GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LAMENTATIONS 1:1
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We find three crosses in Lamentations. The first and most obvious is the cross that Judah was carrying in its 70-year exile in Babylon. The Lamentations are a description of the pain of this cross directly, and if we encounter a troubling or difficult passage in the book, we only need to remember that it’s first and foremost about the exile, and the Holy Spirit will guide our understanding to that central point: The first cross, which is the suffering of Judah in captivity.
The second cross is the cross that the captivity prefigures, and this is the cross of Christ. Whatever pain, sorrow, and trouble came to Judah during their exile is overshadowed by the agony of Jesus on the cross of Calvary, and we will often be reminded of his sufferings as we meditate on each lament.
The third cross is the daily cross of the Christian. What do I suffer today? How does it compare with the suffering of Judah during their years away from home? Some of my sufferings will pale in comparison to those of the Jews, but each of us knows that there will some days when our private pain will eclipse the Sojourn of the sons of Jacob as we suffer on account of our faith. Our enemy, the devil, roars and waits to attack, sometimes swiping at us with the paw of temptation, and sometimes sinking his teeth into our necks with the teeth of sickness, pandemic, cancer, and death. The devil hates us far more than the Babylonians hated Judah, and it shouldn’t surprise us if the devil’s lies turn to murder as he looks for ways to poison our spirits and trample our joy into dust.
Lamentations is a set of five poems: Each chapter is a separate poem, but all five are also connected; part of the greater whole. The first four chapters are each acrostic poems. This means that in Hebrew, the first word of each verse begins with the letters of the Hebrew alphabet in order, which is why chapters 1, 2 and 4 each has 22 verses, because there are 22 letters in the alphabet in Hebrew. Chapter 3 triples this because each group of three verses all begin with the same letter. Chapter 5 is another matter for another day.
Author: Perhaps Jeremiah or another prophet of the exile.
Date: The years following the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC.
Literary features: Besides being the only book of the Bible composed entirely of laments, the reader should watch for the center of the book, where the focus shifts from sadness and grief to faith and the goodness of God. After this, the book returns to the lament form, dropping even the poetic use of the alphabetic style to simple, somber lines of grief in chapter 5.
Outline:
1, The desolation and misery of Jerusalem (1:1-22)
2, The Lord’s anger with his people (2:1-22)
3, An Israelite’s complaint and consolation (3:1-66)
4, Zion, past and present (4:1-22)
5, An appeal to the Lord (5:1-22)
1:1 How lonely the city sits, once so full of people!
She is a widow– she who was great among the nations.
She was a princess among the provinces. Now she is in the slave gang.
Lamentations begins in bitter irony, as the author dramatically cries out: “How!” The Hebrew exclamation and question ’ecah “How!?” is the first word of chapters 1,2 and 4, and it is the Hebrew title of the book.
The first time “How!” appears in the Bible, it is Moses reminding Israel of where their judges came from “How can I bear your problems and your burdens and your disputes all by myself?” (Deuteronomy 1:11).
Jeremiah looks and sees Jerusalem, no longer inhabited by thousands, but reduced to ruins, inhabited by solitude, emptiness, and nothing. How deserted is the city! No longer a bride, how like a widow is she! How terrible this is! She was a princess! How did this happen? How?
Before we continue, we must not let the word “widow” pass by without comment. This is the only reference in the book to Jerusalem as a bride or a wife (but cf. 5:3), but this sentiment is picked up once again in Revelation 21:1, “the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.” This reflects something Jeremiah had said: “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem: ‘I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the desert, through a land not seen” (Jeremiah 2:2). God remembers the faithful love of the wives of the patriarchs as they followed their men, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, through all of their jackdaw meanderings looking for pastureland for their flocks.
Lamentations is more than a song about the destruction of a city. It’s more than a sad song about a way of life that’s over. It’s more than a dirge. It’s more than… a lamentation. Lamentations is about how a people has been cut off from God.
How could this happen? Look around at the destruction, the devastation. The Jerusalem that was so beautiful, so precious, and sometimes so vain… Look at it now! Ruins and tumbleweeds! Wild dogs dart through the fallen stones and go hungry. When a person is cut off from God, this is the result. Utter ruin. Complete devastation. And sin is the cause. What has cut you off from God? As I think about the same question for myself, let’s think about God’s holy law: “Be holy” (Leviticus 19:2). We don’t live up to that. We don’t live that. The result is that we won’t live. We’re condemned.
Only Jesus Christ can rescue us from that condemnation. Only Jesus can build up what is ruined– what we have ruined. Only Jesus. And he has done it already, on the cross. Jesus, teach us to mourn over our sin. Teach us to grieve about our rebellion and our error. Teach us to repent. And remind us about what you’ve already done: Remind us that our sins are paid for already.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Lamentations 1:1 The Three Crosses