"The End of the Chapter..."

Scripture Passage

Lamentations 5:1-22; Obadiah 1:1-21; 2 Kings 25:22-26; Jeremiah 40:7-41:18

Scripture Focus

Restore us, O LORD, and bring us back to you again!
     Give us back the joys we once had!
Or have you utterly rejected us?
     Are you angry with us still?
                      (Lamentations 3:21-22 NLT)

Observation

Ya gotta love honest communication. At least, I do. So as painful as Lamentations is to read, I’m glad it’s in the Scriptures.

God doesn’t pull any punches in His Word. You see people at their best, and people at their worst. You see God in all His glory (well, at least as much as can be captured through pen and ink), in all His abounding love, and in all His holy judgment.

And so it is in Lamentations. God has challenged, rebuked, loved, beckoned, counseled, encouraged, warned and waited—giving His people opportunity after opportunity to return to Him, but they have persisted in their rebellion until God (have I said this before?) is left with no choice. Judgment comes.

Lamentations 5:17 gives us a glimpse of Jerusalem's condition:

Our hearts are sick and weary,
     and our eyes grow dim with tears.
For Jerusalem is empty and desolate,
     a place haunted by jackals.

Lamentations 5:18 gives us a glimpse of God’s steadfastness:

But LORD, you remain the same forever!
     Your throne continues from generation to generation.

And verses 20-22 give the honest cry of the brokenhearted, suffering because they’ve ignored and rejected their God:

Why do you continue to forget us?
     Why have you abandoned us for so long?
Restore us, O LORD, and bring us back to you again!
     Give us back the joys we once had!
Or have you utterly rejected us?
     Are you angry with us still?

That's it. That's the end of the chapter. The end of the book.  But what a powerful way to close a book of Holy Scripture. What a powerful prayer for restoration! What an honest question from a longing heart! Nobody ever wants to be there—wondering when—if—God will show up again. But when we’re in that position, Lamentations lets us know we’re not the first—others have certainly been there, too.

And what we know from elsewhere is that the conclusion of Lamentations isn’t the conclusion of Scripture. The end of the book isn’t the end of the story. The point? Just because it feels like the end, doesn't mean it's the end of the story. It may just be the end of the chapter, and the opportunity for God to start a whole new book.

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