Growing up was difficult for me. I was a small kid, the smallest in our class, the youngest too. So I looked up to my brother for protection. Things were different when I was with him. Our place had one bully and he hated me the most. I tried to fight back at one time, but I was no matched to him. I went home with a bloodied nose and a ringing ear. We couldn’t go to the police, there was no one around. We could not go to the local officials, they were his relatives. I was scared at him. The only time I could go around without fear is with my brother Jun. He was strong and fearless – with his double blade around his waist. But we were normal siblings and sometimes we had fights and he would beat me up. Imagine my frustrations.
The kingdom of Judah and its inhabitance, those who were exiled in Babylon and those who stayed behind find themselves in a similar situation, albeit far worst. God, their protector, their covenant partner, their Creator declared war against them, and was on the attack. To whom will the people turn to when they are up against God?
Our reading today covers the first 3 chapters of the Book of Lamentations, a literary masterpiece of this genre. The Book provides in vivid and poetic detail Babylon’s destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC. God raised up the Babylonians against Judah to bring his judgment over his people who refused to turn to him in repentance despite repeated warnings.
Chapter 1 describes how helpless and hopeless Judah stands under God’s judgment. The writer likens the nation to a disgraced woman. She is a widow, in her case, an abandoned wife, in grief, enslaved, having no one to turn to, without dignity, taunted by the enemy, exiled, and alone away from God. This chapter describes the horror of being separated from God.
Chapter 2 is even worst, for here God shows himself as a warrior, a mighty warrior, but one whose sword is directed at the people of Judah. God is a warrior who declared war against his own people. In verse after verse God becomes the author of destruction.
In Chapter 3 something unusually amazing happens. Here the prophet cries out, but he weeps like a sinner. He laments owning up the sins of the people. He was just a few of those who truly walk with God, but here he grieves, he experiences the pain of separation and the tormenting heat of divine judgment over the sins of the people.
And then a ray of hope. In Lamentations 3:22-23 we have one of the most endearing Scriptures of hope. The prophet says, “The steadfast love the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (ESV).
How could this happen? What brought the change? What brought hope? The answer here lies with God’s steadfast love. This phrase translates the Hebrew “hesed”, which refers to God’s covenant love. This covenant was never conditioned on human faithfulness, but only on God. Do you remember Genesis 15? Here we have a window to just how God’s covenant works. In an amazing turn of events, only God walked through the covenant sacrifice. Abraham was asleep.
Can you imagine if God’s covenant requires absolute faithfulness? The cutting of the sacrifice is a vivid and graphic way of saying, “You can do this to me, cut me to pieces if I renege on the covenant.” No son of Abraham would stand uncut and alive. Thankfully, God made the covenant with his covenant partner in deep sleep.
The Book of course is pointing to the new covenant, also prophesied in Jeremiah 31:31-34, a covenant established solely by God’s sovereign gracious mercy, made and sealed by Jesus’s sacrifice (Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25).
Just one final thought, God says you cut me into pieces if I renege on the covenant. He never failed. He could not. He is forever faithful. And yet when we sinned, when we broke everything that could be broken, when all hope is gone, he offered his Son to be cut into pieces for us, that we might enter the new covenant.
What an amazing God. You dare not turn against him. You do that at your own risk. He took all the risk and paid dearly with his life that you and I might become his covenant family. Let’s turn to him today, praise him, love him, thank him, serve him, bow to him, and tell others about just how gracious he is. Are you ready for praise this morning? Emma, Xaris, Dan Jr, Charity and Hannah are.
Daniel & Emma Villa 