One of my favourite speakers is John Gagliardi, either telling stories about the amazing experiences he has had or inspiring with insights he has learned. John prepared this article for a magazine he contributes to in Singapore.
LAMENTATIONS AND THE 21ST CENTURY
By John Gagliardi
Shoehorned in between the long prophetic books of Jeremiah (52 chapters) and Ezekiel (48 chapters) is the rather strange and much neglected little book of Lamentations.
Traditionally ascribed to the “weeping prophet” Jeremiah (although its authorship is debated in learned circles), Lamentations is the heartfelt cry of a poet (let’s call him Jeremiah) bewailing the destruction in 586 BC of Jerusalem, its people and their way of life and traditions.
As I was reading Lamentations recently, it suddenly struck me how similar the events described in the five poetic chapters were to our own society in the 21st Century. In spite of the obvious differences in technology and communication, a lot of what Jeremiah described is eerily reminiscent of what we see daily in our media.
Indeed, “When did the future switch from being a promise to being a threat?” (Chuck Palahniuk). “We’re the middle children of history … no purpose or place. We have no Great War, no Great Depression. Our ‘great war’ is a spiritual war, and our ‘great depression; is our lives. (From the movie Fight Club). “The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men” (Martin Luther King Jr, Strength to Love, 1963).
Jeremiah talked of:
· A proud society (1:1) – overweening pride and arrogance is a hallmark of our present culture · Attacks and violence from both outside and inside (1:5; 3: 52 and 53; 4: 18 and 19; 5: 2) – our society lives in daily dread of wars, terrorism, violence in the schoolyard and the streets, and even in the home
· A sense of betrayal, alienation and rejection (1: 3) – our society is a society of depressed and alienated people, with all the old anchors of family and community eroded away … “feeling cut off from people, things and institutions … like a stranger living in a strange foreign land which somehow is still home” (David Cook: The Moral Maze)
· Loss of confidence in leaders and traditional mores (2: 14) – we live in a time of confused moral ambiguity and secularism, with a questioning whether “modern society has any moral values at all” (David Cook: The Moral Maze)
· Immorality and lewdness (1: 9; 5: 11) – our society wallows in sexual promiscuity promoted by pornography and a rampant sexuality without restraint even among the very young
· Financial insecurity and loss (1: 10; 3: 17); 4: 1, 5; 4: 9; 5: 4) – our society lurches from recession to inflation, with global financial institutions faltering and failing, and ordinary people impoverished and bankrupted and made homeless while corrupt corporate moguls live in luxury and opulence
· Child abuse (2: 20 and 4: 10) – never has there been so much rampant and debauched sexual and other abuse of children – fuelled by the internet and fanned by immoral corporations
· Political uncertainty (5: 8) – governments around the world in our time are failing to grapple with the global financial and ecological crises that beset modern society, the breakdown of the family unit, climate change, terrorism from within and without and endemic violence from the home to the street to the schoolyard, abortion and euthanasia, same-sex marriage and the rise of a host of “alternative lifestyles”.
The world has achieved brilliance without conscience (Omar Bradley)
… the trouble with our times is that the future is not what it used to be (Paul Valery).
Armaments, universal debt and planned obsolescence – those are the three pillars of Western prosperity (Aldous Huxley).
As Charles M. Cameron says in an article on Lamentations from Evangel: “Lamentations was written at a time strikingly similar to our own day. God’s people has been taken captive. They lives in an alien environment, This is the story of our own nation … we live in a secularized society, a society in which there is little sense of God’s presence.
“Our society is a materialistic society, a society which has made money its god … we are tempted to become prisoners of our circumstances, prisoners of our feelings. We look at our circumstances and we feel ‘desolate’ (1: 4) and despised (1: 11).”
“The desolation of God’s people in the twenty-first century is so reminiscent of the desolation of which we read in Lamentations. Many watch what is going on in our generation, and they wonder, ‘Where is the Word of God in all this?’
“The sadness that pervades so much of Lamentations reflects the mood of many of the Lord’s people in our day – longing for better times, for the ‘days of old’ (5: 21). Ours is an age of many questions, and, so it seems, few answers.”
Roy C Stedman in an article Lamentations: The Therapy of Trouble, describes the Book of Lamentations as “…a study in sorrow, a hymn of heartbreak ... the utter despair of the human spirit in the grip of deep distress and sorrow.”
One might reasonably ask, why would God put such a book in the Bible? Why do we need to know so much about the sorrows and troubles of ancient Israel?
I believe the answer clearly is that no matter how bad it looks, no matter how much despair and depression and depravity abound, the love and faithfulness of God abound all the more! Because – right in the middle of the Book of Lamentations, in Chapter 3, are some of the most inspiring and encouraging verses to be found in the entire Bible!
Who of us have not, in the midst of confusion and hurt and uncertainty, stood on verses like this:
“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” (Lamentations 3: 22 and 23). God’s Word goes on to tell us that 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 (see 2 Chronicles 20: 15-17) … though He brings grief, He will show compassion, so great is His unfailing love.
“I called on Your name, O Lord, from the depths of the pit. You heard my plea … You came near when I called You, and You said: ‘Do not fear’. O Lord, You took up my case; You redeemed my life” (Lamentations 3: 25, 26, 32, 33, 55-58).
In the midst of it all, God’s love and compassion come shining through like the first rays of sun at dawn; in the midst of darkness and fear, He redeems our life, and we can say with absolute conviction and faith, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him” (Lamentations 3: 24).
David R Reid in Hope in the Midst of Hurt (Adventuring Through the Bible Jan 1966) says these passages “succinctly capture our gratitude for the Lord’s consistent goodness and kindness – even when we don’t deserve it … When we are able to look back and catch a glimpse of how God works ‘all things together for good” (Romans 8: 28), including our setbacks and disappointments, we are able to praise the Lord for His constant faithfulness to us.
“We can hope in the midst of hurt” we can not only say, ‘Great is Thy faithfulness’ after a period of suffering or struggle is over, but we can experience God’s ‘every morning’ compassion and faithfulness even in the midst of our hurt.
“And the hope of verses 21 and 24 is not just wishful thinking, but rather the confident knowledge that God knows all about our situation, and will do something about it, because He cares for us and is committed to our well-being … confidence in God’s faithfulness and experience in God’s loyal love can be realized in the very midst of affliction and sorrow – not just when life is smooth sailing.”
Not “after” the suffering, but “in” the suffering – Jeremiah was not writing about something in the distant past. He was writing right in the midst of affliction and pain and sorrow and disappointment.
It is significant that the “compassion” and faithfulness” verses are in fact placed not at the end of the Book of Lamentations, but right in the middle. Jeremiah is making these great and eternal statements of faith and confidence in God’s goodness and love before he returns to the remainder of the book. Chapters 4 and 5 are no more positive than chapters 1 and 2 – they are full of complaints and despair and the reality of disaster and crisis.
For us, on this side of the Cross, the Book of Lamentations serves only to point us in one direction – to our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ! Jeremiah did not know the reality of Jesus, yet somehow managed to break through the doom and gloom with great acclamations of hope and joy.
How much more for us, no matter what we are going through – whether it be business and financial, a family crisis, a personal betrayal or abuse, illness or injury – we know that forever we have the promise that “greater is He that is in us, than he who is in the world”.
As G. S. Munro says, “Lamentations finds its ‘Yes’ and ‘Amen’ in Christ … because He Himself has suffered, He is able to help those who are being tested’ (Essay on The Purpose of Lamentations 1992).
I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me (Philippians 4: 13) …
Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes (Ephesians 6: 10 and 11)…
put on the armour of light (Romans 13: 12) …put on the Lord Jesus Christ (Galatians 3: 27).
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