Lamentations 2:6-11 says...Bible reading week 17, day 5

Today's verses are Lamentations 2:6-11, which read,

6 - And He has violently treated His tabernacle like a garden booth; He has destroyed His appointed meeting place.  The LORD has caused to be forgotten the appointed feast and sabbath in Zion, and He has despised king and priest in the indignation of His anger.

7 - The Lord has rejected His altar, He has abandoned His sanctuary; He has delivered into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces.  They have made a noise in the house of the LORD as in the day of an appointed feast.

8 - The LORD determined to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion.  He has stretched out a line, He has not restrained His hand from destroying, and He has caused rampart and wall to lament; they have languished together.

9 - Her gates have sunk into the ground, He has destroyed and broken her bars.  Her king and her princes are among the nations; the law is no more.  Also, her prophets find no vision from the LORD.

10 - The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground, they are silent.  They have thrown dust on their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth.  The virgins of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground.

11 - My eyes fail because of tears, my spirit is greatly troubled; my heart is poured out on the earth because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, when little ones and infants faint in the streets of the city.

Remember that God is angry and His anger is justified.  Another area of life that drastically changes in the life of the one who is angering God is the religious systems we have set up.  We may continue to go but if we are out of step with God, they do not provide the peace they once did because we are not at peace with God.

God takes what was once a tabernacle, something solid and firmly grounded, and turns it into a garden booth, something make out of twigs and lasts only for that season.  It could be blown away very easily.  God takes what were once very meaningful celebrations at those houses of worship and turns them into cultural activities to do with a forgotten meaning behind them.  God takes that most holy place, the altar, and turns it over the to enemy to make it just another place to put a plant or to set up a speaker to blare out some "me" music.  Our religious spaces change because of our disobedience.

In verse 9 we go from "Him" to "her."  God is the groom and the church is the bride but the bride doesn't look so good at the moment.  Her protective gates have sunk to easily climb over.  Her authorities are running the place without following the law.  Her spiritual leaders are void of vision from God.  Could this be a picture of the universal church today?  Churches have allow standards based on God's Word to fall.  Churches are run by those who are dismissing God's written Word.  Churches are not seeking direction from God but direction from what pleases man.

In verse 10 we are told of the remnant that are still following after God.  How are they responding during this time?  The elders are dressed in sackcloth and sitting in ashes.  This means that they are mourning over the condition of the people of Israel.  The virgins, those pure, are with heads bowed to the ground.  They are showing with their posture that something is drastically wrong.  Do we mourn over the condition of the church today?  Does it cause us to weep for how far we have strayed from God even within the church?  

Verse 11 gives us the faithful's words.  They are crying so much that they can not see.  They are depressed in spirit to affect their outward appearance.  They can't contain the anguish and it comes out of them about the spiritual state of the people of God.  Even the little ones and infants, the most innocent and vulnerable, are affected by this disobedience.  They are fainting, falling down, in the streets where they should not be because their parents are not watching out for them.  What a picture of the church today.

Are we making sure our little ones and infants, our new Christians are protected?  Are we with them in the streets of this evil world?  Are we providing a safe place for them to be as they grow in the Lord?  Or do we see them falling by the wayside because we are not living in accordance with glorifying our God?  What can we do about this?  Monday, we will read about what these little ones and infants are crying out.  Our selfishness is causing others to not have what they should have for their spiritual lives to flourish.  Our churches which should be havens of spiritual development have become places that glorify self rather than glorifying God.  It happened then, is happening now, and could happen here if we don't make it a concerted effort to be a place where God is the only One high and lifted up.  Let us pray.

"Lord, how righteously angry You can get and justifiably so.  We can take what is to be used to glorify You and turn it into something that is all about us.  You can destroy those systems we create in a heartbeat when we make them for our gain instead of Your glory.  May we pray earnestly with tears and troubled spirits and poured out hearts for change that brings to our little ones and infants back to Your grace experienced as we live in obedience to You.  Amen."

Pastor Adam