Read the Bible in 2023 ◊ Week 23: Friday

Friday’s Bible reading is Lamentations. This short book of only five chapters is a poetic lament over the destruction of the city of Jerusalem and the conse­quences of God’s devastating judgment on Judah. Gleason Archer writes:

“The book does not expressly state who the author was, yet there was an early and consistent tradition that Jeremiah composed it. This tradition is reflected in the title of the book in the LXX [Septuagint] as well as by the Aramaic Targum of Jonathan. The early church Fathers, such as Origen and Jerome, understood Jeremiah to be the author without any question… If Jeremiah was not the composer, whoever wrote it must have been a contemporary of his and witnessed the same pitiless destruction meted out in Zion by its Chaldean conquerors.”¹

The account is stark and full of horror and cuts to the bone as Jeremiah weeps from the depths of his soul. His words are touchingly beautiful in their melancholy and grief as Judah’s sin is lamented and God’s judgment is described. R. K. Harrison comments:

“In a real sense the poems [of Lamentations] present a vindication of divine righteousness in the light of the covenant relationship, and like the book of Job they show that God, not man, is the central figure in the drama of history. As the poems of Lamentations unfold, they make it clear that the real tragedy inherent in the destruction of Judah lies in the fact that it could almost certainly have been avoided. The actual causes of the calamity were the people themselves…

“The irony of it all lay in the fact that over the generations they had been warned time and again by various servants of God that continued indul­gence in this immoral way of life would result in drastic punishment, warnings which, in the event, went unheeded… Lamentations consists of a sad commentary on the outworking of the prophetic conviction that those who sow the wind will reap the whirlwind. The ashes of a devastated Jerusalem thus testify at once to the demonstration and the vindication of divine righteousness (1:18).

“The recognition of national sin as the real cause of destruction brought with it a pressing consciousness of guilt (1:8; 2:14; 3:40, etc.), and this in turn impels the author to make full confession of sin on behalf of the apostate people and their leaders as the first step towards claiming divine forgiveness and restoration.”²

Lamentations is poetry, and I think the precise form and concise use of words in poetry gives expression to intense emotions in the same way a narrow channel intensifies the flow of water. I don’t think prose conveys the intensity of emo­tions as well as poetry. Archer comments that:

“the first four chapters are written in the acrostic form. Chapters 1, 2, and 4 are therefore twenty-two verses long, each verse beginning with the successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Chapter 3, however, contains sixty-six verses, since three successive verses are allotted to each letter of the alphabet.”³

Walt Kaiser writes that an acrostic is commonly used to aid memorization, but in Lamentations he believes it was done as part of the process of grieving:

“…the purpose was to make sure that the grounds of grief and suffering were worked through completely. No facet should be left out; every detail of the human tragedy must be itemized and expressed completely…

“…a crescendo (an increase in loudness and intensity) is signalled in chapter 3 when each of the three lines begins with the same letter of the alphabet and is given separate verse numbers. The fourth poem only contains two lines to each stanza and thus indicates a decrescendo (a gradual decrease in loudness and intensity). The last chapter is the only poem that is not an acrostic even though it simulates the shape and form of an acrostic in that it has twenty-two verses and resembles certain prayers of corporate lament such as Psalms 44 and 80…

“Thus the acrostic form contributes to the meaning and significance of all serious discomfort, each hurt, loss, disease, or tragedy. It patiently goes over each step in the process. It systematically organizes each detail so as to identify, objectify, and pacify each and every pain. It also sets boun­daries to suffering so that mortals are not left forever numb and mute in the horrid face of jumbled confusion that evil has introduced into their lives. The final letter will come and so will the end of this sorrow. Nothing troubles the sufferer more than the feeling of the endlessness of one’s misery. Therefore the acrostic will help to itemize, organize, and finalize grief.”⁴

In looking at the overall structure of Lamentations, Walt Kaiser writes:

“In its external structure Lamentations exhibits an unusually fine artistic structure. First of all, there are five poems. Such an uneven number has the advantage of allowing one poem to signify the mid-point of the book if that is needed. And in fact that is what did happen, there is an ‘ascent’ (crescendo) to a clearly marked climax in the third chapter. This third chapter is pivotal to the whole message of the book both in its form and content…

“The lament moves to a high pitch of excitement and intensity in chapter 3 and then decreases in strength until the case is laid at God’s feet in prayer — but only after the fullness of the people’s grief has been gone over from a to z.”⁵

This is how Kaiser summarizes Lamentations:⁶

CLIMAX
3. The Compassion of God Upward View
	2. The Wrath of God Inside View		4. The Sins of All Classes Overall View
1. The City Outside View				5. The Prayer Future View

As you read you can see this ascent when, in the midst of this wrenching bereave­ment, in chapter three you find incredible words of hope.

Remember this was written in the midst of the ruin of all that the writer held dear.

The word remember occurs in verses 19 and 20, and recall is used in verse 21. In verses 19 and 20 Jeremiah remembers the horrible things he has experienced and seen, his rejection and suffering at the hands of his people who refused to repent and turn back to God—and his soul is bowed down within him. Charles Spurgeon writes in his evening devotional for May 28th:

“Memory is frequently the bond slave of despondency. Despairing minds call to remembrance every dark foreboding in the past, and dilate upon every gloomy feature in the present; thus memory, clothed in sackcloth, presents to the mind a cup of mingled gall and wormwood.”⁷

But then in verse 21, the word recall is used as Jeremiah recalls something to mind that gives him hope. This is a different Hebrew word than the word for remember that is used in verses 19 and 20. This word means “to turn back”⁸ or to “re(turn).”⁹ In the midst of his remembrance of grief, Jeremiah turns back—he recalls to mind—and he has hope.

What does he turn back to in his mind?

Kaiser writes these three verses are, “The Focal Point of Lamentations.”

“Like a pool of light in the midst of the thickest darkness, this chapter rises above all others in the hope and consolation it offers. Its central affirmation is found in the triad of verse 22-24.

“…’Great is Thy faithfulness’, springs from the page as the greatest word of hope. But it was not sung (as we so often sing the hymn based on this verse) immediately after the body of believers had just experienced another evidence of God’s blessing on their lives. On the contrary, this word came when nothing looked possible, hopefull, worthwhile, or comforting.

“In the face of the direst of adversities, Israel and we are offered hope. It is a word not about answers to the problem of evil, not a word about circumstances or men and movements. It is not a word about systems of political or even theological belief; it is simply a word about our Lord. He is faithful, He is love, He is gracious, He is full of compassion, He is our inheritance.

“And therein lies the focal point of the message for this chapter, and, because of its position, for the whole book as well…Hope then is not a will-o’-the-wisp, but it is solid confidence and an assured certainty because it resides in the Lord.”¹⁰

I. E. H. Stephens-Hodge comments,

“That such a beautiful expression of assurance in God’s unfailing mercies should be found in Lamentations and in such a context is indeed remarkable and carries its own rich consolations.”¹¹

Jeremiah recalls:

God’s compassions never fail. When you go to sleep at night, He hasn’t used up all of His compassions for you at the end of that day. When you wake up the next morning, He is there and His compassions for you are there—they are new every morning.

Jeremiah returns to the truth that he knows about God’s character:

God’s faithfulness is great. God does not change. He is our rock. Paul wrote to Timothy:

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow—there is no shadow of turning with Him. You may recognize that last phrase; it’s from James 1:17 and is included in the lyrics of the hymn, Great Is Thy Faithfulness, with a title and theme taken from Lamentations 3:23.

Jeremiah concludes:

And he gives us this witness:

In the midst of his desolation, the words of Jeremiah speak to us in the midst of our desolation.

---

New Testament passages about God’s faithfulness include: 1 Corinthians 1:9, 1 Thessalonians 5:23–24, 2 Thessalonians 3:3, Hebrews 2:17–18, Hebrews 10:23.
Silvesterzug Laterne: Bk muc. (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Cry of prophet Jeremiah on the Ruins of Jerusalem: Ilya Yefimovich Repin. Public Domain.
^1,3Gleason L. Archer, Jr., “Jeremiah and Lamentations,” A Survey of Old Testament Introduction (Moody Press, Chicago IL: 1974)  365–366, 365.
²R. K. Harrison, Jeremiah and Lamentation (Inter-Varsity Press, London: 1973) 201–202.
^4,5,6,10Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., Grief and Pain in the Plan of God: Christian Assurance and the Message of Lamentations (Moody Press, Chicago IL: 1982; Christian Focus Publications, Ltd. ed. Fearn, Tain, Great Britain: 2004) 14–15; 19, 15; 22; 81, 83–84.
¹Gleason L. Archer, Jr., “Jeremiah and Lamentations,” A Survey of Old Testament Introduction (Moody Press, Chicago IL: 1974)  365–366.
⁷Charles Spurgeon, Morning and Evening: Daily Readings, Evening, May 28.
⁸Strong’s Concordance, Hebrew Dictionary, #7725.
⁹Victor P. Hamilton, “2340 שׁוּב shûb, (re)turn,” Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, vol. II, R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer, Jr., Bruce K. Waltke, eds. (The Moody Bible Institute, Chicago IL: 1980) 909.
¹¹L. E. H. Stephens-Hodge, “Lamentations,” The New Bible Commentary: Revised, D. Guthrie, J. A. Motyer, eds., A. M. Stibbs, D. J. Wiseman, contributing eds. (Inter-Varsity Press, Downers Grove IL: 1970) 662. He writes regarding the new mercies of Lamentations 3:23, “They are adapted for each day’s requirements.”

I’m using Michael Coley’s Bible reading plan (one page PDF to print) to read through the Bible in 2023. Each day my posts are on different books because he divides Bible readings into seven categories, one for each day of the week: Epistles, The Law, History, Psalms, Poetry, Prophecy and Gospels. There’s more information on his plan and other ones at Read the Bible in 2023.

Copyright ©2011–2023 Iwana Carpenter