Lamentations 5:1-7 says,...Bible reading week 24, day 1

Today's verses are Lamentations 5:1-7, which read,

1 - Remember, O LORD, what has befallen us; look, and see our reproach!

2 - Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our houses to aliens.

3 - We have become orphans without a father, our mothers are like widows.

4 - We have to pay for our drinking water, our wood comes to us at a price.

5 - Our pursuers are at our necks; we are worn out, there is no rest for us.

6 - We have submitted to Egypt and Assyria to get enough bread.

7 - Our fathers sinned, and are no more; it is we who have borne their iniquities.

We have made it to the last chapter in Lamentations and to the prayer of the remnant, a prayer for mercy.  Maybe some aspects of this prayer we can follow like we do with the Lord's Prayer as a template to speak to Our Father.  Jeremiah starts by not just thinking about God or pondering the thoughts of the mind of what to do next but to actually call out to God.  I can be guilty of this.  I think I am praying and maybe I am but I haven't actually called out and said, "Our Father" or "O LORD."  I haven't said His name or addressed Him personally.  I do in public but what about in private?  I think it might be okay to also stop and add Him in formally even if we are in the midst of our thoughts that are more than just the mind wandering from one concern to another.

Jeremiah then lays out in the prayer what has happened to the people of Israel.  What they had has been turned over to strangers, the Babylonians and their houses are occupied by others.  The family structures have been broken up but also the country as a family is now upset.  It isn't how it used to be.  Can we say that of our country?  We are fatherless and husbandless.  It is interesting that Jeremiah uses those two groups to express the despair of the situation.  No men in the picture but specifically fathers and husbands who protect and provide direction.  I think we have found another relatable point to our present situation.  There are many absent fathers and husbands in our culture today.

They are paying for drinking water and we do this voluntarily now.  Who would have thought that we would buy water?  They also had to buy wood to make fires for cooking.  I know that when we lived in the northern woods of Michigan there was the option to heat your home with wood.  You had to calculate if it really was a savings if you didn't have the wood on your property or could get it very reasonable and close in mileage otherwise you were paying as much for a cord as paying the man to bring the fuel to your tank.  What the Israelites took for granted, water and wood, were now at a price and I am sure it was quite a price at times.  We really start to feel it when those things that are necessary start to make us make hard decisions about eliminating what is not necessary in our lives.  I wonder what I have added to my life that is not necessary but I would have trouble getting rid of if what was necessary made me give it up?  

Jeremiah tells of pressure put upon them from the Babylonians and how they have had to call out to other enemies for food.  I wonder how much that bread cost?  It makes me think of those who opposed Jesus but also opposed each other but they came together to get rid of Him.  How we will look for solutions even among our enemies rather than get on our knees before God and submit to His solution of repentance and confession.  What am I doing or what am I seeking from sources that may be to provide a solution but it will be at a cost that will be more than just my money but my allegiance to God?  

Jeremiah gets to the core of the problem that he has said many times in the book.  The problem is sin.  It is sin that has lingered.  It is sin practices that have passed on from generation to generation.  Those sin practices now have created an atmosphere of consequences that a future generation has to live with.  The previous generation is gone but the consequences live on.  Will there be someone who will break this negative cycle?  It makes me think of my position as a father and dad.  What are the consequences that my wife and children will live with because of my life?  Will they be good consequences because I am striving to live after God or will they be bad because I have rejected His perfect words and ways?  What will my future generations have to deal with spiritually because of my present devotion or lack of devotion to God?  We focus a lot on the environment and financially what is put on our children and we should do this to a responsible degree but I wonder if we would spend that much time and energy focusing on what spiritually what we are putting on our children?  Not what environment are they going to inherit from us or what financial debt they are going to inherit from us but what spiritual debt they are going to inherit from us.

Wow, a lot to think about that came from my head this morning about this ancient prayer of Jeremiah, calling out to God, specifically, and for mercy.  Let us pray.

"Lord, may we say Your name more often as a formal address to You.  May we direct our thoughts and turn them into prayers so that these consequences of our world might be brought to Your feet.  We are suffering the consequences of sins and may we not add but rather be those who repent and confess to rise in obedience to You.  Amen."

Pastor Adam