3 | 13 | 15 Lamentations, Chapter 5

This morning concluded my five-day study of the Bible's book of Lamentations. (Read chapters one, two, three, and four.) In my chapter overview I outlined how the book is a series of collected poems with an interesting structure, it is an abecedarian poem, an alphabetical acrostic, where each stanza begins with one of the 22 Hebrew letters. Additionally, Lamentations follows a chiasmus, pattern, where there is a 'criss-crossing' arrangement of things. So chapters one and five mirror each other, and chapters two and four mirror each other, with chapter three serving as the central position. It is quite an interesting structure, which I am excited to dig into, later, but for now, I'd like to consider the structure, spiritually, along with chapter five and the whole of the book.

As I finished reading chapter five, the structure of the poem really stood out to me. We are use to reading texts that build up towards a release, an apex. In Lamentations we arrive at that climax, or crescendo in chapter three, with chapters four and five feeling like a slow descent. In an odd way, it felt counterproductive to me in my reading today, but I went back, reread chapter five and dug in deeper. Why would Jeremiah choose to structure Lamentations this way? Could there be some deeper meaning, or reason? 

A quick study informed me that chiasmus is used extensively in both the Old and New Testament of the Bible, and became a Semitic inheritance to Greek culture, and thus, poetry.

The more I read chapter five, and began to consider its relationship to the other chapters, but also to my greater understanding of Jeremiah's grief, the more I started to understand. 

At first glance, we want to be finished with Jeremiah's grief, after chapter three, we assume it is the end. His faith and trust in the Lord is palpable, he is aware of his and Judah's transgressions, what more do we need to relive the grief and misery for? Why must we return to our place of suffering when we have found faith?

Is is not always like this? We suffer, and in our direst hour we call on the Lord and feel some sense of relief that we have Him to call on. We cry to Him and remember He loves us, we remember His mercy. And then, the end. That's it, right? We needed to come to Him to acknowledge our pain and suffering, to ask for His mercy. 

But I tell you there is more. There is more work for us to do, and stopping in the middle of grief, when we cry out to the Lord, suffering, begging for mercy and restoration is not the end. We are stopping too soon.

In chapter five (and chapter four), Jeremiah returns to and revisits the sins, transgressions, and miseries that befell Jerusalem. He didn't do this just because, just because he was being overly dramatical. The descriptions, one time, are enough. We get it. Women are eating their children to survive. God has turned a deaf ear. It is all, all bad. 

Why then, does Jeremiah revisit the misery?

““YAHWEH, REMEMBER WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO US. LOOK, AND SEE OUR DISGRACE!” -LM 5:1 (HCSB)”

My study Bible teaches that in Scripture remembering is never a passive action, it is never just recalling an event, but it also involves an action. Remembering is active, not passive. 

If we think about that for a minute, we can begin to understand how remembering can be and is different when we are passive and just recalling events, verses when we are combining that action of recall with action. Specific action. Repentance. 

If we read chapter five closely (and chapter four), we see that Jeremiah isn't merely recalling and complaining about his suffering and miseries. He isn't passively whining. He is actively praying and repenting for the transgressions and sins Jerusalem brought upon itself.

What a difference. 

““WE MADE A TREATY WITH EGYPT AND WITH ASSYRIA, TO GET ENOUGH FOOD. OUR FATHERS SINNED; THEY NO LONGER EXIST, BUT WE BEAR THEIR PUNISHMENT.” -LM 5:6-7 (HCSB)”

Notice, here Jeremiah isn't just complaining about starvation, or that they are bearing the punishment of their fathers; no, Jeremiah is repenting and actively assuming the responsibility for their suffering. He is acknowledging why the Lord has unleashed His wrath on Jerusalem. 

That, is such a big deal for a few different reasons:

• First, by assuming responsibility and actively acknowledging their transgressions Jeremiah is recording where, how, and why they went wrong. If we do not understand how we have transgressed, how are we able to learn from it, and teach others?
• Second, Jeremiah is assuming responsibility and thus, further highlighting the divine judgement of the Lord. This shows his faith, his trust, his obedience and the path out of suffering. It is not enough to identify how we sinned, we must also understand that the suffering of our sin is a direct consequence of our transgressions and that God is divinely correcting us. 
• Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Jeremiah is repenting for his sins when he recounts them. He is acknowledging them, asking the Lord for forgiveness, praying, and actively working to be better. It is not enough to acknowledge our sins, to understand God's judgement, we must also repent for our wrongdoings.

In the above verse Jeremiah shows how they placed trust in man instead of God (treaties with Egypt and Assyria for food when they weren't suppose to), how the sins of the father were passed down to the son, and the son continued to sin. In other words, Jeremiah is being accountable. We must also be accountable for how we digress, how we sin, how we have been led astray if we hope to be restored. 

Restoration does not happen without repentance. 

Jeremiah's lamentations, his outpouring poem of grief, suffering, and anguish takes on a completely different meaning when we consider how he uses it as an opportunity to take responsibility for his transgressions, an opportunity to teach, and an opportunity to repent and get right with the Lord. 

Without the hope in chapter three, we may not have held out to arrive at chapter five and fully understand how to pray and accept suffering. 

““JOY HAS LEFT OUR HEARTS; OUR DANCING HAS TURNED TO MOURNING. THE CROWN HAS FALLEN FROM OUR HEAD. WOE TO US, FOR WE HAVE SINNED.” -LM 5:15-16”

We suffer because of our sins and transgressions. We suffer because we decide to live a life away from God. We suffer because we fail to choose God, not the other way around. He always chooses us, but we have to choose Him. 

Notice how Jeremiah includes his sin in his prayer, how he repents while praying. And still, in the midst of repenting and grief, Jeremiah models the comfort and security we can still find in God:

““YOU, LORD, ARE ENTHRONED FOREVER; YOUR THRONE ENDURES FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION.” -LM 5:19 (HCSB)”

No matter what, there is always great comfort and security in God's faithfulness, His endurance from generation to generation, His mercy and unending love. We are to always find comfort and trust in what He can do and how He can restore us. Whether we are suffering because of our sins, or suffering for our parents' sins, or suffering because of the grief life and death brings us, we can always find solace in knowing that generation after generation, our Lord is unchanging. 

God loves us. Even when we fall, even when we must be punished, even when we do not love ourselves, He loves us. 

““LORD, RESTORE US TO YOURSELF, SO WE MAY RETURN; RENEW OUR DAYS AS IN FORMER TIMES.” -LM 5:21 (HCSB)”

And He did. He restored Jerusalem as He had done in the past. He will restore you, and me, and all of us if we love Him and put our faith, our trust, our love into Him. 

There, God's mercy and love for us is the redemption in all of Jerusalem's suffering and Jeremiah's misery. We learn how to pray, how to endure, how to suffer, how to repent, how to have faith, how to invite God into our hearts and lives so that we may be restored, in Jeremiah's lamentations.

I know it still isn't easy. Life is hard, we sin, we fall, things happen, at times it can all seem overwhelming and unfair. But only if we fail to remember God's mercy, love and unending, unchanging faithfulness. 

I always go back to the same thing: We tend to think of God on human terms and think He is weak, fickle, changing, unfaithful, resentful, and unjust like us. Those reasons we think He won't love us, won't forgive us, won't restore us, won't have mercy on us, those are all human reasons. We are humans and powerless, He is God and powerful. He can and He will. Be still and know. Worry not about when, or how, or where, just know you can start today, right now. 

This week's Bible study has been such a blessing for me, my faith and my deeper understanding of suffering. There is still so much to learn, but I am so much better than I was five days ago. I don't know what made me choose Lamentations, but I needed it, and I'm grateful I followed through. My faith is stronger.

In the coming week I look forward to looking at Lamentation again, from a writer's perspective, and seeing what I may be able to gleam from this book as a poet and storyteller. My mind is spinning, and I can't wait to dig back in. 

In the meantime, be love to yourself and others!

Deep and Full Blessing to You,

Kiandra