Before I recap the first message from Lamentations, here’s a couple of housekeeping things:
You can download the free 110-page guide here: Lamentations – Sermon Guide. The guide includes a devotional for every day during a 9-week period, along with readable commentary on each section of Lamentations. It uses Lamentations to point to Jesus, as well as providing personal applications for us all. Hopefully this guide will be a very valuable resource for you.
Another question I’ve received a lot lately is this: Why Lamentations? Wouldn’t a new church better be served by examining 1 Timothy? Or Genesis? Or the letters to Corinth? Right now, for us at Harmony Church, it’s a pastoral need. We, as a church, don’t pray like we should. And we, as a city, don’t have the complete view of God (as both merciful and just) that is so clearly presented in Lamentations. So we’re in Lamentations, as it will address both of these issues. But what about you? Why should you go through Lamentations? I’d answer your question with a question: when is the last time you’ve heard the Gospel explained from Lamentations? We ignore the book as pastors. It’s difficult. It’s not fluffy. It’s weighty. It doesn’t provide subject material known to “grow churches”. But Jesus preached from Lamentations. And we should be like Him, right? You can complete the logic. That being said What was the first section from Lamentations on?
The Enslaved Princess
In the first section of Lamentations, we are presented with a man who is greatly disturbed by what has been going on in his city. His city, Jerusalem, has been destroyed by the Babylonian people, and the city that was once a lovely princess is now a distraught slave. She has been afflicted, destroyed, and is now suffering. The man presenting her story alludes to the fact that her suffering is due to her rebellion (v5). This leads to a surprise role for God: enemy. Because of her rebellion, she has in effect declared war on God, who has no choice but to involve Himself in the fight for His own reputation. You can listen to the full message here: The Enslaved Princess or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes. The full outline, notes, application and such again is included in the Lamentations Guide, as linked to above.
[...] of Lamentations, the city that we have been told about in the first section of the poem (my notes here) steps up to the microphone and tells us her story first-hand. The first thing we see is that she [...]