You’ve had those days when everything just seems to go wrong, the alarm fails—again! The kids are bickering about absolutely everything, your spouse runs out the door, coffee in hand, without a backward glance at the breakfast you rushed to prepare, and to add insult to injury, the car won’t start, and it’s your turn to drive the carpool. And so, the lamenting begins.
OK, the word lament is one not often used in today’s conversations. I know that it has something to do with making a laundry list of ones’ complaints, but I’m not sure of the exact definition, so let’s look it up. Ah…to complain or show dissatisfaction: complain, grumble, bemoan, deplore. That’s a pretty modern adaptation of the word, but in former societies it was used to express deep sadness: to mourn, grieve, weep, feel sorrow.
The early morning scenario depicted above is all too common in many of our lives. When havoc overtakes the peace of our households, we often tend to overreact, and that’s when the lamenting begins—Lord, why did you let this happen today? You know I have a very tight schedule. You and I both know that our society is a bit spoiled, and we like to have it our way. When things slide a little off track, that’s when the lamenting begins. Well, I’m here to tell you, there are those who’ve had it a lot, lot worse.
This past week, I have run headlong into the same verses and passages from Lamentations multiple times. This is one of those books from the Bible that I haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about. Just the name is a turn-off. But after the repeated references, I had gotten to the book of Lamentations, and I decided maybe there was a reason why God kept pointing me in that direction, a discovery I needed to make.
So I sat down with my Bible (app) and read all five chapters.
Most historians attribute the book of Lamentations to the prophet Jeremiah, while others feel it is a combination of his words and those of a group of contemporaries. Whoever the author was, the nation of Israel, and specifically, Jerusalem, was given a voice to describe the horrors of their downfall at the hands of the Babylonians. Sometimes Israel speaks as a woman and sometimes as a man, but always lamenting the destruction of temples, the murder of priests, of fathers and sons, all cut down and left to rot in the streets. She speaks of the rape of women and girls, and even goes so far as to describe mothers boiling and eating their own starved children….pretty gruesome stuff, isn’t it?
The suffering depicted in those chapters was far worse than anything I can even imagine. It’s the story of the punishment wrought by God on Israel for her disobedience. It’s what happened when sin and disobedience became the accepted order of the day. God gave free rein to her enemy, and Israel suffered mightily. Jerusalem toppled.
Yet, buried in the midst of all these descriptions of death and destruction, four short verses, spoken by the nation of Israel through an anonymous author, rang out loud and clear, and I think God wanted us to hear the same message in the midst of these times we’re enduring;
Yet hope returns when I remember this one thing: The Lord’s unfailing love and mercy still continue, Fresh as the morning, as sure as the sunrise, The Lord is all I have, and so in him I put my hope. Lamentations 3:21-24 GNT
Whether nations or individuals, God always offers us a way out. It may look different than what we think we want. It may involve some suffering on our part. But, if we hold true to our faith in the God who created us and the Son who hung on a cross for us, mercies will begin afresh, morning will come, and we’ll be able to see the light again. Let’s hope we never have to face the persecution endured by Israel, but we will face trials in this life. The hope-filled verses tucked into the middle of the horrors depicted in Lamentations can be our lifeline…if we let them.
