Things you Need to Know... from Lamentations
Notes
Transcript
The Lord’s Prayer for Ukraine and for our nation
9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread, 12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever, amen
The idea that the country you love could be destroyed is very foreign to us. We live in relative safety and protection.
How should we as believers seek the Lord at times like this?
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. 5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns.
The MacArthur Bible Commentary - Lamentations
The Title
Lamentations, which conveys the idea of “loud cries,” was derived from a translation of the title as found in the Latin Vulgate and the Septuagint.
The Hebrew exclamation “How!” (which expresses “dismay”; 1:1; 2:1; 4:1) gives the book its Hebrew title.
However, the rabbis began to call the book “loud cries” or “lamentations” early on (cf. Jer. 7:29).
No other entire OT book contains only laments, as does this distressful dirge, marking the funeral of the once-beautiful city of Jerusalem (cf. 2:15).
This book keeps alive the memory of that city’s fall (586 B.C.) and teaches all believers how to deal with suffering.
Author and Date
The author of Lamentations is not named within the book, but there are internal and historical indications that it was Jeremiah. For example, the LXX introduces Lamentations 1:1, “And it came to pass, after Israel had been carried away captive … Jeremiah sat weeping (cf. 3:48, 49) … lamented … and said.” Elsewhere, God told Jeremiah to have Judah lament (Jer. 7:29). Jeremiah also wrote laments for Josiah (2 Chr. 35:25).
Jeremiah wrote Lamentations as an eyewitness (cf. 1:13–15; 2:6, 9; 4:1–12), possibly with Baruch’s secretarial help (cf. Jer. 36:4; 45:1), during or soon after Jerusalem’s fall in 586 B.C. It was mid-July when the city fell and mid-August when the temple was burned. Likely, Jeremiah saw the destruction of the walls, towers, homes, palace, and temple; he wrote while the event remained painfully fresh in his memory, but before his forced departure to Egypt c. 583 B.C. (cf. Jer. 43:1–7).
The language used in Lamentations closely parallels that used by Jeremiah in his much larger prophetic book. Cf. (1) 1:2 with Jeremiah 30:14; (2) 1:15 with Jeremiah 8:21; (3) 1:6 and 2:11 with Jeremiah 9:1, 18; (4) 2:22 with Jeremiah 6:25; and (5) 4:21 with Jeremiah 49:12).
Background and Setting
15 But just as all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so the Lord will bring upon you all the evil things, until he has destroyed you from off this good land that the Lord your God has given you, 16 if you transgress the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them. Then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good land that he has given to you.”
The prophetic seeds of Jerusalem’s destruction had already been sown through Joshua, 800 years earlier (Josh. 23:15, 16).
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. 5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns.
1 By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. 2 On the willows there we hung up our lyres. 3 For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” 4 How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land? 5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill! 6 Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy! 7 Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem, how they said, “Lay it bare, lay it bare, down to its foundations!” 8 O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed, blessed shall he be who repays you with what you have done to us! 9 Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!
an eye for an eye, the justice of God, you reap what you sow
Now, for over forty years, Jeremiah had prophesied of coming judgment and been scorned by the people for preaching doom (c. 645–605 B.C.).
When that judgment came on the disbelieving people from Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian army, Jeremiah still responded with great sorrow and compassion toward his suffering and obstinate people.
Lamentations relates closely to the Book of Jeremiah, describing his anguish over Jerusalem being judged by God for unrepentant sins.
In the book that bears his name, Jeremiah had predicted this calamity in chapters 1–29.
In Lamentations, he concentrates in more detail on the bitter suffering and heartbreak that was experienced in Jerusalem’s devastation (cf. Ps. 46:4, 5).
So important was Jerusalem’s destruction that the facts are recorded in four separate OT chapters: 2 Kings 25; Jeremiah 39:1–11; 52; and 2 Chronicles 36:11–21.
All 154 verses have been recognized by the Jews as a part of their sacred canon. Along with Ruth, Esther, Song of Solomon, and Ecclesiastes, Lamentations is included among the OT books of the Megilloth, or “five scrolls,” which were read in the synagogue on special occasions. Lamentations is read on the ninth of Ab (July/August) to remember the date of Jerusalem’s destruction by Nebuchadnezzar. Interestingly, this same date later marked the destruction of Herod’s temple by the Romans in A.D. 70.
(1) God’s judgment in response to Judah’s sin
The chief focus of Lamentations is on God’s judgment in response to Judah’s sin. This theme can be traced throughout the book (1:5, 8, 18, 20; 3:42; 4:6, 13, 22; 5:16).
Lamentations 4 - We forget
(2) God’s compassion in response to Judah’s sin
A second theme is the hope found in God’s compassion (as in 3:22–24, 31–33; cf. Ps. 30:3–5). Though the book deals with disgrace, it turns to God’s great faithfulness (3:22–25) and closes with grace as Jeremiah moves from lamentation to consolation (5:19–22).
(3) God’s sovereignty in response to Judah’s sin
God’s sovereign judgment represents a third current in the book. His holiness was so offended by Judah’s sin that He ultimately brought the destructive calamity. Babylon was chosen to be His human instrument of wrath (1:5, 12, 15; 2:1, 17; 3:37, 38; cf. Jer. 50:23). Jeremiah mentions Babylon more than 150 times from Jeremiah 20:4 to 52:34, but in Lamentations he never once explicitly names Babylon or its king, Nebuchadnezzar. Only the Lord is identified as the One who dealt with Judah’s sin.
(4) Jeremiah’s prayers in response to Judah’s sin and God’s judgment
Fourth, because the sweeping judgment seemed to be the end of every hope for Israel’s salvation and the fulfillment of God’s promises (cf. 3:18), much of Lamentations appears in the mode of prayer:
(1) 1:11, which represents a wailing confession of sin (cf. v. 18);
(2) 3:8, with its anguish when God “shuts out my prayer” (cf. 3:43–54; Jer. 7:16);
(3) 3:55–59, where Jeremiah cries to God for relief;
(4) 3:60–66, where he seeks for recompense to the enemies (which Jer. 50; 51 guarantees); and
(5) 5:1–22, with its appeal to heaven for restored mercy (which Jer. 30–33 assures), based on the confidence that God is faithful (3:23).
(5) Jesus’ response to the sin of Jerusalem and the coming judgment
A fifth feature relates to Christ. Jeremiah’s tears (3:48, 49) compare with Jesus’ weeping over the same city of Jerusalem (Matt. 23:37–39; Luke 19:41–44). Though God was the judge and executioner, it was a grief to Him to bring this destruction. The statement, “In all their affliction, He [God] was afflicted” (Is. 63:9), was true in principle. God will one day wipe away all tears (Is. 25:8; Rev. 7:17; 21:4) when sin shall be no more.
The temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD
(6) Our response to our sinfulness and the coming judgment
An implied warning to all who read this book encompasses a sixth major idea. If God did not hesitate to judge His beloved people (Deut. 32:10), what will He do to the nations of the world who reject His Word?
If God did not hesitate to judge his chosen people, what will happen to those who reject his word and his savior?
22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” 25 The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
To those who seek forgiveness, to those who repent - the Lord is faithful
To those who hope in him, to those who wait for him and seek him - the Lord is your Savior
In these days of confused situations
In this night of a restless remorse
When the heart and the soul of a nation
Lay wounded and cold as a corpse
From the grave of the innocent Adam
Comes a song bringing joy to the sad
Oh, your cry has been heard and the ransom
Has been paid up in full, be ye glad
Oh, be ye glad
Oh, be ye glad
Every debt that you've ever had
Has been paid up in full by the grace of the Lord
Be ye glad, be ye glad, be ye glad
Now from your dungeon a rumor is stirring
Though you've heard it again and again
Now but this time your cell keys are turning
And outside there are faces of friends
Though your body lay weary from wasting
And your eyes show show the sorrow they had
Oh the love that your heart is now tasting
Has opened the gate be ye glad
Oh, be ye glad
Oh, be ye glad
Every debt that you ever had
Has been paid up in full
By the grace of the Lord
Be ye glad, be ye glad, be ye glad
So be like lights
On the rim of the water
Giving hope in a storm sea of night
Be a refuge amidst the slaughter
Of these fugitives in their flight
For you are timeless and part of a puzzle
You are winsome and young as a lad
And there is no disease or no struggle
That can pull you from God
That can pull you from God
Oh, be ye glad
Oh, be ye glad
Every debt that you ever had
Has been paid up in full
By the grace of the Lord
Be ye glad, be ye glad, be ye glad
Oh, be ye glad
Oh, be ye glad
Be ye glad, be ye glad, be ye glad