I don’t know about you, but my wife and I like a happy ending. We gravitate towards shows, movies, and stories that work out OK in the end. We like for the “good guys” to win and the “bad guys” to lose (or to be reformed).
However, we’ve also observed a pattern in certain plot lines: things have to get as bad as possible before victory is achieved. We will sometimes be following a plot where things seem like there is no hope for success (i.e., the heroes – or all of humanity – are doomed) and then they pull off a big plan to overcome…but even that plan fails! Just when we thought that things couldn’t get worse, they do.
In Lamentations 4, it’s hard to imagine what good the people of that day – living in a destroyed Jerusalem and impoverished beyond imagination – could have expected. However, verse 22 contains hope for them:
Your punishment will end, Daughter Zion;
he will not prolong your exile.
But he will punish your sin, Daughter Edom,
and expose your wickedness.Lamentations 4:22 NIV
https://lamentations.bible/lamentations-4-22
(FYI, Edom was a country who may have been gloating over Jerusalem’s – i.e., Zion’s – punishment, despite doing evil themselves.)
After 21 verses of lament, we find that – as suggested by crosswalk.com in an earlier article – lament leads to hope. There is a time and a place to express grief and sorrow, as well as to acknowledge the reality of both bad situations and bad human behavior. However, for those who have accepted the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, we do not remain in lament forever.
For the “remnant residents” of Jerusalem (Zion) in the time of Lamentations, their hope is not in things becoming better today or tomorrow, but rather knowing that there will be an end to this tribulation.
For Christians, our hope looks like Revelation 21:1-4 (including a quote from Isaiah 25:8). In fact, Revelation 7:17 also quotes something similar, apparently from that same passage (and another quote) from Isaiah, but in Revelation 7, it is talking about “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation…” (from Revelation 7:14) Some interpret this “tribulation” as a particular period of history, but regardless of whether or not that is the case, I believe that many Christians find true hope on this earth while going through great trials and troubles.
To close, I’d like to pause and look at something that the Lookout said, related to Lamentations 4:2.
“…they had lost any sense of value and esteem. Jeremiah described them once as fine gold and gems, but now their self-assigned view was as pots of clay.”
Personally, I believe that there are a lot of people around us who consider themselves as worthless as a broken clay jar, smashed on the ground.
- Some people believe that they are the result of an naturalistic evolutionary accident, rather than being created uniquely by God. By definition, I think that their purpose – if they truly believe this – is limited to what they can do while on this earth, and how long they are remembered or how long their works last. (In reality, I suspect that many people with this worldview actually have a sneaking suspicion in their hearts that there is more to life than being a “lucky mutant”, and I hope that they find value and purpose in who God made them to be.)
- Some people believe the lies that others – including the forces of evil – tell them, with messages like “You’re worthless”, “You aren’t good enough”, or “You are hated”. We know that this couldn’t be further from the truth that God tells us. We didn’t earn righteousness, but God created us and Jesus loved us so much that he provided Himself as a sacrifice to restore us.
People who believe that they are irredeemable broken pottery are likely to remain lost in lament. While understanding our sinful brokenness can help us understand the importance of salvation, God did not leave us there.
When human beings sinned (Adam and Eve first; then the rest of us in turn, as we had the opportunity), things were about as bad as we could imagine. By our actions, we had chosen a life apart from God for eternity, and there was no amount of good deeds that we could do or sincere apologies that we could speak in order to make up for it. Then, Jesus Christ (God the Son), came to earth to save us. This gave the people of His day hope, but then He was nailed to a cross and executed. At this point, even the hope for a savior seemed lost, and things appeared to be even worse than before.
However, as Romans 5:1-11 tells us, that event – at the depths of despair for onlookers who had hoped for rescuing – is exactly when Jesus saved us from the penalty of our sins. By paying the price that we owed, He allowed us to return to God. That is probably history’s most incredible “plot twist”, but it had been God’s plan all along.
If you find someone this week who is still stuck in lament, won’t you explain to them the hope that God offers, and walk with them into the light that He has waiting for them? You might also need to offer a hug, bandage a wound, or provide for a need, but isn’t that just passing along the love and blessings that God gave to us in the first place? And, if you need that hope yourself, look for someone who has found encouragement even in trials, and ask them about Jesus.
From Sunday School lesson prepared for May 7, 2023
References:
- The Lookout, May 7, 2023, © 2023 Christian Standard Media.
- Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
- The College Press NIV Commentary – Jeremiah-Lamentations, by Timothy M. Willis. © 2002 College Press Publishing Co.
Those Who Sin Differently 