The book of Lamentations as its name suggests is a book of lament. With this in mind, the questions then arise, who is lamenting and what is he or she lamenting for or about. Let us start this answer by understanding what is a lament. According to the Oxford Online dictionary, a lament is “a passionate expression of grief or sorrow”. A lament can also be a complaint about an unacceptable situation. We will also see in the text that both ideas of grief and complaint are evoked. According to Merriam Webster’s Online dictionary, a lament is “a crying out in grief”. It can also mean to express regret about something. Crying out in grief is certainly implied or evoked in the words of this book for sure.
It is generally accepted that the writer of the book of Lamentations was the prophet Jeremiah, and he wrote this lament shortly after the land of Judah was invaded and the city of Jerusalem completely decimated by the marauding Babylonian army in 586 B.C. In this destruction, the Temple bore the brunt of the Babylonian military might as it was completely destroyed and pretty much everything was raided from it. Judah essentially ceased to be a country of any worth or standing and the once impregnable Jerusalem was reduced to ruins after the long siege and invasion by Nebuchadnezzar’s mighty army. This carnage and the resulting feelings of hopelessness is the backdrop to Jeremiah’s writing the verses of mourning which we know as the book of Lamentations.
Military force as displayed in the overwhelming might of a powerful adversary against a weaker and less equipped adversary can result in horrific devastation and death. We have seen this movie time and time again in our modern world. Some of us may have had ancestors who fought in World War 1 and 2 and through them or through the stories of others who fought then, stories passed down to us, we get a vivid picture of the killing fields of Europe and the decimation wrought by bombs and mines on the landscape of much of Europe, not to mention the horrific loss of life that resulted from this carnage. Some of us may have had relatives or known of those who fought in other wars since then, whether the Korean or Vietnam wars or even more recently wars in Iraq and Afghanistan waged by Western forces mainly led by the Americans against terrorist groups in these countries. More recently we all know of the devastating conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas which is also regarded as a terrorist group by many western nations including the United States and Canada. We all can see the pictures of total destruction and decimation of the Gaza enclave by the mighty Israeli army as it pursued Hamas fighters in response to, or more appropriately, in retaliation for the shocking invasion of Israel and the murder of hundreds of Israeli citizens just about two years ago.
Unless you have lived the experience of war and any other type of military conflict, you cannot fully grasp how the citizens of a decimated country or area feel and cope in that time of horror and despair. Can any of us really tell how those Israeli family members felt in the hours and days and weeks after losing their family members in such a horrible way? Can any of us really relate to the trauma and grief of every citizen of Gaza as they walk among the rubble of what was once their homes looking for family members or carrying their dying or dead children to the morgue or place of burial? Can we tell about the experiences of many Ukrainians who live in cities and towns that have been reduced to rubble by the countless missile and drone strikes by the Russian army and have lost countless family members and friends to this onslaught? No! We cannot relate to these experiences at all.
Unless we have lived through these kinds of experiences ourselves, which fortunately for us living in the western hemisphere, we may never have to experience first hand, we cannot truly tell what it is like or how it feels.
In the book of Lamentations, Jeremiah who prophesied about this very same event for over forty years before as he warned his people about their waywardness, helps us to understand the feelings of utter grief, anger, hopelessness and despair that must have been rife among those who survived to witness the carnage and decimation of their homeland and the forced exile and murder of many of their families and friends. In chapter three of the book, Jeremiah’s personal grief is on full display and there is hardly a better description of his grief than what we read in the chapter. A central part to his grief is the feeling of being abandoned or worse being punished by God. We must never forget that for the people of Israel and Judah, the Almighty God was their God who would save them from any calamity and in fact they believed that God alone gave them victory over all their enemies. In light of all this, what has now happened to their people could only have happened because God had abandoned them or worse God was punishing them by the hands of their enemies. This latter view was the common view espoused by the prophet Jeremiah and his contemporaries. This idea of being punished by a heathen enemy made the grief even more painful but we cannot lose sight of the fact that this chapter also brings into focus the enduring faith in God by Jeremiah. In the midst of overwhelming grief and despair the prophet remembers that God has one endearing quality that will never fail. This is his infinite love for his people. Because of this, there is hope and it is this hope that will not only lift the spirits of those who are downcast, but also restore them in His good time. In the midst of catastrophe and despair it is easy to see only gloom and feel that there is no way back to healing and wholeness. Yet the one thing that we must never lose according to the prophet is our hope in God. Jeremiah says, “The Lord is good to those who hope in him.” (See Lamentations 3:25 NIV) The same applies to our situations and our world today.
As I said earlier, we who live in the western hemisphere may not experience the ravages of war or armed conflict, but we do experience calamities that are similar and others that are very personal. Armed conflict isn’t the only source of human catastrophe and despair. Natural disasters such as flooding, tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes and fires do cause similar devastation to the land and disruption of people’s lives and livelihoods and of course they also take many lives. In those times you may ask where is the reason to hope? Yet we have seen communities and people recover from these devastating events and move on with their lives, in some cases even better than they were before the disaster. Many of us may not experience or be victims of large-scale disasters, but we do experience our personal disasters. Whether it was major and sudden illness or even a long and protracted one which has ravaged the family finances or the loss of several family members in a short space of time, within one year or even within a few months of each other’s passing, or perhaps it’s the loss of employment for the breadwinner of the family in a sudden and unexpected way, or the family home being destroyed by the elements or some other personal tragedy. According to the prophet, when these things happen, that is the time to lean fully into our hope in God. It is this hope that makes you get up the next morning believing that things will get better. It is this hope that makes you realize that you will get through this somehow because God loves you.
In the immediate aftermath of devastating loss and pain, God’s love is perhaps the last thing you think about or even feel, or even want to acknowledge. Yet it is that love which will wrap its arms around you and whisper comfort and assurance to you that you are not alone. Pain and suffering from all kinds of catastrophes are a part of this world and all of us experience it in one form or another, whether as part of a national tragedy or calamity or through our own family or personal experience. It is easy to question the presence and actions of God because we have understood him to be a loving God. Because of this, we think that such a loving God should spare us human beings from the devastating impacts of war and other kinds of human catastrophes. We fail to see that going through the fire really makes us stronger and better than before. The writer James, believed to be the earthly brother of Jesus puts it this way, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (See James 1:2-4 NIV)
The devastating experiences of this life are not an indicator of God’s abandonment of us or necessarily even God’s punishment but the healing and strength that we gain are always a sign that God has been working in us to make us grow deeper in faith and gain a deeper appreciation of God’s love for us. It may seem rather contradictory but it is especially in our season of affliction and suffering that we truly learn how great the love of God is.
So then my friends, what have been the lowest times in your life? What have been the experiences that made you feel that you went through hell and back? What has happened in your family or personal life that made you feel that you went through a war zone? These experiences often leave many with permanent grief. Some sadly do take their own lives because for them the feeling of hopelessness and worthlessness was just too great. Many relationships have been strained or broken permanently because of personal or family trauma and grief. Many people have changed remarkably some for better some for the worst because of the overwhelming trauma experienced by them. How have you been changed by your pain, your loss, your grief?
Interestingly enough as we and millions of other Christians gather at the Lord’s table today, World Communion Sunday, we are commemorating the grief of a Father for His Son on a humiliating Roman cross, yet we are also rejoicing because we know that that grief and pain of both the Father and the Son gave us something much more than loss. It gave us life, eternal life. As Jeremiah rightly points out the Lord is indeed good to those who hope in him. Through our pain, through our grief, though life’s calamities and despair, we still hope because the love of God is never failing. It is new every morning. In the end we will see the salvation of our God. My friends keep waiting and hoping and trusting through pain and through death because God is with us. If we can only live out this hope and this confidence in our faithful God showing who He is to a broken world, just maybe we will see less conflicts and wars as more people become transformed by the healing and restorative power of God’s love. May we go from here to live as people who are not just survivors of pain and grief but people who are victorious because God’s love has never failed us and He never will. Amen.