“unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure.”
~ Lamentations 5:22
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you sometimes feel terribly discouraged, dreadfully disheartened and/or unbearably deserted? Do you sometimes feel as if everything is going against you? Do you sometimes feel as if everyone is against you? Do you sometimes feel as Jeremiah felt when he wrote his Lamentations Laments Missive? Jeremiah concluded his laments by ending Lamentations 5 saying in verse 22, “unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure.” Do you sometimes feel as if God has completely rejected you? Do you sometimes feel as if God is so angry with you that He will no longer have anything to do with you? The Lamentations Book author – who your grandpaa and a lot of other guys think is Jeremiah, witnessed the demise of the Israelite people group guys and gals – who are God’s specially chosen guys and gals, who had been living in the city of Jerusalem. God’s specially chosen guys and gals who had been living in the city of Jerusalem had thought that the walls that surrounded the city of Jerusalem were impenetrable and would protect them from being captured by Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army to be taken away to the country of Babylonia as captive exiles. When Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army breached the city of Jerusalem’s walls in 587 B.C., the Lamentations Book author could only lament or grieve about what happened. The Lamentations Book author knew why the city of Jerusalem had been overrun and pillaged by an army from a foreign country; God’s specially chosen guys and gals had completely turned their back on God. God’s specially chosen guys and gals had chosen to live self-centered lifestyles that were centered on inanimate gods made from pieces of wood, chunks of rock, globs of clay and lumps of metal. God’s specially chosen guys and gals challenged God by stubbornly disobeying how He expected them to live their lives – which He had detailed to them through the Mosaic Law how to do so.
Even though the Lamentations Book author understood why God allowed Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army to do what they did to the city of Jerusalem and why Nebuchadnezzar and his army took to Babylonia – as captive exiles, many of God’s specially chosen guys and gals who had been living in the city of Jerusalem, the Lamentations Book author never stops pleading with God to remember His specially chosen guys and gals who He is rejecting. The Lamentations Book author seems to be in his lamenting to God telling God that in his mind that just maybe God has done enough to His specially chosen guys and gals now that He had disgraced them by taking them away their land inheritance – which was the land that He had given them to always to have to live in as their very own land if . . , which was now being lived in by foreigners and by making them be like orphans and widows. If the guys and gals needed water or wood, they had to pay for the water or wood. Their princes – after they had been executed, were hung by their hands to add indignity to their death. Their young guys had to do humiliating work – which was to work at the millstones, in order to stay alive. Their young kids had to carry loads of wood. Their old guys no longer sat at the city gate. There was no longer joy or dancing among God’s specially chosen guys and gals; there was only mourning. The Lamentation Book’s author wishes that God would restore His specially chosen guys and gals again to Himself and have His specially chosen guys and gals again worship Him.
What do you do when you suddenly feel as if a rug has been pulled out from under you? Do you take responsibility for what has happened? Do you put the blame on another kid for what has happened to you? Do you feel disgraced or humiliated when you suddenly have your legs cut out from under you? Do you find it easier to pass on fault or do you find it easier to accept fault? God’s specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the city Jerusalem got the punishment from God that they deserved – as they were living corrupt lives in absolute disobedience to how God expected them to live their lives – which was to worship only Him. There are going to be times as you are growing up and when you become an adult guy and gal that you are going to feel really discouraged, very disheartened and quite deserted. It will be easy for you during these times to wonder if God is punishing you for something that you have done or not done. It will be easy for you during these times to wonder where all your friends went to and to especially wonder where God has gone. Your grandmaa and grandpaa have had times in their lives when it seemed like they went from when everything seemed to be going well – at least to them, to wondering – within minutes, of what happened. When the mission agency who your grandmaa and grandpaa had been with told your grandpaa that it was not going to work anymore for your grandpaa to stay with their mission agency, your grandpaa is hoping today that he and your grandmaa will sometime real soon be accepted by another mission agency or that he will find something else to do or . . . your grandpaa knows that as much as he would like to pass blame, that he needs to always keep his thoughts focused completely on God and to wait for God to lead him in His sovereignty to what He wants him to do next. Your grandpaa is very thankful that God has not rejected him and is not angry with him. Your grandpaa knows that what is ahead of him is in God’s hands.
Lamentations 5 (763)