Tag: why

  • Our Lament and Weeping

    Our Lament and Weeping

    Our Lament and Weeping is a 5-part series taking most text from the Prophet Jeremiah as a lament for Lent in these last days. READERS may continue to the NEXT post at the bottom of each post by clicking NEXT.

    Have you ever considered the connection between Jeremiah’s two books or the cause of our lament and weeping?

    lamentations scroll page 1 - the lament and weeping of the Prophet Jeremiah after his predicted fall of Jerusalem takes place

    You may know Jeremiah as the weeping prophet. And perhaps you realize that he is also the author of Lamentations. “Why has this happened,” he would seem to ask the Lord? Yet to consider Jeremiah’s calling and the failure of God’s chosen to hear him shows both good reason for his lament and our weeping.

    Jeremiah’s Call as a Prophet

    4 The word of the Lord came to me:

    5 I chose you before I formed you in the womb;
    I set you apart before you were born.
    I appointed you a prophet to the nations.

    Jeremiah 1:5

    6 But I protested, “Oh no, Lord God! Look, I don’t know how to speak since I am only a youth.”

    7 Then the Lord said to me:

    Do not say, “I am only a youth,”
    for you will go to everyone I send you to
    and speak whatever I tell you.
    8 Do not be afraid of anyone,
    for I will be with you to rescue you.
    This is the Lord’s declaration.

    Prophesies Fulfilled

    These are the people Nebuchadnezzar deported: Altogether, 4,600 people were deported.

    Jeremiah 52:28a,30b CSB [WLC hebrew on link]

    Jeremiah’s unheeded warnings from the Lord caused him much lament and weeping. And well he should have wept for those lost souls and the defeated chosen people led from Jerusalem into exile.

    He had first warned them in his early days during Josiah’s reign in about 626 B.C. Jerusalem would finally fall nearly four decades later to Nebuchadnezzar, in 587 B.C. Plenty of time to repent, but they do not.

    Lamentations

    lamentations scroll page 1 in Hebrew
    איכה

    INTRODUCTION

    The commentary by A. R. FAUSSET explains:

    In the Hebrew Bible these Elegies of Jeremiah, five in number, are placed among the Chetuvim, or “Holy Writings” (“the Psalms,” & c., Luke 24:44 ), between Ruth and Ecclesiastes. But though in classification of compositions it belongs to the Chetuvim, it probably followed the prophecies of Jeremiah originally.

    He also helpfully explains the form of this poetic cry of lament and weeping later incorporated into synagogue worship on the ninth month Ab.

    How?

    The title more frequently given by the Jews to these Elegies is, “How” (Hebrew, Eechah), from the first word, as the Pentateuch is similarly called by the first Hebrew word of Gen 1:1. The Septuagint calls it “Lamentations,” from which we derive the name. It refers not merely to the events which occurred at the capture of the city, but to the sufferings of the citizens (the penalty of national sin) from the very beginning of the siege; and perhaps from before it


    The lament and weeping heard in each Hebrew letter:

    Referring to the alphabetical Hebrew letters beginning each stanza of the lament, Faussett continues quotes of an 18th c. scholar most pointedly:

    “Every letter is written with a tear, every word the sound of a broken heart.”

    Robert Lowth, Bishop of London


    Lament over Jerusalem

    א Aleph
    1 How she sits alone,
    the city once crowded with people!
    She who was great among the nations
    has become like a widow.
    The princess among the provinces
    has been put to forced labor.

    ב Beth
    2 She weeps bitterly during the night,
    with tears on her cheeks…

    Jeremiah’s cry for the lost glory of the Lord’s own chosen people and fallen city continues. So we hear the heart of this former priest and persecuted Prophet as he wails out words of lament and weeping.

    ד Daleth
    4 The roads to Zion mourn,
    for no one comes to the appointed festivals.
    All her gates are deserted;
    her priests groan,
    her young women grieve,
    and she herself is bitter.

    ה He
    5 Her adversaries have become her masters;
    her enemies are at ease…

    And how has this happened? Why?

    Because the Lord’s own worshipers failed to listen to the Lord.

    … for the Lord has made her suffer
    because of her many transgressions.

    Lamentations 1:5b

    We understand the relationship between transgressions and our sin, right?

    Our sins are punishable offenses. Consequently our rebellions against God justify our punishment, pain, suffering and even death.


    ח Cheth
    8 Jerusalem has sinned grievously…

    Is there any pain like mine,
    which was dealt out to me,
    which the Lord made me suffer
    on the day of his burning anger?

    Lamentations 1:12B

    Isn’t that how we finally feel once the Lord allows our punishment? Yet in fact, look around you as did Jeremiah. Many suffer. Therefore others weep with you, even for you.

    ע Ayin
    16 I weep because of these things;
    my eyes flow with tears.
    For there is no one nearby to comfort me,
    no one to keep me alive.
    My children are desolate
    because the enemy has prevailed.

    Why

    צ Tsade
    18 The Lord is just,
    for I have rebelled against his command.

    Justice requires fair punishment. But this lament and weeping cries out to the listener pleading for mercy:

    Listen, all you people;
    look at my pain.
    My young women and young men
    have gone into captivity.

    ק Qoph
    19 I called to my lovers,
    but they betrayed me.
    My priests and elders
    perished in the city
    while searching for food
    to keep themselves alive.

    ר Resh
    20 Lord, see how I am in distress.
    I am churning within;
    my heart is broken,
    for I have been very rebellious.
    Outside, the sword takes the children;
    inside, there is death.


    The Holy City cries out to the LORD!

    Their own lament and weeping with sorrow now includes confession.

    We brought on our own demise, therefore our lament and weeping have cause.

    Punishment for sin and death will surely follow as justice.

    For what hope have any who have turned against the Lord?

    To be continued...

  • In God We Trusted – 5

    In God We Trusted – 5

    The political ‘spin’ has been spun.

    The gradual fall is begun.

    How? lament the People…

    Why? In God we trusted.

    “Lamentations” was derived from a translation of the title as found in the Latin Vulgate (Vg.) translation of the Greek OT, the Septuagint (LXX), and conveys the idea of “loud cries.” The Hebrew exclamation ekah (“How,”which expresses “dismay”), used in 1:1; 2:1, and 4:1, gives the book its Hebrew title. However, the rabbis began early to call the book “loud cries” or “lamentations” (cf. Jer. 7:29).

    Lamentations 5

    English Standard Version (ESV)

    Restore Us to Yourself, O Lord

    5 Remember, O Lord, what has befallen us;
    look, and see our disgrace!
    2 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
    our homes to foreigners.
    3 We have become orphans, fatherless;
    our mothers are like widows.

    Minor-Prophets-Timeline

     Before their cry of How? …while they were yet falling…

    Hosea 14: Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God,
    for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.
    2 Take with you words
    and return to the Lord…

    solomons jerusalem

     Micah 6:12 Your rich men are full of violence;
    your inhabitants speak lies,
    and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.
    13 Therefore I strike you with a grievous blow,
    making you desolate because of your sins.

    Isaiah 58: “Cry aloud; do not hold back;
    lift up your voice like a trumpet;
    declare to my people their transgression,
    to the house of Jacob their sins.
    2 Yet they seek me daily
    and delight to know my ways,
    as if they were a nation that did righteousness
    and did not forsake the judgment of their God

    Zephaniah 3CapLightningNight_sm

    Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled,
    the oppressing city!
    2 She listens to no voice;
    she accepts no correction.
    She does not trust in the Lord;
    she does not draw near to her God.

    margaret-bourke-white-sculpted-frieze-reads-justice-the-guardian-of-liberty-at-entrance-of-the-supreme-court-building

    3 Her officials within her
    are roaring lions;
    her judges are evening wolves
    that leave nothing till the morning.

    iou

    Habakkuk 2: “Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own—
    for how long?—
    and loads himself with pledges!”
    7 Will not your debtors suddenly arise,
    and those awake who will make you tremble?
    Then you will be spoil for them.

    Obadiah

    The Day of the Lord Is Near

    15 For the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations.
    As you have done, it shall be done to you;
    your deeds shall return on your own head.

    seige of jerusalem

    Lamentations 5:15 The joy of our hearts has ceased;
    our dancing has been turned to mourning.
    16 The crown has fallen from our head;
    woe to us, for we have sinned!

    19 But you, O Lord, reign forever;
    your throne endures to all generations.
    20 Why do you forget us forever,
    why do you forsake us for so many days?
    21 Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored!
    Renew our days as of old—
    22 unless you have utterly rejected us,
    and you remain exceedingly angry with us.

    Remember Israel? Remember Judah? Remember the Nations? Remember Rome?

    Remember Great Britain? Remember America?

    Do the Nations and Empires and Peoples remember God?

    Are we not a falling people in the hands of an angry God (as Jonathan Edwards once warned)?

    Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

    Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)

    Enfield, Connecticut
    July 8, 1741

    Their foot shall slide in due time. Deuteronomy 32:35

    In this verse is threatened the vengeance of God on the wicked unbelieving Israelites, who were God’s visible people, and who lived under the means of grace; but who, notwithstanding all God’s wonderful works towards them, remained (as vers 28.) void of counsel, having no understanding in them. Under all the cultivations of heaven, they brought forth bitter and poisonous fruit; as in the two verses next preceding the text. — The expression I have chosen for my text, their foot shall slide in due time, seems to imply the following things, relating to the punishment and destruction to which these wicked Israelites were exposed.

    [READ Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God]

    Will it be blessing? Or will we reap curse?

    For once, in God we Trusted.

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