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Lamentations (Part One) on Tue 14 Jul 2009, 12:19 am
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Number of posts: 364
Age: 58
Location: United Kingdom
Profession: Church of Scotland Minister
Marital Status: Married
Registration date: 2007-10-22
Points: 3951
Reputation: 1
Country:
Warning:
The title―Lamentations ― suggests human sadness. There is, however, something else here ― divine faithfulness. At the heart of this short book, we find this great declaration ― ‘Great is thy faithfulness’ (3:23). Knowing God as the God of great faithfulness
involves looking beyond our circumstances and our feelings.
Israel’s circumstances were depressing. Jerusalem had fallen. The
Temple had been destroyed. Depression seemed to be the mood of the
moment. Humanly speaking, things did not look good. Israel had known
better times. The Lord’s people had wandered from the Lord. The
people of God knew little of the power of God. This was not, however,
the whole story. The faithful God had not given up on his wayward
people. He assured them that they would again have good reason to say ― ‘Great is thy faithfulness’. We
could easily miss the five chapters of Lamentations. Hidden away
between the fifty two chapters of Jeremiah and the forty eight chapters
of Ezekiel, they hardly catch the eye. The title ― Lamentations ― hardly grabs our attention. It would be a great pity ― for us ― if we overlooked
this testimony to God’s faithfulness. Here, we have a message of
great contemporary relevance. Lamentations was written at a time,
strikingly similar to our own day. God’s people had been taken
captive. They lived in an alien environment. This is the story of our
own nation in the twenty-first century. We live in a
secularized society, a society in which there is little sense of
God’s presence. Our society is a materialistic society, a society
which has made money its ‘god’. The people of God are a
people under pressure. We are tempted to become prisoners of our
circumstances, prisoners of our feelings. We look at our circumstances,
and we feel ‘desolate’ (1:4) and ‘despised’
(1:11). In our discouragement, we cry to God: ‘O Lord, behold my
affliction, for the enemy has triumphed!’ (1:9). What did God say
to Israel in their time of distress? He spoke to them of his great
faithfulness, his readiness to revive his work. This is the message
which we must hear in our day. It is a message which will draw out from
our hearts that great confession of faith ― ‘Great is thy faithfulness’.
-----
This is the first part of an article which was published in Evangel, 12.1 (1994): 2-4 (the twentieth century has been changed to the twenty-first century).
involves looking beyond our circumstances and our feelings.
Israel’s circumstances were depressing. Jerusalem had fallen. The
Temple had been destroyed. Depression seemed to be the mood of the
moment. Humanly speaking, things did not look good. Israel had known
better times. The Lord’s people had wandered from the Lord. The
people of God knew little of the power of God. This was not, however,
the whole story. The faithful God had not given up on his wayward
people. He assured them that they would again have good reason to say ― ‘Great is thy faithfulness’. We
could easily miss the five chapters of Lamentations. Hidden away
between the fifty two chapters of Jeremiah and the forty eight chapters
of Ezekiel, they hardly catch the eye. The title ― Lamentations ― hardly grabs our attention. It would be a great pity ― for us ― if we overlooked
this testimony to God’s faithfulness. Here, we have a message of
great contemporary relevance. Lamentations was written at a time,
strikingly similar to our own day. God’s people had been taken
captive. They lived in an alien environment. This is the story of our
own nation in the twenty-first century. We live in a
secularized society, a society in which there is little sense of
God’s presence. Our society is a materialistic society, a society
which has made money its ‘god’. The people of God are a
people under pressure. We are tempted to become prisoners of our
circumstances, prisoners of our feelings. We look at our circumstances,
and we feel ‘desolate’ (1:4) and ‘despised’
(1:11). In our discouragement, we cry to God: ‘O Lord, behold my
affliction, for the enemy has triumphed!’ (1:9). What did God say
to Israel in their time of distress? He spoke to them of his great
faithfulness, his readiness to revive his work. This is the message
which we must hear in our day. It is a message which will draw out from
our hearts that great confession of faith ― ‘Great is thy faithfulness’.
-----
This is the first part of an article which was published in Evangel, 12.1 (1994): 2-4 (the twentieth century has been changed to the twenty-first century).
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