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Lamentations Bible WalkTitle from the Latin VulgateThe Hebrew title is אֵיכָה (ekah) “How!” “Alas!”Sin, Destruction, Death, ExileTod KennedyDecember, 20051. Lamentations Theme: Sin, Destruction, Death, Exile 2. Lamentations Key Verses. Lamentations 2:11 and 3:19-23 “My eyes fail because of tears, My spirit is greatly troubled; My heart is poured out on the earth Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, When little ones and infants faint In the streets of the city." Lamentations 2:11 “Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness. Surely my soul remembers And is bowed down within me. This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope. The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Thy faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I have hope in Him.” The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, To the person who seeks Him." Lamentations 3:19-23 3. History This was the time of the Israel’s greatest apostasy and rejection of her major prophet’s messages, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the exile of the people to Babylon. See the Jeremiah notes for the history. Jeremiah also wrote Lamentations. Jerusalem had been destroyed by the Babylonian army under Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah wrote about the destruction of the city, the temple, and the people that occurred in July and August, 586 BC. 4. Author Jeremiah
5. Poetry and Structure of Lamentations a. Lamentations was a lament for Jerusalem. Jerusalem was not just the capital of Israel and the city of David, it was the center for worship and sacrifice, for the temple, and later where Christ would be crucified. b. Lamentations is more than a dirge about suffering. It is a funeral poem for the center of God’s redemption plan—Jerusalem, the temple, and the Messiah’s people. d. Lamentations is a poem composed of five laments. A lament is a funeral poem or song. The technical name for this funeral poem is qina, which expresses grief, sorrow, and mourning. e. Jeremiah is expressing his anguished grief over the destruction of Jerusalem, the temple, and the people. f. Chapters 1, 2, 4 are acrostic poems. Each chapter is a unit and each chapter has 22 verses. The first verse begins with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet (a, aleph) and each succeeding verse begins with the next successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. g. Chapter 3 is also an acrostic, but the chapter is in 3 verse segments. It has 66 verses. Verses 1, 2, and 3 begin with a, aleph, and so on. Chapter 3 is an individual lament like Psalm 7 and 22. h. Chapter 5 with its 22 verses is not in acrostic form. Jeremiah penned this lament in a somewhat whispered fashion as he quietly grieves over the people and then pleads for restoration based upon God’s sovereignty and grace. i. Summary 1) Chapter 1. 22 verse acrostic 2) Chapter 2. 22 verse acrostic 3) Chapter 3. 66 verse acrostic, 3 verses per letter 4) Chapter 4. 22 verse acrostic 5) Chapter 5. 22 verse, not acrostic. j. Lamentations was read on the ninth day of Ab when the Jews commemorated the destruction of Jerusalem. Ab in our calendar is July-August. It is the fifth month of the religious calendar and he eleventh month of the civil calendar. 6. Overview Outline and Chapter Titles a. Chapter 1: Jerusalem, lonely and desolate (1, 3, 17) b. Chapter 2: The Lord’s anger, wrath, and destruction (1, 3, 4) c. Chapter 3: Jeremiah’s affliction, hope, and prayer (1, 21, 55) d. Chapter 4: Sin caused unspeakable suffering (1, 6, 10, 11) e. Chapter 5: Jeremiah prays because joy has ceased (5, 15) 7. Trace the Theme of Lamentations Simply Sin, Destruction, Death, Exile Lamentations 1:1 and 8, Jerusalem, lonely and desolate. Lamentations 2:1 and 11, The Lord’s anger, wrath, and destruction. Lamentations 3:1 and 21-23, Jeremiah’s affliction, hope, and prayer. Lamentations 4:6, 10 and 11, Sin caused unspeakable suffering. Lamentations 5:1, 15, and 21, Jeremiah prays because joy has ceased.
a. Chapter 1: Jerusalem, lonely and desolate (1, 3, 17). Verse 1 sets the theme for the chapter and the book. 1) Verses: Lamentations 1:1. “How lonely sits the city That was full of people! She has become like a widow Who was once great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces Has become a forced laborer!”
2) Some descriptive terms and phrases include “weeps bitterly” 2; “harsh servitude” 3; “sinned greatly” 8; “her nakedness” 8; “fallen astonishingly 9; “groan seeking bread” 11; “sent fire into my bones” 13; “Jerusalem has become an unclean thing” 17; “The Lord is righteous…captivity” 18; “in the house it is like death” 20; “no one to comfort me” 21. b. Chapter 2: The Lord’s anger, wrath, and destruction. Verses 1, 3, and 4 demonstrated this. 1) Verses Lamentations 2:1 How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion With a cloud in His anger! He has cast from heaven to earth The glory of Israel, And has not remembered His footstool
In the day of His anger. 2) This lament concentrates on the Lord’s anger against Judah. Jeremiah emphasizes this in numerous verses. “His anger” 2x in 1; “not spared” 2; “wrath” 2; “fierce anger” 3; “bent his bow” and “wrath like fire” 4; “violently treated” and “despised” 6; “rejected” and “abandoned” 7; “destruction” 11; “life is poured out” 12; “the Lord has done” 17; “women eat their offspring” 20; “hast slaughtered” 21; “day of the Lord’s anger” 22. c. Chapter 3: Jeremiah’s affliction, hope, and prayer. Verses 1, 21, 55 are illustrative verses. 1) Verses
Lamentations 3:1 I am the man who has seen affliction Because of the rod of
His wrath. 2) This lament gives us Jeremiah’s thinking, discouragement, confident expectation, and prayer. We can see this by “seen affliction” 1; “in darkness” 2; “against me” 3; “He shuts out my prayer” 8; “laughing stock” 14; “bitterness” 15; “forgotten happiness” 17; “bowed down” 20; “I have hope” 21; “great is thy faithfulness” 23; “I have hope in Him” 21; “compassion” and “abundant lovingkindness” 32; “both good and ill” 38; “in view of his sins” 39; “let us examine and probe…and return” 40; “no prayer” 44; “devastation and destruction” 47;“I am cut off” 54; “I called” 55; “Thou hast heard” 56; “do not fear” 57; “Thou has redeemed” 58; “Thou wilt recompense” 64; d. Chapter 4: Sin caused unspeakable suffering. Verses 1, 6, 10, and 11 demonstrate this theme. 1) Verses
Lamentations 4:1 How dark the gold has become, How the pure gold has
changed! The sacred stones are poured out. 2) “tongue of infants” and “ask for bread” (4); “Embrace ash pits” (5); “greater than the sin of Sodom” (6); “skin is shriveled” (8); “slain with hunger” (9); “boiled their own children” (10); “accomplished His wrath” (11); “kings of the earth did not believe” (12); “our end had come” (18); “captured in the pits” (20); “your iniquity has been completed” (22). e. Chapter 5: Jeremiah prays because joy has ceased. Verses 1, 5, 15, 21, 22 demonstrate this theme. 1) Verses
Lamentations 5:1 Remember, O Lord, what has befallen us; Look, and see our
reproach! 2) “Remember, O Lord” (1); “our inheritance has been turned over” (2); “become orphans” (3); “pay for drinking water” (4); “Slaves rule over us” (8); “They ravished the women” (11); “Princes were hung by their hands” (12); “joy of our hearts has ceased” and “dancing has been turned into mourning” (15); “our heart is faint” and “eyes are dim” (17); “why dost Thou forget us forever” (20); “Restore us” (21); “Renew our days” (21); “unless” (22). 8. Key People a. Jeremiah. God’s prophet to Judah during her final days. He faithfully proclaimed God’s word to apathetic, disobedient, and idolatrous Jews. Jeremiah penned Lamentations has he recalled the destruction, death, and exile of God’s people and his people. 9. Key Words and Phrases in NASB a. Daughters 18x, of Judah, Zion, Jerusalem, my people. 1x, daughters of my city. All references to Israel’s relationship to the Lord and the land and city. Points out God’s choice of the Jewish people and the city of Jerusalem (1:6; 2:2; 2:13; 3:48; 3:51). b. Lament 1x, (2:8). Personification of the defenses of the city, which once breached, leads to destruction of the city and people. c. Cry 3x. Refers to pleading with the Lord for help during the destruction of Jerusalem, the temple, and the people (2:19; 3:8; 3:56). d. Help 4x. This brings out the helpless situation. Only the Lord can deliver Judah (1:7; 3:8; 3:56; 4:17). e. Compassion 2x, and Lovingkindness 2x. These are found in those great passages about God’s compassion that revived Jeremiah (3:22; 3:32). 10. Key Doctrines
11. Lessons for us today
1) Am I believing in Jesus Christ to give me eternal life (John 3.16-18; 20.31; Romans 6.23)? 2) Do I really know what God is like (Lamentations 3:21-25)? 3) Am I walking in fellowship with God (1 John 1) and living by faith, by the Holy Spirit, in the Word of God, and in love (Galatians 2.20; 5.5; 2 John 4-6)? 4) Do I accept the fact that what I believe is more important that how I feel (Psalm 13)? 5) Am I watching for the good (the blessing) that God is working out in my life and testing (Romans 8.28)?
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