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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!”
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.
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.”
“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.
“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.
“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.
“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.
“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.”
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.
“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.
“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.
“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.
“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.
“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.”
(ESV)
The mere existence of the book of Lamentations shows us that God takes seriously our need as humans to process and grieve. “In this world, you will have trouble… ” Jesus promised. Trouble comes in many various forms and often at inconvenient times.
In this book, we are reminded by Jeremiah that God can handle our strongest emotions. In fact, we could argue that in our “fix-it” modern-day culture, we rarely take time to mourn and grieve but instead rush directly into prayers that demand what needs to be done. As we look at the sweep of Scripture we see that God does not want us to tolerate or hide pain, but to face it. In order to face it, we must bring it before Him with authenticity. Easier said than done.
Providing hope amongst suffering is not easy or natural. Often our cliche phrases fall short of what is required to truly bring hope. The authenticity of Lamentations is where it really shines. It addresses pain to the fullest while also planting seeds of hope in order to move forward. This would be the case with the context as well since Jeremiah is writing on behalf of his people who have been taken into captivity. They needed to fully process their grief and their loss, but they also needed hope.
Here in Lamentations 1, there is significant grief over the spiritual loss that Judah has suffered. Like a woman stripped naked in public, Judah had been humiliated. The cost was brutal and the burden was heavy. In a sense, a part of Judah had died. The complexity of her situation was that God had not only allowed for this, but He was also the only One to turn to for comfort. If we put this into practical terms we know that there is always a balance between shame and repentance. Just like Adam and Eve, they wanted to hide from God but they also knew He was the only one who could change their current situation.
This is how God uses suffering to draw us near. We question and wrestle, but we also come to realize that if God is in control, He is our only hope. Many Christians have found that their greatest struggle has brought the most significant spiritual growth.
The reality for us today is that no matter what we face, God has allowed it. Whether it’s a situation out of our control that seems completely unfair or a situation that was brought on by our choices, He is over everything. His desire is for us to face it in Him and through Him. There is no other way. That means repentance and restoration run down the same street. We can trust that in Him, all our needs will be met, even in our most severe hardships.
Come to Him in your mess believing that His presence is exactly what you need.
Deuteronomy 33 - Moses gives his final blessings to the tribes of Israel. I was…