“It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning, great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore will I hope in Him.” (Lamentations 2:22-24 KJV)
In the book of Lamentations (lament means great sorrow, regret, wailing, crying aloud), God uses His prophet Jeremiah (also known as the weeping Prophet) to share with the world the terrible destruction and despair faced by the Israelites during their time of God’s judgment and wrath upon them.
Constantly tantalized by the sights and sounds of other countries, the people of Israel hadn’t been listening to God for centuries. Their hearts continually left God and fell for countries who loved to sin and who didn’t know Him. Instead of being a reflection or representation of God, the Israelites became mirrors of the rebellious countries among them. God considered those countries to be His enemies (opponents) because they didn’t believe in Him.
The book of Lamentations is a difficult book to read, to say the least. It is a daunting retelling of the horrors faced by Israel at the hands of God. It details the desolation of Israel by its enemies and without those countries realizing they were being used by Him. No one can describe what God did to His people better than He, describing Israel’s great fall in great detail by Jeremiah’s writings. If you choose to read it, which we recommend, you may finish Lamentations in a sweat!
The detailed sufferings of the Israelites make it is easy to see how Jeremiah could be called “the weeping Prophet.” In the Bible, many wept, but none like him during his time. Jeremiah was one of God’s Prophets who had been warning the Israelites for years to turn their hearts back to God and to stop such abominations as sacrificing their own children by fire for other gods.
God was angry, to say the least. He didn’t set His people free from Egypt for this – to covet after neighboring countries! He wanted them to be separate (different) so that other countries would see how Israel’s God was blessing them and want to take Him as their God. He wanted all to see that He is the Creator of the Heaven and the Earth (Genesis 1:1) and that His might, strength, and power are with the people of Israel.
Not long into the book of Lamentations, in Chapter 2, you find hope. Why would God even include hope in such a hopeless situation for the Israelites? It would seem like a slap in the face, wouldn’t it? God chose Lamentations (and early in the book by the way) to give us hope – to show us that He can be trusted, even when it doesn’t like it. He is still able to pull us through when all things are chaotic. He wants us to see that, no matter what will happen, is happening, or has happened, then there’s hope who love Him, today.
The world has taken a turn for the worse, but, no matter what you’re going through, there is hope. God is in control. He has a plan. It’s not meant to be a cliché, it’s true. It’s in His Word.
No matter what you’ve done or what others have done to you, you cannot lose when you have hope in God. Jesus died for us, for all of us. He loves all of us, including you, and no matter what we’ve done, He has a plan full of hope and love just waiting for us. We may not see it, now, and, although we may have indications, we don’t know what the future holds, and that’s okay. He doesn’t owe us an explanation because we can trust Him. We should trust and have hope in Him, no matter how bad things look.
We can make it through anything that comes our way, knowing that He can and will make it all better in the end. He knows the plan.
Be blessed and thanks for reading!
