Our
Faithful, Wonderful God!
It is of the Lord’s
mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy
faithfulness. –Lamentations 3:22,23
It
looked hopeless. The Babylonians had
been ruthless in their destruction of Jerusalem, the wall, the temple. King Zedekiah had been captured and brought
before Babylon’s king Nebuchadnezzar.
After Zedekiah’s sons had been slain before his eyes, his eyes had been
put out and he was bound in chains to be taken to Babylon. The palaces and houses had been put to the
fire and only the poor of the land were permitted to remain. It wasn’t fun at all.
In
his agony and despair Jeremiah wrote the book of Lamentations. Everything was gone. He wrote, “[Jerusalem] weepeth sore in the
night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all her lovers she hath none to
comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become
her enemies.” (Lam. 1:2).
Jeremiah’s
heart was bruised almost beyond repair.
He cried out, “Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my
liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my
people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the
city” (Lam. 2:11).
When
there is nothing else that remains the righteous can find hope in the
attributes of God. Although desolation
and misery were all around, Jeremiah yet clings to the goodness and mercy of
God. He knows that the desolation and
misery had come from God, using Babylon as an instrument. Jeremiah knows that Israel richly deserved
it: “Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she is removed…. (Lam.
1:8). Jeremiah is no modern crybaby,
blaming God, and whining. His tears are
the tears of an honest and godly man.
But he is willing to kiss the hand that bears the rod, knowing that God
takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, that His hands are stretched out
in mercy.
Every
single day bears witness to the mercy and love of God. The sun rises anew and a new day
begins. So also are the mercies of God;
they also are new every morning. Sin
can be renounced; justice and truth can be sought afresh, for God is faithful.
Faithful
to what? What is Jeremiah referring
to? “The Lord will not cast off
forever: But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to
the multitude of his mercies. For he
doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men…. Let us search and try our ways, and turn
again to the Lord. Let us lift up our
heart with our hands unto God in the heaven….”
(Lam. 3:31-33, 40-41)
God’s
promises do not fail, because it is impossible for Him to lie. When everything looks completely hopeless on
the earth, there is a way upward, to the throne of mercy and grace. This mercy and grace is in Jesus Christ and
in the promise God had made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It was impossible for God utterly to cast
off Israel, for the promise was that Christ would come and take away sins, and
the whole world would be blessed in Him, the seed of Abraham (Gal. 3:16).
Their
hope was the same as ours: forgiveness of sins through the blood of Jesus
Christ. They believed in Christ yet to
come; we believe in Christ who has come.
The way of hope was repentance and faith. It has always been the same. In days of trouble, when hope seems
to fail, it is well to remember the faithfulness of God. “God is faithful, by
whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord” is
the way the Apostle Paul puts it (I Cor. 1:9).
Amen and Amen.