Today, I am reading and commenting on  Lamentations 1-2.

I write this every year, but I don’t like covering Lamentations because it is rather depressing.  My focus is going to be on what the writer says in chapter two verse 11.  He writes this book of lamentations because his people have been destroyed. Everyone he cares about has suffered, and most of them have died.  Which explains why we must speak God’s words to those we care about, because if they continue to ignore His commands they too will suffer greatly.  If we cannot convince them to listen to God’s Spirit, they will suffer for their sins.  Of course, Jeremiah, who we think authored this book, spent his life telling the people of Jerusalem and Judah God’s words.  He tried to convince them to turn from their sins, but they would not listen to him.  So, even if we do our best to convince people to turn to God, they might not do so, but at least we will have tried.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Lamentations 1-2.

I always struggle with the Book of Lamentations because it seems so unremittingly despondent.   Today I saw something a bit different.  In the middle of lamenting the suffering of the people of Jerusalem, the writer talks about the failure of its prophets to point out their sin and call them to repentance.  So, if like me, you see an echo of what Isaiah and Jeremiah had to say about Israel and Judah in today’s society, then we need to ask ourselves if we are like the prophets to whom the writer refers.  As I read the Old Testament prophets condemning the sins of Israel and Judah, I see  our society committing the same sins, and I see how those sins are destroying our society just as the prophets said they were destroying Israel and Judah.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Lamentations 1-2.

Here the prophet, generally thought to be Jeremiah, laments the destruction of Jerusalem.  The prophet writes of how beautiful Jerusalem had been and how it has been devastated.  However, he warns everyone that Jerusalem’s devastation resulted from the sins of her people.  They had given no thought to the consequences of their action and lived for the moment; sinning without fear of what would happen later.  They listened to prophets who told them what they wanted to hear rather than those who spoke God’s word.  The people thought that because the Temple was there that God would never allow the city to fall.  They turned from God to make friends with other nations (Note: this does not necessarily mean that it was wrong for them to make friends with those nations.  The wrong was in turning from God to do so).  However, when God brought home the consequences of their sins, none of those nations were willing, or able, to come to their aid.  In all of this Jerusalem, and the Kingdom of Judah, are object lessons for all nations and peoples.  If you turn from God and sin against Him when His judgement comes none will stand by you to offer you aid.