Lamentations 5
Dear RTB’ers,
Again, labels for each of the five chapters of Lamentations:
- Jerusalem’s Misery and Desolation
- The Lord’s Anger against His People
- Judah’s Complaint – and Basis for Consolation
- The Contrast between Zion’s Past and Present
- Judah’s Appeal for God’s Forgiveness
Today, Judah’s appeal for God’s forgiveness. However, the first 18 verses sound very similar to yesterday’s reading – the difficult plight of Jerusalem’s survivors. But finally, to close the chapter and the Book, the writer (Jeremiah?) asks one more time for the Lord’s intervention: Why do you forget us forever, why do You forsake us for so many days? Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may be restored! Renew our days as of old — unless You have utterly rejected us, and You remain exceedingly angry with us. (vv. 20-22)
That last verse is particularly striking. I don’t believe that the Lord will ever utterly reject us. He loves us too much. But for that Jerusalem writer, it seemed, indeed that He might possibly did remain exceedingly angry. Could God remain that angry? I think not. But let’s not just presume that or take His love that for granted…!!
Blessings.