Lamentations

LAMENTATIONS Lamentations 1:1-4 June 6, 2021 Jeremiah was born in a tiny, unimportant village, in the south of Israel. His father was a priest named Hilkiah. Not an important man. He had the right bloodline, so once each year for two weeks Hilkiah went to Jerusalem and worked at the Holy Temple. Jeremiah had the right bloodline as well. So, he had every right to become a priest when he was old enough. But, Jeremiah had no interest in religion at all. Not any. He was more than happy to be a do-nothing Preachers Kid, living in a hick town. But, God had other plans. One day, out of the clear blue, God speaks to Jeremiah (1-4-9). "The Lord gave me this message: "I knew you before I formed you in your mother's womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations." "O Sovereign Lord," I said, "I can't speak for you! I'm too young!" The Lord replied, "Don't say, 'I'm too young,' for you must go wherever I send you and say whatever I tell you. And don't be afraid of the people, for I will be with you and will protect you. I, the Lord, have spoken!" Then the Lord reached out and touched my mouth and said, "Look, I have put my words in your mouth!" There is a lot going on right there. Jeremiah was old enough to be a prophet. But, he tried to duck his calling. When he says, 'I'm too young', the words could more accurately be translated as 'I'm too immature'. You don't want me, cause I don't care about being an adult. God says - Oh, you're gonna be my guy. And, then God's words become ominous. You will go where I send you, and say whatever I tell you. If we read Hebrew we would see that sentence very darkly. I'm going to send you to some terrible places, and you will witness to horrible people. Too bad, you're my guy. By the way, you're not allowed to get married. Because, your life is going to be really, really difficult. You shouldn't be a husband or a father. Jeremiah spends the next 30 years as a prophet to three different kings. It is a difficult, angry, contentious ministry. Not at all where a lazy, spoiled, PK saw his life going. During this time in history, there are two superpower nations - Egypt, and Babylon. And, they are duking it out to see who is king of the hill. Israel has the misfortune to be exactly halfway between the two capital cities. They are dead center of the conflict. So, the kings of Israel begin making deals with both nations. When the Egyptian Ambassador comes to town, tell him exactly what he wants to hear, and strike a deal. When the Babylonian Ambassador comes to town, tell him exactly what he wants to hear, and strike a deal. Of course, the king always wants to be assured he's doing the right thing. So, they bring in prophets to tell them they're doing a great job. There are men who have paid a ton of money to go to prophet school, and learn the art of profiting from propheting. These guys tell the king exactly what he wants to hear. God loves you. You are his chosen man, ruling over his chosen people, you cannot lose. And then, along comes Jeremiah. Someone comes to the king and says, this guy says God made him a prophet. He didn't go to school. He doesn't have a great resume. You wanna hear what he has to say? The king says sure! Jeremiah tells the king, you are doomed, and damned. God is angry that you rely on treaties, and backroom deals, instead of trusting him alone. So, God is going to let you die, and the city be destroyed. You have no hope. God is against you. As you can imagine, that's not what the king wanted to hear. So, Jeremiah is arrested. He is beaten with sticks. He is whipped with a whip. And, he is put in stocks. Head, hands, and feet are locked in a stockade. He's left like that for several days to see if he can adjust his attitude. When they let him out, Jeremiah beats feet for his hometown. He's not a fool. I'm done with this prophecy thing. But, God has other plans. He sends Jeremiah back to the king. Once again Jeremiah prophesies that God is against the king, and against Israel.1 God will actually help the Babylonians to destroy Jerusalem and wreck the Holy Temple. Not only is God not going to save us; he will work with our enemies to defeat us. This visit doesn't go any better than the first. If three days in the stocks doesn't convince you, how about a month in jail? The king has plenty of paid prophets telling him everything is going to be hunky dory. If Jeremiah spends a month in prison, maybe he will come around. As soon as they let Jeremiah out, he heads for his hometown. I am done with this prophecy thing. The king dies, and his son becomes king. God tells Jeremiah, go back to Jerusalem, and talk to this king. He probably won't listen, but try anyway. Jeremiah goes to the new king and tells him. God does not love you. You are not his favorite. God is angry with this entire nation for disobedience. You make up your own rules, and laws, then try to pretend like God is guiding you. Your prophets are scam artists. And, you are a fool for surrounding yourself with 'yes' men. This will end poorly. The new king has Jeremiah beaten with sticks. He is whipped with a whip. And, this time, he is thrown in a cistern. A cistern was a big hole in the ground for storing water. This one had about two feet of mud in the bottom, and then another few feet of water left in it. Jeremiah is thrown down. His feet stick in the mud. The water is freezing. He can't rest, he can't sit down, he can't sleep. For days he is left in the pit. As soon as they let Jeremiah out, he heads for his hometown. I am done with this prophecy thing. The king dies, and his son - Zedekiah - becomes the new king. And, God sends Jeremiah back to Jerusalem. This time he tries something different. He writes down his story, and his conversations with God, and his prophecies. Maybe if the king reads what his life is like, he will understand. Jeremiah takes the scroll to the king. Zedekiah reads the first few paragraphs and says - I don't have time for this junk. He takes a knife and cuts off a page. He hands the page to Jeremiah and says, burn it in my fire. Right here, right now, in front of me - burn it. And, Jeremiah does. Page by page the entire book is burned. As soon as he goes home, he re-writes the document. It becomes the book of Jeremiah in our Bible. Jeremiah tells God, that's it, I'm done. I'm not going to Jerusalem again. On January 15th, 587 BC, the Babylonian army arrived at the city of Jerusalem. King Nebuchadnezzar was done being lied to. You lie to my Ambassador, you lie to me. And now, you will suffer. He lays siege to the city. Everyone is locked inside. No one can escape. And, most importantly, no food comes into the city. The siege lasts for almost 2 years. And, it's devastating. With no food coming in, the people resort to cannibalism. When someone starves to death, their family keeps the body, and eats them. In fact, they horde the dead. We don't want our neighbors getting their hands on grandpa. Don't let anyone know he passed; we'll eat him ourselves. On October 21st, 586 BC, the city of Jerusalem falls. The Babylonians breach the city gates. And the army storms the city. The king and his family try to flee the city from a hidden passage. The Babylonians had already found the exit, and they were waiting. King Zedekiah was forced to his knees with his 3 sons in front of him. Each of the boys had their throat cut, while he watched. Then, he was blinded, so the death of his heirs was the last thing he ever saw. Then, everyone in the city who isn't disabled or mentally insufficient is handcuffed and taken away as slaves. This is when Daniel is taken to Babylon to become a prophet of the exile. Jeremiah watches all of the destruction, from the outside. And, he knows exactly what is happening. And, even though the kings had treated him badly; and even though he hated the city; he is heartbroken. It is almost impossible to explain what it meant to a Jew, to see the city - and especially the Holy Temple - pulled down and burned to the ground. He's ready to just sit down and die. It dawns on the people who have not been captured, that Jeremiah was the only real prophet all along. He was the only one who was actually speaking to God. He may be the only man in the world God still loves. So, they kidnap Jeremiah. And, against his will, they take him to Egypt. We will safeguard and defend the last prophet, even though it's not what he wants. During this trip Jeremiah writes Lamentations. It is a funeral poem for Jerusalem. But, more than that, it deals with emotions we all go through, when life goes completely wrong - and God doesn't seem to care. In English we call the book Lamentations. A lamentation is a funeral song. It is sad, and hopeless, and defeated. In the Hebrew Bible the book is called - how.2 The first line of the book reads, "How lonely sits the city, that was once full of people." So, the book is named for the very first word - how. But, more than that the book is named for the question - how. How could this happen? How could God let his happen? How could God be involved in making this happen? How? Have you ever been there? Have you every cried out to God - how/why? We say there are 5 chapters in the book. Actually, there are 5 separate poems. And, each poem is an acrostic.3 The first line of the poem begins with the Hebrew equivalent of 'A'. The second line begins with the Hebrew equivalent of 'B'. And so on. Because there are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet, each of the chapters (each of the poems) has exactly 22 verses. For that reason, we say that Lamentations is literally the A - Z on suffering. It takes a lot of thought, and a lot of work, to write 5 poems that progress from A to Z. But, it was a long trip to Egypt, and Jeremiah was consumed with his grief and mourning. Jeremiah uses a variety of language keys to help us understand what he is feeling. Throughout history fathers and daughters have always had a special and unique relationship. There is a lot of truth in 'daddy's little girl'. Our sons need to toughen up and walk it off. But, we protect and care for our daughters forever. Jeremiah describes God as the Father. But, he makes the city of Jerusalem God's daughter.4 Throughout the book God's daughter is weeping and wailing. And, in the most tender terms possible, she constantly asks, 'why daddy, why?' Doesn't that break your heart? Now, the people of Jerusalem had placed their complete faith in the king, and the government, and the Temple to provide security and prosperity.5 The king has prophets, and the Temple has priests, so whatever they do is going to be right. They can't possibly do anything God doesn't like. So, we don't need to ask God for help, we'll just ask the king. When the city falls, the people can't see their complicity in abandoning God for human protection. They only see betrayal and abandonment by the ones who were supposed to take care of us.6 The king was supposed to take care of us. The priests were supposed to take care of us. God was supposed to take care of us. Jeremiah spends time dealing with whose fault is it, when everything goes wrong? Are we all on our own? Or, is God supposed to help us? What is that relationship? Have you ever felt betrayed, or abandoned, or ignored by God? Have you ever cried out to God - daddy, why? If so, does that mean you've lost your faith? Or, does it mean you never had faith? Or, is it just human nature when things go wrong to vent and scream at the Father? I take comfort from Jesus on the cross. No one had more faith than Jesus. No one. Yet, from the cross he cries out to God the Father - my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? We all face these emotions at some time. I believe our journey through Lamentations will help each of us, the next time our world collapses. When you lose your job. When you lose love. When you lose your health. When you lose faith. You and I will benefit from Jeremiah's hard life, his hard ministry, and 5 poems of weeping. 1 Raymond B. Dillard and Tremper Longman III. An Introduction to the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), 303. 2 Ibid. 306-308. 3 Norman Gottwald, New Interpreter's Study Bible (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2003), 1141. 4 David A. Bosworth, "Daughter Zion and Weeping in Lamentations 1-2," Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, 38 no. 2 (December 2013), 217-237. 5 NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2016), 1321. 6 Diane Bergant, "The Challenge of Hermeneutics: Lamentations 1:1-11: A Test Case," The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 64 no. 1 (January 2002), 1-16. --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ 2