SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/7/2014
7:02 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Introduction
to Lamentations
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
We are going to take a brief look at the book of
Lamentations in this SD. I have to say
that what I do know about Lamentations is that it was written by the prophet
Jeremiah and that it is about his lamenting over the destruction of Jerusalem
and also the temple of the Lord. I’m
sure that it also has to do with his lamenting over the people who lived in the
city too, for Jeremiah was a man who, although he did not realize was being conformed
to be like the Lord Jesus Christ. Warren
Wiersbe writes the following about this fact:
“The greatest reward of ministry is to become like Jesus Christ. When Jesus asked His disciples who people
said He was, they replied, ‘Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others
say Jeremiah or one of the prophets’ (Matt. 16:14 NIV). What a compliment it would be to have people
say, ‘Jesus Christ is like you!’
“The similarities between Jesus and Jeremiah are
interesting. Their approaches to
teaching and preaching were similar, using ‘action sermons’ and a great deal of
imagery from everyday life and from nature.
Both spoke out against the commercial ‘surface’ religion practiced in
the temple. Both were accused of being
traitors to their people, and both suffered physically, even being arrested,
beaten and confined. Both wept over
Jerusalem. Both were rejected by their
relatives. Both knew what it was to be
misunderstood, lonely, and rejected.
Both emphasized the need for faith in the heart, and both rejected the
mere ‘furniture’ of religion that was external and impotent.
“I could go on, but the point is obvious; Jeremiah became
like Jesus because he shared ‘the fellowship of His sufferings’ (Phil.
3:10). In the furnaces of life, Jeremiah
was ‘conformed to the image of [God’s} Son’ that this process was going on in
his life, and he might have denied it if it were pointed out to him, but the
transformation was going on just the same.”
Here
is the Outline that we will follow as we look at Lamentations:
Key theme: Suffering
sometimes comes from the chastening hand of God.
Key verses: Lamentations
2:17; 3:22-25.
I.
The nation’s disgrace. 1:1-22.
II.
The city’s
destruction. 2:1-22.
III.
The prophets
distress. 3:1-66.
IV.
The Lord’s
Discipline. 4:1-22.
V.
The Jewish
Remnants Declaration. 5:1-22.
“Name: The Hebrew title of the book is the first
word of the text—ekah—which is
translated ‘how?’ (see 2:1 and
4:1). The title in the English Bible
comes from the Latin Vulgate lamentia,
‘funeral dirges.’ The book consists of
five laments that Jeremiah wrote after the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem in
587-586 B. C. Lamentations is found in
the third part of the Hebrew Bible, the Megilloth (scrolls), which also contains Ruth, Ester, and Ecclesiastes. In the English Bible, it follows the Book of
Jeremiah.”
I have mentioned that Jeremiah wrote this book because of
his lament over the city of Jerusalem, and the burning of the temple. When did all of this happen? Dr. Wiersbe writes: “Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian army first
invaded Judah in 6-5 BC to punish King Jehoiakim, who had broken his covenant
and revolted against Babylon. At that
time Daniel and his three friends, along with many other Jews, were deported to
Babylon. The army returned in March of
597 when they looted Jerusalem and deported more people. The actual siege of Jerusalem began on
January 15, 588 BC; on July 18, 586, the walls were breached, and on August 14,
the city was set ablaze. Each year on
this date, the Jews remember the event and read Lamentation aloud in their
synagogues.”
One can only imagine how Jeremiah felt to see the city he
loved and the temple he loved being destroyed.
He had been faithful for forty years in ministering the Word of God to
the people of Judah, trying to get them to repent and turn to the Lord, but to
no avail. He must have felt like a
complete failure when the city was destroyed along with the temple. Jeremiah knew that all of this was going to
happen, but there was nothing he could do about it, for it was in the plan of
God to punish the people of Judah because of their sin against the Lord. This was an important event; the destruction
of Jerusalem for it is recorded in four books of the Old Testament. We find it in 2 Kings 25, 2 Chronicles
36:11-21; and Jeremiah 39 and 52.
Dr. Wiersbe brings out some questions that may have been
going through the mind of Jeremiah after seeing the destruction of
Jerusalem. “Where was God? Did He no longer love His people, His house,
and the city of Jerusalem?” We can look at Psalm 137 to find out that the
exiles were having similar feelings too.
The Jews held onto three false hopes which were the Davidic dynasty, the
sacred temple, and the help of Egypt. We
know that God had made a covenant with David that his house would never perish
and that one of His descendants would forever sit on his throne as seen in the
7th chapter of 2 Samuel. God
kept His promise for all we have to do is look at the genealogy of Jesus Christ
in the books of Matthew and Luke to see that this was fulfilled, and all we
have to do is read from the NT that Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of
God. The Jews thought that this covenant
meant that there would always be a descendant of David ruling from Jerusalem
and when the city was burned down this did not come about.
As far as the false hope of the temple we can see from
Jeremiah chapter seven that he told the people of Judah that this was a false
hope. We know that their hope in Egypt
to help them was a false hope, for it is repeated in the OT that their hope was
to be in the Lord and not in other nations to help them out of the trouble that
they got them self into. In Warren
Wiersbe’s Postlude on the book of Jeremiah he touches on this subject when he
writes: “It’s a solemn responsibility
for a people to claim to know God and profess to do His will. It isn’t enough for a nation to put ‘In God
We Trust’ on its currency, to mention God in the pledge to the flag, or to ‘tip
the hat to God’ by quoting the Bible in political campaign speeches. It’s righteousness, not religion, that exalts
a nation. What pleases the Lord is that
we ‘do justly…love mercy….and walk humbly with [our] God’ (Micah 6:8).” I know that Judah and Israel did not follow
this, but it looks like the USA has not either and we should look at what
happened to Judah and Israel to see that the very thing could happen to us.
We only have to look at the 12th chapter of
the book of Hebrews to find out that the chastening of the Lord is actually a
part of His love for those who belong to Him.
I think that we can describe it as tough love.
It is my hope that we begin to look at the actual book of
Lamentations in our next SD as we will be looking at the nations disgrace, at
least begin to look at it. I hope to
begin to look at a part of the book of 2 Thessalonians after looking at the
first chapter of Lamentations as we continue to work our way through the two
letters that Paul wrote to the Thessalonians.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Red Sea” (Exodus 15:4).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who did God give Moses to
help him in bringing the people of Israel out of Egypt?”
Answer in our next SD.
9/7/2014 8:00 AM
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