During the early years of missionary activity in China, one little boy, professed faith in Jesus Christ. The father felt he was not old enough, so he explained to the lad that he might fall back if he made a profession when he was so young. To his well-meaning, concerned father, the boy gave this touching reply: "Jesus has promised to carry the lambs in His arms. I am only a little boy. It will be easier for Jesus to carry me." The simplicity and genuineness of the boy's faith made a profound impression on the father, and he quickly sensed that his son knew what he was talking about. Soon the youngster made known his faith in Christ and followed the Lord in the believer's baptism. Indeed the Lord is faithful and able to do what He undertook in our lives, even to eternity. We must no fall into doubt or fear. Anxiety over the future must not keep us from salvation. I would like us to have our faith strengthened in this regard from the book of Lamentations!
The book of Lamentations is made up of five acrostic lament poems, or dirges, that is, songs of mourning. Each is an expression of grief over the fall of Jerusalem. They were written by Jeremiah against the backdrop of the Babylonian invasion and destruction of Jerusalem. Here we see the awful sufferings endured by the people of that city at the hand of their enemies. The loss of a nation is a great loss and deserves a lament as we have here, yet the loss of a soul is even a greater loss. Although these are lamentations, yet the purpose of the book is to produce hope in the God whose mercy is new every morning and whose faithfulness is so great that it is extended to an unfaithful people. We know that Jeremiah wrote a lament for Josiah in 2 Chron. 35:25
Jeremiah, who was known as the Weeping Prophet is known by his unending sadness and deep depression. Who is Jeremiah?
1. He received an unwanted call to be a prophet (Jer. 1:5-6)
2. He was called to preach judgment (Jer. 1:9-10)
3. He was forbidden to marry so that he might give himself more fully to this ministry of proclaiming the impending judgment of God – (Jer. 16:1-13). He was very familiar with loneliness.
4. He was a man of deep sadness and he wept openly about the sins of his people – (Jer. 9:1)
5. He endured depression as the result of this message going unheeded for so long. He even came to the point where he tried to get out of the ministry, (Jer. 20:9). His pain is understandable, because in a ministry that spanned some 50 years, there is no record of even one convert (may be Baruch his scribe & possibly Ebed-Melech)
6. He suffered imprisonment by King Zedekiah because the king did not approve of Jeremiah’s preaching – (Jer. 32:5). Even while the Babylonians were invading the city in fulfilment of his prophet declarations, Jeremiah in the dungeon – (Jer. 32:2).
7. After Jerusalem fell, people killed or taken captive, the prophet did not gloat or take an “I told you so” attitude. Instead, he grieved with the remnant and suffered with them – (Lamentations 1-5).
After enduring a life like this: being rejected, hated, mocked, imprisoned, and ignored he wrote LAMENTATIONS. His city, rather the city of God, Jerusalem was ransacked, desecrated and destroyed. He experienced the horrors of war, the brutality of the enemy and the pangs of hunger – think of Gaza right now.
But Jeremiah was still able to stand forth amid the rubble of the city and the bodies of the dead and lift his voice in praise to God for His great, unfailing, yet unmerited faithfulness to His people. How was this possible? Despite his trials and his troubles, Jeremiah had a good grasp on the reality of just who God is! God is sovereign! He knows what He is doing always.
Jeremiah knew that whether things went well, or whether everything fell apart, God would still be God and that God would be eternally faithful to His people. This is what we are considering in Lamentations. He was able to find hope in a hopeless situation because he believed in the faithfulness of His great God.
The Bible gives overwhelming evidence of the unchanging faithfulness of our great God. The word “Faithfulness” in verse 23, means “firmness, fidelity, steadiness, steadfastness.” This word underscores God’s immutability or unchangeableness. God does not change like us. This word pictures God as absolutely dependable. We can be sure that as we face the storms, trials and valleys of life, God will ever prove Himself to be steadfast and faithful to you and me. To put it very simply, you can count on the Lord! The Bible is all about the faithfulness of God, and the rampart unfaithfulness of men.
Here are three precious words in these verses that tell us why Jeremiah was able to proclaim: Great Is Thy Faithfulness. Notice what these words teach us about the great, unfailing faithfulness of the God of the believer.
God is faithful in his grace (22)
God is faithful in his mercies (23)
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