Sermon Tone Analysis

Lamentations of Jeremiah

Outline

I. The Misery and Desolation of Jerusalem (1:1–22)

1.

A Description of the City’s Destruction (1:1–11)

2. The City’s Plea for Compassion (1:12–17)

3. The City’s Confession of Sin (1:18–20)

4.

An Appeal for Punishment of Jerusalem’s Enemies (1:21–22)

II.

God’s Judgment on the City (2:1–22)

1. God’s Wrath Expressed in Jerusalem’s Destruction (2:1–9)

2. The Suffering of the People (2:10–13)

3. Misleading Advice of False Prophets (2:14)

4. Ridicule by the Enemies (2:15–17)

5.

An Anguished Appeal to God (2:18–22)

III.

Hope of Relief through Loving-Kindness (3:1–66)

1.

An Individual’s Description of the Suffering (3:1–20)

2. God’s Past Mercies as the Basis for Future Hope (3:21–39)

3.

An Appeal for God’s Mercy (3:40–51)

4.

An Appeal for Deliverance and a Call for Vengeance (3:52–66)

IV.

Sorrows of the People Resulting from the Siege (4:1–22)

1. Remembrances of Better Days (4:1–11)

2. The Sins of Prophets and Priests (4:12–16)

3. A Vain Search for Help (4:17–20)

4. Edom’s Coming Punishment (4:21–22)

V.

A Prayer for Mercy and Deliverance (5:1–22)

1.

The Affliction and Suffering of the People (5:1–13)

2. The Loss of Joy and Hope (5:14–18)

3.

An Appeal for the Lord’s Restored Favor (5:19–22)

Reading : city plea for compassion

The City’s Plea for Compassion (1:12–17)

12 “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?

Look around and see.

Is any suffering like my suffering

that was inflicted on me,

that the LORD brought on me

in the day of his fierce anger?

13 “From on high he sent fire,

sent it down into my bones.

He spread a net for my feet

and turned me back.

He made me desolate,

faint all the day long.

14 “My sins have been bound into a yoke;

by his hands they were woven together.

They have come upon my neck

and the Lord has sapped my strength.

He has handed me over

to those I cannot withstand.

15 “The Lord has rejected

all the warriors in my midst;

he has summoned an army against me

to crush my young men.

In his winepress the Lord has trampled

the Virgin Daughter of Judah.

16 “This is why I weep

and my eyes overflow with tears.

No one is near to comfort me,

no one to restore my spirit.

My children are destitute

because the enemy has prevailed.”

17 Zion stretches out her hands,

but there is no one to comfort her.

The LORD has decreed for Jacob

that his neighbors become his foes;

Jerusalem has become

an unclean thing among them.

Book of lamentation background

The tradition that Jeremiah was the author of Lamentations is quite ancient among the Jewish people (m.

B. Bat.

15a; Josephus) as well as the church fathers,Lamentations is a skillfully structured book of five separate poems.

historical facts

The Babylonians’ capture of Jerusalem in 587 B.C. was not the first time the city had experienced invasion and plunder by enemies (cf.

; ; ; ; ; ).

However, no previous enemy had wrought such total destruction on the city that included the razing of Solomon’s temple.

In 588 King Zedekiah, with some encouragement from the Egyptians, rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar in an attempt to reassert Judah’s independence.

After an eighteen-month siege by the Babylonian army, Jerusalem was taken, looted, and then destroyed.

Many of its inhabitants were put to death, enslaved, exiled, or fled to Egypt.

King Zedekiah and other leaders were taken to Babylon (; ).

6. Theological Values

More devastating to the morale of Judah than the destruction of the temple and loss of independence was the theological crisis created by the catastrophe.

Human suffering always precipitates probing questions about God.

The faith of many Jews must have been shattered by the events.

They had believed that Jerusalem was inviolable and that God’s temple could not be destroyed because he dwelt there (cf.

).

Also he would surely fight the battles of his people.

This may have been prompted by the deliverance of Jerusalem from Sennacherib in 701 B.C. ().

Because of the disastrous defeat, some must have concluded that God had been powerless before the gods of the Babylonian armies (cf.

).

Others, who could not believe God was powerless to help them, concluded that he had abandoned them, an equally devastating conclusion.

However, there must have been a few who realized that recent events were God’s punishment upon a nation that had refused to heed the repeated warnings of the prophets of God’s coming wrath if they did not repent.

Those few began to understand the prophets’ announcements that a purged remnant would be spared to rebuild the nation (; , ; ; ).

Can a book written centuries ago about the downfall of an ancient city be of value or interest to a twentieth-century audience?

This issue was of great concern to the Jews in Babylon years later (cf.

).

It serves as a reminder that God keeps his word concerning judgment.

Also justifies a search for a contemporary message in this ancient book.

Contemporary applications that can be made from the Book of Lamentations include the following: (1) the wickedness of any people will eventually result in the disintegration of that society; (2) we should never take God’s past blessings as assurance that they will continue when we continue in sin; (3) our nation and our churches are subject to God’s judgment when they are no longer faithful; (4) God fulfills his word;

(5) though many solutions for human suffering have been proposed, ultimately the only satisfactory way to deal with it is through deep and abiding faith in God in spite of the circumstances.

God is patient and compassionate, not willing that any should perish (; ); but when all warnings are ignored, nothing remains but his judgment.

We should never presume upon God’s mercy and compassion.

The Book of Lamentations contains the implied warning that sometimes it is too late to weep and repent; nonetheless, God is always faithful (3:23).