Gregg's Rest Stop (Hope in the Mourning)

Published: Wed, 05/20/15

GREGG'S REST STOP

Hope in the Mourning

May 20, 2015

I cannot remember the last time I have heard a sermon from the Old Testament book of Lamentations, or if I have ever heard a sermon from Lamentations! However, one recent Sunday evening, my pastor shared a sure hope right from the middle of this dreadfully sad book of the Bible.

May this Rest Stop encourage us to truly see that there is hope in mourning only because God's mercies are new each morning! Our Father is faithful to deliver us in His strong arms through each day for His purposes for us and for His glory.

Be encouraged by this overview of the book of Lamentations breathed-out by God into His prophet Jeremiah!

HOPE IN THE MOURNING

My pastor noted that of the 5 chapters of Lamentations, Chapters 1, 2, 4, and 5 each have exactly 22 verses and each are full of lamentations over the disgusting sins and awful deterioration of the city of Jerusalem.

Middle Chapter 3 also includes many lamentations, but Chapter 3 has 66 verses. Is this significant? Yes! In the middle of the middle Chapter 3, i.e., in the heart of the book of Lamentations, HOPE is added!

Lamentations in Chapters 1 and 2

Jerusalem is described as "A widow who weeps bitterly in the night with tears on her cheeks" (1:1-2a).

And her weeping continues through Chapters 1 and 2:

All her friends have become her enemies (1:2b).

All roads to Jerusalem mourn"(1:3).

All her splendor has departed"(1:6).

She has sinned gravely and has become vile (1:8).

All her people sigh (1:11).

The widow Jerusalem now begins to speak in first person:

My eye overflows with water, because the comforter, who should restore my life, is far from me (1:16).

The LORD is righteous, for I rebelled against His commandment (1:18).

See, O LORD, that I am in distress, my soul is troubled (1:20).

They have heard that I sigh, but no one comforts me (1:21).

All my enemies have heard my trouble; they are glad that You have done it (1:21).

Let all their wickedness come before You,

and do to them as You have done to me for all my transgressions (1:22a).

For my sighs are many, and my heart is faint (1:22b).

How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud of anger (2:1).

The Lord has swallowed up and has not pitied (2:2).

He has poured out His fury like fire (2:4).

Children and infants faint in the streets of the city (due to famine) (2:11).

Lamentations at the beginning of Chapter 3

Jeremiah enters at the beginning of Chapter 3 profoundly lamenting over Jerusalem:

I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His (The LORD's) wrath (3:1).

He has aged my flesh and my skin and has broken my bones (3:4).

He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and woe (3:5).

Even when I cry and shout, He shuts out my prayer (3:8).

"I have become the ridicule of all my people (3:14).

He has filled me with bitterness. He has also broken all my teeth with gravel (3:16).

Hope in the middle of Lamentations Chapter 3

In Chapter 3:21-26, Jeremiah remembers HOPE in the midst of this mourning:

My soul still remembers, and sinks within me. This I recall to my mind.

THEREFORE I HAVE HOPE.

Through the LORD's mercies we are not consumed,

because His compassions fail not.

They are new every morning.

Great is Your faithfulness.

THEREFORE, I HAVE HOPE IN HIM!

The LORD is good to them who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.

It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.

Lamentations at the end of Chapter 3

After this remembrance of hope in the LORD Himself,

Jeremiah continues his lamenting, but now with a focus upon the sovereignty of God:

For the LORD will not cast off forever.

Though He causes grief, yet He will show compassion

according to the multitude of His mercies. (3:32)

Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass, when the Lord has not commanded it? (3:37)

Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that woe and well-being proceed? (3:38)

From this perspective of the Most High God,

Jeremiah calls for himself and his people to turn back to God:

Why should a living man complain, a man for the punishment for his sins? (3:39)

Let us search out and examine our ways, and turn back to the LORD.

Let us lift our hearts and hands to God in heaven. (3:40-41)

From this position of turning around and looking at God,

Jeremiah begins to speak directly to God:

We have transgressed and rebelled, You have not pardoned" (3:42).

You have covered Yourself with a cloud, that prayer should not pass through (3:44).

"I called on Your name, O LORD, from the lowest pit. You have heard my voice. (3:55-56)

You drew near the day I called on You, and said, "Do not fear!" (3:57)

O Lord, you have pleaded the case for my soul, you have redeemed my life (3:58).

Lamentations in Chapter 4

With his hope in the LORD,

Jeremiah returns to acknowledging sins of Jerusalem in the sight of the LORD.

Jeremiah indeed reveals the profound depth of all sins.

How the gold has become dim! (4:1).

The tongue of the infant clings to the roof of its mouth for thirst.

The young children ask for bread, but no one breaks it for them. (4:4)

Her nobles were brighter than snow...like sapphire in their appearance.

Now their appearance is blacker than soot. (4:8)

The hands of the compassionate women have cooked their own children.

They became food for them. (4:10)

Lamentations in Chapter 5

Jeremiah continues in the sight of the LORD to acknowledge the sins of Jerusalem .

Remember, O LORD, what has come upon us. Look and behold our reproach! (5:1)

Our fathers sinned and are no more, but we bear their iniquities (5:7).

The joy of our heart has ceased. Our dance has turned to mourning. (5:15)

The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, we have sinned. (5:16)

A final prayer of hope in Chapter 5

Jeremiah keeps his focus on God,

who alone is his hope as revealed in the middle of Chapter 3.

You, O LORD, remain forever.

Your throne from generation to generation. (5:19)

Why do you forget us forever, and forsake us for so long a time? (5:20)

Turn us back to You, O LORD, and we will be restored.

Renew our days of old. (5:21)

Closing

I see three key truths from Lamentations so that we can be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2).

First, sin is much deeper and darker than what we are tempted to perceive. Most people, indeed many Christians, only view sins through how sins are manifested on the surface through certain behaviors. And, thus, we put sins on a relative comparison basis. For example, gossip is not considered not as bad as murder. However, the root of all sins can eventually be manifested in ways we have never considered in our self-righteousness. Only the light of God's Word can expose the root sinfulness of sin. Read Lamentations 4:10 again.

Second, our hope is in God Himself, and not in our circumstances -- either good or bad. Our hope is that God is with us through the indwelling Spirit of Christ in all of our circumstances -- good and bad! And in His presence, He empowers us to grow in turning from sin and to Him, and to personally experience His faithfulness and His mercies that are new each morning! God is good all of the time!

A third key truth from Lamentations is a new thrilling, revelation for me! The hope that breaks out in the middle of the middle Chapter 3, to me, is a picture of Christ Himself -- and therefore is a picture of our life in Christ!

Jesus' journey to the cross was through the darkness of the Garden of Gethsemane and through the 6 hours of darkness on Calvary. Jesus mourned to the point of sweating drops of blood. Yet there was hope in His mourning! Jesus went all the way to the cross with hope in His Father alone -- a true hope based on the love and integrity of His Father to be faithful in raising the Son to glorify the Son with the glory the Son had with the Father from eternity past!

Jesus' friends had hurt Him, the religious rejected Him, the Romans mocked Him, the darkness overshadowed Him, the enemy tempted Him, His feelings betrayed Him, His circumstances tortured His body, His heavenly angels were not called to rescue Him. His hope was in His Father alone! And so must our hope always be in our Father!

The LORD is good to them who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.

It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.

LAMENTATIONS 3:25-26

These two verses of hope, to me, are a picture of Christ. Christ waited for Him, His Father, on the cross. He then waited for three days to be raised by His Father. It was good for Christ to hope and to ultimately wait quietly on the cross and in the tomb for His salvation -- salvation that is of the LORD His Father -- salvation that is now ours in and through Jesus Christ.

And because we are in union with Christ, we, too, can hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD each and every day. May we always remember that His mercies are new each morning!

The Lord Jesus Christ, our hope.

(1 Timothy 1:1)

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