Read: Lamentation 3:21-26
Little background history of this book.
In Hebrew, the book is called "ekah" which means “how”. It is a poem composed of 22 verses in each chapter. Scholars traditionally acknowledge that Jeremiah was the one who wrote this book, giving him the title, "The Weeping Prophet". Jeremiah was the prophet who witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem and the First Temple under the Babylonians led by King Nebuchadnezzar II. They impoverished Jerusalem by surrounding it for 30 months, cutting the supply and trade of essential resources such as food. Then they sieged the walls in the 30th month. It's been a massive devastation and slaughter of nobles, princes, elders, priests, prophets, and commoners alike. The streets were filled with dead bodies and extreme hunger made mothers eat their offspring. Jewish people became exiles as they were scattered everywhere. Their temple was destroyed; the elaborate system of ceremony and worship came to an end. They were doomed. We can see here that their situation seemed so hopeless. How could they rise again from this devastation? That is why the author wrote this book as an expression of his great grief. He ended the book with a call for repentance from their sins.
We have some similarities with their situation. Our world seemed to stop during the pandemic. Our day to day routines came to an end or has to be changed against our convenience. Some people lost their job and their career. Some became homeless due to the lockdown. Some people experienced financial problems. Hunger and all these things left us feeling hopeless.
In the middle of the book, the theology of Lamentations reaches its peak when it focuses on the goodness of God. There are 4 things, 4 ideas, and 4 attributes of God that we can hope upon during these difficult times, just like what the prophet Jeremiah did.
"Yet I this call in mind and therefore I have hope." (Lamentation 3:21 )
Jeremiah was reminded who God is and that reminder gave him hope.
So let's see the 4 things that define who God is.
1) GOD IS LOVE - We are never alone.
"Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed" (Lamentation 3:22 NIV)
In NLT translation:
"The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease"
Another translation says, "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases." (ESV)
God's love is covenantal. The moment we become a follower of Jesus Christ, we enter into a covenant with God.
We enter into a covenant relationship with God.
We become God's new creation and children.
We become a part of His family.
And God said that the love that He has for us is the one that is driven by a relationship. Familial love is different from any other love.
We know that there are people who spend time with us during Christmas and we may ask ourselves, "Why do I spend time with them?"
It's because they're family. We may not be close as friends with them but they're a family - crazy uncle, auntie, sibling.
We love them anyway because they're family
That’s covenant love.
Jeremiah finds hope in discovering that God is Love.
Let us not be confused in the bad situation we are in
"Because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed" (Lamentation 3:22)
When we look at our hopeless situations, we sometimes think that they look worse than they actually seem. We are in a season where there are distortions in the way we see reality. We tend to magnify what is wrong than what we can actually do to solve them. We easily get discouraged when something is not going well. But the truth is there is something worse than that, and no matter how bad it goes, we are always covered in God's love.
And so it says, "because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed."
Another thing about God's love is that it is loyal.
A lot of human love is conditional: "I will love you as long as you love me".
Not only is God's love covenantal and relational; it's also everlasting and steadfast. He is loyal. He keeps on loving us even when we don’t deserve it and even when we make mistakes (so comes the disciplines).
So we can be confident to say every day that "I am loved by God".
Summary of God's love
Once we realize that we are greatly and unconditionally loved by God, it will begin to eradicate the feeling of loneliness. The Lord is Love (we are never alone).
In the Christian community, God's love is shown in the way we deal with our fellow believers (as we are called to love others as God loved us).
That is why it is important that parents love their children, that spouses love their partners, and that everyone loves one another as God loves them - because love teaches us that we are never alone.
When we know that someone great and eternal unconditionally loves us (which we can also feel from our fellow believers), it brings significance to our lives and it helps us rise above our circumstances.
So every day we need to remind ourselves that we are loved by God.
You may look at the world and say to yourself, "I don’t know if anyone loves me." Know this - God loves you so much.
With an intimate relationship with God, prophet Jeremiah didn't mind all of the pain, miseries, and sufferings. It's as if he's saying "You know what, I still dare to hope (in God)." Knowing that the Lord's love never ends, we are never alone and hopeless.
2) GOD IS FAITHFUL - We are never forgotten.
Another character of God is being faithful.
"Great is his faithfulness, his mercies begin afresh each morning." (Lamentation 3:23)
The Story of David
"The Lord who delivers me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of these Philistines." (1 Samuel 17:37)
David was saying like this:
"You know what? God has been faithful to me. He is always faithful. Even so, He will be faithful to me today and tomorrow"
3) GOD IS OUR PORTION - We are taken care of.
"I say to myself the Lord is my portion, therefore, I will wait for him" (Lamentation 3:24)
It's like in the Book of Matthew 6:26-31
If God feeds the birds of the air and clothes the flowers of the field, how much more can He do to care for us humans?
God is our portion and he will take care of us. We could lay ALL our worries at His feet
4) GOD IS GOOD- So, seek Him.
"The Lord is good to those who depend on him to those who search for him" (Lamentation 3:25)
"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well." (Matthew 6: 33)
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Let me close this in Romans 15:13.
"Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit"
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