LAMENTATIONS 3:22-33 “NO SUCH THING AS A ‘GOD-FAILURE’”
Not this past week, but the week before, there were power-failures all over the area, because of all of the storms. I’m sure you know the signs of a power failure: The lights don’t work. The air conditioner doesn’t work. The refrigerator doesn’t work. If you’re on a well, like I am, the water doesn’t work. Nothing works. We are so dependent on power for everything, and when the power goes out, we are utterly helpless.
Is there such a thing as a “God-failure,” when God stops working? Sometimes there are signs that seem to indicate that we are experiencing a God-failure: a physical problem, a financial problem, a personal problem, a natural disaster, a national disaster. Something bad happens, and it looks like you are experiencing a God-failure. “Has God stopped working,” you wonder to yourself. “It looks as though God has stopped caring, stopped protecting, stopped blessing. I think we are experiencing a God-failure.”
This morning, we are going to be taking a look at the book of Lamentations. We are in our second week of our sermon series entitled “Quick Looks at Mysterious Books.” There are certain books in the Bible that are mysteries to the average person, books in the Old Testament that you generally skip over when you’re looking for things. There are some real treasures in those mysterious books, and we are mining those treasures as we take quick looks at some of those mysterious books. Last week we took a quick look at the book of Job. We learned about ourselves, and we learned about God, and how God works.
Today, we are going to see that there is no such thing as a “God-failure.” God never stops working, never stops blessing, never stops caring, never stops protecting – even during those times when it seems as though God has failed. The book of Lamentations is a good one to read, if you’re thinking on this subject. It is written by the prophet Jeremiah. It’s called “Lamentations” after the word “lament,” which means to cry. Jeremiah was crying, he was lamenting, because his country had just been destroyed by a foreign nation. His favorite city, Jerusalem, was ruined – just a pile of rocks now, with smoke rising up to the sky. It was a “9-11” type of situation for Israel, but worse. Most of the people of Israel were either dead or had been taken prisoner, and Jeremiah was one of those prisoners.
It looked like Israel was experiencing a God-failure. They were supposed to be the “chosen people” of God – the nation from which the Messiah would come. But now, that nation was all but gone. You would think that Jeremiah, God’s prophet, would have been depressed, down in the dumps, as he found himself being deported to a foreign nation where he didn’t want to live. But instead, here in the Book of Lamentations, we see the Jeremiah was filled with hope. Look at verse 22: “Because of the Lord’s great love, we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.” As Jeremiah sat in the wagon that was taking him far away, as he looked over his shoulder at the ruins of Jerusalem with its smoke rising into the night sky, Jeremiah was filled with hope.
You see, Jeremiah knew that God’s compassions never fail. God is faithful. The terrible things that happen in life – God is in control, and he will use them for something good. In this circumstance, God was disciplining the people of Israel. This chosen nation of God had strayed very far away from him. Hardly anyone believed in the true God anymore. Hardly anyone was looking forward to the Messiah anymore. God needed to do something, and so he allowed this foreign nation to swoop in and destroy the chosen people. But not all of them were destroyed. A few of them remained, and that gave Jeremiah hope. He knew that it was because of the Lord’s great love that they weren’t all consumed. God had a plan, and Jeremiah knew it. God wouldn’t completely abandon his promise of sending a Messiah. God wouldn’t let the survivors of Israel die off in a foreign land. God would keep his promises, and Jeremiah knew it.
As far as this national disaster that had taken place for Israel, Jeremiah could see that it was good. God was using it to bring the survivors back to him. Many of the survivors of Israel would repent of their sinful lives and turn back to God. That’s why Jeremiah wrote in verse 27: “It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young. Let him sit alone in silence, for the Lord has laid it on him.”
When you experience a problem in your life, remember, it’s not a result of “bad luck.” There’s no such thing as bad luck. God regulates the good things and the bad things that come into your life. Sometimes, God allows a problem to interrupt your peaceful day. When that happens, it doesn’t mean that God has failed. It means that he has a plan.
Sometimes his plans are beyond our understanding, as we talked about last week in the book of Job. Sometimes God’s plan is to discipline us, as we see here with the people of Israel. Sometimes we don’t know what God’s plans are until much later in our lives, when we can look back.
A couple years ago, I read a book entitled, “Why bad things happen to good people.” It was written by a Jewish rabbi. His conclusion was that the reason bad things happen to good people, is because God is not all-powerful. He doesn’t have control over everything our world. When a bad thing happens, God just couldn’t help it, but he will help you get through it.
I hope you don’t believe that. That’s definitely not what we learn here in the Book of Lamentations. Here we learn that God is in control of everything in our world. Sometimes he shields of from problems, and sometimes, he doesn’t. Either way, his compassions never fail. They are new every morning. God is faithful to you. Look at verse 31: “For men are not cast off by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men.”
Men are not cast off by the Lord forever. That’s ultimately what happened to Israel. They weren’t cast off forever. Many years later, the survivors returned to Israel, and rebuilt the city, and eventually the Messiah was born right there in Bethlehem, just as God had promised. God never fails.
And when that Messiah, Jesus Christ, hung from the cross, it looked as though God had failed. It looked as though God had stopped blessing, God had stopped caring, God had stopped protecting. It looked as though God wouldn’t keep his promises after all. But God never fails. On Easter morning, as you well know, Jesus rose from the dead. God had not failed. That gruesome death on the cross was God’s mysterious way of taking away our sins. That was God’s way of cleansing your soul, making it possible for you and your loved ones to be forgiven, and to have the hope of eternal life.
I pray that these passages from this mysterious book of the Bible will fill you with an attitude of patient hope. You se that attitude in verse 24: “I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my portion; there I will wait for him.’ The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.”
I have waited for things that just never came, and I’m sure you have too. Maybe you come to church, and you’re waiting for a friend that you invited to join you, but that friend never comes. Maybe you’re waiting for a card or a letter to come to you in the mail, but it never comes. When I used to travel in foreign countries, we would wait for buses and taxis, but sometimes, they would never come.
But God never fails. He always blesses. He always cares. He always protects. He always has a plan. And when we are under adverse conditions, we don’t become depressed. We don’t lose heart. Instead, we wait. And we hope. Because we know, just like the prophet Jeremiah, that God never fails. This God who took my sins away in the most amazing way – he won’t abandon me. If God sacrificed his Son for me, will certainly take care of me as I go through whatever problems come my way.
You see, Christianity is a religion of hoping and waiting. In the Old Testament, they waited thousands of years for the Messiah, and finally, he came. In the New Testament, the disciples waited for Jesus to help them understand the kingdom of God. Finally, on Pentecost, they understood. The Apostle Paul endured many problems, many afflictions, as he shared God’s Word all over the world. Through it all, he waited patiently for God to bless his work, and God has - Christianity has spread all over the world, beyond Paul’s wildest imagination. The early Christian church was persecuted heavily. Many of them hid in caves, poor, and ostracized from society. They waited for God to bless them, and God has. Today their souls are in heaven, and they are spiritually rich beyond their wildest dreams
Christianity is a religion of hoping and waiting. Today, that’s what we are doing. And we do it with confidence. Confidence that God never fails. He always fulfills his promises. He’s always in control. He always cares. His love e never fails. His compassions are new every morning. Great is his faithfulness. Amen.
