Video Transcript: Lament 5 - Submission

We're looking at the lamentations often attributed to Jeremiah and rightly so because the  language and the themes are similar to what Jeremiah has in his prophecies. Although the  laments don't have any reference to who authored them, from the earliest expressions, they  have always been attached to the prophecies of Jeremiah. And it's very likely that he wrote  them. Certainly he lived during the times that they're talking about. And the themes are the  themes that He expresses in terms of the covenant relationship between Yahweh and  Yahweh's people and how these things have been violated, therefore bringing on the  judgments, but also that there's hope. And out of this will come new expectations and new  times ahead. The five laments have four of them, the first four that we've looked at so far  have all been acrostic poems, that is, each of their sections has begun with a set of the  successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. One and two are, have three couplets together. So  they're the same kind of acrostic. poem, three is much more intricately developed, because in each of those three couplet poems, the the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet happen  in all three of the initial lines, lament four that we looked at last time, has just two couplets in  each of those. What we have in lament five is similar to lament four in length, but it is not an  acrostic. That means that in the Hebrew language, although it has the same length as some  of the others, it is not formed in such a way that the first letter of each couplet is of a  successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. There's a sense in which this no longer needs to say everything from A to Z from beginning to end, because that's all been done. What happens  now is that we are broken and so the acrostic poetry is not present, that shows pattern. We  are not patterned, we are broken. This is a prayer of repentance, seeking Yahweh's  deliverance, and it has none of that. Why are you doing this more? So this is what's happened to us and now what will you do please don't forget us. Lament five remember, Oh Lord, what  has happened to us look and see our disgrace. Our inheritance has been turned over to aliens or homes to foreigners. We've become orphans and fatherless are mothers like widows similar to the theme and lament one, we must buy the water we drink our wood can be had only at a  price those who pursue us are at our heels. We are weary and find no rest. We submitted to  Egypt and Assyria to get enough bread our father sinned and are no more and we bear their  punishment. notes about the truth of the curses of the Covenant coming into effect. There is  nothing to free Yes, from their hands. We get our bread at the risk of our lives because of the  sword in the desert. Our skin is hot as an oven feverish from hunger. Women have been  ravaged in Zion and virgins in the towns of Judah. princes have been hung up by their hands.  Elders are shown no respect. Young men toil at the millstones boys stagger under loads of  wood. The elders are gone from the city gate and the young men have stopped there music.  Joy has gone from our hearts our dancing has turned to mourning. The Crown has fallen from  our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned. Because of this. Our hearts are faint because of  these things. Our eyes grow dim, like mounts for Mount Zion which lies desolate with jackals  prowling over it. You oh Lord reign forever yet your throne your throne endures from  generation to generation. Why do you always forget us? Why do you forsake us for so long?  Restore us to yourself, oh, Lord, that we may return. Renew our days of old unless you have  utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure. This is the shortest lament among  the five. It's not an acrostic it's more a prayer than a lament. A lament says Oh, woe is me.  This says okay, what next? Please don't forget us. Hear the voice of the Prophet likely  Jeremiah comes through more strongly, this time wrestling with God for the future of God's  people. Even though Yahweh has actively accosted Jerusalem to tear down it was the  Babylonians who accomplish this. The people have now begun to learn their lesson and are  calling on God to remember them. So lament one happens at the time of the destruction.  Wow. We never expected this to happen. boy are we devastated? Lament two looks from  heaven and says yeah, but you had it coming because here's your history with God. And  here's the covenant you broke lament. Three wrestles with God saying, Yeah, we did wrong,  we're sorry. But don't forget us. Please continue your relationship with us and restore us in  one time. Lament for says, This is tough, this is tough, but we look to you. And now lament  five is really a prayer. So turn to us see what's happening in our lives, and bring and restore  the good times. Because for your sake and ours, your witness is lost if ours is lost, if the  people think that we are gone, then who will speak for God anymore. And that brings us to 

those final verses in lament five, in which God for your own sake, as well as for ours, come  back and save us. And we'll think more about those themes next time as we try to pull  together the implications of the theological terms and ideas that are given in this short book  of lamentation is the last of the the wisdom literature of the Old Testament.