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| Copyright © 2003 by The Voice of Prophecy |
| Ken Wade |
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P.O.
Box 53055 |
| May 17/18, 2003 |
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Lamentations: Jeremiah’s Sorrow
CONNIE: Hello, I’m Connie Jeffery, LONNIE: and I’m Lonnie Melashenko. Today we open what's got to be the saddest book in the Bible. Its very name conjures up images of weeping, wailing, mourning: Lamentations. CONNIE: It comes right after the book of Jeremiah, which has its own sad pictures of the dire consequences of rebellion against God, and most people believe that Lamentations was also written by Jeremiah. LONNIE: And although the book doesn't specifically identify its author, it certainly comes from the time of Jeremiah and from the circumstances he witnessed: The utter, complete, and total destruction of the beautiful city of Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonian army. CONNIE: Now, you might expect a man like Jeremiah, who had spent his whole adult life trying to warn people to turn back to God to avert disaster, to look on the ruined city and just throw up his hands and say "I TOLD you so!" But he doesn't. Instead, the book of Lamentations shares his deep sorrow at the fulfillment of his own prophecies. LONNIE: I suppose it would be easy to get depressed when reading a book like this, because there certainly was a lot of suffering and sadness going on in those days. But rather than get depressed, let's look for the lessons we can learn. CONNIE: There's a new book that's just been published, titled I Will Fear no Evil. The author is Pastor C. A. Murray, who has pastored churches in New York City for most of the past 20 years. In his years of ministry, he's walked through the valley of the shadow of death with many of his parishioners, and he 's learned some important lessons from that experience. He shared one of those stories, and some of the things he's learned, in an interview with David Smith. Let's listen in: DAVID: C.A. my old good friend from years past. It is wonderful to have you on the Voice of Prophecy. C.A.: It is good to be here. DAVID: C.A.: I have your book here in front of me, I Will Fear No Evil, which of course makes us think of the expression from Psalms, “Though I walk through the shadow of death”. You were a New York City pastor. And these skyscrapers on the cover of your book, it looks like a valley. DAVID: C.A. my old good friend from years past. It is wonderful to have you on the Voice of Prophecy. C.A.: It is good to be here. DAVID: C.A., I have your book here in front of me, I Will Fear No Evil, which of course, makes us think of the expression from Psalms, “Though I walk through the shadow of death”. You were a New York City pastor, and these skyscrapers on the cover of your book. It looks like a valley. You have pastored in the valley of sorrow haven’t you? C.A.: I’ve spent my entire pastoral ministry in and around New York City. DAVID: You have a woman that you tell about in this book, it’s a marvelous story. Delissa, whom you describe as model Christian, a queen, a spiritual paragon, C.A., she was A happy woman wasn’t she? C.A.: Chronically happy. I’ve never met a woman who was happy all of the time. DAVID: She liked to spend all day in church with the sisters at the lunch table, and trade snacks and jokes, just a joy-filled Christian, correct? C.A.: Correct, very much so. DAVID: Now tell us about the April afternoon when you had a phone call, or an urgent request from a fellow Christian who said, “Go see Delissa right now, pastor.” What happened when you got to that apartment? C.A.: We walked into a dark apartment, the shades were
drawn, and I can remember one lamp burning in the living room. Delissa
was sitting on the couch, head down, and her husband was sitting in a
chair across from her rocking back and forth in the chair. As I walked
in I could sense that there was something very sad going on. Her nature
was not one to be morose or down. She was always an up person. So to walk
into this kind of presentation, it said to me that something very terrible
has happened, and that somebody’s world had been shattered. DAVID: Very out of character. Now her husband was not a Christian, correct? C.A.: He was not. DAVID: So you sat down in this dark gloomy atmosphere, and what took place? C.A.: Well, she was a direct person, so she came right out and told me. She talked about her husband’s illness and his slow decline. She had gotten a little sick so she went to be tested, and I guess just the day before she had been told that she was HIV Positive. And, of course, the news was terrifying to her. It struck hard, and it was just a sad situation. She was devastated, and she didn’t know what to expect, what to look forward to. DAVID: She had gotten this from her husband’s unfaithfulness? C.A.: Very much so. They had spent some time apart, and he had come back home and, brought HIV back with him. Of course he was not aware that he had picked it up, and, of course, at that time she was not aware of it. DAVID: He was very guilt stricken, saying I never meant to bring this into the home, but there it was. C.A.: His guilt was, I think, even worse than the disease. He was torn apart. He was sad for himself. But I think he was more terrified of the effect that it was going to have on his wife. DAVID: Now C.A., how did this strike this very optimistic women? Was she very discouraged? C.A.: Extremely discouraged. The roller coaster of emotions that she went through in just several moments was staggering. She was up, she was questioning, she was confident in the Lord. But she was holding onto the Lord because that was her nature. She loved the Lord. But yet, she had been given; I guess the worst news that a person could be given. DAVID: A death warrant. C.A.: Very much so. As she was wrestling with all of this at the same time. DAVID: As a pastor, what did you say to her? C.A.: I reminded her of who Jesus was, and the relationship that she had with Him in the past. How she had banked so many years with Him, and I encouraged her now to basically write some checks on that. It was time to make withdrawals on His love, and on His caring. I said, “We don’t know what the Lord’s will is going to be for you on this, but it’s time for you to draw now upon that relationship that you had developed with the Lord over so many years.” DAVID: And than you turned around, C.A., and said to her, “Delissa, you tell me about Jesus.” You tell me has He abandon you? What was her answer to that? C.A.: She defended her Lord. It was marvelous to see her jump into this defense mode, and she forgot all about herself, and she preached a sermon to me. She talked about her confidence in the Lord that this was not the Lord’s fault. That she could not, and would not blame the Lord for something that had happened that was a creation of man. She knew that God loved her, and she knew that God would sustain her, and she defended the Lord as a mother would defend her own child. She was very defensive. She loved the Lord, and she knew that God was going to be with her through all of this. DAVID: Now C.A. in our last minute here, she now found a way to live through the sorrow. She ministered to her husband. She cared for him. She cleaned up when he got sick., But she had one fear though that she did not want to face. Tell us about that very quickly. C.A.: She made a statement to me that day that she repeated several times that she didn’t mind dying. Her only fear was that she was going to be sick. She did not want to be sick, and the Lord blessed her, because she was diagnosed in April of that year, and in August of that same year she went into the hospital, and within days simply closed her eyes and died. The doctors said to me that there is no reason for her to be dead. And I explained to him that was her wish. She did not mind dying. She was ready to go meet her Lord. She did not want to be sick. That was her prayer, and that is what the Lord granted her. She peacefully went to sleep in the arms of Jesus. DAVID: And you closed the chapter, C.A., by quoting Joshua 1:9, Have I not commanded thee, to be strong and of good courage, be not afraid, neither thy be dismayed God is with thee where so ever thou goeth. What a wonderful story, C.A.! Thank you. C.A. Thank you so very much. CONNIE: Life can be hard, sometimes, but, thank you, Emily Felts Jones for that song, reminding us that even when things get hard, there is still a good God who cares about us and is planning something better for our future. LONNIE: You know, Connie, as we look at the book of Lamentations today, I can't help but think that there are probably a lot of people listening who are going through their own private lamentation at this time--over the loss of a friend, a family member, or perhaps some other loss. And we like to focus as much as we can in our program on the joy that is to be found in a relationship with God. CONNIE: But there are times when all of us go through grief, depression, loss, despite our faith in the Lord. LONNIE: Friend, if one of those times is right now for you, or perhaps for a friend of yours, please call us or write to us and ask for the little book called How Do I Live Through Grief. Now, this is just a very small book. Pocket or purse size in fact, just 48 pages long. But it's packed full of just the right words to help a person walk through the six stages of dealing with grief with a Christian perspective. CONNIE: The book is our gift to you today, just for
the asking. Call us at 1-800-872-0055, and we'll send one out to you.
You can also write to us, and we'll share our mailing address after Lonnie's
message, but right now let's listen as he shares today's topic: Lamentations,
Jeremiah's Sorrow. You've been there, haven't you--the place where nothing seems to make sense anymore, where all your hopes and dreams seem to have come crumbling down in a heap, and you wonder what's the point of going on? Jeremiah faced a time like that. Things had been going downhill for him for a long time, and now they were to the point where it didn't seem they could get any lower. He'd spent time in prison, and had been moved from there to a hole in the ground with miry mud at the bottom--into which he sank. But things got even worse after that. The day came when there wasn't a single loaf of bread left in the city--even the king and his nobles were on starvation rations. And things got even worse after that. The enemy breached the walls, marched into the city, and took all the leading citizens captive--shipping the most prominent off to Syria, where they were summarily executed. You can hear people standing around, muttering, can't you? "Things have got to get better soon--they can't get any worse!" But things did get worse. A month after the city was captured, the order went out to the occupying forces: Burn the place to the ground. Every building. The temple. The king's palace. Every house. The beggars' hovels. Burn them all down. Don't leave a wall standing anywhere. Turn Jerusalem the beautiful into a garbage dump. No wonder Jeremiah penned words like these, found in Lamentations 2:11: "My eyes are spent with weeping; my stomach churns; my bile is poured out on the ground because of the destruction of my people" (NRSV). But what made the tragedy even worse was the fact that it all could have been avoided. Grief counselors tell us that playing "What If" is a natural part of dealing with tragedy: "What if we'd just taken a different street? What if we'd tried a different doctor, or natural remedy? What if . . . But by the time we're playing that game, it's too late to do anything differently. For Jeremiah, the question that must have run through his mind was "What if people had just listened and responded to the warning messages I gave?" He knew that things could have ended differently if the people had been willing to listen and repent of their sins. Perhaps he was burdened with a feeling of guilt: "What if I'd tried a little harder to get people's attention?" But perhaps the greatest temptation to a prophet whose words of warning haven't been heeded is to simply stand back and look at the resulting destruction and say, "I told you so!" and to stalk off the scene to let people suffer the consequences unconsoled. But Jeremiah didn't do that. In fact, the Babylonian ruler who was left in charge after Jerusalem was destroyed gave Jeremiah a choice--he could either go with a group of exiles who were being deported to Babylon, or he could stay in his own ruined country. Given that choice, Jeremiah still stayed in the land. He stood faithfully beside those who were suffering the consequences of not listening to him! What a courageous man he was. And how poignantly his book of Lamentations opens before our eyes the sorrow that came upon God's people as a result of their stubborn rebellion. Listen to a few passages: Thinking of how joyful the city had once been when pilgrims would come, singing down the highways on their way to festivals, he wrote: "The roads to Zion mourn, for no one comes to the festivals; all her gates are desolate, her priests groan; her young girls grieve, and her lot is bitter" (1:4 NRSV). Remembering the day when the city fell to the Babylonians, he pictures the distress of the king's sons when they knew their fate had been sealed and there was nowhere to run: "Her princes have become like stags that find no pasture; they fled without strength before the pursuer" (1:6 NRSV). In fact, King Zedekiah and his sons did flee the city on that last fateful night, only to be captured near Jericho. And the princes were all slain right before their father's eyes! Jeremiah remembers with horror the sight of enemy soldiers going into the most holy places in the temple--defiling it and robbing it of its treasures--and pleads with his God: " 'See, O LORD, and consider! To whom have You done this? Should the women eat their offspring, the children they have cuddled? Should the priest and prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?' " (2:20 NKJV) He remembers how it happened--how the sounds coming from the sanctuary of the Lord should have been shouts of joy, but . . . well, here is his description: The Lord has scorned his altar, disowned his sanctuary; he has delivered into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; a clamor was raised in the house of the Lord as on a day of festival" (2:7 NRSV). It was not festival, instead the sounds coming from the sanctuary were the raucous cries of soldiers looting and killing. These tragedies all came upon Jerusalem, and Jeremiah witnessed them with his own eyes, and has shared poignant pictures in his book of lamentations. Pictures of people in the most abject despair imaginable: "The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence; they have thrown dust on their heads and put on sackcloth; the young girls of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground." "Those who feasted on delicacies perish in the streets; those who were brought up in purple cling to ash heaps (2:10; 4:5 NRSV). The imagery in the book of Lamentations really brings home the tragedy that the people of Jerusalem suffered. You can see it, can't you--a young man who was raised in the lap of luxury, walking through the city, begging for food, then finally wandering back to the street where he once played with his friends, stumbling down the road to the gate of what was a beautiful manor, and falling on his face, clinging to the ashes that are all that is left of the place he called home. It's like a nightmare to Jeremiah, but it is the reality he must face every day of his life from now on. The people didn't listen. And the judgment day finally came. But amazingly, the book of Lamentations also includes some glimmers of hope. Here's a familiar passage you've probably heard, but you might not have realized it was in Lamentations. Through the LORD'S mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
"The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "Therefore I hope in Him!" The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. (Lam 3:22-26 NKJV). So, what can we learn from this poetic look at the
sorrow--and hope--of God's prophet in a time of despair? Much. We can learn much from the example of Jeremiah, who faithfully delivered the word of the Lord, even though it made him the most unpopular man in the city, and finally landed him in jail. His example in staying the course, and standing by his people all through their tragedy--even though the disaster was a result of not listening to him--is worthy of emulation. There's another lesson, too, in the picture of the desolation suffered in those days. People in Jeremiah's day no doubt responded to his repeated warnings of the judgments of the Lord by saying "Oh, yeah, we've heard all that before--prophets have been saying that kind of thing for generations, but it never happens! People still respond that way when we talk about the prophecies of the Second Coming of Jesus, don't they? There's a warning here in the book of Lamentations. But there's also hope. It is a good thing to wait for
the Lord, for our souls to be drawn out to seek Him every day. It is a
good thing to hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. Whatever
our circumstances. For His salvation will come. If not right away, then
at the Second Coming of Jesus.
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