“Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?”
~ Lamentations 3:38
Hi James and Ellen,
God had Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army 2589 years ago invade and destroy the city of Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army came from a region on planet Earth that is now known as Iraq. The guys, gals and kids who were living in the city of Jerusalem 2589 years ago were the Israelite people group’s guys, gals and kids – God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids. After Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army overran and devastated the city of Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army took a good number of God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids who were living in the city of Jerusalem to Babylonia as exiles. God from 2643 years ago to 2589 years ago had one of His prophet spokesmen – Jeremiah, pass on the words that He would tell him to tell His specially chosen guys and gals who lived in land of Judah – which included the city of Jerusalem. Jeremiah’s lifespan covered the reigns of five kings who ruled over the guys and gals who lived in the land of Judah. Jeremiah personally witnessed over his lifespan God’s anger growing against the lifestyles that the guys and gals – God’s specially chosen guys and gals, were living in the land of Judah. Jeremiah was sensing that God had had it with the perverse lifestyles of His specially chosen guys and guys. Jeremiah could see by the time that God’s anger against His specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the land of Judah had finally gotten to a boiling point, that God’s specially chosen guys and gals really did not want anything more to do with God. How would you like to have God really angry with you? What do you think would make God to become really angry with a guy or gal? What do you think would make God to become really angry with a country of guys and gals? What do you think it is like when God becomes really angry with a guy or gal or really angry with a country of guys and gals? How do you feel when you see really appalling, ghastly things happening to guys and gals in countries of guys and gals all over planet Earth? Do you think that it is okay for the leader of a country of guys and gals to kill a guy or gal who opposes or disagrees with him or her just because he or she does not like it that a guy or gal would ever oppose or disagree with him or her?
God is being challenged today by the depraved lifestyles of guys and gals and by countries of guys and gals all over planet Earth. Your grandpaa believes that this has guys and gals living all over planet Earth constantly seeing, feeling and/or sensing what God’s anger is really like. God is also demonstrating a real patience and a genuine love towards guys and gals and towards countries of guys and gals all over planet Earth – giving the guys and gals in the countries the opportunity to look to Him for hope. How would you feel if the kids who you have gone to school and played with are taken away to another country – a country that your dad and ma, your teachers, your . . . have been telling and/or teaching you to really, really hate? The guy who wrote the Lamentations Book communicates feeling awful about so many of God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids who were living in Judah having been taken by Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army to Babylonia to live as exiles. Your grandpaa does not know who scribed the Lamentations Book. Many guys and gals think that Jeremiah was who scribed the Lamentations Book. There are other guys and gals who think that the Lamentations Book was scribed by another guy who had been living in the city of Jerusalem who felt really bad with what had happened when many of God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids were taken by Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army to Babylonia to live as exiles. The guy was a poet who scribed the Lamentations Book. The Lamentations Book is a series of five poems of laments. The middle chapter of the Lamentations Book – Lamentations 3, is three times longer than the Lamentation Book’s four other chapters. The middle chapter of the Lamentations Book is different from the other four chapters in that a triple alphabetical arrangement is followed so that all three lines in each stanza commence or begin with the same letter. The guy who scribed the Lamentations Book remembered in the form of a very unique poem what happened to God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids who had been living in the land Judah.
The guy who scribed the Lamentations Book remembered the afflictions, hardships and sufferings that God’s specially chosen guys and gals had to go through because they had refused to be obedient to what God expected them to do – which was to worship only Him. The guy who scribed the Lamentations Book remembered what it was like having his prayers completely shut out by God because God had had enough of answering or responding to the calls for help from His specially chosen guys and gals who would then go back to worshipping inanimate idol gods that had been made from wood, stone and metal. God’s specially chosen guys and gals who were living at this time in the city of Jerusalem were doing what they wanted to do to live their lives their own way. God did not expect His specially chosen guys and gals nor does He expect His specially elected guys and gals today to try to live their lives their own way. God never lacks for a way to make the lives of guys and gals who He has specially elected before He created planet Earth really, really difficult if these guys and gals who He has specially elected spend all their time trying to live their lives their own way instead of His way. If you have been wondering why God did not keep His specially chosen guys and gals from being bad, verse 38 says, “Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?” The Lamentations Book author knew that God is in control of whatever happens.
Lamentations 3 (375)