Lamentations 3-5
Aftermath, Processing Crisis
Jeremiah spent all of his adult life warning Judah that the day would come when the nation would be destroyed and life would become dramatically different. As we complete our study of this book we can see that Jeremiah is processing what had happened.
Hopefully you and I will never have to face this kind of devastation and loss. However, every day the news cycle tells of some disaster happening where people have lost everything. At one time or another we all face some form of crisis that rocks our world and sometimes turns our lives upside down.
In Chapter 3 Jeremiah is feeling the pain of the crisis. I remember once in a diet group meeting the leader said, “Feel the pain. Just don’t eat.” That was good advice but it fell short of telling us what to do in processing the pain. Jeremiah shows us what to do in Chapter 3:19-38. Jeremiah remembers, recalls, and recognizes.
As Jeremiah remembers the afflictions he has gone through in the past, he recalls the lovingkindness of the Lord who brought new mercies each morning though he was facing difficulties. He also realizes that in the difficulties he went through, God was using them to strengthen Jeremiah for what was to come.
When Jeremiah realized God was preparing him for this crisis he was able to change his perspective as we see in verses 39 on.
In Chapter 4 we read of the dysfunction of the people who did not have the Lord to lean on as Jeremiah did. This leads me to a statement a chaplain once said to me. “Every dysfunction comes out in a crisis.” Those who have nowhere to turn will turn to any and everything in a crisis. As we read in this chapter the people committed the unthinkable because the lies they believed, and the hope they had as a result, came crashing down and they had nowhere to turn because they had rejected God.
This leads me to the third quote. My pastor, Pastor Chuck said in the context of a crisis, “Don’t trade what you know for what you don’t know.” This is what Jeremiah does in Chapter 5. Yes, he had to go through the crisis. Yes, he had to feel the pain. Yes, he saw the destruction of the city and he saw the dysfunction of the people in the crisis. And yes, from this point on, the old life was gone and a new more difficult life lay ahead, but he had the Lord to rely on. He knew God had been faithful and would remain faithful no matter what was ahead.2 Timothy 2:13
When in a crisis don’t trade away what you know to be true. Here are some reminders that God sent ahead to the nation years before it fell. Isaiah 40:28-31, 41:10, 13-16
Pastor Dave