CYPRESSWOOD CHURCH OF CHRIST
March 14, 2010
25424 Aldine-Westfield, Spring, TX. 77373
www.blakehart.com/cypresswoodbulletin.htm
THANKSGIVINGS AND PRAYERS:
God’s will for our congregation Various relatives, friends, and co-workers
Our nation, military and leaders Those struggling with the economy
In speaking of loss, clocks spring forward today. Enjoy one less hour of sleep!
LAMENTING LOSS
“The roads to Zion mourn, for no one comes to her appointed festivals. All her gateways are desolate, her priests groan, her young women grieve, and she is in bitter anguish” (Lamentations 1:4).
In January, a devastating earthquake hit Haiti causing massive loss of life and great damage. Like past natural disasters such has Hurricane Katrina and the tsunami in the Indian Ocean, we are shocked by the pictures of destruction. Inevitably someone brings God and judgment into the picture. Questions around this theme are raised and debated. Some say silly things and others ridicule the belief of Christians. Calmer minds focus our attention on the need to rescue and help people.
Loss is difficult for people whether as a group or individually. Loss coming from natural disasters like earthquakes or tornados is something that we often do not understand but accept, eventually. Loss from disease or age raises questions but we, at least as Christians, understand the cycle of life that we live in. We certainly believe that resurrection is in our future and that reunion is something we all look forward to. Loss at the hands of people is another subject. Drunk drivers, murderers, and suicide bombers raise the same questions -- why Lord? -- but gives us little help.
The Bible certainly has its focus at times on loss. The book of Job has natural disasters and disease involved. If we begin reading at chapter three, we would share in the frustration that Job faces as he debates the theological and practical ideas involved. Even when God answers him, there is no explanation as to why he has gone through it all. It is chapters one and two that give us background information to Job’s sufferings. But we cannot say that that happens in every case. We just do not know. Faith can be a difficult walk.
We understand the sufferings of Christ; the need to suffer so as to deal with sin. We admit that we caused His suffering because of our sins. David understood that much of what happened to him was because of his own sin. He pleaded for a clean heart (Psalm 51:10). Does it make it any easier to go through? That is an interesting question.
Jeremiah was God’s prophet at the end of the reign of the kings in Jerusalem, c. 586 B.C. We are familiar with his big book in which he gives warnings and history to the people of Jerusalem attempting to avert disaster. After the fall, there is a little lament that Jeremiah wrote. Jeremiah understood what would happen but that did not meant that the loss was easier to take. Everything that Jeremiah held dear was found in Jerusalem, and when he wrote Lamentations, it was all gone. The city was without gates and some of the walls destroyed. The Temple was ruined and the priests dead or carried off. And there was no king; David’s throne had fallen.
We are familiar with Lamentations because of three verses in chapter three. We sing these verses as a song that is uplifting. In so doing, have we missed something? Before we look at that, we need to have some background.
When Moses led Israel through the wilderness to the Promised Land, several times he warned the nation of what God desired. In Leviticus 26, Moses tells the people that if they walk with God, He would bless them and watch over them. But if they did not, then not only would the plagues of Egypt be sent among them but worse would happen. As Moses prepares to leave the people, he gives his final covenant known as the Covenant of Blessings and Curses (Deuteronomy 28-30). God would be with Israel if they followed His commands and served Him but would leave them if they didn’t. He would eventually take them from the Land because of their sins. To make sure this was clear to the people, a song is sung, and in it God speaks about their sin and that an enemy would misunderstand that it was He, not the enemy, who drove them away.
Over the next five hundred years, God sent judges and prophets to turn the people back to Him. Sometimes they did and sometimes they didn’t. Hezekiah, a faithful king, watched as the northern kingdom of Israel was destroyed and carried away by Assyria. He stood strong and Assyria was defeated by God. Then came a sickness and Hezekiah was told that he would die. On his death bed he cries out and God told Isaiah that Hezekiah would live another fifteen years. Lament was turned to joy for him. A son is born named Manasseh. Manasseh became a very wicked king and led Jerusalem into deep idolatry. Even though he repents, his sins are the cause of the end of Judah.
Jeremiah would prophecy for one faithful king but the rest would reject the word of the Lord. He understood the law of the Lord and the meaning of God’s warnings and judgments should the nation not listen. They didn’t listen to him and so came judgment. Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar came three times against Jerusalem. The first in 606 B.C. and the second in 597 B.C. brought Babylonian rule to Israel. He also carried off a number of people to Babylonian. It was the third time that was most destructive because of the rebellion of the king and his attempted alliance with Egypt. In 586 B.C. Jerusalem was destroyed and Jeremiah was there.
He warned the people to surrender or be destroyed. The Babylonians treated Jeremiah better than his own countrymen but that didn’t lightened the lament. Some suggest that Jeremiah wrote his lament from a cave after watching the city sacked and destroyed. Whatever the case, he was in mourning. National sin was the cause of this judgment. While God has used natural events such as storms and floods to judge people, we have to be careful that we do not draw conclusions that are not warranted from scripture. Creation groans because of human sin, says Paul (Romans 8:18-25), and as such, could respond with what we often call natural disasters. Again though, we need to be careful in our interpretations.
For Jeremiah it was personal. What can we learn from Lamentations? More next week Lord willing.
George B. Mearns