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Take a breath, find your place, and read deeply. Discover the joy of reading God’s word with the Immerse New Living Translation (NLT) Bible.
This daily Bible podcast will take you through the Bible in a year following the Immerse Bible Reading Experience. So grab your family and small group and go through the Bible in a year together with Immerse. Each of the 6 volumes is available online or at your favorite Christian bookstore.
Henry: Welcome To Immerse: The
Daily Bible Reading Experience.
Day two hundred and 90.
Immersed in Lamentations.
In 587 bc the city of Jerusalem was
attacked and overrun by the Babylonians.
The great temple of Solomon was utterly
destroyed, and most of the population
was either killed or taken captive.
A few poor stragglers were
left behind in the rubble.
It was an event that shook the people
of God to their core because their
suffering and loss was immense.
But the disaster also raised
larger questions about God's
relationship to his people and the
future of their story together.
If God's people are now scattered and
God's chosen place of worship demolished.
How can his work in the world go forward?
The Book of Lamentations speaks to
the experience of God's people while
still in the midst of deep suffering.
In contrast to many laments in Psalms
that conclude with Words of Hope or
Thanksgiving, it's five poems are
set in what's left of the city of
Jerusalem after its destruction.
Tradition identifies the prophet
Jeremiah as the author of these poems.
Though the book itself does not identify
who wrote them, God's enemies have
triumphed over God's people who are now
suffering atrocities and deprivations
that can barely be described.
All of this raises serious
questions about God himself.
Where is the God known in Psalms
as our refuge and strength always
ready to help in times of trouble?
The subject matter is so difficult
to handle that the palms and
lamentations are among the most
tightly arranged in the Bible.
It's as if only an orderly structure
can hold the sorrow, doubt, and
despair together long enough to be
offered to God as a desperate prayer.
Most of these poems are acrostics,
meaning that their stanzas
begin with the 22 consecutive
letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
The stanzas have three lines each,
and in the third poem, each individual
line begins with the same letter as
the pattern tightens to the extreme.
But after that, the pattern
doesn't hold together.
The fourth poem has two line stanzas
with the acrostic sequence followed
only in the first line of each stanza.
And the final poem consists of 22 single
lines from which the acrostic pattern
disappears completely as if the power of
the poet to speak order into the situation
fades in the face of its enormity, and
the only remaining response is silence.
But deep in the heart of Lamentations,
the seed of something new is planted.
Something that speaks of hope and renewal.
Even in the face of utter loss.
The five songs are all laments,
that unrelentingly recount
the details of the disaster.
But right in the center of the
central song, we find words of hope.
And as yet unseen, faithfulness,
and an as yet unknown compassion.
No one is abandoned forever.
It says, for God will show
his mercy and unfailing love.
We need these hard words of pain and
unimaginable suffering in our Bible, words
that we choke on and can barely speak.
Words that drift off into silence.
This confirms that the scriptures
confront the most difficult realities
we know, but we are also offered
words of a deeper hope, an enduring
faith by which we ultimately throw
ourselves completely on God himself.
In this broken world, we have not
yet seen these words come to their
complete fruition, but we are
looking for the coming of something
new, something as yet unknown.
The restoration of all things.
The Book of Lamentations,
Jerusalem wants so full of people.
Is now deserted.
She who was once great among the
nations now sits alone like a widow.
Once the queen of all the
earth, she is now a slave.
She sobs through the night,
tears dream down her cheeks.
Among all her lovers, there
is no one left to comfort her.
All her friends have betrayed
her and become her enemies.
Judah has been led away into captivity,
oppressed with cruel slavery.
She lives among foreign nations
and has no place of rest.
Her enemies have chased her down
and she has nowhere to turn.
The roads to Jerusalem are in
mourning for crowds no longer
come to celebrate the festivals.
The city gates are silent.
Her priests groan.
Her young women are crying.
How bitter is her fate?
Her oppressors have become her
masters and her enemies prosper.
For the Lord has punished
Jerusalem for her many sins.
Her children have been captured
and taken away to distant lands.
All the majesty of beautiful
Jerusalem has been stripped away.
Her princes are like starving
deers searching for pasture.
They're too weak to run
from the pursuing enemy.
In the midst of her sadness and wandering,
Jerusalem remembers her ancient splendor,
but now she has fallen to her enemy.
There is no one to help her.
Her enemy struck her down
and laughed as she fell.
Jerusalem has sinned greatly, so she
has been tossed away like a filthy rag.
All who once honored her, now
despise her for they have seen
her stripped naked and humiliated.
All she can do is groan and hide her face.
She defiled herself with immorality
and gave no thought to her future.
Now she lies in the gutter
with no one to lift her out.
Lord, see my misery.
She cries.
The enemy has triumphed.
The enemy has plundered her completely.
Taking every precious thing she owns.
She has seen foreigners
violate her sacred temple.
The place the Lord had
forbidden them to enter her.
People grown as they search for bread.
They have sold their treasures
for food to stay alive.
Oh Lord, look, she mourns and see how I
am Despised does it mean nothing to you?
All you who pass by, look around and
see if there is any suffering like
mine, which the Lord brought on me
when he erupted in fierce anger.
He has sent fire from heaven
that burns in my bones.
He has placed a trap in my
path and turned me back.
He has left me devastated, wracked
with sickness all day long.
He wove my sins into ropes to
hitch me to a yoke of captivity.
The Lord sapped my strength and
turned me over to my enemies.
I am helpless in their hands.
The Lord has treated my mighty
men with contempt at his command.
A great army has come to
crush my young warriors.
The Lord has trampled his beloved
city, like grapes are trampled in
a wine press for all these things.
I weep, tears flow down my cheeks.
No one is here to comfort me.
Any who might encourage me are far away.
My children have no future.
For the enemy has conquered us.
Jerusalem reaches out for help, but no
one comforts her regarding his people.
Israel, the Lord has said, let
their neighbors be their enemies.
Let them be thrown away like a filthy rag.
The Lord is right.
Jerusalem says, for I
rebelled against him.
Listen, people everywhere.
Look upon my anguish and despair
for my sons and daughters have been
taken captive to distant lands.
I begged my allies for
help, but they betrayed me.
My priests and leaders starved to
death in the city, even as they
searched for food to save their lives.
Lord, see my anguish.
My heart is broken and my soul despairs
for I have rebelled against you.
In the streets, the sword kills,
and at home there is only death.
Others heard my groans, but
no one turned to comfort me.
When my enemies heard about my troubles,
they were happy to see what you had done.
Oh, bring the day you promised.
When they will suffer as I have suffered.
Look at all their evil deeds.
Lord, punish them as you have
punished me for all my sins.
My groans are many.
And I am sick at heart.
The Lord in his anger has cast a
dark shadow over beautiful Jerusalem.
The fairest of Israel's cities
lies in the dust thrown down
from the heights of heaven.
In his day of great anger, the Lord
has shown no mercy even to his temple.
Without mercy, the Lord has
destroyed every home in Israel.
In his anger, he has broken down the
fortress walls of beautiful Jerusalem.
He has brought them to the ground,
dishonoring the kingdom, and its rulers.
All the strength of Israel
vanishes beneath his fierce anger.
The Lord has withdrawn his
protection as the enemy attacks.
He consumes the whole land
of Israel like a raging fire.
He bends his bow against his people
as though he were their enemy.
His strength is used against
them to kill their finest youth.
His fury is poured out like
fire on beautiful Jerusalem.
Yes, the Lord has vanquished
Israel like an enemy.
He has destroyed her palaces
and demolished her fortresses.
He has brought unending sorrow and
tears upon beautiful Jerusalem.
He has broken down his temple as
though it were merely a garden shelter.
The Lord has blotted out all memory of
the Holy festivals and Sabbath days.
Kings and priests fall together
before his fierce anger.
The Lord has rejected his own altar.
He despises his own sanctuary.
He has given Jerusalem's
palaces to her enemies.
They shout in the Lord's temple as
though it were a day of celebration.
The Lord was determined to destroy
the walls of beautiful Jerusalem.
He made careful plans for their
destruction, then did what he had planned.
Therefore, the ramparts and walls
have fallen down before him.
Jerusalem's gates have
sunk into the ground.
He has smashed their locks and bars.
Her kings and princes have
been exiled to distant lands.
Her law has ceased to exist.
Her prophets receive no
more visions from the Lord.
The leaders of beautiful Jerusalem
sit on the ground in silence.
They're clothed in burlap,
and throw dust on their heads.
The young women of Jerusalem
hang their heads in shame.
I have cried until the
tears no longer come.
My heart is broken.
My spirit is poured out in agony as I
see the desperate plight of my people.
Little children and tiny babies are
fainting and dying in the streets.
They cry out to their mothers.
We need food and drink.
Their lives eeb away in the
streets like the life of a warrior.
Wounded in battle.
They gasp for life as they
collapse in their mother's arms.
What can I say about you?
Who has ever seen such sorrow?
Oh, daughter of Jerusalem.
To what?
Can I compare your anguish?
Oh, Virgin Daughter of Zion.
How can I comfort you for your wound
is as deep as the sea who can heal you.
Your prophets have said so many
foolish things, false to the core.
They did not save you from
exile by pointing out your sins.
Instead, they painted false
pictures filling you with false
hope all who pass by J at you.
They scoff and insult beautiful
Jerusalem saying, is this the city
called most beautiful in all the
world and joy of all the earth?
All your enemies mock you.
They scoff and snarl and say,
we have destroyed her at last.
We have long waited for this day and it is
finally here, but it is the Lord who did.
Just as he planned, he has fulfilled the
promises of disaster he made long ago.
He has destroyed Jerusalem without mercy.
He has caused her enemies to gloat over
her and has given them power over her.
Cry aloud before the Lord.
Oh, walls of beautiful Jerusalem.
Let your tears flow like a river.
Day and night.
Give yourselves no rest.
Give your eyes no relief.
Rise during the night and cry out.
Pour out your hearts
like water to the Lord.
Lift up your hands to him in prayer.
Pleading for your children.
For in every street, they
are faint with hunger.
Oh Lord, think about this.
Should you treat your own people this way?
Should mothers eat their own children,
those they once bounced on their knees.
Should priests and prophets be
killed within the Lord's temple?
See them lying in the streets,
young and old boys and girls
killed by the swords of the enemy.
You have killed them in your anger.
Slaughtering them without mercy.
You have invited terrors from
all around as though you were
calling them to a day of feasting.
In the day of the Lord's anger,
no one has escaped or survived.
The enemy has killed all the
children whom I carried and raised.
This concludes today's
Immer reading experience.
Thank you for joining us.