DAILY GUIDE DEVOTIONAL: REJECTED, DESPISED AND FORSAKEN
Bible Text: Lamentations 1:1-22
Today we begin another series of bible studies that takes a panoramic view of the book of Lamentations. This book is generally accepted to have been written by Jeremiah. Here, Jeremiah wails in grief over the once glorious city of Jerusalem. Jeremiah had preached, persuaded and warned the people of Judah to repent of their sin and avoid the impending doom, but they paid deaf ears. Consequently God deserted them and their enemies took them into captivity where they are reduced to slaves. The beautiful temple and the entire city were destroyed and deserted.
The chapter clearly shows the heart of the prophet. He is a humble man who loves God as he loves the people. Although his prophecies were neglected, he did not go about to gloat and glory with an "I told you so stance" rather he repented in dust and ashes confessing the sins of the entire community and pleading for God's mercy. Verse 18a says "The lord is righteous for I have rebelled against his commandments". Judah received the punishment due because it wantonly disregarded the word of God.
The story of Lamentations is actually the story of fallen humanity. It reveals the hopelessness of man without God and the place of grace. We all had rebelled from Adam and gone astray. We've refused to be corrected like the Jews of old. Every warning seems to fall on deaf ears. God will not condone our excesses for ever. A day of reckoning must surely come. To be saved we must acknowledge our separation from God and seek for restoration
Thankfully, God does not want anyone to perish nor pay for their sins. He had paid the ultimate price for sin and its consequences in the man JESUS. He only wishes that all will come under his lordship, accept Jesus as lord and saviour and be saved. There is no hope of deliverance anywhere else except in JESUS. For there is no other name given among men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12)
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