Memory Verse(s)
“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.”
Overview|Background
Jeremiah was known as the “weeping prophet” for his deep and abiding passion for his people and their city (Lamentations 3:48-49). This same sorrow over the sins of the people and their rejection of God was expressed by Jesus as He approached Jerusalem and looked ahead to her destruction at the hands of the Romans (Luke 19:41-44). Because of the Jews’ rejection of their Messiah, God used the Roman siege to punish His people. But God takes no joy in having to punish His children and His offer of Jesus Christ as a provision for sin shows His great compassion on His people. One day, because of Christ, God will wipe away all tears (Revelation 7:17).
Ecclesiastes closes by telling readers to revere God and keep his commandments (12:13–14). Lamentations shows the price Judah paid for not doing so.1 It describes Jerusalem’s destruction and begins a series of books featuring the hardships associated with exile and renewal.
Key Passage(s)
The Prophet’s Anguish and Hope
1 I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.
2 He has led me and made me walk
In darkness and not in light.
3 Surely He has turned His hand against me
Time and time again throughout the day.
4 He has aged my flesh and my skin,
And broken my bones.
5 He has besieged me
And surrounded me with bitterness and woe.
6 He has set me in dark places
Like the dead of long ago.
7 He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out;
He has made my chain heavy.
8 Even when I cry and shout,
He shuts out my prayer.
9 He has blocked my ways with hewn stone;
He has made my paths crooked.
10 He has been to me a bear lying in wait,
Like a lion in ambush.
11 He has turned aside my ways and torn me in pieces;
He has made me desolate.
12 He has bent His bow
And set me up as a target for the arrow.
13 He has caused the arrows of His quiver
To pierce my loins.
14 I have become the ridicule of all my people—
Their taunting song all the day.
15 He has filled me with bitterness,
He has made me drink wormwood.
16 He has also broken my teeth with gravel,
And covered me with ashes.
17 You have moved my soul far from peace;
I have forgotten prosperity.
18 And I said, “My strength and my hope
Have perished from the Lord.”
19 Remember my affliction and roaming,
The wormwood and the gall.
20 My soul still remembers
And [h]sinks within me.
21 This I recall to my mind,
Therefore I have hope.
22 Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
23 They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I hope in Him!”
Key Facts
Authorship & Time Period
While the author of Lamentations remains nameless within the book, strong evidence from both inside and outside the text points to the prophet Jeremiah as the author. Both Jewish and Christian tradition ascribe authorship to Jeremiah, and the Septuagint—the Greek translation of the Old Testament—even adds a note asserting Jeremiah as the writer of the book. In addition, when the early Christian church father Jerome translated the Bible into Latin, he added a note claiming Jeremiah as the author of Lamentations.
The original name of the book in Hebrew, ekah, can be translated “Alas!” or “How,” giving the sense of weeping or lamenting over some sad event. Later readers and translators substituted in the title “Lamentations” because of its clearer and more evocative meaning. It’s this idea of lamenting that, for many, links Jeremiah to the book. Not only does the author of the book witness the results of the recent destruction of Jerusalem, he seems to have witnessed the invasion itself (Lamentations 1:13–15). Jeremiah was present for both events.
“How lonely sits the city / That was full of people!” (Lamentations 1:1), so goes the beginning of Lamentations. The city in question was none other than Jerusalem. Jeremiah walked through the streets and alleys of the Holy City and saw nothing but pain, suffering, and destruction in the wake of the Babylonian invasion of 586 BC. It also makes sense to date the book as close to the invasion as possible, meaning late 586 BC or early 585 BC, due to the raw emotion Jeremiah expresses throughout its pages.
Type of literature
Poetry
Characters
MAJOR CHARACTERS: Jerusalem, Yahweh, an individual sufferer, and the people of Jerusalem.
The Story
Summary
The Book of Lamentations is divided into five chapters. Each chapter represents a separate poem. In the original Hebrew of chapters 1, 2, and 4, the verses are acrostic, each verse starting with a succeeding letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Chapter 3 is a triple acrostic, with the poem arranged in three-line stanzas—each line in each triplet starts with the same Hebrew letter. In the book of Lamentations, the prophet Jeremiah understands that the Babylonians were God’s tool for bringing judgment on Jerusalem (Lamentations 1:12–15; 2:1–8; 4:11). Lamentations makes it clear that sin and rebellion were the causes of God’s wrath being poured out (1:8–9; 4:13; 5:16). Lamenting is appropriate in a time of distress, but it should quickly give way to contrition and repentance (Lamentations 3:40–42; 5:21–22).
Major Events
- The fall of Jerusalem
Themes
- Judgment
- Mourning sin and circumstances
- God’s faithfulness
- God’s grace
Outline of Lamentations
- Jerusalem’s Misery and Desolation (ch. 1)
- The Lord’s Anger against His People (ch. 2)
- Judah’s Complaint — and Basis for Consolation (ch. 3)
- The Contrast between Zion’s Past and Present (ch. 4)
- Judah’s Appeal to the Lord for Forgiveness and Restoration (ch. 5)
Where Do We See Christ?
The weeping prophet Jeremiah is a type of Christ-figure. In Matthew 23, Jesus weeps over the impending destruction of Jerusalem just as Jeremiah did six centuries prior. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate” (Matt 23:37-38, NKJV). Like Jesus, Jeremiah identified personally with the plight of Jerusalem and with human suffering caused by sin.
Lamentations also includes elements that typify Christ’s life and ministry as the man of sorrows who was acquainted with grief. He was afflicted (see 1:12; 3:19), despised, and derided by his enemies (see 2:15-16; 3:14, 30).
Point of Application
How can we apply this to our lives today?
Lamentations reminds us of the importance not only of mourning over our sin but of asking the Lord for His forgiveness when we fail Him. Much of Jeremiah’s poetry concerns itself with the fallen bricks and cracking mortar of the overrun city. Do you see any of that destroyed city in your own life? Are you mourning over the sin that’s brought you to this point? Do you feel overrun by an alien power; are you in need of some hope from the Lord? Turn to Lamentations 3:17–26, where you’ll find someone aware of sin’s consequences and saddened by the results but who has placed his hope and his trust in the Lord.
Discussion Questions
What should we learn from Judah’s exile and the cost of rebellion?
Why do we seem to be so slow to learn from the Lord’s discipline of others and think that somehow He will treat
us differently?
Closing Prayer
Lord, we find many lamentable things in the world today that breaks our hearts. Raise up our spirits to not lose hope and focus on the victory you purchased to redeem our lives now and rebuild the world to come.
Prayer List
Doc – renewed vigor to join us on Saturdays
Richard Brooks – faith and courage during the next stage of his journey in Christ
Bob & Gaynelle – Breast cancer (from Mike Arras)
Julia (Arras) – praise for health
Jim Allen, friend of Daryl, heart issue, praise
Jim Sachs – praise
Darryl’s employee Tara – lung cancer, in US
Darryl’s Son Jonathan and Wife Lizz – spiritual renewal
Tom and Jeanice – praise and prayers for continued recovery
Becky and Lee Davidson, health and healing, difficult situation
Jim & Melissa, father-in-law’s heart condition and spiritual health, marital closeness
Mike Arras’ daughter, praise
Mike Allen – sister Adele and brother
Joe & Deb – continued prayers for Deb’s Dad, travel for Deb
Brian – Job situation
JC – health issues
JC’s granddaughter Kylie, Tiffany, and Tommy
Todd – medical issues (sinuses, hands)
Wisdom about meeting location
Our country & our world
Gayle (Karl’s wife) – wisdom, peace, strength in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds
Karl’s friend, Jesse – PRAISE! Found a good church body to join
Additional Content
FOR GREATER HISTORICAL UNDERSTANDING: THE FALL OF JERUSALEM
Babylon had ruled Judah’s affairs almost continuously since 605 BC, when they first took captives (Dan 1:1–7). Their armies conquered Jerusalem and deported many exiles in 597 BC (2 Kgs 24:1–7). Tired of Judah’s rebellions, Babylon ended Judah’s monarchy and destroyed the temple and other important buildings in 587 BC. By the time Jerusalem was destroyed, Judah had been reduced to a small fraction of its former territory. Just before Jerusalem fell, King Zedekiah and his court attempted to flee the city (Jer 52:4–7). Zedekiah was caught and taken before Nebuchadnezzar, his sons were killed before his eyes, then he was blinded and taken into exile (52:8–11). The Babylonians took many people into exile, but they left some of Judah’s poorest people to work the land (52:24–30).
Leave a Reply