Waiting

What exactly did you come to church this morning to hear? But don’t blame me for choosing this passage, as it was in the lectionary for today.

Lamentations is 5 chapters long, and it is a song of sorrow, a lament, over the tragic fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC. Lamentations is appropriately located after the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah was an Old Testament prophet that warned the people that destruction was coming if they did not repent of their sin and return to God.

So…The book of Jeremiah was a warning that looked ahead to the pending destruction of Jerusalem, while Lamentations is a book of mourning that looked back at the tragedy that unfolded. In order to help us better understand what has happened, I’m going to give you a quick, bird’s eye overview of Old Testament history.

We all know Abraham. He was called by YHWH, that is God, and God promised to make him a great nation and that the entire world would be blessed through that nation. That worldwide blessing came through the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. But I jump ahead in the story!

Abraham and Sarah had Isaac. Isaac had Jacob and Esau.

Jacob had those 12 sons, and because of the family dysfunction surrounding Joseph, they ended up in Egypt.

In Egypt, they grew into a great number, and eventually fell out of favor with the Pharaohs. They had to flee Egypt in that great Exodus.

After some detours, they reached the Promised Land.

There were more detours, but Israel was in its glory days under the reigns of King David and King Solomon.

But after Solomon died, the Kingdom split in two: the Northern kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah. And the people began to drift from YHWH.

The Northern Kingdom was bad from the get-go. All their kings were evil and promoted pagan worship. The Southern Kingdom was a mixed bag. They had some good kings that brought spiritual revival, but there were also mediocre kings, and evil kings.

During this time of the split kingdom, God raised up prophets. Prophets brought God’s Word to the people warning them that they would be exiled, conquered by other nations and lose their own nation, if they did not repent of their sin and return to God.

Even though the words of the prophets were tough and challenging –the prophets were not popular– in them we also see God’s great mercy, love, and faithfulness.

God gave the people advanced warning. He graciously gave them time to repent. The judgment could be averted. They did not have to suffer exile, if they’d only return to YHWH. But the people as a whole would not listen to the prophets.

At the time of the prophet Jeremiah, the Northern Kingdom had already been conquered by Assyria. And the Southern Kingdom was sadly in its final days, soon to be conquered by Babylon. Jerusalem, the holy city, was located in the Southern Kingdom.

Imagine being Jeremiah. God calls you to a position where no one is going to listen to you or heed the warnings. How frustrating! And then you have to witness the destruction take place. And Jeremiah wept. The book of Lamentations is traditionally attributed to Jeremiah, and in the passage today we heard:

The roads to Zion mourn, all her gates are desolate,

her foes have become the masters,

from daughter Zion has departed all her majesty.

Something that convicted me as I prepared this message is that Jeremiah could have said “I told you so!” — but he compassionately identifies with the tragedy. He does not gloat over it. He laments how the sin of his people and their lack of repentance led to exile.

What makes a person weep and mourn says a lot about that person. What causes you tears? What burdens you?

World Vision’s founder Bob Pierce famously prayed:

“Lord, let my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of God.” And his ministry went worldwide.

When we see rebellion against God in our world and even, sadly, when we see rebellion against God in our own churches – it should move us to mourn, to lament.

There is a time to mourn. That famous passage from Ecclesiastes says that there is a time and purpose for everything, a season for every activity under heaven. And that includes weeping and mourning, as well as laughing and dancing.

Lament needs to run its course. It has a place. Lament is not complaining, nor is it simply sadness. Lament in the Bible is a liturgical response to the reality of a situation and it engages God in the context of pain and trouble.

The Psalms were the hymn book and prayer book of ancient Israel. Did you know that about 40% of the Psalms are lament? But this does not coordinate with our modern day hymn books and contemporary worship songs, where only about 5% to 15% of the songs typically qualify as lament. The American church avoids lament.