the Book of Lamentations it's a unique book in the Old Testament that contains five poems from
an anonymous author who survived and is now reflecting back on the Babylonian siege of
Jerusalem and the destruction and exile that followed remember the whole story from the
book of second Kings the fall of Jerusalem in the Exile was the most horrendous catastrophe
in Israel's history up to this point so remember God had promised Abraham the land he'd given David
victory to make Jerusalem Israel's capital and from David came the royal line of kings you had
God's presence there in the temple and that's where the priests maintained the rituals of
Israel's worship and after five hundred years of all of this history in the summer of 587 BC the
city fell to Babylon it was all decimated and gone and so the Book of Lamentations is a memorial to
the pain and confusion of the Israelites that followed this destruction now the lament poems
found here are not unique in the Bible there's lots of them in the Book of Psalms and these
biblical poems of lament they do a number of things they're a form of protest they're a way
of drawing everybody's attention including God's attention to the horrible things that happen in
this world that should not be tolerated they're a way of processing emotion so in these poems God's
people vent their anger and dismay at the ruin caused by people's sin and selfishness and these
poems are placed a voice confusion suffering makes us ask questions about God's character
and promises and none of this is looked down on in the Bible just the opposite these poems of lament
give a sacred dignity to human suffering and so these human words of grief that are addressed to
God have now become part of God's Word to his people the design of these five poems is very
intentional it's part of the book's message so chapters 1 through 4 are called acrostics which
means alphabet poems each poetic verse begins with a new letter of the Hebrew alphabet which
is made up of 22 letters now this very ordered and linear structure it's in stark contrast to
the disorder of the pain and the confused grief that's explored in these poems so it's like Israel
suffering is explored a-to-z and is trying to express something that is in Express chapter's
wanted to each have one verse per letter giving them a really similar design but the themes are
very different so chapter 1 focuses on the grief and shame of a figure called lady Zion the poet
personifies the city of Jerusalem as a widow also called the daughter of Zion and she sits alone
she's bereaved of her loved ones devastated no one comes to comfort her it's a very powerful metaphor
and then lady Zion speaks she calls on the Lord to notice her fate and through this image the poet
he's showing that the city's destruction brought a level of psychological trauma on the Israelites
that can only be expressed as the experience of a funeral and the death of a loved one chapter 2
focuses on the fall of Jerusalem and how it was a consequence of Israel's sin and was brought about
by God's wrath which is a key word in this poem now it's important to remember that in the Bible
God's wrath is not spontaneous volatile anger the biblical poets and prophets they used this word to
talk about God's justice so Israel had entered a covenant agreement with God and for centuries
they've been violating it by worshiping other gods perpetrating injustice so pressing the poor and
so yes God is slow to anger but he eventually does get angry at human evil and he will bring
his just anger in the form of punishment in the case of Jerusalem this involved allowing Babylon
to come and conquer the city and so this poem is acknowledging that God's wrath is justified
but this doesn't keep the poet from lamenting and asking God to show compassion once again chapter 3
breaks this design pattern by having three verses per letter so it's the longest poem in the book
and the voice is that of a lonely man speaking out of his suffering and grief as a representative of
the whole people and what's interesting is that this chapter is full of language that's drawn from
other parts of the Old Testament from the laments of Job and from other important lament Psalms and
even from the suffering servant poems in Isaiah and the poet sees his hardship as a form of God's
justice like chapter 2 said but paradoxically this is what gives the poet hope and it leads
him to offer the only hopeful words in the whole book because of the Lord's covenant faithfulness
weed Parrish His mercies never fail they're new every morning how great is your faithfulness Oh
God so I say to myself the Lord is my inheritance therefore I will put my hope in him so the poet
reasons if God is consistent enough to bring his justice on human evil then he'll also be
consistent with his covenant promise to not allow evil to get the final word and so for this poet
God's judgment is the seedbed of hope for the future chapter 4 goes back to the same alphabet
structure as chapters 1 and 2 and it's a vivid and disturbing depiction of the two-year siege
in Jerusalem and it contrasts how things used to be in Jerusalem of the past and how terrible they
became in the siege so children used to laugh and play in the streets but now they beg for food the
wealthy used to eat lavish meals but now they eat whatever they can find in the dirt and the
royal leaders used to be full of splendor but now they're famished and dirty and unrecognizable and
the anointed king from the line of David has been captured and dragged away so the poem's
power comes from the shock of these contrasts and it's exploring the depth of the suffering that
is real brought on itself now the final poem is unique because it breaks the design pattern it's
the same length as all of the other alphabet poems but the alphabet order is gone it's like
the poet can't hold it together anymore and his grief has exploded back into chaos the poem is
a communal prayer for God's mercy Israel begs God not to ignore their suffering or abandon to them
and the poem offers a long list of all of the different kinds of people who were devastated
by the fall of the city they ask God not to forget these people and they lament on behalf of others
giving voice to their pain suffering in silence is just not a virtue in this book God's people
are not asked to deny their emotions but voice their protests to vent their feelings and pour
it all out before God the book ends with something of a paradox the poet acknowledges that God is the
eternal king of the world but also that Israel's circumstances make them feel like God is nowhere
to be found and so the final words the book leave this tension totally unresolved it asks unless
you've totally rejected us in the book ends the poet doesn't offer a nice neat conclusion much
like our own experiences of pain and suffering the story of the Bible doesn't end here but this very
important book shows us how lament and prayer and grief are a crucial part of the journey of faith
of God's people in a broken world and that's what the Book of Lamentations is all about