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.