Lamentations 3:48-57 says,....Bible reading week 21, day 5

Lamentations 3:48-57 says,...

48 - My eyes run down with streams of water because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.

49 - My eyes pour down unceasingly, without stopping,

50 - until the LORD looks down and sees from heaven.

51 - My eyes bring pain to my soul because of all the daughters of my city.

52 - My enemies without cause hunted me down like a bird;

53 - They have silenced me in the pit and have placed a stone on me.

54 - Waters flowed over my head; I said, "I am cut off!"

55 - I called on Your name, O LORD, out of the lowest pit.

56 - You have heard my voice, "Do not hide Your ear from my prayer for relief, from my cry for help."

57 - You drew near when I called on You; You said, "Do not fear!"

 Jeremiah is called the weeping prophet.  He gives a lot of focus to his eyes.  Tears are running down, pouring down unceasingly, as Jeremiah thinks about the state of the union of Israel and maybe as we think of the state of the union of our country.  In the midst of this mourning and weeping, Jeremiah is reminded and recalling a physical event that happened to him that he describes in verses 52 through 57.  The account is recorded in Jeremiah 38:4 through 13 when he is thrown into a cistern and it reads,

Then the officials said to the king, "Now let this man be put to death, inasmuch as he is discouraging the men of war who are left in this city and all the people, by speaking such words to them for this man is not seeking the well-being of this people but rather their harm."  So King Zedekiah said, "Behold, he is in your hands; for the king can do nothing against you."  Then they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern of Malchijah the king's son, which was in the court of the guardhouse; and they let Jeremiah down with ropes.  Now in the cistern there was no water but only mud, and Jeremiah sank in the mud.  But Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, a eunuch, while he was in the king's palace, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern.  Now the king was sitting in the Gate of Benjamin; and Ebedmelech went out from the king's palace and spoke to the king, saying, "My Lord the king, these men have acted wickedly in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet whom they have cast into the cistern; and he will die right where he is because of the famine, for there is no more bread in the city."  Then the king commanded Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, saying, "Take thirty men from here under your authority and bring up Jeremiah the prophet from the cistern before he dies."  So Ebedmelech took the men under his authority and went into the king's palace to a place beneath the storeroom and took from there worn-out clothes and worn-out rages and let them down by ropes into the cistern to Jeremiah.  Then Ebedmelech the Ethiopian said to Jeremiah, "Now put these worn-out clothes and rages under your armpits under the ropes"; and Jeremiah did so.  So they pulled Jeremiah up with the ropes and lifted him out of the cistern, and Jeremiah stayed in the court of the guardhouse.

Jeremiah was recovered from the cistern by a foreigner.  He was recovered by someone who thought less of, a eunuch, a nobody.  This foreigner nobody got an audience with the king and convinced him to reverse his previous command.  God works like that.  He provides answers to our dilemmas in very different ways than we think.  He uses people who are not even on the radar of others.  Jeremiah's faithfulness, even in the cistern, was seen by God and God sent in His very unlikely solution.

 I know that sometimes I have in my head how God should solve this situation I am in.  I think about it so much that maybe I think this is the only way it could be solved.  I limit in my mind what God can do.  I box Him into a corner and become blind to any other way.  It's my way or the highway and I stop looking for God's way.  He will unfold His plan before me if I keep faithful to Him in the midst of dilemma.  When I am down in the muddy cistern, will I look up to see a nobody, a foreigner who is a eunuch, to be my savior sent by the God I was just praying to?  Will I look up and refuse the help sent by God making some excuse that those worn-out rags would never work and I am waiting on my plan to unfold?  I think I have many times not gone with God's way because it looked so unconventional or maybe not as comfortable and easy as I want it to be.

As you are being faithful to God, look up to see who He brings your way.  Don't look past the one with worn-out rags who somehow got the permission of the king (a miracle in itself) to say, "I'm here to get you out of this mess.  Grab on."  Realize God's hand in the matter and use what He has given you to see His solution.  Let us pray.

"Lord, You plans are higher than our plans, Your ways are better than our ways, and Your words are greater than our words.  Everything about You is superior to us so help us to trust You when you sent help in ways that contradict ours.  May we see Your true power in our weaknesses being used by You.  Amen."

Pastor Adam