Thus, I Will Have Hope :: Lamentations 3:22-33
Thus, I will have hope (v. 24).
5.
Life never goes exactly how we want it. No matter how hard we try, no matter how well we plan, something invariably goes wrong ... something ends up missing or falling short. Too often our desires outrun our ambitions or destroy our plans. In turn, we then end up lamenting our lot in life. Maybe you don’t do it aloud with others. Many of us lament silently. But the truth is, we are pros at it ... lamenting about how good it used to be ... lamenting about what we don’t have any more ... about all that we lost. Before I go any further, let me make clear that I don’t have a particular grievance or complaint at this moment. I don’t have any one thing in mind: I’m simply stating a general fact about human nature.
The problem is sin. We sin because we are sinners. And the consequence of our sin is more apparent to us than the cause. As you all know so well, sin causes pain ... and ultimately, death and destruction. When you see death and destruction, when you feel your pain, you know you are seeing the result of sin ... your sin or the world’s or both. You can’t escape this pain on your own. You can’t escape this death on your own. We are sin because we are sinners. And the result of your sin is devastating.
So today, Jeremiah invites us to join him in lamenting that sin. That’s why Jeremiah wrote Lamentations. In our text today, the prophet laments sin ... the sin of God’s people.
4.
To our modern ears, the book of Lamentations has a rather strange sound. The book of Lamentations is a book of funeral songs. The Prophet Jeremiah is singing about the funeral of the people of God. He sees the cost of sin.
God has abandoned his people because of their sin, just like he said he would if they refused to repent. He has sent the Babylonians to lay Jerusalem to waste. The city of God is burning. The wholesale devastation and slaughter engulfs kings, princes, elders, priests, prophets, and women and children alike. Starving mothers are reduced to cannibalism of their own children. The temple has been razed. The system of ceremony and worship has come to an end. And the ark of the covenant, it was probably melted down for the gold. In view of all this, Jeremiah laments, repeatedly, and even monotonously. Woe to us for we have sinned!
This is a hard book to read. Jeremiah goes on and on about the consequence of sin. By the time you are done reading the Lamentations, you are sick of hearing about it.
But this is the day the Lord has made. He has painted a picture that we all need to recognize. Our sin has wrought this death and destruction. Don’t blame the Babylonians for this lot in life. Don't blame your government no matter how depraved it becomes. Don’t blame those who bring this to your door, even if they demand more freedom to live in sin.
3.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, the problem is your sin!
This is for this reason we should join Jeremiah in Lamentations.
How lonely sits the city that was full of people! Jeremiah cries ... Zion used to be the perfection of beauty. Now it’s the laughing stock of the world. The city has become filthy. The people: Rebels against God’s Word. They have ignored their idolatry. They given up the ways of the Lord in favor of their tradition.
So God cast down their splendor. He broke the strongholds. He cut them down. He withdrew. He bent his bow and killed the people. He poured out his fury upon them. He became like an enemy to Israel. God swallowed them. He scorned Jerusalem. He disowned Israel. He raised a clamor (Jer 1:1-8) ... And this is just the first eight verses of chapter one.
Remember, there are five funeral songs in Lamentations!
But now ... and here’s the beauty in the whole thing ... in the midst of all the sobbing over the sorry state of the people of God, Jeremiah does something you don’t expect. He recognizes the faithfulness of God in the midst of it all.
2.
We need to do this more often. In this there is hope.
While we are professionals at confessing our sin, saying at the start of every divine service that I, a poor, miserable sinner confess unto all my sins and iniquities with which I have ever offended you and justly deserved your temporal and eternal punishment ... How often have you given more than a second of thought to what you’ve been saying?
In the history of Israel only one event of destruction led to the production of a book of the Bible. That was the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 587 BC ... the very event Jeremiah is lamenting. Every day the priest of the temple went to work, completing the sacrifices of the people. Every day, the people confessed their sin, too. Every day, they didn’t even think about what they were doing either. And every day they ignored their sin ... their idolatry, their adultery, their deceptions. They paid lip service to their sin.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, repent! Actually, repent of your sins. Stop saying to yourselves, what does it matter that I sin, that God will forgive me just because. Listen to Jeremiah: Sin brings death and destruction. So turn away from your sins. Mourn your sins. Weep and wail about your sin.
And believe the Gospel. Because ...
1.
The steadfast love of God never ceases. His compassions never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is his faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my whole being. Thus, I will have hope.
Here in the midst of Jeremiah’s lamentations ... in the midst of our lament ... is the evidence of our faith. Our heavenly Father, who is steadfast and true ... who is slow to anger ... abounds in steadfast love. Yes, he will punish sin because he is faithful. But like Jeremiah, we too can rest secure knowing that he is faithful in forgiveness too. For the Lord will not reject us forever. If he causes grief, then he will have compassion according to his multiplied steadfast love.
This multiplication of steadfast love comes to us through our Lord Jesus Christ. The funeral song of chapter three is all about the forgiveness won for us by our Lord. Here, we see the cross.
Whereas our love is moody, changeable, and dependent upon love in return, our reading bears witness that God’s love to us does not depend upon lukewarm, unsteady love to Him. He didn’t wait for men to become his friends before he sent his Son to live, die, and rise for them. He didn’t wait for men to confess. He didn’t wait for them to lament.
As the middle verses of our reading reveal, God’s great man silently and ungrudgingly lifted up the yoke of the cross upon himself. He who knew no sin faithfully became sin for us so that he could bear the wrath of the Father for the sin of the world. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he was taunted he just forgave. He faithfully drank the cup of wrath to the dregs. He faithfully gave himself into the dust of the earth: that is, death.
Thus, I will have hope. Jesus has lived for you, died for you, and has risen for your justification. These words prove God is faithful to the end. Faithfully destroying sin. Faithfully forgiving sin. Faithfully drawing near to us. Faithfully causing our return to the Lord (5:21).
Brothers and sisters in Christ, because of God’s faithful and steadfast love, all of the sin that the Christian has ever done ... all of the selfishness, the hate, the secret vices, the greedy egotism ... all of this is credited to Jesus. And killed on the cross.
Conversely, Christ’s righteousness ... all of the goodness He showed in healing the sick, feeling compassion for the multitudes, resisting temptation, driving the moneychangers out of the Temple ... is credited to the Christian. And since Jesus rose from the dead to new life, the Christian does, too. God is faithful. He will do it.
That means you who confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and God, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, will have life in his name. When we come before the Holy God, he does not turn away in judgment. Rather, he sees us through the lens of Christ ... we might even say he sees in us Christ ... because Christ has united himself to us so that he can faithfully lead you back to your baptism ... back to the eternal temple of God ... back to the altar, where he has prepared a feast in the celebration of the forgiveness of sins he paid for with his own body and blood. Oh, how we should long for this, like Jeremiah.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, there will undoubtedly come another time when you may lament your lot in life. But like Jeremiah, rest assured that God doesn’t forget us. For if he causes grief, then he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love (v 32).
THUS, I WILL HAVE HOPE
In Jesus’ name.