Lamentations 3:1-66 YOUR Faithfulness
Jeremiah has done everything God has asked him to. He has suffered greatly for it but he hasn’t given up. “Your faithfulness stands forever O Lord!”
For more than 40 years, Jeremiah spoke to the people on God’s behalf. Seldom did ANY of them listen. If fact, they wee downright hostile to him for his efforts. Jeremiah was beaten, threatened with death, thrown in a cistern, locked in prison, and shut up in the court of the guard for years. NONE of these were punishments he deserved for his actions. They were a direct result of his sharing what God had to say to the people; REPENT AND RETURN or suffer the consequences.
The people did NOT like his message. They were perfectly happy to keep on doing as they had been for so long. They didn’t believe Jeremiah when he said that God was bringing judgment down on them. “I’m a good person. Surely, He doesn’t mean me!” At times, the people were even preforming the required rituals. But their hearts were not in them and their minds were FAR from God. They were too busy thinking about ‘the next thing they had to do’, what others might think, what it would ‘cost’ them to change their ways, or even that their own plans were much better so why bother. It was too much work to change, to scary, or not worth the effort. “I’m not really that bad. How DARE someone tell ME I’m in trouble with God!”
Every day, Jeremiah got up, spent time with God, then shared what He was told to with the people. Every day it got a little harder to deal with the people’s reactions. He said it himself; he would have quit if he could. But he had an urgency in his spirit that he could no more lock up than he could hold back a raging fire with his hands. He HAD to let it out! He was compelled to speak the words God gave him; no matter what it cost him.
It would have been ok if someone had listened. If someone had acknowledged his efforts and commitment. If somehow the fate that was promised would have been avoided. But Jeremiah was not rewarded with these ‘gifts’ from man. With every word he said, his situation in life got worse. WHY didn’t God protect him from any distress? They were His words after all.
If this was ALL Jeremiah experienced, he surely would have given up. He had something more. He had a personal connection to God. A relationship that sustained him. That buoyed him every morning as he faced a new day. Yes! The cares of the world weighed on him, but they couldn’t drown him. He KNEW God was his safety. That NOTHING man could do to him could separate him from God. He intimately knew God’s faithfulness. He personally experienced His mercy. He KNEW, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that God loved him AND ALL of Israel.
Jeremiah wasn’t speaking to strangers about someone they never met. He was speaking to his ‘brothers and sisters’ about the very God who provided the land they walked on each day. The God whose words were passed down to them from the beginning of their nation. The God who intimately knew them and called them His own.
WHY wouldn’t they listen! Jeremiah’s heart was breaking as he watched the people he loved too, turn their backs on God’s outstretched hand. The drowning man shoving away the hand of his would-be rescuer. CHOOSING death instead of life.
When I was first thinking about this lament, I saw it in relation to a parent reaching out to a rebellious child. This child doesn’t just stamp his foot and say “no” when told to do something. He goes out of his way to make EVERYONE around him pay for his own inner turmoil. He lies. He steals. He physically assaults his parents and siblings. He destroys property of others. He does EVERYTHING he can to prove that he is not worthy of love.
But his mother refuses to give up on him. IF she is a truly loving mother, she is there with him as he faces the consequences of his actions. She prays for him. She loves him in spite of all he has and is doing. She searches for help for him. She holds him to standards. She confronts him with love and boundaries when he strays. She encourages him to do better. She NEVER disowns him. And NEVER regrets having him. She speaks to others about him with positivity and truth. She believes in his ability to change and become the son she always knew he could be.
This is how God is with His children. He NEVER gives up on us but neither does He let us ‘run wild’. His heart breaks when we ‘run wild’ but He continues to love us all the same.
Jeremiah got the ‘rebellious child’ in his worst stages. The ‘child’ would NOT relent, even with his best effort. His heart broke for them. And he deeply felt every hurt inflicted while trying to reach him. Jeremiah went to his grave still hoping for the ‘child’s’ future.
God doesn’t promise us garden paths, flowers and sunshine every day as we walk where He directs us. What He DOES promise is to be with us through it all. “The steadfast love of the Lord NEVER ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; GREAT is Your faithfulness” (verse 22, emphasis added).
Father God, THANK YOU that You NEVER abandon me in my messes. THANK YOU that You are my SURE HOPE. My FIRM foundation. That You let me start each day fresh with You. And that You share Your time with me; even when I get distracted or sleepy. Our time together is NOT just a ‘ritual’. It is SPECIAL to me and the highlight of my day; even on the days when I struggle to carve out time for us.
