Verse 22
The only reason the Lord might not restore Israel was if He had fully and permanently rejected His people because He was so angry with them. By mentioning this possibility at the very end of the book, Jeremiah led his readers to recall God’s promises that He would never completely abandon His chosen people.
Because this last verse of the book is so negative, many Hebrew manuscripts of Lamentations end by repeating Lamentations 5:21 after Lamentations 5:22. It also became customary, when the Jews read the book in synagogue worship, for them to repeat Lamentations 5:21 at the end. They also did this when they read other books that end on a negative note (i.e., Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, and Malachi).
In view of God’s promises to Israel, He would not abandon the nation completely. He would bless them in the future (cf. Leviticus 26:44; Jeremiah 31:31-37; Romans 11:1-2; 2 Timothy 2:13). Nevertheless the focus of this book is on the misery that sin produces, not the hope of future deliverance.
"The theological message of Lamentations may be summarized as follows: God’s angry disciplinary judgment of His people, while severe and deserved, was not final." [Note: Chisholm, p. 359.]
Be the first to react on this!
