Mon, 28 August, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Lamentations 5:1-7

¹ Remember, O LORD, what has befallen us;
look, and see our disgrace!
² Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
our homes to foreigners.
³ We have become orphans, fatherless;
our mothers are like widows.
⁴ We must pay for the water we drink;
the wood we get must be bought.
⁵ Our pursuers are at our necks;
we are weary; we are given no rest.
⁶ We have given the hand to Egypt, and to Assyria,
to get bread enough.
⁷ Our fathers sinned, and are no more;
and we bear their iniquities.

Based upon the title, we are not surprised that the book of Lamentations is a very sad book. In it, Jeremiah reviews all the terrible things that befell Jerusalem in the Babylonian conquest, mourning for the death and destruction that has occurred.

But Jeremiah points out in his laments that this all occurred because of the sins of the people. The death and destruction, and the ongoing captivity of the remnant is a direct result of accumulated guilt from the sins of their fathers. The nation of Judah had disobeyed God so severely and for so long that God finally destroyed her in Jeremiah’s time, and held her in captivity for seventy years before finally restoring her to the land.

What do we learn from this?

God does not ignore sin at a national level. The accumulated sins of a people can get to be so great that God will eventually destroy that nation. It might seem like God is ignoring the sins of a nation, as it is flourshing despite its great guilt. But God is not ignorant of their sins. Far from it. God is waiting, and at His chosen time, if they don’t repent He will act to bring home their sins to them.

Where is Christ in this passage?

God does not ignore sin at a personal level either. We will all have to stand before God’s bar of judgment and give account for what we have done. Every sin must be accounted for and paid in full. There will not be one overlooked or ignored. The guilt for all sin must be paid.

If you plan to pay for your own sins by being good enough, or by doing some special act to earn God’s favor, know this: you will pay for your sins eternally in hell. Your acts of piety are not good enough to appease God’s wrath at your sins.

The only hope you have for averting God’s wrath and avoiding eternal punishment is to flee now, while you are still alive, to God’s provision for your salvation. He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity, to take on human flesh and die on behalf of all those who flee to Him for salvation. He bears the punishment for their sins, so that when His people stand at the bar of God’s judgment, God can accept them as righteous. Their sins have all been accounted for. Their sins have been paid in full upon Jesus Christ. And all those who have come to God through faith in Jesus Christ have the full righteousness of Christ accounted to them, so they are perfectly righteous in the Father’s sight. Their sins are not ignored. But because of the work of Jesus Christ on their behalf, they are perfectly righteous.