Lamentations 4

Review/context

Lamentations is a book that teaches how to suffer well, that is to the glory of God.

It also teaches us how to suffer for others: using lamentations to pray for Hogan

5 poems full of emotion yet meticulously structured for maximum effect

Lamentations was written by Jeremiah, the weeping prophet. A way for Jeremiah to cry over the punishment, for Israel to lament over judgement, but also for God to express the feeling of righteously punishing your creations that you dearly love.

Jerusalem use to be a beacon of God’s favor. They were a city on a hill. Impregnable and glorious. The temple was filled with gold and the spirit of God. Now the gold has been torn from the walls and the cedar beams burned to the ground.

Jerusalem is destroyed, the people of God are destroyed.

Removed from the promises and their God has become like an enemy.

Thought of the day: Lamentations says to the depressed and broken hearted, “I’m not going to fix it but I’ll sit with you”

Read all of Lamentations 4

Ch 2 was all about Lamenting in the midst of suffering, when God seems like an enemy and no end is visible

In Ch 4 Jeremiah sets a light at the end of the tunnel. He declares their portion of wrath to be complete and their exile temporal rather than eternal. Yes, they are still suffering however according to the prophet the suffering will end.

Scripture focus

v4: “like ostriches” They lay their eggs on the desert ground where they can be trampled.

“The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully, though they cannot compare

with the wings and feathers of the stork.

14 She lays her eggs on the ground and lets them warm in the sand,

15 unmindful that a foot may crush them, that some wild animal may trample them.

16 She treats her young harshly, as if they were not hers; she cares not that her labor was in vain,

17 for God did not endow her with wisdom or give her a share of good sense.

18 Yet when she spreads her feathers to run,she laughs at horse and rider.

v10: “compassionate women have cooked their own children” people who otherwise were loving have been turned into monsters.

v11: “full vent” the entire portion of His judgement poured out, now they just have to deal with the consequences of it.

v13: “because of the sins of their prophets” They no longer communed with God because their priests and prophets lied about who God was.

v17: “from our towers we watched” Even in the midst of their suffering they looked to man, to Egypt etc. to come save them.

v21-22 “daughter Edom” The Edomites were from the line of Esau, Jacob’s brother. They not only helped the Babylonians take Jerusalem but also cheered in the streets when it fell Ps 137:7 “Remember, Lord, what the edomites did on the day Jerusalem fell. “Tear it down” they cried, “tear it down to its foundations!”

“stripped naked” their sins exposed.

“uz” where Abram and Job were from

Conclusion

Speaking of other books on suffering and suicide I found in my local library:

“These books were like stories of knights in shining armor riding in to fight the evil black dragon with SUICIDE scarred across its face. Stories of battle and victory filled the pages. The dragon was always defeated and the knight lived happily ever after. What about the people who are not victorious. Why are people who are suffering right now, but living (that being its own type of victory) not writing? Telling their story?

It might be self-esteem. Who does not love to tell a story of victory and accomplishment? To that point, who would want to tell a story of a struggle unresolved? Spoiler alert: I have not seen the light and the darkness is not lifted from my eyes. I am not even convinced that cultural narrative is true; that there is a deficiency in living while wishing you did not. If you are down in the trenches come to visit, I am still here. Fighting daily to remember my purpose. Every day is a new day of convincing myself life is worth the suffering ahead. Sometimes I do not succeed and I lay in bed all day pretending to be sick. Frequently I convince myself I am ill just to have an excuse to lay in bed all day, failing in all my responsibilities, which starts the twisted cycle all over again. So as a fellow miner still down in the caves, fighting against the crippling darkness and the claustrophobia of responsibilities, searching for every spec of joy and light I join with you. Not ahead of you in triumph, but beside you.”

I want to die, but I don’t kill myself

The depth of suffering in Lamentations is a lot like Job, to the point of repeating several metaphors and word pictures. In the story of Job you have, so called, friends trying to fix it. Trying to cheer him up and then eventually blaming him for his suffering, telling him to repent for some hidden wrong. But then their’s this one friend that just sits with him through it all until the very end. Lamentations doesn’t try to fix it. It just sits with you and lets you cry.