SCRIPTURE: Lamentations 5
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
Remember, LORD, what has happened to us; look, and see our disgrace. Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to foreigners. We have become fatherless, our mothers are widows. [5:1-3]
Jeremiah holds their suffering before God’s eyes, and tells Him to remember!
Not just retain the memory, but let the memory lead Him to action.
The reference to the inheritance is a claim to God’s promise to Abraham.
The reference to orphans and widows is an appeal to God’s special grace for the weak and helpless.
Jeremiah is leveraging all that He knows about God in their own favour, clinging to the hope that He will do something.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. [Matthew 5:3-5]
Here Jesus reaffirms God’s promise for land, and compassion for the meek.
He asserts what seems foolish – that those who are in a bad place in this world are in a special place with God, and will one day inherit and eternal place with God.
It takes faith – believing what seems unbelievable, hoping in something that we cannot yet see – to affirm these promises when we are poor, grief-stricken and meek.
Jesus affirms it, and clings to it when all the way to the cross.
Jeremiah tries to hang on to God – You, LORD, reign forever; your throne endures from generation to generation. [Lamentations 5:19]
But he also struggles with it – Why do you always forget us? Why do you forsake us so long? [Lamentations 5:20]
So does Jeremiah believe it, does he fully trust God even at this point?
Restore us to yourself, LORD, that we may return; renew our days as of old unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure. [5:19-22]
It seems to me that he does and he doesn’t – and that’s OK.
This is no superhero faith that we cannot relate to.
He is enduring unspeakable anguish, and if he didn’t doubt, he wouldn’t be human.
I see him desparately grasping for hope in a hopeless situation.
I see him wrestling with God, wanting to hang on but fearing that God may have abaondoned them.
Ever felt that way?
If yes, realize that you are in good company, Jeremiah did too!
And Jesus did too, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” [Matthew 27:46]
PRAYER:
Lord, my faith is even weaker than Jeremiah’s. I wrestle with doubts too. I continue to grasp Your promises and appeal to Your mercy, trusting that one day I too will see it with my own eyes!
I too like the fact that Jeremiah is real about his feelings.He does not pretend that trusting is easy.
I have struggled with the Trust and Obey hymn for that reason. It just makes it sound too simple. Just trust and obey and everything is peachy. This is not even true. I am not saying we should not trust and obey, of course that is the goal. But even when we are able to trust, life can still be very complicated and hard. Even when we trust we may not be happy -except happy in the fact that He has enabled us to trust.
It was your respondent’s quotation of John Sammis’s gospel song that brought me to your site this morning, as I had posted some comments on “Trust and Obey,” today. But I appreciate your insights on the book of Lamentations.
The last verse is troubling to some. Believers aren’t supposed to have such weak faith–so they suppose. The New English Bible actually moderates the sense a little, with “For IF thou hast utterly rejected us, then great indeed has been Thy anger against us.” And in synagogues, when the passage is read, vs. 21 is repeated, after vs. 22, to end the reading on a note of hope.
But I believe you’re quite correct in identifying this as the very real struggles of a great saint of God. We see the same thing happening to David, with his “Will You forget me forever?” (Ps. 13:1). Both men trusted God enough to express frankly their feelings of the moment.
Joni Eareckson Tada, in one of her books, prays, “Thank You, Lord, for the faith to doubt.” It’s a way of affirming God’s patience and understanding. He will not abandon us when we wrestle with uncertainties.
Good job! God bless.
We always need to talk to God.
As God told His people in past to look after the fatherless, the widows and orphans, The prophets prayer is that God would be reminded to do the same. His people are like the widows = forgotten, suffering, poor, fatherless for it seems that God is not listening. The sins of the former generation are upon this people and God has not responded. We are still suffering. How long Lord before You answer? Not only have our fathers sinned, but we also.
We do recognize that You do reign forever and ever. Oh Lord, will You not respond/answer the prayers of Your people? Restore the fortunes of Your people Lord. Show Your mighty presence. Thank You for Your promises and help me walk in Your presence always.
When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word,
What a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will, He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey.
Refrain
Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
Not a shadow can rise, not a cloud in the skies,
But His smile quickly drives it away;
Not a doubt or a fear, not a sigh or a tear,
Can abide while we trust and obey.
Refrain
Not a burden we bear, not a sorrow we share,
But our toil He doth richly repay;
Not a grief or a loss, not a frown or a cross,
But is blessed if we trust and obey.
Refrain
But we never can prove the delights of His love
Until all on the altar we lay;
For the favor He shows, for the joy He bestows,
Are for them who will trust and obey.
Refrain
Then in fellowship sweet we will sit at His feet.
Or we’ll walk by His side in the way.
What He says we will do, where He sends we will go;
Never fear, only trust and obey.
Help me also to live this day