Lamentations 5

Let us review the big picture.  God had made unconditional promises both to Abraham and David of a nation and a kingship that would endure.  Along the way the people had agreed to be God’s people, accepting the covenant of law mediated through Moses.  The people failed to keep their end of that bargain, and were decimated, as had been the agreement in case of prolonged disobedience and idolatry.  God had forbidden Jeremiah to pray for them.  His plan was set and there was no turning back.  The enduring nation and kingdom seemed to have ended.  Perhaps, as with the Edomites, the only continued existence would be as a people mixed in with other nations, no longer distinguishable as Israel.

But that would render God’s gracious covenants as  conditional.  There must yet be a future for God cannot lie.  Is it possible that Jeremiah can now come to God and plead for the people?  Or will the prophet be turned away again?

As you read this chapter you may think it sounded little different than the rest of the Lamentations.  After all, it is filled with expressions of pain.  But look carefully at the complaint of the prophet to God.

Our inheritance has been turned over to aliens, our housed to foreigners (v2).

We pay for our water and wood (v4).  We labor and have no rest (v5).

Servants rule over us (v8).  The elders have ceased gathering at the gate (v14).

Joy has ceased (v15) ... Because of Mt. Zion which is desolate (v18).

These are not the same pains expressed earlier.  These are the results of having been removed from the land, the land promised to Abraham forever.  These are the result of having no Davidic king but rather living under the rule of the nations.  This cannot allow this to go on indefinitely.  And of course, God had said it would last seventy years.  Once the heart has accepted and submitted to God’s discipline it can again pray in hope.  And God will listen!

The hopeful prayer of Jeremiah is in two words: remember and renew (v1,21).  He pleads first the faithfulness of God, not to forget His people but to be true to His word and remember what has happened to them.  Then he prays for renewal and restoration, the prayer God would not hear before.  Now it is appropriate.  If God does not renew His people then they would be utterly rejected (v22) and that cannot happen with the faithful God!

The hope of this chapter is as the faint glimmer of the morning star.  It is not sufficiently bright to completely dispel the darkness; but it announces that the sun is about to rise and victory is at hand.  Let us face our trials in such a fashion, as Jeremiah in this little book, so that we can come to the place of hope. 

³ And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; ⁴ and perseverance, character; and character, hope. (Rom. 5:3-4)