Lamentations 1: A Warning for the Church Today

Introduction

"How the city sits solitary, that was full of people! She has become as a widow, who was great among the nations!" Peter Masters, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London, starts from Lamentations 1:1 to walk through the whole book of Lamentations in a single study. His aim: to encourage you to read it and to grasp its overall message before God.

Most study Bibles sum this book up as a memorial of the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC, a funeral song. The preacher is not content with that. This book is the work of the prophet Jeremiah: it is not only a memorial, it is a prophecy. It warns, it teaches, and it sheds light on what will be repeated in history, including in the New Testament Church.

Chapter after chapter, it shows a people judged for their unfaithfulness, a tested prophet who finds hope again, and then a people who finally repent.

Outline of the Message

1. A Book Written With Great Precision

The name "Lamentations" comes from the Latin Vulgate and means "loud cries." The Hebrews called it by a word that can be translated "How!", which opens chapters 1, 2 and 4.
This "how" is not a question but an exclamation: how great, terrible and devastating is the destruction of Jerusalem!
The book is built as an acrostic. Chapters 1, 2 and 4 have 22 verses, as many as the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and each verse begins with the next letter. Chapter 3 has 66 verses, one letter for each group of three. Chapter 5 also has 22 verses, but without the acrostic.
It is often said that this device helped with memorization. For Peter Masters, it shows above all the care and precision with which the book was written. No one can say: it is only poetry, the poet got carried away.

2. More Than a Memorial: A Prophecy for Our Time

"Who coins these formulas?" the preacher wonders about the study Bibles' summary. We forget that the author is the prophet Jeremiah.
The apostle Paul says it: these things were written for our instruction, on whom the ends of the ages have come (1 Corinthians 10:11).
So the purpose of the book is not only to recall the fall of Jerusalem and Judah. It is to warn, to teach, and to shed light on what will happen to the Church in New Testament times.

3. Chapter 1: Jerusalem Abandoned

The once crowded city is almost empty, inhabited by a few poor people surviving in the ruins. She is like a widow, without support, abandoned by God.
In verse 3, Judah is in exile. The book of Jeremiah attributes the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon; Lamentations goes further and attributes it to God, who allowed it and orchestrated it.
No more feasts, no more sacrifices, no more worship. There were still believers in Jerusalem, a minority in a disobedient city, and a few sincere teachers. Even that was taken away.
Verse 8: "Jerusalem has grievously sinned." After centuries of patience and warnings, God removed her. Revelation gives the same warning to disobedient churches: the lampstand can be removed (Revelation 2:5).
From verse 12, Jerusalem speaks herself: "Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Behold, and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow." Charles Wesley applied these words to Jesus in a hymn, "All ye that pass by," and George Whitefield once took them as his text at Moorfields, before thousands of listeners, in the middle of a revival.
Wesley had every right to do so: suffering Jerusalem is only a picture of what is due to each of us. Christ came as a substitute and sin-bearer, and he took on himself the share of all true believers.
In verse 18, Jerusalem acknowledges: "Yahweh is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment." But she does not repent yet, and the deliverance of the remnant will come only after 70 years.

4. Chapter 2: When God Withdraws His Blessing

"The Lord has cast off his altar. He has abhorred his sanctuary" (verse 7). The glorious gates, once wide open to worshipers and to seeking sinners, have sunk into the ground (verse 9). There is no longer any vision from Yahweh.
Peter Masters applies this chapter to our time: over the last centuries, zealous churches used by God, and entire denominations, have collapsed into unbelief. The Word, the presence of the Spirit, souls saved: everything has disappeared.
"After long appeals and times of patience, God removes the lampstand," and a whole denomination or congregation enters into decline.
In verse 11, Jeremiah weeps over the ruin of the daughter of his people. He preached to them for four decades and they despised him.
To a lesser degree, we share his sorrows: when you warn against letting the world invade the Church, you are mocked, however gently and graciously you do it.
The preacher sometimes feels he is entering the era of the two witnesses of Revelation: the Church reduced almost to nothing, the witnesses struck down, but who will rise again for a final testimony before the Lord's coming (Revelation 11).
Verse 14: "Your prophets have seen for you false and foolish visions; and they have not uncovered your iniquity." The preacher thinks of the prosperity gospel: sin, repentance, atonement and the need for forgiveness are no longer preached, but "pay, pay, pay."

5. Chapter 3: The Hope of the Tested Servant

Jeremiah now speaks in his own name: "I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath." He remembers his sufferings, the prison and the cistern.
When he says that God led him into darkness and not into light, he is not speaking of his personal spiritual life but of his ministry: the nation did not repent. In the same way, the prayer that seems to be shut out (verse 8) is his constant prayer for the people, not his personal prayer.
God made these appeals through Jeremiah in order to be just and so that the people would be without excuse. There would be fruit, but only a remnant.
He is the laughingstock of all his people, the subject of their songs (verse 14). In verse 18, he hits bottom: "I said, 'My strength has perished, and my expectation from Yahweh.'"
Then comes the turning point in verse 20: his soul remembers and "is bowed down within me." A small phrase, but an immense one: it is the end of the negative words.
Verse 21: "This I recall to my mind; therefore I have hope." Then come the words that Thomas Chisholm's hymn made famous: because of Yahweh's loving kindnesses we are not consumed, his compassion does not fail, "They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness." The hymn is "Great Is Thy Faithfulness."
This hymn can be sung lightly by prosperous, satisfied and comfortable Christians. But these promises are for those who are like Jeremiah: those who are despised, who are ready to pay the price of their witness, who do hard or humble things to please the Lord.
"'Yahweh is my portion,' says my soul" (verse 24) goes back to the book of Numbers: Aaron and the priests received no share of the land, because Yahweh was their portion.
Verse 27: "It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth." Today, youth is seen as the time to have fun. The preacher regrets those student churches in central London that call themselves evangelical, with no prayer meeting, where capable young people are not entrusted early with a Sunday school class.
The one who has borne the yoke early will stand firm when the trial comes. "Isn't that a real gem of Christian psychology, in the middle of Lamentations?"
Verse 48: "My eyes run down with streams of water." Streams of water flow from the prophet's eyes. We need to learn his compassion for lost sinners and for those who stray in the churches.

6. Chapters 4 and 5: From Judgment to Repentance

In chapter 4, the precious sons of Zion, "comparable to fine gold," are regarded as "clay jars" (verse 2). This is what churches become when they invite the world into their home.
Verse 6: Jerusalem's punishment is greater than that of Sodom, destroyed in a moment. Jerusalem, on the other hand, was punished at length, in slavery and misery.
Why? Because in God's eyes, spiritual adultery is far worse still than physical adultery and than the sins of Sodom. The preacher sees it today in the crude worldliness accepted in the worship of many evangelical churches: "Nothing could be more foolish, less spiritual and more disobedient than the pollution of worship and witness."
In chapter 5, the awareness of sin rises among the captives: "Our fathers sinned, and are no more" (verse 7). They speak of their own fathers, not of the patriarchs. Then in verse 16: "Woe to us! for we have sinned." Precious words: at last, repentance.
Verse 19: "You, Yahweh, remain forever." They are on their knees, they acknowledge his authority and seem to remember the covenant and the promises.
Verse 21: "Turn us to yourself, Yahweh, and we will be turned." They ask him to act in their hearts.
Peter Masters is convinced that verse 22 is a question, asking whether God has utterly rejected them. This is repentance, almost faith: no, you have not rejected us forever, there is hope, we can be heard.

Key Takeaways

Lamentations is not only a memorial of the fall of Jerusalem: it is a prophecy written for our instruction.
When a church lets the world in, God may, after long patience, remove its lampstand and its blessing.
The promise "they are new every morning" is first for those who bear the yoke and pay the price of their witness.
Bearing the yoke from youth prepares you to stand firm in trial.
The book ends on repentance and hope: "Turn us to yourself, Yahweh, and we will be turned."

Personal Application

Do you read Lamentations as a page of history, or as a warning addressed to you and your church?
What is the world bringing into your worship and your prayer life?
Do you sing "Great is your faithfulness" from a comfortable life, or from a service that costs you something?
What yoke are you bearing for the Lord today, whether you are young or not?
Do you have tears for lost sinners and for those drifting away from God around you?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

What does the Hebrew name of the book of Lamentations mean?

The word "Lamentations" comes from the Latin Vulgate and means "loud cries." The Hebrews named the book after its first word, which can be translated "How!", a word that recurs in the first verse of chapters 1, 2 and 4. It is not a question but an exclamation: how great, terrible and devastating is the destruction of Jerusalem!

Why does the book of Lamentations matter for the Church today?

For Peter Masters, this book is not only the memorial of the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC. It is the work of the prophet Jeremiah, and therefore a prophecy. It warns and teaches about what is repeated in history: when a church or a denomination lets the world in, God may, after long patience, remove its lampstand and its blessing.

Who is the promise "Great is your faithfulness" in Lamentations 3 for?

Peter Masters notes that these words can be sung lightly by prosperous, comfortable Christians. In the text, they are first for Jeremiah and for those who resemble him: those who are despised, who pay the price of their witness, who persevere in hard tasks to please the Lord, and who feel their sin and their need of grace.