Grace Baptist Church

Blessings from God’s Word
by Pastor Vogel
August 30, 2010

Lamentation describes the funeral of a city. It is a tearstained portrait of the once proud Jerusalem, now reduced to rubble by the invading Babylonian army. In a five poem dirge, Jeremiah exposes his emotions. A death had occurred; Jerusalem lies barren.

Jeremiah writes his lament in acrostic or alphabetical fashion. Beginning each chapter with the first letter (aleph) he progresses verse by verse through the Hebrew alphabet, literally weeping from A to Z. And then, in the midst of this terrible holocaust, Jeremiah triumphantly cries out, “Great is thy faithfulness!” (Lamentation 3:23). In the face of death and destruction, with life seemingly coming apart, Jeremiah turns tragedy into a triumph of faith. God had never failed him in the past. God has promised to remain faithful in the future. In the light of the God he knows and loves, Jeremiah finds hope and comfort.

This weeping prophet is a figure of Christ, the Prophet who wept over the same city six centuries later. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killed the prophets, and stoned them which are sent unto thee, how often I would have gathered you as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.”

Like Christ, Jeremiah identified himself personally with the plight of Jerusalem and with human suffering caused by sin. However bleak the world may seem today, one can find comfort and assurance in the book of Lamentation and shout along with the prophet Jeremiah, “Great is the faithfulness of God!” He is faithful and willing to forgive all sin to cleanse from all righteousness even though His holiness demands judgment. Seek His mercy and love now!