Hi James and Ellen,
Lamentations is a series of five laments written as poems. Jeremiah wrote the laments. The laments at some point in time were combined into a single piece of prose called Lamentations. Jeremiah was God’s primary prophet spokesman in 586 B.C. when Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army razed the city of Jerusalem. After finally overrunning the city of Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army took with them a collection of guys, gals and kids to the country of Babylonia as exiles. Many of God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids died or were killed during the two and a half years that Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army maintained a siege around the city of Jerusalem. Because Jeremiah apparently penned his laments in 586 B.C. – with 586 B.C. being the year that the city of Jerusalem was totally ravaged by Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army, your grandpaa believes that Jeremiah was led to by God at this time to anguish over through carefully phrased words the awful desolation that was about to overtake or had already overtaken the Holy City – which was the city of Jerusalem. In order to insure that the message that he wanted his Israelite people group compatriots – God’s specially chosen guys and gals, to never forget what had and was taking place in the city of Jerusalem was to fastidiously write four elegies and a prayer that could easily be memorized. Jeremiah – in his first four meticulously scribed laments in the 5 chapters of Lamentations, used the Hebrew alphabet. Jeremiah in the first two dirges of wailing and bewailing prose that are in his Lamentation Book had each verse or stanza start out with a word whose initial consonant is the next one of the Hebrew alphabet’s 22 letters. Jeremiah used acrostics as a way to help God’s specially chosen guys and gals who were being taken to the country of Babylonia by Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army, to never forget the blockade and destruction that took place in the city of Jerusalem because of their despicable sins. Because it was highly unlikely that many scribed copies of anything that any of God’s planet Earth assigned spokesmen, leaders, historians, psalmists, poets etc. penned or scribed – if any copies were made, putting to memory was how God’s specially chosen guys and gals were able to pass on from generation to generation heartrending, poignant texts such as Jeremiah’s laments or dirges. Jeremiah is known to today as and is called the prophet who wept.
Jeremiah’s third lament is unique from three of the other laments in that instead of just the first letter of each stanza – or three verse blocks, beginning with a successive Hebrew letter, the third lament has the first letter of each word that begins each of the three lines of each stanza – or each one of the verses in each one of the three verse blocks, begin with the same Hebrew letter. Jeremiah reasserted God’s divine, holy mercy and judgment in these next two laments. Jeremiah also asked God for His divine intervention in what was taking place. Jeremiah finishes his lament poem with a 22 verse or stanza prayer. Jeremiah’s prayer to God is a prayer of confession and a plea for God’s mercy. Jeremiah specifically asked God to show favor on His specially chosen guys and gals by restoring them again in the land that He gave them to always have to live in as their very own land.
Your grandpaa is lamenting these days. Your grandpaa’s laments are very different than Jeremiah’s laments. Jeremiah was so heartbroken that he wailed/lamented to God about what God had allowed to be put in motion to happen to the Israelite people group of guys and gals – His specially chosen guy and gals, because of their cavalier disobedience to Him. Your grandpaa is so frustrated that he complains/laments to anyone who will listen to him. Your grandpaa is frustrated with Adventures In Missions – which is the mission where God has your grandpaa at this time, because of having acquiesced to an altruistic, holistic approach to doing ministry. Your grandpaa believes that young guys and gals today – who have grown up the United States, are being conditioned not only by their growing up societal expectations but also by their church standards to approach missions through humanitarian outreaches versus through evangelistic efforts. Instead of hearing about stories of decisions of faith having been made, your grandpaa is only hearing stories about manifestation driven signs – such as miracles. Instead of guys, gals and kids – through the various Adventures in Mission’s programs that can go anywhere on planet Earth, having the opportunity to once and for all internalize absolute truth as being what Jesus did for them when He allowed His body to be sacrificed on a cross leading to being ‘spiritually healed’, ‘physical healings’ that do not fill a spiritual vacuum are pursued. Your grandpaa is frustrated with the United States President. (Your grandpaa wrote this missive that he is editing now around 15 years ago) Taking something out of the ‘Living Word’ that Jesus said to prop a taxation argument that would result in creating a liberated society where the poor would access wealth and the wealthy would lose what they have accrued goes totally against what Jesus said in His parable of the talents when the two bigger investors were blessed and the dude who hid his one talent had that one talent taken away from him and given to the guy who knew how to invest. Your grandpaa knows that he needs to pull a Jeremiah by going to God as Jeremiah did – by being consistently and faithfully on his knees, for Him to chase away his frustrations.
Lamentations