Jesus in Lamentations: Identity
Lamentations - While the author of Lamentations remains nameless within the book, strong evidence from both inside and outside the text points to the prophet Jeremiah as the author (who was know as the weeping Prophet).
The original name of the book in Hebrew, ekah, can be translated “Alas!” or “How,” giving the sense of weeping or lamenting over some sad event.
Lamentations 1:1-2 How deserted lies the city, once so full of people! How like a widow is she, who once was great among the nations! She who was queen among the provinces has now become a slave. 2 Bitterly she weeps at night, tears are on her cheeks… NIV
The city in question was none other than Jerusalem. Jeremiah walked through the streets and alleys of the Holy City and saw nothing but pain, suffering, and destruction in the wake of the Babylonian invasion of 586 BC.
Lamentations - expresses total devastation and ruins as a result of the disobedience of God’s people.
One of the greatest failures as the church is we've begun to praise ourselves for our success and blame God for failures.
the truth is our failures are often born from our unwillingness to be be obedient to what God has asked us to do or the life he created us to live.
The absence of God’s counsel produces the abundance of problems.
how many of us have ever faced a situation in life and felt like all hope was lost?
We wallow in our failures like them overtaking our life instead of rising up in the purpose of the power of a resurrected Savior who did not die for our sins but he became our sins so there's no condemnation because we are in Christ Jesus.
5 chapters in book - chapter 3 the center of the book lies the hope of Gods unwavering love.
God is our HOPE when things seem hopeless
Lamentations 3:21-23New Living Translation (NLT)
21 Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this:
22 The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease.
23 Great is his faithfulness, his mercies begin afresh each morning.
Your darkest hour is just before your greatest breakthrough!
Acts 27:33-39 New International Version (NIV)
33 Just before dawn Paul urged them all to eat. “For the last fourteen days,” he said, “you have been in constant suspense and have gone without food—you haven’t eaten anything. 34 Now I urge you to take some food. You need it to survive. Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head.” 35 After he said this, he took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all. Then he broke it and began to eat. 36 They were all encouraged and ate some food themselves. 37 Altogether there were 276 of us on board. 38 When they had eaten as much as they wanted, they lightened the ship by throwing the grain into the sea. 39 When daylight came, they did not recognize the land, but they saw a bay with a sandy beach, where they decided to run the ship aground if they could.
God is not a distant God he is a Present God.
He never left you in your trouble he is with you in your trouble!
If you need God to restore hope in your season of hopelessness?