Lamentation 3:1-24

If I say that “I feel like I’ve been through the wringer,” people who have now what I mean.

When we say that we are worn out, we know what that feels like.

Maybe it is because of a long day with our work wherever it is—home, school, work.

Maybe it is because of an illness or disease. It seems like years can be added on someone’s face because of those things.

Stress over a difficult situation can age us.

Over the years, I’ve seen people put on a huge amount of weight, compensating stress with food. I’ve seen it the other way. People who don’t eat because they don’t have any appetite and they waste away due to stress.

There are the external things that happen that age us and take away our health. Many of these things are not due to anything that we’ve done, but they are part of us living in a sinful and fallen world.

Other times, we must attribute our suffering in this world to our own choices. We’ve chosen the bottle, the needle, the pipe. We’ve let our selfishness and our impulses steer our actions.

Or, we’ve suffered due to circumstances out of our control, but we’ve tried to compensate or cope with ways that are self-destructive.

We’ve lived hard and it shows. Jeremiah recognizes in us something that we can’t see in ourselves.

We are....

Worn out and ruined without God.

First Israel and now Judah had made their choices. They chose short term pleasure vs. the impending judgment and punishment.

Sometimes that punishment is easy for us to see, but it is so hard for us to give up the things of our lives that have brought us to this point.

What is your weakness? What wears you out?

For Judah, it was their constant willingness to walk away from God. It was their willingness to commit to the only One who could give them life.

Let’s look at it from this angle. If we believe that everything comes from the hand of God and that we live in this Creation by his hand, then to try to live without him can lead to no place, to nowhere.

Over and over in the book of Jeremiah, we see that Judah consistently ignores God’s desire for their lives. Because of this, God puts his plan in action to use the nations and empires of the ancient world to exact His justice.

We remember that....

God gives us the consequences of our choices.

Jeremiah describes a pretty vivid picture of what it looks like to live a godless life. Skin and flesh grow old before it’s time. Bones ache. We are surrounded with bitterness and hardship. We dwell in the darkness of of the hopelessness of our choices.

It feels sometimes like we are trapped in our situation and that we don’t have any hope. We might pray for deliverance, but we don’t have any real intention of changing how we’re going to live.

It seems that every place we turn by ourselves is without a good solution.

Have you ever blamed God for your own choices?

Lamentations 3:10–12 NIV

Like a bear lying in wait, like a lion in hiding, he dragged me from the path and mangled me and left me without help. He drew his bow and made me the target for his arrows.

Lamentations 3:

Jeremiah is lamenting the situation he and Judah find themselves. Lament is more than just being sad. Lament is a complaint to God. Why? Why are these things happening? Why are they happening to me?

Sometimes people view God as this bully who is just waiting for you to get up out of the dirt so he can push you down again. We understand that sometimes there are circumstances where nothing seems to be going our way.

What we fail to do is honestly look at our lives and see where we are bearing the fruit of our own choices.

Sometimes, though, we’ve tried to live faithfully. We’ve tried to do what is right? And still, something terrible happens. In those times, we cry out, “Why?”

John Calvin talks about this passage and says that sometimes, when we are at our weakest, we speak out of our emotion and temper. The weight of the trouble in our lives is too much. If it were any other time, it would be blasphemy, but in desperate times, it’s the only thing we can think of saying.

We must not make the mistake of the disciples in , who were trying to figure out whose sin caused a man’s blindness. Sometimes things happen in life because of the sin in the this world, not the direct sin of one person or another. We don’t find anywhere in scripture where the punishment for sin doesn’t line up with the sin itself.

For example, if you gossip about someone, you aren’t going to fall in a hole. Or, if you say a bad word, you aren’t going to crash your car.

But, we should be honest with ourselves, too.

But, be honest, if you are speaking badly about others and then find yourself without friends, don’t make it someone else’s fault. If you don’t take care of your body, don’t become angry with the doctor that the can’t prescribe a medicine to fix everything.

For others, what we see is life that is lived without direction or purpose. When our lives are lived only for ourselves, we end up failing to be satisfied. Nothing matters any more. We blame everyone except ourselves.

What I see here is life that is lived without direction or purpose. When our lives are lived only for ourselves, we end up failing to be satisfied. Nothing matters any more.

Is it stuff? We’re always looking to the next thing? For some it is partying—how soon until it just gets old and maybe leads you to a place of regret? Whether we realize it or not, we are brought to a place where the center of the world is ourselves, and the gravity of selfishness just brings in everything to collapse in on itself until we can’t bear it any more.

Lamentations is a book of complaint to God, but there is one shining light that prevails.

God’s love and compassion overcomes the worst of our suffering.

We believe that with God, in Christ, that while things might be hard, there is hope. The big story of the Bible, the story of Creation, fall, redemption, and renewal is one of hope not hopelessness.

Even though we might be downcast, we keep hoping.

Isaiah 42:3–4 NIV

A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his teaching the islands will put their hope.”

Sometimes we feel like that bruised reed....maybe the illustration is more of a piece of metal that has been bent back and forth until it is about to break, but God won’t break it. Think of the candle flame that flutters in the wind, but it is isn’t blown out.

We might find trials in life, but in Christ he will hold us.

Lamentations 3:22–24 NIV

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”

Lamentations 3:22

This is what picks us back up. Maybe it isn’t today, but it may be tomorrow. If not then, then the next day. Every day, God’s promises are firm and true. They don’t run out. Life might not be easy, but God is faithful.

Where do you lament? Where do you struggle? Be honest about your failings. Before we look everyplace else to find something or someone to blame, start by looking inside and see what you find.

Most importantly, don’t forget where your hope ultimately lies. In Christ, we will not be consumed. In Christ, we remember that the Lord is enough. Wait on the Lord. His compassions never fail