(Week #35) A Lament over the Kingdom: Hope for Hurting Hearts (Lamentations 3:1-66)

I. Jeremiah’s Pain (v. 2-18)
A. Suffering is always theological until it is personal (v.2-10)
- “The grieving process involves the whole person physically, mentally, psychologically, and spiritually.”

B. It is okay to mourn. [Ecc. 3:1-4; Phil. 2:25-27; John 11:32-35]

II. Jeremiah’s Posture (v. 19-40)
A. He remembered God’s goodness (v. 20-21)
B. He remembered God’s faithfulness (v. 22-23)
C. He remembered God’s requirement [Duet. 30:1-3; 1 John 1:9] (v. 39-40)
- “To deny that we have any sin, is to walk in darkness, and…if we are walking in darkness we cannot be in fellowship with God. But to see sin in ourselves from day to day, humbly to confess it, and mourn over it, is to walk in the light; and walking in the light, we shall have fellowship with God who is light.”

III. Jeremiah’s Provision (v. 55-66)
A. God restores Jeremiah’s confidence (v.55-57)
- “When we have taken the blows of God for our own sins…then we can draw greater and greater comfort from His holiness, but His holiness must first be afflicting before it can be comforting.”
B. God will vindicate Himself and His people (v.64-66)
a. God will Judge and Punish All Sin:
1. Jeremiah’s accusers by the Babylonians. (Jer. 39:1)
2. Babylonians by the Mede-Persian Empire. (Jer. 50:18)
3. All who reject God’s salvation. (2 Thes. 1:6-9)

IV. Principles for Christians
A. See your sin for what it is a disruptor. Sin causes a break in fellowship with God and forces His divine discipline. Therefore, confess and repent of your sins daily.
B. See your Savior for who he is a deliverer. When we orient ourselves to Christ, He can change our mourning to praise because God is up to something great. [1 John 5:4-5]

John Guest and Lloyd J. Ogilvie, Jeremiah, Lamentations, vol. 19, The Preacher’s Commentary Series (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1988), 355.
Charles Spurgeon, “1 John 1:9 Commentary,” Online. Accessed August 27, 2019. https://www.preceptaustin.org/1john_19_commentary
Ogilvie, Commentary, 358.