About Lamentations 3

THIS WEEK something very sad happened, and then something very amazing happened.
You remember last week I went to visit my family in Texas. It was really wonderful to get to see my family there, whom I had not seen since last summer. I love each and every one of them. On Thursday night I heard that one of my aunts has asked my uncle for a divorce.
I won’t name names because I know the Internet is not the proper place for my family’s personal life. But I need to talk about this because God showed me something this week which was very relevant to this situation.
My whole family is very shocked. My uncle is upset. I’m really confused and surprised. What’s happening to my family is like a cracked piece of glass in a lovely stained glass window. I’m losing an aunt, and it hurts.
I lost sleep that night because I was so surprised and upset. I was thinking a lot about how my uncle must be feeling, and about what a bad thing divorce is. If you look at Matthew 5:31-32 you’ll see what I think about divorce, because Jesus (God) is always right. “[31] Furthermore it has been said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ [32] But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery.’” Also Mark 10:6-9: “[6] But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’ [7] ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, [8] And the two shall become one flesh’; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh. [9] Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”
So I am sad that this is happening. Divorce is never a happy thing. But let me show you what God did to show me that He not only knows what’s going on in my life and my family, but He also cares.
On Friday, the day after I found out about this whole unhappy situation, I was looking in my devotional book and I followed the Bible reference. Lamentations 3:18-26. I read the whole chapter from the beginning to the end, and I suggest you go ahead and do that right now, because that’s what the rest of this post is about.
Go ahead. Lamentations 3. I’ll wait right here until you read it. It’s there between Jeremiah and Ezekiel.
I used to be just a little frightened to look at this little book, because it’s called, well, “Lamentations.” It scared me because I thought it might be full of woe and destruction and I might not understand it. I think this is the first time I’ve REALLY read anything out of Lamentations, and I’m even more excited about this than I usually am about a nice Bible passage because I KNOW God was speaking when He showed me this. That’s because He made it so that on that day, June 25, 2010, I would read those words right when I need those words. I had prayed to Him only a short while before that He would show me something to blog about this week, and earlier I had prayed He would help my family out because we’re having this little problem. He answered with this chapter. The more I read in Lamentations 3, the more excited I got because there is no denying that God was showing me something, and that’s always very exciting.
Lamentations 3 begins with the author’s groaning account of all the anguish and punishment he is receiving from God. He makes it very clear that his soul is being punished somehow, very painfully and very deeply. It begins “[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.” I don’t know what was happening to him, but it was real. This man was receiving a punishment from God, and you know that God can do whatever He decides is right. That often means punishment, and it often means reward. The more you read, the more hope you find here.
Verses 1-18 seem pretty hopeless and sad. This is probably how my uncle is feeling. I don’t know, but he might even wonder why this had to happen to him. He might think God has done this just to hurt him. Even if he doesn’t feel that way, I know that that is how many people feel during a time of great loss and pain. They feel overwhelmed and crushed, and they want to give their remaining strength to protesting the apparent unfairness of God’s actions. God is much fairer than people often give Him credit for.
Keep reading. Look at verses 19-24. “[19] Remember my affliction and roaming, the wormwood and the gall. [20] My soul still remembers and sinks within me. [21] This I recall to mind, and therefore I have hope. [22] Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. [24] ‘The LORD is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘Therefore I hope in Him!’”
And I used to be afraid of this book! This does not sound like a lamentation. This man has his face in the dust, everybody ridicules him, he’s receiving all kinds of punishment and pain, and he has hope in God! Why? Because he knows that God is both just and merciful. He is amazingly, surprisingly, immeasurably merciful. God knows that we’re only little bitty people, and there’s only so much we can take. So He punishes us for good reason (I don’t know what the reason was for this man, but he knew) and then He shows us mercy. He shows His power, then His goodness. I saw a church board this week that said something like “Mercy is an attribute of the strong.” It’s true. God is the strongest and the most merciful. He’s so strong that He can undergo death and then lift it off of Himself again, for the sake of giving us the gift of life-changing, soul-cleansing mercy. And only God can do that. That’s why He did it.
The author of Lamentations advises that if a man is going through suffering, he shouldn’t fight it but take what he’s been given. Why? Because “there may yet be hope.” Verses 26-30 “[26] It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. [27] It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth. [28] Let him sit alone and keep silent, because God has laid it on him; [29] Let him put his mouth in the dust – there may yet be hope. [30] Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him, and be full of reproach.”
Not all suffering is a punishment. Some is, but some is just to make you stronger. My dad sometimes says “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” That’s good to remember. What the author of Lamentations is saying is that when you have some kind of suffering, you shouldn’t stand on a hill and shout at God about how unfair you think it is. (Verses 37-39) If He’s letting it happen, it must be for some good reason, even if you can’t for the life of you see what reason that might be. He says that the proper response to suffering is to endure, trusting that there may still be hope because of God’s mercy. “Let us search out and examine our ways, and turn back to the LORD” (verse 40).
Then the author cries a little more because of the destruction which God has chosen to unleash on his people. God is good, whatever He does. It’s not up to people to decide whether His actions are right, because they are. After all, if He gave us what we deserve we’d all be in hell. But He loves us, so that only happens if we won’t accept His mercy. The man is crying because his people are facing terrible destruction, and because his enemies seem to be victorious against him. But wait! Look at verses 55-57: “[55] I called on Your name, O LORD, from the lowest pit. [56] You have heard my voice: ‘Do not hide Your ear from my sighing, from my cry for help.’ [57] You drew near on the day I called on You, and said, ‘Do not fear!’”
Earlier in this chapter this man was saying (verse 10) “He has been to me a bear lying in wait like a lion in ambush.” Now he is saying that God is coming to his rescue. Skeptics might say this is a confusing contradiction. I say that this is just another amazing thing about God. He reserves the right to punish, but He is also loving. He is like a daddy in so many ways. A daddy can punish his child, and he can also help her. I remember the one time I was spanked. My dad had to take me out of a restaurant gave me a big, red, stinging hand print on my leg. Why? Because I really, really deserved it. I was screaming and being really bad, so that all he could do about it was spank me. And it never meant that my dad hates me: I’ve been shown that he loves me way more often than I’ve been punished.
Why did Lamentations 3 totally AMAZE me? Read again verses 22-23. “Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. [23] They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.” God told me, right when something very sad is happening in my family, that although a bad thing may happen now, He continues to be merciful, and His mercy is a reason to hope for future joy. He knows what’s happening, and He wants us all to know He is not far away. He’s always going to be there whenever one of His children calls on Him, trusting that He really is merciful.
The story accompanying the Bible reference was about a girl finding a starfish missing two arms. Apparently they can develop new arms to replace any lost ones. Isn’t that great? God made His creatures to be able to heal. That’s why our knees don’t stay skinned and our bones don’t stay broken. The girl in the story had just moved to a new place. The starfish was meant to show that through God she has a way to heal and to be accepting of her new situation, like the starfish can grow new arms. It looks like my family is about to lose an arm. That hurts. But we’re not dead because of it. We’d sure like to have that arm back, and we’re going to miss her, but at least we don’t die.
Lamentations 3 made me think of my family in Texas who are closer to the problem than I am. It made me think especially of my uncle. I’m glad God gave me this reminder that even when the whole world is shattering and the ground is pulled out from beneath you, whether or not you understand why, He is always good and always merciful. It’s often hard to see that through the tears in your eyes, but it’s always true. God doesn’t change, and He is always faithful.