Lamentations 2:19
“Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches; pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift your hands toward Him for the life of your young children, who faint from hunger at the head of every street.”
As Jeremiah looked out over the rubble that was once the city of Jerusalem, his eyes welled up with tears. A nation that was designed to honor and glorify the Lord, was now devastated by its own sin. A lifetime of pleading with the people and their rulers had failed to stop the inevitable consequences of their repeated actions.
Now, with a broken heart, he once again pleads with the people to return to the Lord. This time his motivation is different. Instead of warning them of a Babylonian invasion, he draws their attention to a more personal matter. He pleads with the parents to return to the Lord for the sake of their children.
Most parents claim they would do anything for their children, and in many cases, they can site example after example of selfless acts of love. These may include sleepless nights, hours of overtime, setting aside personal ambitions, and giving up friendships, hobbies, or other extracurricular activities. All of these are surely expressions of love, but the highest expression, is to submit to Christ and live a life that honors the Lord and sets a pattern for your children to follow.
Children will always imitate their parents, so the first step in seeing our children walk with Jesus is to set the example for them. The first step in setting that example, is to get our own lives right with God. If we want to see our children love and serve Christ, we need to be modeling that life ourselves. Children don’t learn best by being told what to do, they learn best by watching an example and mimicking what they have seen.
What example are you setting?
Pastor Jim
Lamentations is a book of mourning that has been compared to a funeral durge. Jeremiah is not weeping over the death of a family member, but over the fall of a nation. We know that, although Judah fell, they would be restored. Seventy years after the captivity began, a remnant of believers would return to rebuild the Temple and the city. Within a century, Jerusalem would be bustling again; cured of idolatry and actively worshipping the Lord. In our text, we see the first step that led them back to the Lord.
Peter writes, as the day of the Lord approaches there will be an increase in those he calls “scoffers.” A scoffer is one who shows his contempt for an idea or concept, by not only rejecting it, but mocking it, and those who believe. Peter goes on to explain, one of the signs that Christ’s return is drawing near, is an increase in those who mock Christ and Christianity.
Jehoiachin, the last King of Judah, will forever be known as the one sitting on the throne when the nation fell. The collapse was not entirely his fault, although his wickedness did play a part. While very few details are preserved regarding his actual reign, we are told that after 37 years in prison, he was suddenly released and treated favorably. Jeremiah does not give an explanation of the details leading up to his release, but as Scripture unfolds, we can uncover the heavenly reasons behind it.
As Jeremiah writes this, Jerusalem is smoldering in the rubble of its own destruction. Babylonian forces have taken the people captive, burned the city to the ground, and set up their own government to rule over Israel. Since the cause of Judah’s fall was their stubborn rebellion against the Word of the Lord, it would seem logical to conclude that God had forsaken His people. Jeremiah declares that those who are in covenant relationship with God, will not be utterly forsaken, even when we have sinned against Him.
A few years ago, I was in northern Ghana with a group of people from our church. Our purpose was to bring the Gospel to remote villages that had yet to be reached for Christ. Just as Paul developed a custom of going first to the synagogue, then to the market squares, we too, had developed our own custom. Because of the practices of their culture, it is customary, when a traveler arrives at their home, to gather the family, offer the traveler a drink and ask “What brings you here and do you have a message for us?” As you can imagine, this provides a wide open door to share Christ.
One of the greatest benefits of being in a relationship with God is the forgiveness of sin. God explains that although we have transgressed His laws, the covenant provides pardon. In Israel’s case, it was through temple sacrifice, in ours, it is through the blood Christ shed at Calvary. The forgiveness He offers is complete. All sin, and it’s penalties, are washed away in the priceless blood of Christ. When God forgives, nothing will ever be brought up again.
Some things never change. The sun will always rise in the East and set in the West, water will always be wet, and a person in a backslidden state will always deceive themselves, about their spiritual condition. This was true 2600 years ago in Ammon, and it is true today.
Jeremiah is describing the judgment that will fall upon Moab. He explains, in vivid fashion, that one of the chief causes of their wickedness was the fact that they were like a vessel which had never been cleaned. Their failure to allow the difficulties of life to purify their actions, ultimately lead to their judgment and destruction.
Building a healthy relationship with the Lord is made up of a number of elements, the first of which is faith. In Hebrews 11, we are told that without faith it is impossible to please God. We might say, faith is the currency of the Kingdom of Heaven. It is the means by which we receive from God. The gift of eternal life, the promises of the Word, and the work of the Spirit are all received by faith. For anyone to begin a relationship with God, it must start by entrusting your life to Christ, and becoming His follower.
