Reading for today:  Lamentations 1-3:36
Original post:  September 1, 2014

Rather ironic that in the U.S. we are celebrating labor day, while in our reading we see people mourning and crying out....remembering the days when they used to celebrate.

I wonder how our habits and practices would be different if we heard from the book of Lamentations more often?   Having read through Isaiah and Jeremiah, and now Lamentations I see that God is just, and He brings punishment for sin in His time.   Probably the kings who set up idols and worshiped them believed that they got away with it.  But what they really did was condemn their own families to horror unlike anything Israel has ever seen before.    If it could be worse than the Holocaust (and I'm not saying it is) this was the time.   Thousands have been killed, all the people, including the priests are now slaves.   I have to imagine that some of those priests were righteous men, but they were killed when the enemy swept through.   Surely there must be some godly people who were left in the city and surrounding towns...people who are now so hungry that they have resorted to cooking their own children.    I can't say for sure that the godly people were even there, or that the godly people resorted to cannibalism.   In fact, I find it unlikely to my way of thinking.   I suspect that most of the people were godless.   Serving God had become out of vogue, a tradition and afterthought, more than a living and active faith.     After all, that's why the city was overrun in the first place.

In 3:22 the author (thought to be Jeremiah, but never identified) begins to praise the Lord.   This is incredible to me.   Imagine a man standing among the ruins of his city, the dead are piled up everywhere, everyone is starving....and still have the presence of mind, and spiritual clarity to say "His mercies are new every morning".    We print that verse on painted boards, surround it with flowers and sunshine and hang it in bright sunny rooms of our homes, celebrating the fact that God loves us beyond measure, and continues to bless us.  

But that realization was birthed in adversity.  It was when the people were on the bottom that they realized God never failed them, not when they were at the top.   When God withdrew his hand of mercy, kindness and protection they realized that "great is His faithfulness"

What a deep and thoughtful response is included in chapter 3!   "wait quietly, sit in silence, there may yet be hope..."    I want to remember this passage and this way of thinking for when adversity comes my way.    I certainly am praying that I never see anything like the Israelites saw....that would mean the country had completely forsaken God.   I want to put this into practice on a smaller scale, with my small problems and difficulties.

I want to be able to thank God for His great mercies even when I am afflicted.  I want to be able to wait quietly...without becoming angry, or bitter or resentful.   It's hard not to complain when you are afflicted, but I pray to be mature enough to endure hardship like a soldier.....like Jesus did.

PR