Lamentations 1 | Overview of Lament
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Intro
Good morning church family! how are y’all? Y’all good? Good.
Before we begin I do want to say thank you as always for loving my family and I, and for letting me preach when Randy is not here. I really do appreciate it.
Also, and she may not like that i’m doing this, but I want to thank Josie for leading in Matthew’s spot, she leads us on Wednesday nights and does a great job. I can’t thank her enough. I t took some guts to get up here, she not really a crowd person. So all of that, thank you for letting students kinda take over this morning. So anyways, thank you church family.
So let’s take a pole really quick, raise your hand if you love to have a plan for when you doing things. Like when you wake up do you plan your day out? or if you’re an over achiever do you plan your day out the night before? —
Okay, other side of the coin? who is not a planner? You are fly by night, just roll with it person. Hates plans.
Okay good to know.
For some of you you might be like me, some things need a plan and some things you can roll with. I’m not really a type A person, i’m a type C what happens sometimes.
But sometimes, things need to be planned out. So I can be both. If i’m on vacation at the beach, the plan is to be on the beach. I’ll plan to do nothing and get out out there before anyone else. That’s where the planning side of myself really shines when I’m at the beach.
But anyways, one way or another, we al kind of like to have a plan, not many of us thrive in just open Chaos, like maybe middle school boy when they unpack their bags at Fuge, that seems to be open chaos, were people some how don’t die, or lose everything.
But we like plans, we like to make the plans or know that some one has a plan or someone is making the plan. Our society is built on someone planning to do things. Everything has a plan of some sort.
So this morning we are starting a new series on the book of Lamentations, so if you have a bible please flip over to the book of lamentations, it’s just after the book of Jeremiah. So if you get to Ezekiel you’ve gone too far.
If you don’t have a bible there should be one in the pew, go ahead and grab that, if you don’t have a bible at home take that bible with you, thats our gift to you, we would love for you to have one. We can always buy more bibles.
So Book of Lamentations is where we are going to be this morning,
BUT we aren’t starting there. We need to have a good idea of what is going on here in Lamentations, so to do that, we need to actually look at something in Jeremiah.
because Lamentations as a book is weird. Earlier this year I think I made a joke about having never heard a sermon from the book of Lamentations. I have never actually heard it preached before.
Let’s be honest, it’s not exactly something that is gonna get preachers jazzed about preaching. “What are you preaching on? - total desolation.” oh....
Raise your hand if you remember anyone preaching out of Lamentations. Some of you might.
This is the book of lament, and we are baptists, we don’t talk about Lament very much, we don’t like to think about having to lament, i’m not even sure if we have a good grasp on what Lament is.
So that is why we need to understand the context of the book for it to make sense.
So this morning, we are going to look at the whole first chapter, and we are going to unpack what Lament is.
But to do that we need to start in Jeremiah.
So put your finger in lamentations and flip over to Jeremiah. 29:11. this is probably the most famous verse in Jeremiah.
Some of you already know the passage before you get to it.
This is a tshirt passage. Looks great on a tshirt, some of you have in your insta bio, Ace probably has this in a frame some where. This looks great next to a live laugh love picture. So let me read this, Jer. 29:11
11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Boom, that’s a tshirt, who doesn’t want that verse on a tshirt, who doesn’t want to have that on a sign at their kids graduation?
we love that verse?
We love that it says God has a great plan for you, some translations say to prosper you. no evil, you have a future and hope.
Easily a top ten Old Testament verse.
And i’m not here to tell you that the verse is wrong, God does have a plan, for our good.
But it my not be what we would want but it will always be what we need.
So in order to understand the book of lamentations, the book of lament, the dirge of death, as the hebrew translates to the greek, or straight up the hebrew, the book of tears, we need to understand this verse rightly and in its right context.
Context
So, Jeremiah, wrote both of these books, Jeremiah and Lamentations. and probably he wrote them at the same time, specifically he wrote Jeremiah 29 probably around the same time he was writing Lamentations.
Who is Jeremiah?
So Who is this Jeremiah guy? Jeremiah was one of the prophets of Israel, one of the advisors and friend of the king. And Jeremiah is a super interesting guy and has a job none of us want. His was appointed by God to be the prophet of Israel, to tell the people what the Lord said, to them.
That was his job, to be the voice of God to the people of Israel, and at this time they have been rebellious toward God.
So God gives Jeremiah a vision of doom and destruction coming toward Israel. Desolation is upon them. The God tells Jeremiah, go pronounce doom on your people.
And jeremiah is like idk about that God, and God tells him, to not be dismayed.
So this was his job to go and tell the people what God is telling them. and this is what Jeremiah was told by God to tell them
He Shows up to tell them and their like, so, what’d God say? Can’t wait
2 “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the Lord,
“I remember the devotion of your youth,
your love as a bride,
how you followed me in the wilderness,
in a land not sown.
3 Israel was holy to the Lord,
the firstfruits of his harvest.
All who ate of it incurred guilt;
disaster came upon them,
declares the Lord.”
Then a little more, God tells him to say, Jer. 2:5
5 Thus says the Lord:
“What wrong did your fathers find in me
that they went far from me,
and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?
This is how the book opens, the is how Jeremiah’s ministry begins, doom. desolation. and the pronouncement goes on for like 15-20 chapters then there is a lul, then picks back up.
And so this is Jeremiah, the one wrote Jer. 29:11
11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
And that verse comes in the middle of Jeremiah recording the desolation of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. that verse comes in the middle of God tell Jeremiah that the people of Israel will only be dispersed for 70 years.
And so when you read, “for I know the plans I have for you.” Know that the destruction was a part of the plan to restore Isreal.
Israel had been rebellious, so God had to in, his perfect Justice, deal with the sin of His people. So he allowed their destruction and dispersement at the hands of Babylon.
And so when Jeremiah is writing the words from God down, saying “for I know the plans i have for you.” we find Jeremiah in a season of lament.
So flip back to Lamentations 1, I want to read the whole chapter. Because this is poem, given to Jeremiah while he lament and deals with his grief.
So let me pray for our time in the word this morning pray with me.
pray
Read this with me, and while we do this read this like these are your words on your worst day.
1 How lonely sits the city
that was full of people!
How like a widow has she become,
she who was great among the nations!
She who was a princess among the provinces
has become a slave.
2 She weeps bitterly in the night,
with tears on her cheeks;
among all her lovers
she has none to comfort her;
all her friends have dealt treacherously with her;
they have become her enemies.
3 Judah has gone into exile because of affliction
and hard servitude;
she dwells now among the nations,
but finds no resting place;
her pursuers have all overtaken her
in the midst of her distress.
4 The roads to Zion mourn,
for none come to the festival;
all her gates are desolate;
her priests groan;
her virgins have been afflicted,
and she herself suffers bitterly.
5 Her foes have become the head;
her enemies prosper,
because the Lord has afflicted her
for the multitude of her transgressions;
her children have gone away,
captives before the foe.
6 From the daughter of Zion
all her majesty has departed.
Her princes have become like deer
that find no pasture;
they fled without strength
before the pursuer.
7 Jerusalem remembers
in the days of her affliction and wandering
all the precious things
that were hers from days of old.
When her people fell into the hand of the foe,
and there was none to help her,
her foes gloated over her;
they mocked at her downfall.
8 Jerusalem sinned grievously;
therefore she became filthy;
all who honored her despise her,
for they have seen her nakedness;
she herself groans
and turns her face away.
9 Her uncleanness was in her skirts;
she took no thought of her future;
therefore her fall is terrible;
she has no comforter.
“O Lord, behold my affliction,
for the enemy has triumphed!”
10 The enemy has stretched out his hands
over all her precious things;
for she has seen the nations
enter her sanctuary,
those whom you forbade
to enter your congregation.
11 All her people groan
as they search for bread;
they trade their treasures for food
to revive their strength.
“Look, O Lord, and see,
for I am despised.”
12 “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?
Look and see
if there is any sorrow like my sorrow,
which was brought upon me,
which the Lord inflicted
on the day of his fierce anger.
13 “From on high he sent fire;
into my bones he made it descend;
he spread a net for my feet;
he turned me back;
he has left me stunned,
faint all the day long.
14 “My transgressions were bound into a yoke;
by his hand they were fastened together;
they were set upon my neck;
he caused my strength to fail;
the Lord gave me into the hands
of those whom I cannot withstand.
15 “The Lord rejected
all my mighty men in my midst;
he summoned an assembly against me
to crush my young men;
the Lord has trodden as in a winepress
the virgin daughter of Judah.
16 “For these things I weep;
my eyes flow with tears;
for a comforter is far from me,
one to revive my spirit;
my children are desolate,
for the enemy has prevailed.”
17 Zion stretches out her hands,
but there is none to comfort her;
the Lord has commanded against Jacob
that his neighbors should be his foes;
Jerusalem has become
a filthy thing among them.
18 “The Lord is in the right,
for I have rebelled against his word;
but hear, all you peoples,
and see my suffering;
my young women and my young men
have gone into captivity.
19 “I called to my lovers,
but they deceived me;
my priests and elders
perished in the city,
while they sought food
to revive their strength.
20 “Look, O Lord, for I am in distress;
my stomach churns;
my heart is wrung within me,
because I have been very rebellious.
In the street the sword bereaves;
in the house it is like death.
21 “They heard my groaning,
yet there is no one to comfort me.
All my enemies have heard of my trouble;
they are glad that you have done it.
You have brought the day you announced;
now let them be as I am.
22 “Let all their evildoing come before you,
and deal with them
as you have dealt with me
because of all my transgressions;
for my groans are many,
and my heart is faint.”
I know that took a second, but we need to see the scope of Jeremiah’s lament and mourning. Because it is vast, it is all encompassing. I’m not sure if Jeremiah skips a bad emotion. They’re all there.
Think of the worst day anyone has ever had, and it also be a national tragedy.
mourning the city
So when you read this, and you ask, what is he mourning?
He mourning the death of His people and the death of the city of Jerusalem.
literally verse 1, the princess has become slave.
This is Jerusalems funeral song.
Jeremiah is writing this like watching someone go from the top of their game to dying in the gutter destroyed and ruined.
He sees this as almost like a Queen becoming a prostitute and being murdered by a client and left to die in the street.
This was like watching a friend die slowly of addiction and being utterly ruined in the process.
Jeremiah had told them, Jeremiah had warned them, yet the people of Israel continued to rebel against God. doing what was right in their own eyes.
Jeremiah was called to tell the people of the coming wrath, turn or be destroyed. Knowing that they wouldn’t turn, knowing they would be destroyed.
The Babylonians have come a wrecked Israel’s world.
So this is the emotion Jeremiah finds himself in when he hears God say “I know the plans I have for you”
This was in the plan. This was a part of the plan.
And so Jeremiah is lamenting.
What is Lament?
And so we have to ask ourselves, what is lament?
We don’t preach much from this Book of Lamentations, and neither do we use the word lament.
You know when you ask someone, “how’s it going” no on is usually like, i’m in a season of lament brother.
that would catch us off guard.
but Jeremiah, most of his life is a season of Lament. Jeremiah like we said, has a rough job in life, tell everyone they’re going to die awful deaths. yay!
And Jeremiah he also doesn’t really like His job or what he’s telling the people.
You should read some of Jeremiah’s talks with God. He’d be the guy in bible study that you want to ask some qualifying questions of when he got done praying. I’d love to have been in a small group with him.
just example. imagine with me. you’re sitting there, in Sunday school,
you go around the room everyone has something to pray for.
it get’s to Jeremiah and you’re head is bowed. and he starts to pray.
7 O Lord, you have deceived me,
and I was deceived;
you are stronger than I,
and you have prevailed.
I have become a laughingstock all the day;
everyone mocks me.
you’re kinda open your eyes and peak out. scoot over just a little bit,
hey buddy, everything all right at home?
But that is Lament right there.
For most of Jeremiah’s life, his world is turned upside down, no one listens to him. he is mocked by his friends, if he really even has any.
So look around at us, this world is broken right? small scale. who has the 13WMAZ app on their phone and it sends you notifications.
It’s almost every day now, someone is being killed in macon, someone somwhere is getting shot, or you know body found.
and we glance over that, just shrug it off.
but look at the world, there is war in Europe that hasn’t been seen since mid 20th century. I don’t even know what monkey pox is, but it’s a thing. genocide is happening in China. and we don’t know what to do.
we look at our own lives, and everyone in here is feeling some sort of hurt from this year and the past couple years.
bad things are happening to people, to people we love and care about.
and we will sit there and ask God, why? we cannot see how some of these things are a part of the plans you have made. for out good?
I deal mainly with students. and I’ve got some students, hurting for their friends and family asking God why? if you’re good, why is there so much suffering?
and we ask these questions, God where are you?
and our questioning sometimes turns to anger and we get angry with God.
We get angry with God. and that’s okay. That is Jeremiah. he get’s angry with God.
and that is where we find lament.
Lament finds us when we have emotions towards God that we normally wouldn’t want to have, or feel like we should not have.
and let me tell you, we serve a big God, and he can handle our questioning and emotions. He created emotions, and so if you are angry at God, tell him. pray some of these prayers in
You lost your job for no reason, bring it to God. Family member died senselessly, bring it God. your marriage is rough right now, bring it to God.
This is where we find Lament. This is where Lament finds us.
This is what Lament is, bringing our emotions, bringing our suffering to God.
Lament is where we look at God and ask Him, why? if you have these plans for me, why this?
CS Lewis has a great quote about God’s plans for us, and really how we lament.
He writes, “We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.”
That is lament — wondering how painful the best is going to be.
So I have a few things I want us to see this morning about Lament. As we start this series on Lamentations I don’t want you to tune out because it Lamentations or because it might be sad, or because this doesn’t sound very baptist of us.
Lament is a Gift
So the first thing I want you to see is that Lament is a gift. And I know that sounds like I’m crazy.
Like you’re sitting there, i really don’t want Austin to give me a birthday gift. Happy Birthday, i bottle sadness for you.
But Lament is a gift that the Lord gives us. The Lord has given us a place to express ourselves to Him.
and think about that, The Almighty God of all things has created a way for you to try and get your point across to Him. God almighty has created a way for you to express yourself to him. He didn’t have to. He could have told us to bottle that right up and suppress that until it kills us of stress. and he wold have been just in doing so.
But He didn’t, he created a space for us. He invites us to come to his table angry and and upset. He invites us to come sit with Him and eat when we don’t feel like it. He invites us to sit beside Him and ask Him why. Lament is a gift, Lament is an invitation to see God for who He is. to know God deeper.
Jeremiah has written his whole book, plus the book of Lamentations. In his Lament is is asking God why, he is expressing to God how he feels. and not to get ahead but he sees God working through the end and asking God to restore him, and that he may join Him.
Lament as a Discipline
So Lament is a gift, but Lament is also a spiritual discipline.
Look around the world, see its decay and its brokenness.
Too often we are desensitized to the decay of the world, to the brokenness around us, to how bad the world really is.
Think about it, even in just the media we consume, we consume so much news everyday that our ancestors would have gone crazy, and we are kinda going crazy. a news cycle is now like 3 hours? if that, where it used to be day, or a week.
But we see the news and it is just full of sin and brokenness, death and destruction. Rarely is there good news to be found. Like after we are done here, pull up Fox, CNN, BBC, New York Time, WMAZ, where ever you get your news, and just read the headlines, anything good there in the front page? or is it just awful?
and what do we do? We just close the app. We just brush it off, give it the ole, Meh.
So how do we lament? Look around, we have to become aware of the world. We have become desensitized to brokenness.
i’m reading this book right now on spiritual formation, and the author gives an illustration about these fish, two younger fish are just swimming along, and an older fish swims up and and ask hey boys, hows the water today? And the two younger fish are confused as to what that means, or what water is.
We need to be that older fish asking how the water is, take inventory of the world, notice what is influencing you and what are we ignoring.
See lament centers us — lament opens our eyes to what breaks the heart of the Lord.
Lament opens our eyes to what is broken in this world.
When we lament, ask the Lord to break your heart for what breaks His, ask Him how you can join in His mission to restore all things.
Lament brings us to the table to join God in his mission of restoration.
Lament breeds Hope
So Lament is a spiritual discipline, Lament is a Gift and invitation. Next thing we need to see is Lament breeds Hope.
Stay with me, because we just read all of chapter 1, and that was pretty hopeless. Ain’t much hoping going on there.
But if we look through the whole book, we see Jeremiah long and hope for restoration. This is the story of the bible.
this is the story of God and His people. to redeem and restore. yes God knows the plans, some of those plans are going to be no fun, they will cause us to lament.
But the Lord from day was planing to redeem and restore the brokenness of the world.
Lament wakes us up to the reality that the world is truly broken, and lament wakes us up to the reality that we serve a mighty all powerful God who has a plan to redeem and restore the world.
That we can join him in His mission of restoration and redemption of all things.
Christ is with us in suffering and is the hope we cling to
So Lament a Gift, Discipline, and Hope. the last thing i want us to see this morning is the hope Lament brings us in embodied in Christ.
Christ is with us in our suffering and with us in our lament and is the hope that we cling to.
The author of Hebrews tell us that in Christ we have an empathetic High Priest, one who has lamented with and for us. We have seated at the right hand, a Savior who knows what it is like to suffer as we do and more.
in the Gospels, we see Jesus as he approaches Jerusalem, he echo’s Jeremiah, and begin to weep, begin to lament over the city because he knew that one, destruction was coming to the city, by the hands of the Romans, and two, the Jewish people were going to miss who he was.
Christ knows what it means to lament, and ask God, why. In the Garden Jesus asks The Father, if there is another way, let that happen. Of Course there was no other way for God plan or redemption and restoration to come about. Christ had to Die.
But Christ did not only just die, Christ was raised. that is where our hope is. Christ was raised and from that point on is redeeming and restoring the world through the mission of His people. and we get to join in with that. We get to be a people who has hope.
We have the Hope that is Christ can raise from the dead, God can restore all things, if he can restore Christ to life, he can restore this world to glory. The new heaven and the new earth are coming. the kingdom is at hand and is now here.
One day we will lament no longer and our hope will become reality.
So Church, what do we do from here?
if you are a follower of Christ
Look around us, ask the lord to show you what breaks His heart, and find a way to join Him in the mission of restoration.
Church, bring your emotions and your question to God, he’s a big God and can handle you not being happy with Him sometimes, bring them and see if He does not sit beside you.
Church do not lose sight of the Hope we have, for we are not a people who have no hope, no, Church we are the only people have hope that cannot be taken.
Let that hope fill you let that hope move you. Share that hope with the world. Share the good news of the hope we have.
For those of you in here who may not be a follower of christ, can I tell you that with out Christ, you have no hope. you may think you have hope, but there is none. Without Christ, the book of lamentations stops at Chapter 1, funeral for the city, funeral for a friend. no hope there.
but the good news is that, Christ died for you. Christ died so that you can live and join Him in the mission of restoration and one day you will be his people and He will be your God.
the Good news is that Christ is restoring all things and he wants to restore you. I’m not saying suffering will end, honestly, suffering might increase, but you will have a hope that will one day become reality.
Your lament will turn to joy and your ashes to beauty.
So consider your life with hope and without hope.
if there is anyone who needs to pray or talk, come see me, or find a friend, or find a student, they can help you too. but Come see Christ as Lord, Come see Christ as King.
y’all pray with me.