waiting on the dawn

Posted on December 18, 2021 by Jefferson Vann

Lamentations - 1

waiting on the dawn

Lamentations 3:1-9 (JDV)

Lamentations 3:1 I am the man who has seen misery under the rod of God’s wrath.
Lamentations 3:2 He has driven me away and forced me to walk in darkness instead of light.
Lamentations 3:3 Yes, he repeatedly turns his hand against me all day long.
Lamentations 3:4 He has worn away my flesh and skin; he has broken my bones.
Lamentations 3:5 He has laid siege against me, encircling me with bitterness and hardship.
Lamentations 3:6 He has made me dwell in darkness like those who have been dead for ages.
Lamentations 3:7 He has walled me in so I cannot get out; he has weighed me down with chains.
Lamentations 3:8 Even when I cry out and plead for help, he blocks out my prayer.
Lamentations 3:9 He has walled in my ways with blocks of stone; he has made my paths crooked.

waiting on the dawn

Some of the Lamenter’s imagery seems to contradict itself. How can he be driven away and still encircled? It is all imagery. He is saying that he has suffered with no explanation. He’s been walled in like a prisoner by the darkness when he expected light.

As believers who are called on to be God’s light to the world, we expect to know why things are happening. Sometimes we do not. Sometimes God’s actions in history — even what he is doing in our own lives — seem inexplicable. Our prayers often seem blocked, as if the signal needs a reboot. Our loyalty to God is being tested. Will we keep obeying and trusting him even in this dark place?

Lord, you are our Light and our salvation. We will trust you in the times of darkness, and wait on your dawn.

 

Posted in dependence upon God, patience, trust | Tagged | Leave a comment

cry out in the night

Posted on December 17, 2021 by Jefferson Vann

Lamentations - 1

cry out in the night

Lamentations 2:17-22 (JDV)

Lamentations 2:17 Yahveh has done what he planned; he has accomplished his decree, which he ordained in days of old. He has demolished without compassion, letting the enemy gloat over you and exalting the horn of your adversaries.
Lamentations 2:18 The hearts of the people cry out to the Lord. Wall of Daughter Zion, let your tears run down like a river day and night. Give yourself no relief and your eyes no rest.
Lamentations 2:19 Get up, cry out in the night from the first watch of the night. Pour out your heart like water in front of the Lord’s presence. Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your children who are passing out from hunger at the head of every street.
Lamentations 2:20 Yahveh, look and consider to whom you have done this. Should women eat their own children, the infants they have nurtured? Should priests and prophets be killed in the Lord’s sanctuary?
Lamentations 2:21 A young man and an old man are lying on the ground in the streets. My young women and young men have fallen by the sword. You have killed them in the day of your anger, slaughtering without compassion.
Lamentations 2:22 You summon those who terrorize me on every side, as if for an appointed festival day; on the day of Yahveh’s anger no one escaped or survived. My enemy has destroyed those I nurtured and reared.

cry out in the night

We can theologize all we want, talking about human autonomy and freedom. But when disaster strikes, we learn very quickly that we cannot control it. It strikes the young and old, the good and the bad. It leaves us bewildered. We quickly run out of resources and ideas.

That’s when — if we are wise — we follow the advice we see here. We get up and cry out to God in the night. We pour out our hearts to God like water.

O God who made us, we have no one to go to but you. Bring healing and restoration to us!

Posted in dependence upon God, prayer | Tagged | Leave a comment

life wasted on hating

Posted on December 16, 2021 by Jefferson Vann

Lamentations - 1

life wasted on hating

Lamentations 2:15-16 (JDV)

Lamentations 2:15 All who pass by scornfully clap their hands at you. They hiss and shake their heads at Daughter Jerusalem: Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole land?
Lamentations 2:16 All your enemies open their mouths against you. They hiss and gnash their teeth, saying, “We have swallowed her up. This is the day we have waited for! We have lived to see it.”

life wasted on hating

The sad truth is that many today are only living to see the downfall of their enemies. Jesus calls us to love our enemies. One of the reasons this is a wise choice is quite practical: hating is just a waste of your life. These enemies of Jerusalem lived for the day it would be destroyed and in ruins. Then what? All that potential life and love was spent wasted on hating, when it could have been invested by loving.

Lord, give us the wisdom to love — not because people are lovable, but because it is an investment which lasts.

Posted in enemies, love, wisdom | Tagged | Leave a comment

empty and misleading

Posted on December 15, 2021 by Jefferson Vann

Lamentations - 1

empty and misleading

Lamentations 2:13-14 (JDV)

Lamentations 2:13 What can I say on your behalf? What can I compare you to, Daughter Jerusalem? What can I liken you to, so that I may console you, Virgin Daughter Zion? For your ruin is as vast as the sea. Who can heal you?
Lamentations 2:14 Your prophets saw visions for you that were empty and deceptive; they did not reveal your iniquity and so restore your fortunes. They saw pronouncements for you that were empty and misleading.

empty and misleading

What a condemnation for those prophets. They had been responsible for speaking God’s word to God’s people, but they chose to see only empty and misleading stuff. They gave their people memes instead of maturity, vanity instead of virtue, triviality instead of truth.

Lord, we wait on you for a word for our time. We want your truth for your people, regardless of the price we may have to pay for that truth.

Posted in ministry, prophecy, truth | Tagged | Leave a comment

churning within

Posted on December 14, 2021 by Jefferson Vann

churning within

Lamentations 2:11-12 (JDV)

Lamentations 2:11 My eyes are worn out from weeping; I am churning within. My heart is poured out in grief because of the destruction of my dear people, because infants and nursing babies pass out in the streets of the city.
Lamentations 2:12 They cry out to their mothers, “Where is the grain and wine?” as they pass out like the wounded in the streets of the city, as their throat spills out in the arms of their mothers.

churning within

I remember the horrible feeling I felt one day when as a missionary in the Philippines I encountered a young mother with an extremely malnourished infant. This is something you never want to happen, and it does something to you when you see it. The Lamenter has seen it, and it left him churning within.

Oh God, preserve us from this terrible judgment. Bring us back to yourself, so that we experience your kindness, not your wrath.

Posted in judgment, wrath of God | Tagged | Leave a comment

what crisis does

Posted on December 13, 2021 by Jefferson Vann

Lamentations - 1

what crisis does

Lamentations 2:8-10 (JDV)

Lamentations 2:8 Yahveh determined to destroy the wall of Daughter Zion. He stretched out a measuring line and did not restrain himself from destroying. He made the ramparts and walls grieve; together they waste away.
Lamentations 2:9 Zion’s gates have fallen to the ground; he has destroyed and shattered the bars on her gates. Her king and her leaders live among the nations, instruction is no more, and even her prophets find no vision from Yahveh.
Lamentations 2:10 The elders of Daughter Zion sit on the ground in silence. They have thrown dust on their heads and put on sackcloth. The young women of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground.

what crisis does

The COVID-19 pandemic and its resultant health and economic crisis deeply influenced us all. A crisis does that. The crisis described here changed the faith of the nation of Judah. Even the prophets could no longer encourage them with a vision from God. The crisis changed the nation’s leaders. They were in mourning, and could not lead. The crisis changed the hope of the people to hopelessness. The young women of marriageable age bowed their heads to the ground, refusing to dream of a future life and family.

Lord, lead us out of our crises and to your cross. Restore our faith, our leaders, and our hope.

Posted in crisis, faith, hope, leadership | Tagged | Leave a comment

end of worship

Posted on December 12, 2021 by Jefferson Vann

end of worship

Lamentations 2:6-7 (JDV)

Lamentations 2:6 He has wrecked his temple as if it were merely a shack in a field, destroying his place of meeting. Yahveh has abolished appointed festivals and Sabbaths in Zion. He has despised king and priest in his fierce anger.
Lamentations 2:7 The Lord has rejected his altar, renounced his sanctuary; he has handed the walls of her palaces over to the enemy. They have raised a shout in the house of Yahveh like on the day of an appointed festival.

end of worship

Long before Jesus overturned the moneychangers’ tables in the temple, Yahveh wrecked it by allowing it to be invaded by foreign armies. Why would God do such a thing? The same reason his Son did. When worship becomes a sham, God puts an end to the show.

Lord, teach us how to worship you with integrity and respect.

Posted in hypocrisy | Tagged | Leave a comment

like an enemy

Posted on December 11, 2021 by Jefferson Vann

like an enemy

Lamentations 2:1-5 (JDV)

Lamentations 2:1 How the Lord has covered Daughter Zion with the cloud of his anger! He has thrown down Israel’s glory from the sky to the land. He did not acknowledge his footstool in the day of his anger.
Lamentations 2:2 Without compassion the Lord has swallowed up all the dwellings of Jacob. In his wrath he has demolished the fortified cities of Daughter Judah. He brought them to the ground and defiled the kingdom and its leaders.
Lamentations 2:3 He has cut off every horn of Israel in his burning anger and withdrawn his right hand in the presence of the enemy. He has blazed against Jacob like a flaming fire that consumes everything.
Lamentations 2:4 He has strung his bow like an enemy; his right hand is positioned like an adversary. He has killed everyone who was the delight to the eye, pouring out his wrath like fire on the tent of Daughter Zion.
Lamentations 2:5 The Lord is like an enemy; he has swallowed up Israel. He swallowed up all its palaces and destroyed its fortified cities. He has multiplied mourning and lamentation within Daughter Judah.

like an enemy

We need God in our lives, but as a friend, not like an enemy. Judah had so infuriated their Lord that he turned on them, and began treating them like an enemy.

Oh, Father, forgive us, and turn your wrath from us. We need your comfort and your healing. We confess that our sins have brought these trials upon us, but without your help, we have no help. Put down your bow, Lord, and restore your people.

Posted in dependence upon God, forgiveness, reconciliation | Tagged | Leave a comment

bring on the day

Posted on December 10, 2021 by Jefferson Vann

Lamentations - 1

bring on the day

Lamentations 1:20-22 (JDV)

Lamentations 1:20 Yahveh, see how I am in distress. I am churning within; my heart is broken, because I have been very rebellious. Outside, the sword takes the children; inside, there is death.
Lamentations 1:21 People have heard me groaning, but there is no one to comfort me. All my enemies have heard of my misfortune; they are glad that you have caused it. Bring on the day you have announced, so that they may become like me.
Lamentations 1:22 Let all their wickedness come before you, and deal with them as you have dealt with me because of all my transgressions. You see, my groans are many, and I am sick at heart.

bring on the day

The city feels the shame of being singled out for God’s judgment. Even in her destitute state, she prays that God deal with the surrounding nations as he has done with her. She cannot stand being laughed at by heathen nations that are more wicked than she is. She admits that she is getting what she deserves, but the fact that God seems to be overlooking the sins of others is too much for her to bear.

But she know that God has a day of judgment coming, and her prayer is that she lives to see justice. This is not the most noble sentiment, and we do not have to do theological gymnastics to justify it. We are hearing many groans of a sinful, sick heart, groping about for help.

Lord, we know you have a day coming in which all your enemies will be brought to justice. We long for that day as well, but we also ask you to help us restore the nations to yourself before that day comes.

Posted in second coming | Tagged | Leave a comment

look at my pain

Posted on December 9, 2021 by Jefferson Vann

Lamentations - 1

look at my pain

Lamentations 1:18-19 (JDV)

Lamentations 1:18 Yahveh is being just, because I have rebelled against his command. Listen, all you people; look at my pain. My young women and young men have gone into captivity.
Lamentations 1:19 I called to my lovers, but they betrayed me. My priests and elders were destroyed in the city while searching for food to keep themselves alive.

look at my pain

The city calls on the people to look at her pain. She knows that she is suffering justly, and wants everyone to know it. As difficult as these times of trouble and heartache are, they can be opportunities to witness to the glory of God. But we have to get over own own pride and self-righteousness.

Lord, your ways are right, even we suffer. You are just.

Posted in repentance, sin | Tagged | Leave a comment