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- What attributes of God’s character does this passage reveal?
- How does the passage point to Jesus?
- How should the truth of this passage change me?
- How do the events of today’s reading help you better understand the grand narrative of Scripture?
Lam. 4
Maybe it’s just the mood I’m in of late, but reading through these chapters leaves me feeling empty, let down, and hopeless. I think that’s part of the point, though. Such a desolate state is exactly where you end up when you trust in anything other than God alone.
Lam. 5
Again – I see all of this as the state we need to acknowledge that we are in in order for God to renew us. Lamentations 5:3 says, “We have become orphans, fatherless; our mothers are widows.” Orphans and widows are the very ones God repeatedly says that He cares for. He takes up their cause and protects them. So it sounds like those are just the people we want and need to be. More to the point, those are the people we need to acknowledge that we are. This passage goes on to say, “…we are tired, and no one offers us rest.” (Lam. 5:5). God exhausted every other resource for His people so that all of us could know that He is the only thing that will stand in the end. God is the only one who can reliably offer us true rest.
We need to know these things. We need to know that we have nothing to bring to the table, that we can’t make it on our own, and that nothing in all of creation can help us with our situation. Only God, our loving Creator can help us. We also need to know that He is not only fully able to help us, but He desires to do so. While I have no idea what verse 12 references, it does bring to mind this truth. “Princes have been hung up by their hands” (Lam. 5:12a). Indeed, Jesus, Son of God The King, hung by his hands for that very reason.