The evidence of the depth of penetration of a consumer-driven society into the church today is revealed in the ongoing discussion within churches, “What do we need to do?” On the surface this seems like the right question, but the direction taken by the subsequent conversation reveals that their compass is leading elsewhere. It turns into a discussion on how to make church relevant, how to get more people to come to church, how to make church “more effective”. It’s a discussion that far too often misses the opportunity to re-word the issue so as to ask, “What do we need to do to become more Christ-like?”
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At my very core, I’m an action-verb kind of a guy. The question I always seem to be asking is “What now?” or “What shall I do to make it happen?” Somehow I was born with the notion that “waiting” is a sign of weakness, of indecision, of procrastinating to put off whatever needs to be done to accomplish the job. My brain has a hard time grasping the fact that waiting may be as viable an option, even more so in certain circumstances, than doing.
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The first time I truly took the time to really read and study Lamentations I was startled to find that THIS is the source of this verse. For nearly as long as I can remember I’ve sung the hymn based on this verse, and I guess I must have thought it was from the Psalms. I had no idea that the context in which one of the greatest of all Bible verses is placed is within the very depths of experiencing God’s judgment! Knowing it’s proper context has actually made it even more powerful for me than ever.
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As noted in Hebrews 4:12, God’s Word is a two-edged sword. It can simultaneously cut two ways: for those who embrace and adhere to His Word, it cuts to produce blessings; for those rejecting His Word, it cuts to produce judgment and condemnation. The very same Word works to opposite extremes for both parties. But the ironic thing is that this it is doing so exactly as He has purposed, accomplishing His original intent. The work of the Word of a holy and righteous God is to prepare everything for His presence, some to be purified and made holy for His presence, others to be permanently removed because of their sinful impurities.
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Hopefully you’ve been following the reading schedule and are reading Lamentations immediately following Jeremiah. One of the repeated points of contention between Jeremiah and the numerous false prophets was whether Babylon would, indeed, not just conquer Jerusalem, but enter and then destroy God’s temple. The false prophets, right up to the very end, prophesied it would never happen, contrary to Jeremiah’s warning that God, in His anger, would use Babylon to accomplish these very things. Now that it has happened, it is very interesting that in Lamentations, the record of how they are dealing with His judgment, that they never mention Babylon again. They finally understand that it all came about by God’s hand.
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One doesn’t have to be a serious Bible student very long to realize that Scripture has its own vocabulary. The terms it employs have the same, consistent meaning across the whole of the Bible, but those terms are almost always digressing from the definitions assigned by the world. And equally God’s Word is at odd with the world’s notion of the standard by which to operate and measure things by. In most corners of secular life one would never measure the quality of a leader by the degree to which they reflect the qualities of a shepherd. Worldly leadership is more often characterized by that one person leading the charge up the hill whether or not everyone else comes along; biblical leadership takes their time ensuring everyone eventually arrives at the same place together.
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Something worth exploring is why some of the nations specifically mentioned in Scripture still exist in one form or another and why others have completely disappeared. A big part of the answer is that God’s work has not yet been completed in every detail where those who are still around are concerned, and the ones no longer with us serve as an example of when God’s work IS completely fulfilled. Look as one might, the Philistines are not to be found today. They were so completely destroyed that it took modern archeology to confirm their existence.
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