Lamentations of Jeremiah

The Lamentations of Jeremiah  

     Last Friday, I substituted for Sister Holly Hacking and taught early morning seminary. Our topic was "Lamentations." This book from the Old Testament is actually a beautiful, somber work of poetry written by the prophet Jeremiah after the fall of Jerusalem. Jeremiah had struggled and suffered, pleaded and preached, fought and feared, all in behalf of his God and his people, striving to turn the people back to God. 

     Jeremiah knew that as soon as his people returned to God, the Lord would forgive them and rescue them from their enemies. However, it seemed that the day of grace had passed with the ancient Israelites. They ignored his warnings, mocked his prophecies, and persecuted their advocate with God. Because they refused to change their ways, Jerusalem was sacked, and its people sold, scattered, and slaughtered. It was the calamity Jeremiah had predicted, the darkest hour for him and his people. 

     Jeremiah was a survivor of a broken people, and he chronicled his pain for the fallen and lost. The pages of Lamentations are stained with his grief, but beneath the grief he expresses lies a glimmer of something else: hope. I am bolstered by the hope Jeremiah expresses, even as his sadnesses washes over him like a tsunami; his very surroundings a painful reminder of the absolute devastation and destruction that had befallen those he had tried to save. 

     Jeremiah understood through personal experience, through his life among the people of Judah, that they deserved their disaster. But despite that, he had hope that they would mend their ways, and turn back to their Jehovah. And in that day, the Lord God would accept his penitent people and bless them again. 

     How I love this statement: "This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope." 

     What is it that Jeremiah recalls to his mind, what is the secret to this hope eternal? 

     "It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning". 

The Lord's compassion never fails; we are His children, and as our Father He will never give up on us. He will not force us to heaven, but He will certainly wait for us, like the father in the story of the prodigal son. Just like that faithful parent, I am certain that the Lord is waiting for us, and "while [we are] yet a great way off, [our] father [will see us], and [have] compassion, and [run], and [fall] on [our] neck, and [kiss us]." 

     The Lord's compassions, like His love, never fail. I shared this passage from a general conference address with my children, my friends, my brothers and sisters that morning, and I share it again here: 

     "Angels and ministers of grace to defend us? They are all about us, and their holy sovereign, the Father of us all, is divinely anxious to bless us this very moment. Mercy is his mission, and love is his only labor. John Donne said once: “We ask our daily bread, and God never says, ‘You should have come yesterday.’ … [No, he says,] ‘Today if you will hear [my] voice, today I will hear yours.’ … If thou hast been benighted till now, wintered and frozen, clouded and eclipsed, damp and benumbed, smothered and stupefied till now, God yet comes to thee, not as in the dawning of the day, … but as the sun at [full] noon, to banish all shadows” (Collected Sermons).

      Alma taught that truth to his son, Helaman, entreating him to put his trust in God. He said that God was “quick to hear the cries of his people, and [quick] to answer their prayers.” Out of very personal experience, Alma testified, “I have been supported [in] trials and troubles [and afflictions] of every kind, … God has delivered me. … I do put my trust in him, and he will still deliver me” (Alma 9:26; Alma 36:27).

      My witness this morning is that he will deliver all the rest of us, too, that he will deliver the entire human family, if we will but “take care of sacred things,” if we will “look to God and live.”

      The greatest affirmation of that promise ever given in this world was the gift of God’s perfect and precious Firstborn Son, a gift given not in condemnation of the world, but to soothe and save and make the world secure: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16; emphasis added)."

     God is eager to see us succeed, eager for us to find happiness, and eager to love us. We love him, because he first loved us. If we will allow him -- if we give him permission through our choices, our thoughts, and our hearts -- our Heavenly Father will perform miracles in our lives and "fill the hungry with good things." He loves us, now and forever! 

     If we look to God and live, we will live the abundant life. We will be truly happy, both now and in the future. I shared this quote with the kids, highlighting one of Satan's tactics: "The adversary has been successful in planting a great myth in the minds of many people. He and his emissaries declare that the real choice we have is between happiness and pleasure now in this life and happiness in a life to come (which the adversary asserts may not exist). This myth is a false choice, but it is very seductive." 

     I assert that this is not the choice we are faced with. If we see things as they really are, we are choosing to either diminish our future to gain a brief spark of pleasure, or we are choosing to bridle our passions, to control ourselves, to make an investment in ourselves, which will pay off both in the short and long term. Whatever momentary pleasure you sacrifice to obey and follow God will more than be made up for by the peace, love, and joy He will bless us with throughout our lives. There will no guilty conscience, no negative side effects, and no regrets. We can have it all: if we take it in the right order -- in God's order. Nothing good will be held back from those that love God, and serve Him. 

     I too have many Lamentations regarding my people and my society, but like Jeremiah I have hope. I have hope that we can, will, and are turning to God, and that because His compassion, His charity, never fails, He will take us in like a hen gathering her chicks beneath her wings. He loves us, and I love the Lord!