Latest / Reformed Thinking / Hope Through Tears: The Faithful King in Lamentations | Thomas R. Schreiner

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Hope Through Tears: The Faithful King in Lamentations | Thomas R. Schreiner · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reformed Thinking, the deep dive.
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  It's good to be here. Our mission on this show is
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  well, it's pretty straightforward.
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  We take sophisticated source material, theological texts,
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  dense research, and we try to distill the most crucial
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  structured insights from it. And today we're looking at
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  material you provided, specifically some key excerpts
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  from Thomas Shriner's Biblical Theology.
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  That's right. And our focus is going to be
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  entirely on the the remarkable Book of Lamentations.
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  It's a study that is just so necessary.
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  I mean, Lamentations gets passed over so often, doesn't it?
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  It does. It's almost treated like a
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  footnote. Or, you know, a literary
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  appendix to Jeremiah. When in fact, it's this
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  incredibly complex poetic reflection on, well, the single
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  greatest national disaster in ancient Israel's history.
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  We're talking about the destruction of Jerusalem.
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  The temple, the loss of their nationhood in 586 BC.
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  All of it the event that led directly to the Babylonian
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  exile. So our goal for you today is a
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  structured, thorough understanding of this really
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  unique text. We're not just going to
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  summarize the grief. We want to show how this book,
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  which confronts the reality of total failure, of devastation,
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  it structures its grief so rigorously, right, So rigorously
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  that it leaves you, the reader, with no other choice but to
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  ground all your future hope in one place.
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  And that's in the absolute sovereign constancy of God.
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  Exactly. And you said the keyword there
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  form the form of this book is not accidental.
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  It is theological through and through, right.
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  And that brings us, I think, right to our first section.
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  OK, let's do it. Let's unpack this structure.
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  Because for Lamentations, the form is at least half the
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  message. I mean, even its placement in
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  the Canon seems so logical. It really does.
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  It fits right between Jeremiah, who foretold the disaster.
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  And Ezekiel, who was speaking to the people already in exile.
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  So Lamentations is the bridge. It's that necessary, anguished
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  literary contemplation of the fulfilled predictions.
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  It's the moment where they have to sit in the ruins and process
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  the fact that everything the prophets warned about actually
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  happened. It came to pass, but what's so
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  striking as you study the book is the medium itself.
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  We're not getting a straightforward history lesson
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  here. No, not at all.
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  It's poetry. Intense, structured poetry.
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  And that choice is completely deliberate.
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  The source material rightly points out that poetry is
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  selected because it can capture and convey raw, deep emotion in
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  a way that you know prose just can't.
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  It gives the grief a kind of artistic container, a structure
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  that forces the reader to slow down, to pause, to reflect and
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  really wrestle with the experience being described.
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  Yes, poetry just has this singular character that makes it
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  perfect for communicating the extremes of human experience,
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  whether it's the highest joy or in this case.
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  The absolute bottom of sorrow. Prose can give you the facts,
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  the timeline of the siege, but poetry, it transmits the
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  feeling, the disorientation. And the discipline that's
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  applied to the sorrow is, I mean, it's just astonishing.
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  It's not simply poetry, no, it's acrostic poetry.
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  For anyone who might need a quick refresher, that means the
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  verses follow the alphabetical order of the language, in this
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  case the 22 letters of the Hebrew Alhabet.
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  And the sources are clear that the first four chaters follow
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  this incredibly discipline framework.
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  Each successive verse, or sometimes a set of verses,
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  begins with the next letter of the alphabet.
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  All the way from LF to Taf. All the way to the end.
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  It's this remarkable piece of literary architecture,
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  especially when you think about the raw chaos it's describing.
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  Why would you impose such rigid order on total chaos?
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  That's the question, isn't? It, and this structural
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  discipline, is, you could argue, the central point of the book's
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  entire theological argument. Scholars like Barry Webb have
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  noted that the acrostic format gives this overwhelming,
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  formless grief a specific, manageable shape, a shape.
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  And that shape in and of itself is a kind of resolution.
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  It's the beginning of the healing process.
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  That makes a lot of sense. I mean, think about deep sorrow.
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  If you don't control it, your mind just it just circles
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  endlessly. It obsesses, it returns to the
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  source of the pain over and over, and it can't move past it.
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  It's just incoherent repetition. So the acrostic is a kind of
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  control mechanism, both theological and psychological.
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  It stops that circling it. Forces a forward sequential
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  progression through the pain. It's like a forest March from
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  A-Z through the valley of the Shadow of Death.
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  You have to keep moving. It's designed to let the grief
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  be fully expressed. It has to run its whole
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  alphabetical course. But at the same time, it sets
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  these very clear, very intentional limits on that
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  sorrow. It contains the anguish inside a
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  divinely ordered structure. The lament isn't just left to
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  run wild. It's anchored.
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  And the material sites Norman Gottwald on this who has a
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  really specific insight. He does.
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  Gottwald is known for his work on biblical lament forms, and he
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  offers this really specific application of this discipline.
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  Tell us a bit more about his interpretation here.
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  He argues that this form, the acrostic, it facilitates a
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  complete cleansing of conscience through a total confession of
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  sin. Because the sins of Israel are
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  confessed through this acrostic form, they were literally
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  acknowledged. From Aleph to Tav from A-Z.
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  So it guarantees A comprehensive, systematic
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  confession of their rebellion against their covenant king.
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  Exactly. The form itself demands utter
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  thoroughness and repentance. You can't skip a letter.
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  You can't just confess the sins you feel worst about.
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  You have to go through the entire spiritual catalog.
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  The structure of the poem becomes a spiritual exercise in
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  itself. That's it.
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  And that discipline holds, doesn't it?
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  Even when the pattern shifts a little.
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  We see that transition in Chapter 5.
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  We do. Chapter 5 doesn't use the
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  acrostic pattern. It's a more straightforward, non
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  alphabetical communal lament. Yet, as the sources note, it's
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  still has 22 verses. Which is the exact number of
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  letters in the Hebrew alphabet. So even when that strict
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  alphabetical discipline is relaxed, the literary framework,
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  that sense of completeness and containment, it's still there.
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  It's absolute. And all of this careful
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  structuring brings us to the book's climax, what you call the
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  hermeneutical key for understanding the whole thing.
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  Right, so while the 1st 4 chapters use the acrostic to
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  catalog all the suffering and confession, chapter 3 just
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  stands apart dramatically so. It's unique in its design.
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  It is. It's much longer than the
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  others, 66 verses long, and the Hebrew alphabet is used, not
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  just once. But three times each letter gets
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  3 verses. This unusual triple acrostic
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  layout is like a giant flashing sign.
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  It's signaling unequivocally that Chapter 3 is the emotional,
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  the theological, and the literary center of the entire
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  book. That triple acrostic is just
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  it's amazing. In the middle of the greatest
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  national collapse, the poet imposes the greatest possible
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  structural discipline. Why is that architectural
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  emphasis so critical? The author is dedicating 3 times
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  the literary real estate and three times the discipline to
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  this chapter because it contains the essential truth that will
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  redeem all the suffering that surrounds it.
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  It's a moment of kind of literary shock.
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  We move from the raw, brutal suffering in chapters 1 and 2
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  instead of just spiraling down into total despair.
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  The poet forces this deep, structured pause right in the
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  middle. So the structure dictates how
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  we're supposed to interpret the book.
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  The source material is telling us we have to read the whole
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  thing not from the perspective of that uncertain ending in
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  Chapter 5, but from the standpoint of the hope that is
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  so clearly and dramatically laid out in the core of Chapter 3.
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  If you miss those structural signposts, you miss the book's
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  central theological conclusion. Lamentations sets its hope
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  squarely in the middle, in the most highly structured section,
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  not at the end. The author is making sure that
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  you, the reader, are anchored in God's character before you have
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  to confront the unresolved questions about your own future.
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  Precisely. That sets the necessary
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  framework. But to really appreciate the
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  hope in Chapter 3, we have to face the disaster the book
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  describes. So let's move to Part 2.
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  Agonizing judgement at Yahweh's hand.
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  Yes, to understand the hope we first have to accept the source
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  of the suffering, and the material is crystal clear on
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  this. The book is rooted absolutely in
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  Yahweh's covenant with Israel. This destruction is not random
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  political misfortune. No, it's covenantal execution.
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  That is the crucial starting point.
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  The big historical question, why did this happen to us?
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  Yeah, is answered immediately and unequivocally.
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  The people violated the stipulations of the covenant.
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  The covenant from Sinai that was repeated throughout their
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  history. Exactly.
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  They failed to submit to God's lordship, to the will of Yahweh,
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  their King. So the destruction of Jerusalem
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  and the exile that followed, they aren't accidents of
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  history. They are the direct, inevitable
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  and promised consequences of that rebellion.
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  And that's why Lamentations works as both a lament and as a
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  comprehensive A-Z confession of sin.
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  And the magnitude of this failure is just immense.
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  It pushes the reader right to the edge of asking that ultimate
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  theological question Has the Old Covenant failed completely?
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  Is the sinfulness of God's people just too great for the
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  covenant structure to even contain?
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  The physical suffering forces that confrontation with covenant
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  failure and have to and the depiction of that grief is so
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  visceral, so personal. Jerusalem is personified as a
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  widow among the nations. Sitting alone, silent, with
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  tears just constantly flowing, no one is left to comfort her.
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  And that widow imagery is so powerful.
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  She's lost her husband, Yahweh, who had pledged fidelity to her.
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  She's lost her status, her protection.
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  All the symbols of that covenant relationship are just gone.
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  The festivals and feasts are forgotten.
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  The roads to Zion mourn because nobody comes to the appointed
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  feasts anymore. And her enemies, the one she
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  might have relied on politically, they're now
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  rejoicing over her destruction. Her supposed allies became her
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  abusers. And the judgement falls first on
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  those who should have been leading the nation.
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  The book catalogs the suffering of every part of society, but it
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  starts with the failure of the leadership.
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  Yes, Princess, who should have been?
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  These dignified leaders have lost all their honor and
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  authority. The anointed king himself is
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  dragged off into exile. But it's not just the political
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  elite the text goes after the religious leaders to.
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  The priests and prophets. They're judged for their own
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  spiritual iniquity. The prophets are specifically
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  called out in chapter 2, verse 14 for speaking soothing words
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  when words of reproof were needed.
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  They offered false hope. They did.
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  Their job was to proclaim Yahweh's actual word of
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  judgement, but instead they offer these false assurances of
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  peace and prosperity. They failed in their core duty
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  to shepherd the people toward repentance, which makes them.
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  Complicit in the catastrophe. Completely.
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  And that's a staggering observation.
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  The divine judgement falls 1st and hardest on those responsible
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  for spiritual clarity. And from there, the suffering
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  just spills out into the general population.
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  Elders are dishonored. Women are violated.
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  The strong young men are forced into slave labor.
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  All the markers of national celebration are gone.
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  Dancing, joy, mirth, they're just distant memories.
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  The sound of merriment is gone from the city gates.
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  And the book does not pull any punches when it gets to the
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  sheer horror of the siege and famine.
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  No, it doesn't. The text describes children
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  starving to death. They ask for bread and no one
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  gives it to them. And then you get to the truly
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  shocking accounts which are there to show the full depth of
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  the covenant curse being fulfilled.
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  You mean the accounts of mothers?
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  Yes, accounts of once tender hearted mothers eating their own
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  children because of the siege. This level of visceral,
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  desperate agony marks the complete breakdown of
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  civilization. It's the terrifying fulfillment
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  of the curses from Deuteronomy 28.
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  It is utter Covenant Old devastation.
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  That imagery is so intense it represents the point of no
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  return, the deepest possible consequence of rejecting God's
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  covenant. But what's really astonishing,
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  given this level of suffering, is how forcefully the author
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  insists that Yahweh himself is the singular source behind all
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  of it. Yes, and this is the theological
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  linchpin of the whole book. The exile was not fate.
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  It wasn't chance. It wasn't just that Babylon had
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  a better army. No, the text says.
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  Israel sinned grievously. And the punishment was not
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  arbitrary. The author demands that we see
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  this as righteous. It's an expression of Yahweh's
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  perfect justice. This understanding that God is
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  the active enemy is the only possible path toward any real
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  hope. And the language used to
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  describe God's action is incredibly violent.
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  It's active. He's the one who inflicted
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  sorrow and fierce anger. He poured out his hot anger.
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  He left his real stunned. He gave them into the hands of
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  their enemies. The Lord himself scattered them
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  and inflicted the wound. He's depicted as stomping on
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  Judah like grapes in a winepress.
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  This isn't divine permission, it's divine action.
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  It goes way beyond just allowing the disaster to happen.
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  The text says. He actively performed the
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  destruction. He flung Jerusalem from heaven
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  to earth. He broke down Judah's
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  stronghold. When Israel needed help, the
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  text says, Yahweh withdrew his support and became an adversary.
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  So that he has become like an enemy.
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  He laid his own meeting place, the Temple, in ruins.
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  He made Zion forget the festival and the Sabbath.
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  He'd do exactly what he said he would do.
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  He carried out his word to lay Jerusalem in ruins.
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  The ferocity is just relentless. It ensures no reader can blame
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  Babylon or fate. Not a chance.
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  So if the language is this aggressive, a military attack
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  from God, how do we reconcile that terrifying judgement with
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  the concept of his steadfast love, which comes later?
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  The source material says this judgement is righteous.
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  And the reconciliation is found in the covenant structure
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  because the judgement is the fulfillment of curses that were
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  explicitly laid out in the law, what he ordained and prophesied
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  in Leviticus 26, in Deuteronomy 28, it is perfectly just.
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  So God isn't acting randomly. Not at all.
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  He is acting according to his revealed word and character as a
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  covenant king who upholds his own standards.
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  He has to demonstrate his justice against rebellion or his
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  entire character collapses. And that identification of the
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  aggressor continues right into chapter 3, the critical center
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  here. The I is speaking for Israel and
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  he describes Yahweh as a ravaging animal.
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  Like a bear and a lion that tore me to pieces, He stretched out
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  his bow and sent arrows against Israel.
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  We were talking about a God who's become actively predatory
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  toward his own people. What is that shift in metaphor
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  from a military general to a wild animal?
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  Tell us about how bad the Covenant breach was.
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  I think it indicates the breach was so total that God's
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  relationship with Israel had to fundamentally, if temporarily,
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  reverse itself, the language of the bear and the lion, these
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  creatures of immense uncontrollable power.
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  It emphasizes how relentless and unavoidable the judgement 1.
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  It's beyond military action. It's like a force of nature.
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  Yes, and that severity confirms that Israel's rejection of
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  Yahweh's Lordship wasn't a minor infraction.
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  It was a capital offense against their king, and it required a
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  violent full expression of divine wrath.
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  And recognizing this is critical for understanding the cosmic
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  scope of God's rule. The material mentions scholars
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  like Klaus Westerman, who rightly observed that God
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  directs the history of all peoples, not just Israel.
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  He effects wars. He determines the victors and
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  the vanquished. Gottwald reinforces that, saying
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  starkly, no accident, no demon, no foreign God was responsible
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  for Israel's plight. It was Yahweh alone.
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  And the theological conclusion have to be that everything that
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  happens, the apparent good and the perceived bad, calamity and
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  blessing, it all comes from his hand.
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  This is a cornerstone of Reformed thinking, and it's
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  affirmed right here in the heart of this ancient lament.
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  Which leads directly to that ultimate statement of
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  sovereignty in Chapter 3. Is it not from the mouth of the
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  Most High that good and bad come?
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  This entire disaster is the perfect sovereignly executed
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  fulfillment of prophecy. The comprehensive reach of God's
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  rule is completely affirmed. The Old Covenant people were
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  subjected to the divine judgment they earned, and their suffering
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  was directly proportional to their rebellion.
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  And the intensity of Part 2, that full, painful acceptance
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  that their defeat was Yahweh's doing.
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  It was perfectly just. It's the necessary precursor.
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  It's the only logical path to the sudden shift toward hope we
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  find in the middle of the book. Without absolute acceptance of
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  God's rule in judgement, the hope that follows is just
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  meaningless. OK, that context is essential.
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  So now let's make that pivot Part 3 the unshakable ground of
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  hope. It seems like the worst news
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  possible that Israel's punishment was the personal
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  expression of Yahweh's fierce anger.
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  Right. If God is against them, if he's
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  their ravaging enemy, what possible hope could there be?
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  But the source material just turns this whole idea on its
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  head. It presents this beautiful
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  paradox that shifts the entire tone of the.
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  Book and the paradox is this. The rule of Yahweh in this
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  situation is the only stable basis for hope.
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  Well, if Israel's defeat had just been the result of
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  Babylon's superior army or random political winds.
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  If it were a purely secular, arbitrary event.
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  They'd be subject forever to the whims of other nations.
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  Their defeat would be final and meaningless.
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  Exactly. If suffering is arbitrary, then
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  despair is the only logical response.
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  But because their suffering was caused by a covenantal just
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  sovereign king. Precisely because they sinned,
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  and because Yahweh was the one who handed them over, He is also
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  the one who has the absolute authority and consistency to
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  reverse their fortunes. He acts according to his
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  character. If he's just in judgment, he
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  must also be constant in love. So the very thing that inflicted
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  the sorrow, divine sovereignty, is revealed to be the only
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  reliable source of salvation. That's the pivot.
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  And that requires a very intentional, conscious change in
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  perspective from the author, which we see so vividly in verse
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  21 of chapter 3. Yes, even in the middle of
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  describing Yahweh's unrelenting opposition in the 1st 20 verses
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  of that chapter, the tone just shifts abruptly when the author
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  remembers the Lord's covenant and this memory renews his hope.
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  And this remembering isn't just a casual thought.
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  It's a deliberate spiritual pivot.
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  It is. It's grounded in the historical
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  constancy of God's revealed character.
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  It forces the author to turn his gaze away from his current
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  painful experience and toward the historical stable reality of
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  who God is. Why is memory the catalyst here?
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  Why doesn't the author just, you know, decide to be hopeful?
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  Because he can't create hope from within himself, not under
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  these circumstances. Hope has to be external.
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  It has to be anchored in something solid.
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  He is recalling the essential declaration of God's own
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  character given to Moses back in Exodus 34.
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  The foundation of the Sinai covenant.
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  Right. By remembering God's own
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  definition of Himself, merciful, gracious, slow to anger,
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  abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, the author finds a
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  certainty that transcends his immediate experience of
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  judgement. And that act of remembering
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  leads directly to the most famous lines in the entire book.
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  The affirmation of God's nature is just undeniable.
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  The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.
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  His mercies never come to an end.
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  They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.
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  The judgement was devastating, yes, but it's met encountered by
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  this absolute statement about the internal covenant nature of
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  the Lord. The wrath is not eternal, the
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  love is. And this is where the whole book
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  finds its intellectual and theological equilibrium.
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  And the text then softens the interpretation of the affliction
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  itself, even though the judgment was so complete, it says the
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  Lord does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men.
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  That phrasing is so important. It's suggested judgment, while
• 19:40
  necessary and perfectly righteous, is contrary to His
• 19:44
  primary disposition toward His creation and His people.
• 19:47
  So it's a crucial distinction. It is, the material explains,
• 19:50
  that God acts in a way, begrudgingly, regretfully even.
• 19:54
  He doesn't relish it. If there's no other path toward
• 19:57
  his higher purposes, securing covenant obedience and
• 20:00
  demonstrating his justice, he must act in judgement.
• 20:04
  But his heart isn't in the affliction itself.
• 20:06
  He's not defined by wrath, he's defined by steadfast love.
• 20:10
  The judgement is a necessary means to restore covenant
• 20:12
  obedience, but it is not the ultimate end of his relationship
• 20:16
  with his people. So if the judgement is this
• 20:19
  righteous necessity, this bitter medicine, how should the people
• 20:22
  under it respond? What's the proper posture?
• 20:25
  The proper posture is to bear it humbly and hopefully the
• 20:29
  suffering itself becomes instructional.
• 20:31
  It is good for a person to bear the yoke in his youth.
• 20:34
  The author encourages waiting on God.
• 20:36
  Yes, the Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul
• 20:39
  who seeks Him. And this waiting isn't passive
• 20:42
  resignation. It's an active, hopeful seeking
• 20:45
  of God even while under the oppression of his punishing
• 20:47
  hand. It's active submission to the
• 20:50
  discipline of the Father. And what about their identity?
• 20:52
  I mean, they've lost their king, their temple, their land, their
• 20:55
  sovereignty. After all that devastation in
• 20:57
  586 BC, is their identity as God's people still secure?
• 21:01
  Absolutely. The author is confident that the
• 21:03
  Lord will not cast off forever and that Yahweh remains Israel's
• 21:07
  portion. And to call God your portion
• 21:09
  means what exactly? It means that even if you lose
• 21:12
  every tangible asset, land, wealth, health, the source of
• 21:17
  your life and identity remains secure.
• 21:20
  Despite all appearances of rejection, God's people remain
• 21:22
  God's people. Their confidence rests entirely
• 21:26
  on the unshakable, self consistent nature of Yahweh's
• 21:29
  justice and love. So his constancy is the
• 21:32
  guarantee. The guarantee that these
• 21:33
  defeats, no matter how severe, are not the final word.
• 21:36
  Because sovereign Grace stands behind them and beyond them, the
• 21:40
  covenant promise holds even when the covenant stipulations are
• 21:43
  broken and judged. Yes, and that grounding and
• 21:46
  divine constancy is what allows the author to then appeal to the
• 21:49
  King. Which brings us logically into
• 21:51
  Part 4, Resolution and anticipation.
• 21:53
  Right, because even while he's describing all these woes in the
• 21:56
  first few chapters, there are these short interjected prayers
• 21:59
  sprinkled throughout. He's summoning Yahweh to come to
• 22:01
  their aid. The belief that God can act
• 22:04
  never dies. We see these desperate short
• 22:06
  prayers like, Oh Lord, behold my affliction.
• 22:09
  For the enemy has triumphed, and look, oh Lord, for I'm in
• 22:13
  distress. The author is appealing directly
• 22:16
  to Yahweh's mercy and His character.
• 22:18
  He believes the Lord will intervene when he sees the
• 22:21
  suffering of His beloved disciplined people.
• 22:24
  Very active, appealing. Assumes his sovereignty hasn't
• 22:27
  been abandoned. No, it's just been applied
• 22:29
  through judgment. And that belief system really
• 22:31
  culminates in chapter 5, which is presented as one long
• 22:35
  communal prayer to the Lord. Yes, the author calls on the
• 22:39
  Lord to remember His people and to see or disgrace.
• 22:43
  This appeal, though, is not based on their own worthiness.
• 22:45
  Which they've already admitted is 0.
• 22:47
  Exactly. It's based on one thing and one
• 22:49
  thing only, The fact that the Lord reigns.
• 22:52
  The author states the key premise of his whole appeal.
• 22:55
  But you, O Lord, reign forever. Your throne endures to all
• 22:58
  generations. And that's the key argument of
• 23:00
  the final prayer. If God reigns forever, how can
• 23:03
  he possibly forget his people or the promises he made to them?
• 23:07
  The appeal is for restoration. Restore us to yourself, O Lord,
• 23:10
  that we may be restored. Renew our days as of old.
• 23:13
  The logic is circular in a way, but it's self reinforcing within
• 23:17
  the context of sovereignty. The same king who justly
• 23:21
  destroyed them is the only one capable of justly renewing them.
• 23:24
  We did note earlier that the book ends on a note of tension,
• 23:28
  or at least an open question. After that fervent plea for
• 23:31
  renewal, the author asks, is the Lord so angry he will never show
• 23:35
  mercy again? He does.
• 23:36
  It leaves the reader hanging. And This is why that structural
• 23:39
  analysis we did in Part 1 is so vital.
• 23:42
  We can't give that final, desperate human question undue
• 23:46
  weight. Chapter 3 is still the
• 23:48
  hermeneutical key. It has to be.
• 23:50
  The author leaves the reader pondering the future.
• 23:53
  Their sin is grievous. They don't deserve redemption,
• 23:55
  but the overall message is anchored not in human merit or
• 23:58
  human despair, but in God's faithfulness as articulated in
• 24:01
  the center of the book. The hope is secure, even if the
• 24:04
  timing is unknown. That's it.
• 24:06
  And part of that anticipated restoration involves justice for
• 24:09
  the enemies who carried out Yahweh's judgement.
• 24:11
  The sources highlight the author's confidence in Yahweh's
• 24:14
  sovereignty to judge Israel's adversaries as well.
• 24:17
  It's a necessary piece of the theological puzzle.
• 24:20
  The author is confident that Yahweh will repay them and that
• 24:23
  His curse will be upon them, destroying them from under His
• 24:26
  heavens. And this isn't just a call for
• 24:28
  vindictive prayer. No, it's a theological statement
• 24:30
  that God is directing the history of all nations.
• 24:34
  He used Babylon as his instrument of wrath.
• 24:36
  And when Babylon has completed its appointed task, God will
• 24:40
  judge the instrument itself for its pride and violence.
• 24:43
  And there's a specific focus on Edom.
• 24:45
  Yes, the cup of God's wrath which Israel has drunk is
• 24:48
  promised next to Edom, and the promised judgement of the
• 24:51
  enemies signals the expected reversal.
• 24:53
  God's punishment of Zion has ended and the exile is expected
• 24:57
  to be over. It affirms that the Lord's anger
• 25:00
  is temporary, but His rule over both Israel and the nation's is
• 25:03
  eternal. So if Lamentations forces us to
• 25:06
  confront this terrible reality of the wrath of God and
• 25:09
  establishes that wrath is a righteous expression of covenant
• 25:12
  justice, where does that confrontation lead?
• 25:14
  Where does this Old Covenant agony find its ultimate
• 25:17
  resolution? Well, the material makes it
• 25:19
  clear that Lamentations creates a problem so catastrophic
• 25:23
  covenant failure under a holy sovereign God that it closes the
• 25:27
  door on any resolution less than the one the New Testament
• 25:31
  finally provides. The agony and desolation of
• 25:33
  standing under God's wrath. So powerfully communicated by
• 25:37
  Jerusalem, the widow finds its historical and theological apex
• 25:40
  in the suffering of Jesus the Christ.
• 25:42
  How does that connect specifically?
• 25:44
  Israel suffer the consequences of covenant curses for their own
• 25:47
  sin. Jesus on the cross experienced
• 25:50
  the ultimate covenant curse and the full extent of being
• 25:53
  forsaken by God. The Desolation and Lamentations
• 25:56
  1.12 Is there any sorrow like my sorrow?
• 25:59
  That's the voice of the covenant people under God's judgement,
• 26:02
  and that judgement was poured out completely upon the sun on
• 26:04
  the cross. He fully entered into the
• 26:06
  experience of covenant judgement.
• 26:08
  And the call within lamentations for Israel to bear judgement
• 26:11
  humbly and hopefully that anticipates the Iseanic servant
• 26:15
  of the Lord Israel's corporate suffering, points forward to a
• 26:18
  greater fulfillment in the true Israel.
• 26:21
  Yes, the sufferings of Israel on the world, all rooted in human
• 26:25
  sin, were ultimately experienced by the true Israel, the servant
• 26:29
  of the Lord. But there's a vital distinction
• 26:32
  here, one that's consistent with our Reformed understanding, and
• 26:35
  that is, Israel was under judgement for its own sin.
• 26:38
  The servant willingly bear suffering, but he does so
• 26:41
  substitutionarily for the sins of his people.
• 26:44
  Jesus stands in the place of Israel, absorbing the covenant
• 26:47
  curses the bear, the lion, the arrows that Lamentations details
• 26:51
  so brutally. He became the widow and the
• 26:53
  afflicted. Therefore, the forgiveness they
• 26:55
  plead for and the hope that persists through these deep
• 26:58
  sorrows and lamentations. It finds its final and complete
• 27:02
  resolution not in Jerusalem's political restoration in the 6th
• 27:05
  century BC, but in the sufferings and glories of Jesus
• 27:09
  Christ. The hope anchored in this
• 27:12
  ancient lament reaches its absolute goal in the
• 27:14
  resurrection. That's the ultimate theological
• 27:17
  conclusion. Lamentations chronicles covenant
• 27:19
  departure and the divine judgment that results.
• 27:21
  Yet, paradoxically, it provides this undeniable evidence that
• 27:24
  the same sovereign God who punishes his people is the only
• 27:27
  stable source of salvation for them.
• 27:29
  The certainty of God's. Clearly laid out in those first
• 27:33
  four chapters is matched only by the certainty of his steadfast
• 27:36
  love and constancy, and this guarantees that judgement is
• 27:40
  temporary, but his faithfulness is indeed new every morning.
• 27:46
  That is a crucial, structured insight into a book that's often
• 27:48
  misinterpreted. We see here the discipline of
• 27:51
  the poet forcing the discipline of the reader, driving us to
• 27:54
  find hope outside our circumstances and only in God's
• 27:57
  character. That's it.
• 27:58
  So if the ultimate calamity, the failure of the old Covenant
• 28:01
  through sin, was orchestrated by a sovereign God, yet it led to
• 28:05
  the greatest revelation of His mercy in Christ, what does that
• 28:08
  tell you about the nature of God's plan, even in the midst of
• 28:11
  your own grievous sorrows? Ponder how the disciplined
• 28:14
  structure of this ancient lament guides us away from despair and
• 28:18
  toward reliance on that absolute covenantal faithfulness.
• 28:21
  A good thought to end on. Thank you for sharing your
• 28:23
  sources and letting us unpack the architecture of disciplined
• 28:26
  grief with you in this deep dive.
• 28:28
  Until next time.