any time due to impaired health in the earlier years which has followed me on until now. But I must not fail to record here the unfailing faithfulness of a covenant-keeping God and that He has given me many wonderful displays of His providing care."
We sing it as a comfort hymn, soft and warm. But look where it came from: a man choosing to trust God's character while he's still struggling through.
Chapter 4 — the reality doesn't vanish. The hope in chapter 3 doesn't erase chapter 4. Back into the siege — hunger so bad it's unspeakable (4:1-10). That's honest, and it's worth saying plainly: naming God's faithfulness didn't make the suffering disappear. Both are true at once. That's the Christian life more days than we'll admit.
So that's where they are — judged (2), holding onto mercy in the middle of it (3), and the horror still going on (4).
Chapter 5 is what they do with all of it. They stop describing the devastation and they turn and pray it.
1 Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach.
the ask: “God, remember all thats happened to us and what we’ve suffered
2 Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens. 3 We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows. 4 We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us. 5 Our necks are under persecution: we labour, and have no rest. 6 We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread. 7 Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities. 8 Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand. 9 We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness. 10 Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine.
If all that happened in Ch. 4 wasn’t enough,
the land and homes are lived in and run by invaders
they have become the very orphans and widows Yahweh had covenantally charged them to care for
they have to pay for the things in the land they used to own
soldiers are pushing them to exhaustion
they left Egypt with treasure when Yahweh delivered them and now have to make deals with old enemies just for food and are again slaves
they feel the weight of their father’s sins
Even growing food in the wilderness is deadly because of the enemy
and even after the siege of Jerusalem was over, disease and famine stalk them
bereavement, thirst, poverty, inflation, invasion, famine, dependency, slavery, exposure, rape, humiliation, and exhaustion
11 They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah. 12 Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured. 13 They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood. 14 The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick.
The enemy has raped the women in Jerusalem
the princes and elders have been tortured, killed and their bodies hung in humiliation
the young men and children now do and collapse what slaves used to; the young men put to work as prisoners of war and the children crushed under loads of firewood.
the entire social and governmental system has collapsed and is gone. No courts for justice and no music for joy.
15 The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning. 16 The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned! 17 For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim. 18 Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.
Nothing is left but the shame of the conquered and the sinner
the only song left is the lament that owns their sin
this is the lament-vs-theodicy I talked about at the beginning. They don't explain the suffering away, they confess into it.
Not just the Davidic crown, everything that marked them as God’s people, the covenant blessing is gone
all the horrors before have no end in sight and the future in front of them is a wasted, barren Jerusalem
What’s left for them to do?
19 Thou, O LORD, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation.
They do the only thing any can. they turn to the Holy, Sovereign, and Eternal God of all creation
20 Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time? 21 Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old. 22 But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.
And it seems like Yahweh has forgotten them to let them waste to nothing
And they cry out not what they have to this point: “God come and see all that’s happening and fix it”
Now they cry out and ask Yahweh to cause them to return to HIM
they don’t ask for the enemies be driven away, nor that Jerusalem be rebuilt
Not even asking for a just an end to their suffering.
What they plead for, is to know again the presence of God himself and the assurance of their covenant relationship with him
And yet they hear nothing, no answer comes, the destruction and desolation continues. Silence. The plea ends with no response whatsoever
Conclusion
Conclusion
The one voice we never hear in the book of Lamentations, is the voice of God.
Not one place does He chastise for the accusations against Him
God never speaks to defend Himself, never answers their 'why,' never denies a single protest — even though the people themselves confess they've earned it.
And not one place does it rush to calm and sooth and tell us it will be alright and allow us to sugarcoat the pain because of the promises to come
God rules all things: no matter the pain or the darkness, no matter how much it looks like the devil’s running the show, no amount of evil that makes it look like He doesn’t care or isn’t listening.
Lamentations teaches us to cry out to God with all that pain, all that fear, all the doubt. And it’s not a lack of faith to cry out. It’s true faith that still cries out no matter how silent it seems God is.
And we trust that every tear of every saint is kept by God: Psalm 56:8 “8 Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?”
And not only our tears — our prayers. Every prayer prayed through all the hurt will one day be offered up to God Revelation 8:3–4 “3 And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. 4 And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.”
Lamentations doesn’t tell us “it’ll be alright” but the rest of the Bible tells us the One who does, and His justice will be perfect the same way His mercy is.
